NORTH TO ALASKA!

What a journey we took!  In September, 2019, Carl and I took a bucket list cruise to Alaska on the lovely Grand Princess. We sailed out of San Francisco on September 3rd, and returned to San Francisco on September 13th, 10 wonderful days.  I'm probably going to be sharing our trip in 2 or 3 posts, apologizing in advance for the picture heavy reading, lol.  I took a LOT of pictures.

We started out on September 3rd with a beautiful bus ride to San Francisco from Roseville, CA, courtesy of our travel agency, Zoe's Cruises and Tours in Sacramento.  This trip was an ESCORTED cruise, meaning one of their travel agents Nancy, was on board the entire trip, every day we received gifts and if we had questions, she was our go-to for those.  Highly recommend an escorted cruise.  Anyway, our son lives near the bus pick up point so we left our car at his home.  The bus ride to and from the ship meant I did not have to drive to and in San Francisco, or find parking for 10 days.  Saved a ton of money on parking to boot.  More money to spend in Alaska!

Our daughter in law's mom Cyndi took us to the bus...the excitement was building!

Let the fun begin!
We arrived at the pier and boarded the ship quickly, thank goodness there was a wheelchair and staff member to wheel Carl up to the ship and get him boarded..

We arrived at our Cabin, it was perfect, just right.  We had an OBSTRUCTED VIEW outside cabin, but we could see just fine.

 After we settled in we went up on the back deck of the ship for Sailaway.  Got some lovely views of San Francisco, and as we sailed out to sea we sailed under the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.  It was pretty awesome!

 Our ship, the Grand Princess.

The next day was a Sea Day, so we enjoyed touring the Grand and meeting our tour escort, Nancy.

 

 There was a cool sign on our door!

 

 

The first sea day was Formal Night, we decided to get dressed up and have some photos taken, problem is Carl had trouble with his tie!  He has Parkinson's, and tie tying just wasn't in the cards, but we had a good laugh   If you don't laugh, you cry!

We had a great dinner and a couple of photos taken of us at the table that night..

 Day 2 was another Sea Day, the weather was definitely getting cooler the farther north we traveled.  I really over packed for this cruise, I knew it would be cool, in retrospect we could have skipped bringing the heavy jackets, but we just didn't know what to expect.  We know when we cruise to Mexico, it's going to be warm.

We really enjoyed the on board Naturalist!  She had a seminar almost every sea day highlighting all things Alaska, we learned a lot.  And there were so many activities on board.  Sea days are a favorite of mine.

Day 3 we arrived in Juneau, Alaska.  We had booked a whale watching tour, so excited and hoped we would spot some humpbacks and orcas.  We did!

We also got to see Mendenhall Glacier from a distance, very cool.  Loved the whales!

Day 4 we were in Skagway, we had booked an excursion on the White Pass train to the Yukon, a 7 hour trip.  I was a little worried about Carl handling that long of a trip, but he was a champ, and did great!  Such great scenery, lunch in Carcross, Yukon, sled dogs,  a stop at Emerald Lake and a bus ride back to the ship in Skagway.  The colors were turning gold and red this time of year, stunning!

 End of the day, lol...

To be continued...