Cruising

Where do I even begin? Best week of my life. I have been in a little mini-depression ever since we've been home. I miss the rocking of the boat as I fell asleep. I miss the constant food and constant napping. I miss being with Landon all day every day. I miss being served. I miss not having to make my bed. I miss feeling fancy.

Everyone probably thinks we're crazy. Most people go on a cruise to some exotic location, but we go on a cruise for the experience of the cruise itself. Our ship went from San Diego to British Columbia, Canada. It was basically a "repositioning" of the ship so the tickets were WAY cheap... less than $50 a night! Awesome and totally worth every single penny.

So Saturday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn and hopped on a flight to San Diego. My brother and sister-in-law live in Coronado Island so I always love when cruises leave out of San Diego because we get to spend time with them. They are just the cutest and were SO nice for picking us up from the airport, hanging out with us all day, and taking us to the ship the next day. It was especially great to see my brother Nick because he is in the Navy and I hardly ever get to see him. We just had a blast spending time with this cute family.

Seriously, I don't think kids come any cuter! 

Sunday afternoon we boarded the boat and went right to our stateroom to check it out. When we booked our cruise, we paid for an inside room without a window but they told us we may be eligible for an upgrade. I thought we might get a window and was pretty stoked. Well we walked into our room and saw this:

I just about died. We were at the very back of the boat and had our own BALCONY! We honestly felt like royalty. It was seriously amazing. As we were pulling out of San Diego we even saw dolphins. We definitely got very lucky to be upgraded!

Landon was so excited to watch all the sailboats :)

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were days at sea. Our days basically went something like this: Wake up, breakfast, read on our balcony, nap, lunch, movie (you could order movies to your room), room service cookies, nap, dinner, nightly entertainment show, midnight snack, sleep. It was perfect. This was our first time on Holland America and we were very impressed. 

my favorite dessert... Watermelon pie! Raspberry, lemon, and lime sherbet with cookie crust and chocolate "seeds." So cute!

I also became a little addicted to Chess. I really am not good at all, but I just want to play all the time for some reason

Our balcony is the one right below where those men are standing :)

Formal night

Wednesday we docked in Port Angeles, WA. Apparently we are the first cruise ship to dock there in 2 years and it was pretty big news!

We actually loved Port Angeles and want to go back soon! We walked about 3 miles to the Olympic National Forest Visitor's Center and went on a gorgeous hike. It went right along a little creek and we were the only ones on the trail. So fun!

Thursday we arrived in British Columbia and it was GORGEOUS. We really want to go back there too. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time there because we had a bus to catch. It was really fun walking through downtown though. We met a few interesting people :)

We thought this sign was so funny. Pretty graphic! Haha.

 So... we decided to be cheap and take the Greyhound bus home from B.C. to Portland. Yep... never doing that again EVER. Let's just say we felt like we were on the prison bus. I have never heard so much about needles, alcohol, drugs, fighting, jail, etc. One lady even freaked out at a baby for making a tiny noise. I have never heard so many swear words in one sentence in my life. And of course she was sitting RIGHT behind us. And there happened to be a worker sitting right in front of us... so we were basically sandwiched in the middle when the worker stood up and freaked out at HER for freaking out at a baby. Yeah it was a little bit out of control. I basically kept my headphones in and watched Tangled on the IPAD. I think it was such a shock coming from such luxury to basically feeling like the scum of the earth. But, hey now we know and we will never take a bus again.

We have already been looking for our next cruise and are planning on going on another one this year. We're just a little bit obsessed. Being stuck on a boat with nothing to do but eat, sleep, relax, and spend time with each other... that's our idea of fun!