THE HAYES FAMILY: Alaskan Cruise 2016

Waiting at the Billings airport for our flight!

In Seattle, waiting for our ride to the port!

On the bus to the port to get on our cruise ship! We're all so excited!

There it is! Our first view of the Ruby Princess!!

Our names are on the door to our room! So exciting!

Our first dining experience at the buffet...

Got this from Rylee on snapchat...awww, I miss my kids already!

Views on the ship...we had to explore it right away and check out all the cool stuff on it!!

This is our interior stateroom. No windows...it's pretty weird cause you can't tell if it's light or dark out from in here...

The grand staircase....

Everyone on the boat had to meet up and take a quick training on how to use a life vest...don't we look cool???

Bye, Bye Seattle!!

What a bunch of dorks we are....

Our first picture after we got on the boat...we had gotten split up as we came on, so not all of us were in this picture. I illegally took a picture of this picture as it was displayed for sale on the ship, but I didn't want to pay $20 for it, so I snuck a pic!

First eating experience in the dining room. We weren't very dressed up this time since we weren't sure exactly on what we should wear. Felt a little undressed....

Found this on my bed when we came back to the room. We got used to it though, cause every night we were on the ship, we got chocolates on our pillows. Awwww, the life!

Breakfast out on the deck. Beautiful day!!

Shows where we are....and where we're going...

Watching a movie under the stars....or clouds, I guess, in our case....The first day was just an at sea day so we had lots of time to kick back and relax!!

Getting ready for formal night....

And, a toast of course, while we're looking fancy!!

My "fancy" dessert....

The longest hallway I have ever seen!!

Our first stop, Ketchikan, Alaska!!!! Soo exciting!!

We got picked up and now we're on our way to our zip lining adventure!! Scared but excited at the same time!

Drinking our pina colada cocktails...

While on board, Miranda and Mark learned of a game called "Where's your Waldo?" It's where everyone picks a waldo and you get points for whenever you see or talk to this person or any kind of encounter you have with them. This guy with the beard was my waldo. I got points for getting a picture of him and with him. This counts right?

This is the Endicott Glacier. We ended up not being able to go down Tracy Arm because there was too much ice, but this was just as good, if not better. So pretty!!

And more pictures I got when I had service again....

We're in Juneau, Alaska and we're going whale watching in Auke Bay!!!

This is our boat...

First sight of a whale...

All of us on the boat. We never did get any great views of a whale, but it was fun, nonetheless!!

On the tram....

Next stop, Skagway....

We ended up finding a bus tour while in Skagway that drove us up the mountain. We got to go gold panning....super fun and even found some flecks of gold!!

Saw this while riding on the bus...My 2nd bear that I've seen on this trip (1st one was on the way up hill to zip lining, but couldn't get picture of it cause it moved away too fast) and the 2nd bear I've ever seen in my life! It's funny that I've lived in Wyoming all my life and yet I see my first bear out in the wild while I'm in Alaska for a few days!!

We stopped to look at some sights...

This picture was taken on Friday morning around breakfast time. We're all sitting around cause the ship was hitting some really rough waters and it was too hard to walk around. We heard there were like 15 foot waves, and 40+ mph winds and the ship was tilted to where you could only see water out one side of ship and land out the other. I was feeling a little nauseous, but not as bad as Alan and Miranda. They both struggled the whole day and had to spend most of their time in their rooms laying down. me and Autumn were a little scared we were going to die. At one point, while we were sitting here, the ship tilted so much, a lot of the buffet dishes went crashing to the floor. People couldn't walk straight and while we were eating lunch, there was a big crash and the whole ship shook. It seemed like we hit a whale or something, but then it just kept going along as if nothing even happened. It was scary cause we were out in the middle of the water, with no land in sight! They blocked off all the decks so no one could go outside. Some of the crew was saying this never happens and they even looked a little worried. Aaaahhh!!

But then, the next day on Saturday, the weather was beautiful and sunny and we were able to go out on deck and enjoy our last day at sea....we even saw some whales off the ship and Kaitlyn said she saw dolphins!

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada...our last stop...

We ended up just walking A LOT because we didn't have anything planned. We had thought the gardens and the castle were nearby but they weren't The gardens are off on a peninsula somewhere and have to take a boat to see them. And the castle was like 45 minutes away to walk there! We didn't know that at the time so we just started walking, but mom and dad had to stay behind cause it was just too far. Alan stayed with them. John and Mark went off on their own, and us girls walked all the way there!

This was the castle. Kind of a disappointment and we didn't even get to go inside cause it was closed. we walked around it, took a few pics and walked all the way back to ship. We only had like 4 hours to spend here so it was fast and furious. I ended up getting 3 blisters on one foot and 2 on the other from all the walking we did. Not fun!!

Next day, we made it back to Seattle around 7am and had the whole day to spend there before we caught our flight back that night around 9 or 10pm. We took the train to an area downtown and just took in the sights...

The fish market....pretty stinky and lots of people!

Ate some bbq sandwiches from a place in the fish market...

Checked out an aquarium...

Hung out at the airport the rest of the time....

Waited with John till he left to go to a baseball game with some friends. He's planning on staying in Seattle a couple more days and then flying back to China then.

We literally sat here for several hours waiting on our flight. It was such a long day, we were all ready to go home!!!

Bye Seattle!!

These are some random pics Autumn posted on Facebook later that I saved....
Another dessert plate...

Group picture we took on our first formal night with Kaitlyn's selfie stick...

In Seattle on last day...

On our long walk in Victoria to see the castle...

Lost maybe???

Autumn and Kaitlyn at the balloon drop on cruise ship...

Watching a musical production Friday night after formal night. The boat was still rocking pretty good at this point and Miranda ended up leaving to go back to her room after this picture was taken. She just couldn't take it anymore...Alan doesn't look very happy about it either....