Cruise

We had a great time on our cruise last week!

Our first stop was in Astoria, Oregon.

We hiked up a hill to the Astoria Column, a 125 foot high column that was built in 1926. There is an observation platform at the top that would give a beautiful view of the nearby mountains, river, and ocean, but unfortunately there was work being done on it so it was closed. There are really neat pictures carved into the column that were fun to look at.

After our walk to the column, we walked back down town and looked in a few shops until it was time to get back on the ship. We were walking back and this trolley stopped and gave us a free ride back to the dock- we thought that was nice!

Our next stop was in Victoria, Canada.

We did a lot of walking in Victoria.

We walked by this cool looking government building.

We went to a bug zoo while we were in Victoria. There were alot of cool and disgusting bugs! They even let you hold most of them (I didn't really have a desire to hold them, but Dave did).
Here is Dave holding a giant centipede. We took a lot of pictures of the bugs so we could show them all to the boys when we got home.

The next day we went to Vancouver. That was my favorite place! We decided to climb up Grouse Mountain on a trail called the Grouse Grind. These words taken from a website describe it best: "Some call it Mother Nature's staircase, others Canada's most taxing mountain trail. Still others say it's a nightmarish re-creation of hell on earth. Whichever way you look at it, the Grouse Grind, situated a proverbial stone's throw from the dazzling skyscrapers of downtown Vancouver, is not your average Sunday afternoon hike."

It was the hardest hike I have ever done! But is was worth it!

It goes up 2,800 feet in elevation in just 1.8 miles of trail.

This is Dave and me on the trail, with a small waterfall in the background.

There were a lot of really cool wood carving statues on the mountain.

We went on a chair lift ride, watched a bird show, a logging show, and saw some great views while we were on Grouse Mountain.

Then we took the gondola down the mountain for $5.00 each.

After Vancouver we the ship headed back to Long Beach. We had 2 fun days at sea.

Here are a few pictures from the ship.

There was a goofy-golf course, we played a few times.


It was clear enough to watch the sunset only on one night, the other nights were too cloudy.


The weather was mostly cloudy, cold and windy while we were on the ship. But when we were on land it was really nice. It was a long trip, and we were ready to come home by the end. We had fun!