Matthew's Graduation

Oh what a weekend? We flew to Minnesota for our nephew's graduation from Rosemount Hight School Friday night. It was such a joy sharing that special moment with Matthew. He is a wonderful kid with high ambitions for life. The goals that he has set for himself will definately make a difference for many lives down the road. We are very proud of him!

On Saturday his parents threw him a graduation party that turned out wonderful as many friends and family came by to congratulate him on a job well done.

The weekend wasn't all wonderful as Christa fell ill and was taken to the emergency room. It wasn't long before she was transported to the hospital and admitted. She was diagnosed possible kidney stones but honestly we were in a mickey mouse hospital where the doctors had no idea at first saying it was this or it was that and then the doctor stated to really find out what was wrong they would have to cut her open. I don't think so!!! The good news is that Christa was able to finally get out of the hospital and fly home where she is now getting the medical care needed.

Our Final Day Before Going Home

Our final day we drove down to Seattle, Washington

and went to the Seattle Space Needle and the

Pike Street Fish Market

We drove out to Puget Sound

and went ot the beach to collect sand

We went sightseeing in Vancouver, Canada, going to the top of the Vancouver Lookout, Stanley Park (Beach 2) to collect sand for our collection. We then checked into our hotel at the Fairmont Airport Hotel (Awesome Hotel). We departed Vancouver, Canada at 5:40 am the next day for home.

I know Christa is glad to be home as she has said I walked her to much on this trip. She said she needs a vacation to recoup from this vacation! Really, we didn't walk that much, it just felt that way due to the landscape.

Alaska "Oh How Beautiful"

Photos of Our Honeymoon Trip to Alaska

Whittier, Alaska

Juneau, Alaska

Skagway, Alaska

Mendenhall Glacier (Juneau, Alaska)

Ketchikan, Alaska

Marjorie Glacier (Glacier Bay National Park)

Ice Calving (Marjorie Glacier)

Good Bye "Anchorage", Hello "Coral Princess"

We said our goodbyes to a wonderful city as we departed Anchorage on May 25, 2009 on the Alaska Railroad for Whittier, Alaska. The train ride was an awesome scenic trip that traveled along Turnagain Arm (a long river) for almost the entire 2-hour ride.

Just before arriving in Whittier, Alaska we had to travel through the famous Whittier Tunner (a 2 mile long tunnel that what built through the mountain). It's the longest railroad tunnel in North America! When we came out of the tunnel we got our first glimpse of our ship that we would be sailing on the next 8 days.

She is a beauty isn't she? No, thats not our ship! Christa kept telling me that was going to happen on our cruise. I kept telling her that the titantic days would not repeat itself during our cruise.

Now when we arrived at our ship we thought that we were back in the old days as we were delayed boarding until the ship was cleaned again to insure that it was super clean due to a few illnesses from the cruise before ours.

After about an hour we were allowed to board our awesome ship the "Coral Princess" below!

The Coral Princess is a beautiful ship! 12 stories of pure fun and excitement. We were on the ninth deck and we had a balcony room in the middle of the ship that was awesome.

We visited the College Fjord; Glacier Bay N.P; Skagway, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska and Ketchikan, Alaska before arriving at our final port.....Vancouver, Canada. Truly a beautiful trip with lots of scenery!

Denali N.P. and Fairbanks

The next two days we spent sightseeing in Denali National Park. We were fortunate to have the chance to see Mount McKinley (left) the 2nd tallest mountain in the world. We hiked the trails looking for Moose and watching for Bears but came up empty. We did see lots of Moose droppings! We drove our rental car into Denali N.P. but we were only allowed to drive the first 15 miles and we had the chance to view Caribu that was in a creek bed just off the roadway.

Day 2 brought a day of adventure for us as we took a Tundra Wilderness Bus Tour through the N.P. Service. It started at 6:10 am and lasted 8 hours. We drove 53 miles into the heart of Denali N.P. and saw so much wildlife. We saw 8 Grizzly Bears (3 adult & 5 cubs), lots of Caribu and Dall Sheep (one walked right up to our bus), 1 Moose, and several Golden Eagles and a couple of Bald Eagles. On top of all the wildlife we saw the scenery was just as beautiful. It's a world of it's own and it's completely natural and untouched by humans.

We also visited Fairbanks, Alaska and visited the world famous Alaska Pipeline.

This was an amazing site not only to personally see but also to learn about as it's made to withstand any element (cold, earthquakes, wildlife, ect). We also attended our first Alaska Salmon Bake (an all you can eat salmon feast) in Fairbanks. I'm not a fan of fish (ok I don't eat fish) but Christa does and wanted to give her the chance to experience the Alaska Feast as she likes Salmon.

If you are wondering the sun shines in Alaska about 20 hours during the summer. So you have all the time to sight see, shop and the best part is that you can drive at night as the sun is shinning bright. Below are a few of the animals that we saw!

Day 2 - Our Adventure Begins

Day 2: Our first full day in Alaska. We started the day off with a mission on our trip and that was to see a Moose in the wild. Don't get to excited as the only Moose we saw today was in the Alaska Zoo where we started the day off at.

The zoo is different than most zoos, all of it's animals are injured animals that have been recovered and brought there to heal. We saw just about every type of animal that there that lives in the Alaska region.

We then visited the Alaska Wild Berry Store, an awesome store. It has the worlds largest chocolate water fall inside the store. It's 20 feet tall and is made up of 3000 pounds of chocolate.

After leaving the Wild Berry Store we drove up to Ship Creek to see if the Salmon had started going up stream but it was a few weeks early so we missed them. We then left Anchorage and headed for Denali National Park (240 miles away). We stopped at the Denali South Overlook and were fortunate enough to see Mt McKinley from the lookout. The locals say that only 20% of tourist that visit Alaska ever get to see the entire mountain (we were part of the lucky 20%). It is very beautiful!

We ended our day arriving at our hotel, the Denali Park Hotel. This is a wonderful, secluded and quiet hotel that has a wonderful view of the mountains of Denali National Park. The hotel is known to have Moose walk across the property and we were told just before we arrive one had walked in front of the lobby. After checking in the hotel we ended up walking through the woods looking for Moose until 11:30 pm (yes, the sun was till shining).

Our Honeymoon Finally Celebrated

Unlike traditional wedding couples who take a honeymoon after they are married we chose to wait and save up for the "Honeymoon of a Lifetime" that we wanted to take. After 15 months it was finally time to celebrate our marriage and begin our honeymoon.

We flew from Atlanta, GA to Salt Lake City, UT and then on to Anchorage, Alaska! After leaving at 8:10 am and with a four hour time zone difference, we landed in Anchorage at 2:17pm. Yipee! We were finally in Alaska!

Anchorage, Alaska - What a beautiful sight, Mountains with snow covered peaks on one side and Turnagain Arm (Water) on the other side. (picture above). We stayed at the awesome Comfort Suites Airport hotel (just recently opened) and went out sightseeing at Resolution Point; Westchester Lagoon Overlook; Earthquake Park; and Woronzof Point Lookout.

What was truly amazing was getting to witness and experience the 24 hours of Sunshine in Alaska. We finally got into bed about 12:30 am and the sun was shining as if it was 6:00 pm in the evening. It really made going to sleep hard but I didn't care as I was in Alaska with the one I loved, my wife!