The Hooks Family

Summer Alaska Trip - Juneau

On Tuesday, Radiance docked in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. We left the boat pretty early to catch our bus over to the Mendenhall Glacier and River. This is my favorite family picture from the whole trip. The glacier is behind us, and we're suited up for a float/rafting trip down the river.

Even though it was overcast, there was beauty all around us.

Ryan and Mia rode next to each other in the front row of the raft.

Lily and I and another lady rode right behind them with our guide behind us, and another row of three ladies behind him.

Simply beautiful!

Most of the ride was an easy float down the river, but there were a few class one rapids and even one set of class two. The girls found it very thrilling! Ryan and I loved seeing how amazed and excited they were on this adventure.

What a fabulous adventure!

After all the fun, we had a great lunch and then took a gondola up to the top of Roberts Mountain. Mia and I were a little nervous on the ride up, but we made it.

We loved seeing the beautiful Lady Baltimore, an eagle who had an injured wing so she is under their care.

This led to some beautiful views and another fun adventure in Juneau!

Summer Alaska Trip - Icy Straight Point

Our Monday, our boat docked at Icy Straight Point. We realized this is a town made up of and owned almost solely by the Hoonah people group. As we walked around town, we learned more about their history and culture.

It was pretty cool today, in the low 50's, but it was certainly a nice change from the hot Atlanta summer! All six of us boarded a smaller boat to go whale watching. We were all so excited!

We couldn't believe it, but it didn't take too long to see a pod of six humpback whales! Several times we saw them do "bubble feeding" which is where they circle underwater to get a school of fish together and then they push them to the surface to eat. It was so cool to watch!

At one point, they were really close to our boat! Seriously, just a few feet away. David was in the right place at the right time to snap this picture.

After watching the whales for quite awhile, we headed towards a little island where we caught our first glimpse (of many) of bald eagles. They were so beautiful!

After our excursion ended, we ate a delicious lunch at the little restaurant in town before heading over for a little window shopping and family pictures.

From there, we took a little hike through the woods and then headed down the beach, building rock structures along the way, until we made it back to the boat.

We were amazed at the true wildlife sightings today. Humpback whales and bald eagles; what could be more Alaska than that?!

Summer Alaska Trip - Ketchikan

After a full day of cruising on Saturday, we arrived in Ketchikan on Sunday morning. It was a stunningly beautiful blue sky! We were so thankful for this because Ketchikan is actually one of the rainiest spots in North America. No rain coats for us!

We actually didn't have an excursion planned this day. We had decided we would instead walk around town and simply enjoy exploring. It was such a lovely little town; we were glad we did this.

We met some of the local wildlife. Ha!

Of course if there's a souvenir shop, we're going to go in and find all the silly things to try on.

Everyone enjoys this!

Lily was pumped to buy Chocolate her moose, and Mia was ecstatic that she bought a slingshot where the handle is carved like a wolf. She couldn't wait to go out by the dock and practice shooting rocks!

Who are we kidding? We all enjoyed using it!

After spending several hours walking around (our pedometer measured over 5 miles!), we headed back to the ship for a late Windjammer lunch, and then the boat pulled out around 4. This was such a great introduction into Southern Alaska!

Summer Alaska Trip - Cruising

Our family loves Royal Caribbean, so we couldn't wait to get on the boat on Friday morning. This was David and Jan's first cruise, so they were excited to see what it was all about. We cruised on Radiance of the Seas. It's an older, smaller boat, but it provided a great experience for all of us with only a few minor kinks.

We headed to our room (1594) to check it out and drop our bags. It was a nice room with a great balcony that we took advantage of throughout the trip.

Enjoying the view of Vancouver from our balcony.

We had a great introductory buffet lunch at the Windjammer Cafe, and then we all just hung out on the back of the boat to watch as we left the port. It was cool to watch the city fade away as we moved forward to a more mountainous and forested area.

After crossing under the Lionheart Gate Bridge.

Bye Vancouver! Hope to see you another time!

Of course, we couldn't wait to check out the boat. First stop...putt putt! We always love to play, and there was no one else around, so this was the perfect opportunity.

We made our way to the game room just about everyday. It was a good spot to meet up and hang out with Grandpops and Grandma Jan. The girls loved playing chess against one another and against Grandpops. I played checkers with them. All of us had fun playing Uno and Blink together.

Twice, we girls went to a napkin folding seminar which was tons of fun!

Lily perfected the "lotus" fold, while Mia excelled at the "candlestick" (and her own invented bouquet demonstrated below).

The girls LOVED when they came in from dinner to find towel animals. This elephant and monkey were two of the cutest ones left for us.

Not surprisingly, swimming was a favorite activity.

They would have done this the whole trip if they could have!

We were very glad to have these two dads around on Father's Day. It was fun to celebrate them both. I was able to call my dad as well; even though he wasn't with us on the trip, I wanted him to know I was thinking of him!

Ryan is such an amazing dad. I'm so thankful for the example he sets for our girls on what a Godly man, husband, and father should be. He loves them unconditionally and wonderfully.

We had a great time at one of the shows. This juggler was not only talented, but very funny. We all thoroughly enjoyed his show. The girls also loved having the stuffed animals that they spent their hard earned allowances on. Lily bought a chocolate moose in Ketchikan and named him Chocolate. Mia bought a wolf on the boat, and named him Radiance in its honor.

The cruise line took cheesy pictures as you disembarked the ship. Lily couldn't resist getting a picture of her and Chocolate with a moose in Skagway; we couldn't resist purchasing it!

We enjoyed having breakfast each morning in the Windjammer on the back of the boat. It was a yummy breakfast and gave us great views of the surrounding area.

There were lots of good dining options to choose from each day. We ate several dinners in the main dining room which were quite tasty. Of course, we were happy to have room service a couple of times too! Two nights though Grandpops and Grandma Jan treated us to the specialty dining. One night was the Chops Steakhouse which was alright though not great; another night was Giovanni's Table which was a delicious Italian dinner.

Mia can't resist a good rock climb! She had the chance to do this on the back of the boat, and as she said, "it was awesome and epic!" She made it all the way to the top on her first go round, and almost there on her second. It was so cool to watch her do this so high above the sea!