Now, forgive me for all the photos and just be happy I didn't post all 1350 of them... it was hard enough to pick favorites as it is.
I'm finally getting the time to write this post! July 3rd Josh, Samantha, and I headed up north to celebrate Corey & Brian's wedding. Since Sam had never been on a plane before we figured we'd fly straight out of Seattle since there are no direct flights to Juneau from Portland. That Tuesday morning we got up with the sun, packed up the car and drove to Seattle. We didn't really hit any traffic and got to the airport in plenty of time. We checked some luggage, but still hauled around a bag for Sam, my purse, and the car seat since the flight wasn't full we were hoping to be able to use it. We walked around for a bit before taking the train out to our island of a terminal... which then had very limited food choices, and no kids menu. The waitress looked at me like I was crazy as if no kids have ever asked before... it's an airport for goodness sake. We finally got to load the plane and were happy to have an open seat for Sam. We got her all strapped in and waited, not knowing what to expect from her. I had snacks all ready and her water for her ears. She ate a few snacks, but never seemed bothered by the flight. She mostly just didn't want to sit still for so long. We kept busting out new books or small toys, but she still just wanted to move. Luckily planes are pretty loud as is and she wasn't a noise bother, although she was all about kicking the seat in front of her. Taking her shoes off helped a bit, but we did a fair amount of apologizing. Again she didn't even notice the decent. Luckily she's a good flier. She was just tired. We got our rental car in Juneau and she was asleep on the way to the hotel.
We got all checked in and then hung out and waited for Corey to come see us. We then followed her to her family's house and hung out there a bit meeting some of Brian's family. Tuesday night was the bachlorette party so Josh and Sam stayed at the family house before heading back for bed. The party made a few stops but ended up downtown where they do fireworks at midnight on the 3td. The fireworks were cool, and Josh actually saw a few from the hotel room. After they were done I headed back to the room when others stayed out. Sam of course didn't care that I was out late and woke us up about 4 hours after I feel asleep. Luckily I have the best husband in the world and he took her on an outing and got breakfast. I woke up 3 hours later feeling much more rested and was even showered and ready to go by the time they got back.
The 4th of July parade was only a couple blocks from our hotel so we met up with everyone and watched an interesting parade... small town. We then headed back to the hotel for a nap. We all napped. My friend Catherine was telling me how we would be sitting in the bathroom waiting for Sam to fall asleep, and I thought she was crazy. But she'd been there. She was right. Sam would not fall asleep while being able to see us in the room. The room was really small and she kept talking to us. So we hid in the bathroom, which was also tiny, and waiting until she stopped rolling around and then made our way out to sit on the bed reading in dim light. Way to know what was going to happen Catherine! Having an extra room is a must with Sam for naps and bedtime, but unfortunately that wasn't an option on this trip. That night we headed back to the Harmon home and hung out, and early night and back to bed.
Thursday we went exploring a bit and headed to the Alaska Brewery for some tastings, then found our way to the Mendenhal Glacier. It was something like I've never seen before, and can't imagine anything again. Of course I took a lot of photos, knowing Samantha will never remember this trip. Thursday night was the big family dinner at the Harmon home with some great food thanks to Pat, and luckily the weather stayed dry for dinner so we could enjoy dessert in the back yard.
Just to give it some perspective...
Friday Josh and I had our free time. We dropped Samantha off with the Harmon's where she wasn't overly happen daddy left her, but she apparently got over that in about 10 minutes. We headed down to the docks and met up with our group to go zip lining. I was slightly terrified, not being the best with heights. I don't mind then when I feel stable, but clearly a suspension bridge and decks on trees up over nothing isn't what I would call stable. Luckily our guides were great and I just let my adrenaline take me through it. I actually thought I would be scared to take the first step off the platform, but I didn't mind that. It was a lot of fun. I didn't remember to look down until about line 4 or 5, but once I did that it was even more fun. The part I didn't enjoy were the bridges. We stopped every few feet to talk about trees... I don't care! Then we started rocking it back and forth... and into a tree with a thud. Awesome... the bridge is only about 2 feet wide to walk on in the first place... let's keep moving please! The very last zip was the most fun, it was heading back towards the water and was beautiful. At one point were were 180 feet up in the air, and one zip has you going about 35 mph, while the others are a measly 20 mph... We loved it and would do it again! We have the photos they took on the last zip. They said to do something fun, I was not about to flip over or anything but did do a one handed something, but timed it totally wrong and the photo was taken as I was checking out the view instead. haha. Oh well.
Then Saturday was the wedding! I headed over in the afternoon to help/watch Corey get ready then headed back to meet up with my family and get them ready. We drove out to Auke Bay where it was quite windy and cold, Samantha wasn't exactly thrilled and had a tantrum during the ceremony. Luckily Josh had already taken her to the parking lot so we didn't hear anything during the ceremony. When we were getting ready to head to the reception area she had another tantrum and stopped and sat down in the gravel parking lot screaming. Awesome, we now know what that's like. The reception was fun, amazing food, lots of dancing, mostly by Samantha. She was our dancing queen for the night! Another late night to top off the trip. Bed at midnight.
She got up at 7 and we were ready to pack up and get some breakfast before heading over to the Harmon house to say goodbye to everyone. Off to the airport for our very full flight which meant Samantha got to be a lap kid the whole way back. She of course only wanted to sit on dad. Which was fine with me, and meant then I was in charge of the distraction toys. Again she was alright, just wanted to move around. By the time we landed and found all our stuff (no thanks to the Seattle airport) we were ready to head home. Overall we were not thrilled with our experience at Sea-Tac and will fly out of PDX now that we know Sam can handle it. We again hauled all our crap to the shuttle and Sam was asleep within 2 minutes of leaving the parking lot. 3 hours home and our trip was complete!
It was a good trip, the glacier, zip lining, and every day at the Harmon home included bald eagle feedings... something you almost can't even explain, it was awesome. Video coming. Thank you to Corey & Brian for giving us the opportunity to go someplace we probably wouldn't have otherwise gone.
