We met up with Kent, Miranda, and Dylan for the day. We started at the flea market, where the kids had fun walking together and holding hands. After a quick stop at Costco, we went to a beach called Turtle Town in Mekena. It was a great place to snorkel; Jodi and Miranda saw some awesome fish while Kent and Brad saw two turtles!
We moved to the Grand Weilea for the last 4 days of our stay and had high hopes… Unfortunately, this hotel has been a bit of a disappointment and not one we would recommend to others. It still has a great view, with easy access to the beach. It also has a lazy river running between pools with a few water slides. Kenzie LOVED them and had a blast in the water!
Day 2 and we decided to pack up and drive up to the north side of the island. A good portion is a one lane, very curvy road. We stopped to watch the blow hole then continued on to Kaanapali where we took the kids on a combo glass bottom boat/submarine type thing to see the coral and sea life. We also played in the park around the huge banyan tree. Finally, we went back to the hotel and played in the pool just before sunset.
All of our hotel stays are covered by points. Because our flight landed after midnight, our first stay was in a Courtyard by the airport. Our next two nights are at a pretty fancy hotel – the Andaz Hyatt. The center of the lobby is a huge sandbox and it overlooks a series of infinity pools with a great view of the ocean.
The bathroom and shower are behind the bed so you can sit in the shower with the overhead rain heads on and look out the window at the waves and beach.
What better way to tour the town than in a convertible! Trying to get all of our luggage in it, on the other hand, not so good.
We met up with Kent, Miranda and Dylan while we waited for our room to be ready. Kenzie LOVED playing in the water and holding Dylan’s hand while we walked around town.
Flight #30 to Maui and our first flight over 3 hours. The flight attendant reported 6 hours and 20 minutes for the actual flight time. Although off to a little bit of a rough start, Alaska no longer requires portable devices to be powered down so Kenzie got to watch Elmo for the take off and then fell asleep about an hour in to the flight. With over 100 empty seats, we were able to stretch out a bit.
This morning the ship traveled up the Tracy Arm before heading in to Juneau. We rented a car again, this time bypassing Walmart for the Fred Meyer! Then on to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier was ok but on the way out of the park, we noticed several people peering into the bushes. We pulled over and had a great opportunity to watch a black bear eat a salmon then walk along the stream, up over the road, and back up stream again… Very cool!! We also stopped at Tracy’s King Crab Shack. By far the best crab cakes and bisque EVER!
Since this is our third trip to Ketchican, and we’ve already done the kayaking, zip lining, and photo tours, we decided to go somewhere we hadn’t been yet…. Walmart!! We rented a car and continued on our own self guided tour along the 30 mile road that covers the town. We literally reached the end of the road in each direction. Along the way we saw some eagles, a harbor seal, some huge salmon, and a black bear!
We considered tooling around Seattle and boarding later in the day, but in the end just decided to get settled into our stateroom early. Good thing we did! We knew something went amuck when security ran Brad’s monsterous backpack through xray a second time…and then called another securit guard over as back up. “Do you have any weapons in here, sir?”. Brad’s face quickly turned from confusion to horror. “A pistol”, he said quietly. Brad had to carry his three computers (yes, THREE computers on vacation) down to the Port Authority’s security office, escorted by the very nice officer carrying the contraband. There they had to wait for the police to inspect his bag. Brad was lucky! He had his multiple carrying permits with him, so the Port Authority let him off with a warning and an escort to the car so he could safely store his extra luggage until our return. So sorry I didn’t get a picture to capture the moment!
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