Alaska - Finishing the 50 States

It seems like as you get older in life and have more responsibilities that it becomes more and more difficult to get everyone's schedules to coordinate for family functions. Jennifer and I were both working at the hospital and Andrea was working in New York. Somehow all the stars alligned and we were able to make it all happen in the summer of 2010. We were all able to get together for what ended up being one of our last family vacations before we started having kids. We all packed up and headed to the Northwest to Seattle, WA to board a cruise ship to our last of the 50 states - Alaska!

You can't visit Seattle without visiting the Space Needle.

We finally made it to Alaska! The Heflin's had now been in all 50 of the United States of America! Our first stop on the cruise was in Ketchikan, Alaska. It is also considered the salmon capital of the world. We took a walk around the city and even got a few pictures of salmon jumping out of the water.

We even caught a lumberjack show while in Ketchikan. We enjoyed a show that pitted the Americans against the Canadians in a battle of lumberjack activities.

We also made it out to the Totem Bight which was a huge collection of totem poles. It was interesting to see the workmanship and to hear about some of the history and stories that the totems were carved to represent.

The boat also made a pass through the Tracy Arm Fjord. It was a truly amazing sight. We took this huge boat through what seemed like such a narrow pass. The boat went all the way in until we reached the glacier and then the boat turned around and then we headed back out. 

In Juneau we took a trip to a fish hatchery and along the way we spotted a couple of bald eagles. 

A trip to see the massive Mendenhall Glacier was also a sight to see. These pictures don't give any justice to how big this glacier actually is.

The boat provided us not only a place to sleep and eat, but it also gave us quite a few memories. We enjoyed dressing up for dinner each night where we were taken care of by our waiters Joel and Allen. McKinley and I also enjoyed playing some ping pong and Andrea also joined us for some running on the top deck because we were all getting ready for our half marathon that we were all going to run in about a month after our trip. We even participated in family feud contest one day, but were unable to come up with all the correct answers.

In Skagway we hopped aboard a train and traveled across the White Pass and Yukon Route to the Yukon. The scenery proved to be very enjoyable and we even spotted a couple of bears on our trip.

The ship stopped in Victoria, British Columbia on the way back down to Seattle. We took a tour of the Craigdorroch Castle during our stop. It had some really neat features throughout the house including the statue light fixture with rose shaped lights. The picture on the bottom right is a scale model of the castle.

Some more fun on the ship. A round of mini golf and some more ping pong. My siblings and I out on the deck. Jennifer and I about to enjoy some Baked Alaska.

After the cruise we did a little more sightseeing in Seattle. This time we headed down to Pike Place Market. This is the place where they are famous for throwing fish around. We watched that for a little while and then headed down to the restaurant where Tom Hanks ate in Sleepless in Seattle.

I am so blessed to have parents who loved to travel and especially for taking me on all these trips growing up. At the age of 25 years they had taken me to all 50 states and that is some thing that I am really proud of. Now, I might not have enjoyed all the car rides and spending every second together for sometimes weeks at a time, but I could not thank them enough for everything that they have done for me and my siblings. We have had lots of experiences and memories that we will talk about for years. I hope someday you are all able to make it to all the states too! I know that I would like to take my kids to them all too. Thanks for reading and God bless!