Cora's Big Adventures - Part 2

I forgot to mention in my last post how big of a hit Cora was on the cruise boat. She was such a little celebrity! Granted, there were a lot of Filipino employees on the boat, so they were probably a little biased since they knew we were Filipino too. But there were still lots of non-Filipino employees and cruisers alike that always cooed over Cora. The few times Adam and I left Cora with my parents we would get stopped and asked where the baby was. Maybe they were just concerned for her well being haha. Towards the end of the trip though, employees who had not seen her before would come up to us and say, "Is this the one? This is the one!" So I guess the other employees had been telling their friends about her. Also, one of the mornings I went to breakfast with my sister, Khristina, and we had to sit in the overflow area. Adam came up later with Cora but couldn't find us. As he was getting ready to leave the employees at the entrance stopped him and told him they knew I had to still be at breakfast because they hadn't seen me leave yet, so they escorted him around the area until they found us! It was just funny how many people knew who we were all because of cute little Cora!

Day 4 of the cruise was a stop in Juneau. We didn't purchase an excursion through the cruise and decided to go over to Mendenhall Glacier. There are buses at the port that will take you $8 per person each way, so that was a huge savings compared to $80 per person going through a cruise excursion! I really wish I could put into words how breathtaking this glacier is. I am definitely not a nature girl, but Alaska really took my breath away. Of course we took tons of pictures, but really even the pictures don't do it justice.


Mendenhall Glacier
Like I said, this picture does not do it justice. It was really quite gorgeous. My family broke up into two groups: one group that hiked Nuggets Falls trail to get to the waterfall and one group that stayed behind at the visitor center. It was pretty cold, so I stuck at the visitor center with Cora, Khristina, my mom, and my dad. It was pretty neat at the visitor center though. We got to learn about the glacier and the wildlife in the area. Luckily none of us saw any bears while we were there, but apparently it is not a rare sighting! They had a mini-museum in the center and showed a movie, although we did not go watch since I was afraid Cora would become disruptive.


Cora checking out a black bear pelt in the visitor center
On our elevator ride up to the visitor center, there was an elderly couple cooing over Cora in her little rain jacket. I noticed the man was wearing an SIU jacket so I mentioned that I graduated from there. I am always tickled to find people from SIU since it's not very well known. It turns out that they were actually originally from southern Illinois, and they even knew about little Hardin County! They said they used to love to eat at the E'Town River Restaurant. They ended up leaving southern Illinois though to move to Waco, Texas to be closer to their grandchildren. Such a small world!

While we were at the visitor center, Adam, Khloe, Khristian, Kharmene, and her husband, Jonathan, did the hike to Nugget Falls. I think they got pretty close up to the glacier and the waterfall! Khristian, Kharmene, and Jonathan had waterproof shoes so they were able to cross the water to get to the sand bar and even closer to the waterfall. In retrospect I do wish I had gone with them, but my boots weren't really made for hiking, I was cold, and I knew I had to stay back with Cora. Oh well, at least everyone that did go got some great pictures!



We had to book it back to the cruise ship pretty quickly since our ship was scheduled to leave at 1:30. We had a great bus driver on the way to the Mendenhall though so we got to learn a little bit about Juneau with some humor mixed in. The area we were in by the boat was really tourist-y so I don't think we missed too much by spending all our time at the glacier. Cora was getting pretty cold and cranky too so it was time to get back on the boat!


That evening the boat cruised past Sawyer Glacier. We took advantage of our parents' cabin and hung out in there instead of going to the Lido deck to view the glacier. The guys went up to the top deck for a little bit but eventually we all just hung out together. It was a little nerve wracking seeing all the little icebergs in the water as we were cruising. They were all pretty tiny but I think we all were kind of thinking, "But WHAT IF one is just big enough and we all go down?!" Obviously there were no issues with any little icebergs. I actually didn't see the glacier! I guess I was too busy hanging out. I did get to see a seal though!


Sawyer Glacier


An obviously very candid shot of all of us hanging out in Mom and Dad's cabin!


The seal!!! So cute just hanging out on a little iceberg!

The next day we had a stop in Skagway, Alaska. We booked an all day excursion through the cruise line that took a bus up through the Yukon into Canada and then the White Pass Railway back to Skagway. It was so exciting to go to Canada! I've always wanted to go since I was a young teen. I will admit that I did sleep a bit on the bus ride haha. The scenery was beautiful, but put me in a moving vehicle and I am out almost instantly!


In the Yukon!
Our first stop was at a resort called Caribou Crossing. It included a lunch and admission to their museum and petting zoo. They had horses, goats, little miniature horses, a donkey, and tons of dogs! They breed sled dogs there so we saw a bunch of athletic dogs. They had goats up on a bridge that knew how to pull up a can if you put some feed in it. At one point the donkey was just walking around freely. It was weird haha, but fun. I was hoping Cora would get excited over all the dogs since she was so happy to see Adam's parents' dog Angus, but she was pretty subdued about it. I think the dogs were everyone else's favorite part of the stop though haha.


The goats on the bridge!


Cora trying on hats in the museum gift shop.
We had a short stop after that in Carcross. It was a very small town. I didn't get off the bus for some reason, I think maybe Cora nursed, but she's actually in pictures in the town, so I'm not sure! I guess my pregnancy brain is still alive and well! Anyway, the town had a little beach area with a gorgeous mountain back drop. We wouldn't have seen it if the bus hadn't taken the short drive around the town!


After that was the White Pass Railway back into Skagway. We got to see even more beautiful scenery. If you've never heard of this railway, it is a narrow gauge railway that was built in 1898-1900. It travels on the edge of the mountains so it is kind of scary if you are afraid of heights! My poor dad was terrified, but insisted on staying on the scenery side of the train instead of the mountain side. What a brave guy ;)


A shot of the train in front of us! Click on the picture if you want to zoom in.


Cora with my parents on the train, with me photo bombing in the back.
Once the train got back to Skagway we had to go back to the boat immediately to make sure we got on before it left. We were all sad that we didn't have time to explore downtown Skagway! We got to see it on our bus ride back to the boat and it looked so cute. I wish we would have been able to check it out.

This entry is getting long so I think I'll stop here! I still have two more days of the cruise to document. I promise the next entry will be more Cora-centric :) Until then, here's one of the pictures my sister Khristina took of the sunset on the boat, with no filter applied!