Evan and I booked a cruise for the Thanksgiving weekend, and we left from Florida this time as I was there for a work conference. As a part of this cruise, we had a stop in the Dominican Republic, where we found this fun virtual cache: Amber Cove Virtual Conquest.
Time for another cruise, this time with my parents, and this time to Alaska! I had so much fun on this trip, but I'm missing photos from some of the most amazing times because I chose to be in the moment and put my camera away for most of it.
My dad and I headed to Alaska ahead of my mom and Evan. Day one of this trip was the flight from Dallas to Anchorage, then the drive down to Seward where we were deep sea fishing the next day. I did one of the dumbest things I've ever done travelling this day. Because I almost never check bags, I left my checked bag with all my fishing gear at the airport. Of course, I didn't notice until we were almost at our destination, so this warranted an emergency trip to the hardware store and a lot of washing things in the sink the first few days. Also on the drive, we got hungry and stopped to by the most expensive bag of chips I've ever purchased. Minus the luggage snafu, this was a fun drive and quite pretty.
The next morning, we were up bright and early for some fishing. If you enjoy fishing, you should absolutely go to Seward and get on one of the charters out. We had great views and great fishing, ending up with 2 halibut, 1 salmon, and 8 rockfish between the two of us. When we got back to the docks, they got cleaned up and we shipped them home to arrive after we got back (and then we split them up between us).
On the drive back to Anchorage, we took a detour through a tunnel and found a geocache while in the town there. The cache was Whittier Than Most and a quite sneaky little hide.
Once we were back in Anchorage, we headed north a little for a surprise I booked for my dad, who really wanted to see Denali. Instead of making the trip by car, we took a small plane ride to view this breathtaking view. I probably have a small handle of photos, but I really sat back and just took it all in. We did stop on the way back at a birch syrup farm, and my dad enjoyed the dog hanging out there, too. Then we got reindeer sausage for lunch. A quite fun day with lots of interesting things to see along the way.
After the days alone with my dad, we finally got to pick up Evan and my mom at the airport and get my luggage back (yeah!). We did a little sightseeing in the area, and I got to take my parents to a cemetery (seems I always do this with them). This one was very neat, though, with history about the culture that built from the merging of different traditions.
We also found a couple more caches on this trip with my parents:
As it was nearing a fun number, my geocaching buddy Lisa and I made a day of it. And it was a super fun day hanging out! As she and I had a fun day, I'm going to list these out and then put a little more about my 777 cache.
Then it was time for lucky number 777! This one we really a very easy find, but we wanted a spot without many muggles so we could spend some time there. Also, the next cache on the list (which was found later) was at a gas station and I didn't want that to be #777 so we detoured to here. Again, this was an easy find, but it was so worth it! Plenty of Parking UP Here
We did find one more cache as we were wrapping up the day: Fill her up with Ethyl!. For some reason (there really isn't one), this name makes me smile.
I'll wrap this up with more photos from the day.
Evan and I did a short road trip with our friends Dan and Meredith to go to a beer and wine festival in Salado, TX. It was a super last minute and laid back trip, with one full day spent relaxing outside enjoying the beverages.
At some point, I pulled up my geocaching app and we all got a kick out of the name of this cache nearby: MM - St. Andrew's Wee Wall. This became a goal find for the trip, and we were able to easily find this one with our friends.
I know, it's hard for some to believe, but this was my first trip to Disney! I'd been resisting for years, but then my friends saw that my favorite band was playing in EPCOT, so I finally caved and we booked a trip!
Before I get to the geocache, I also got to meet Flynn Rider and Rapunzel, and that was super fun. My fave Disney movie is Tangled, and this was a super fun part of the trip.
The cache was a virtual cache, but still quite fun to participate in: EPCOT.
