Slaughters Sail to Alaska-Part 3

The first day back to school went great yesterday! Ahhh! My mama heart took a little sign of relief when everyone got home with smiles and lots of stories from the first day. Yesterday was Tab’s birthday as well so we snuck in a family dinner to celebrate him.

Today, I’ve got Part 3 of pictures from our Alaskan Cruise. If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, you can check those out. And as always, if you’d like help planning a similar vacation {as well as a wide list of others} please keep us in mind. Mix and Match Travel Agency would love to help! You can find all our information, contact info, etc. right on our site.

This day of the cruise was my absolute favorite. We ported early in Skagway, Alaska, and had the entire day to explore. Our plan for the day was a private tour of the surrounding areas. Our guide was absolutely amazing-we’d talked before hand and she knew we had four kids so she did an outstanding job of throwing in, “skipping rock”, breaks and that kind of thing.

Our guide picked us right up and we were off…we grabbed coffees and she quickly wanted to befriend the boys so the skipping rocks portion of the trip was early. Her plan worked and the boys were sold.

Absolutely gorgeous views! {Which is the theme of this day}

By far the kids’ favorite stop was the Iditarod Musher Camp, where we got to hold puppies, play with lots of dogs, take a sled ride, and talk to a female musher {this was my favorite part-I was absolutely captivated by her stories}.

Bowen was in heaven!!

And so was Britty!

In order to allow more than one person on a “cart”, the dogs pull groups in these carts. The cart was in neutral so the dogs were doing all the work and we got to experience what it was like being behind the dogs like she does for days/nights on end all alone. I MEAN-CAN YOU IMAGINE?!

The dogs were SO EXCITED about getting hooked up for the ride.

We were pretty excited too!

When we came down the hill to this little pond, they all ran down for a drink. That little musher’s camp was such a great stop!

We drove on into the Yukon where again-the views were absolutely stunning!

I can’t remember the name of this area, but there’s just a huge sand area in the middle of the Yukon. Crazy, huh? Can you spot Bowen in the orange at the top mid-left area? He was begging to roll down that hill. I wasn’t a “yes mom” in that moment.

Emerald Lake is absolutely stunning! This was the part of our trip where we turned around and started heading back to Skagway. Totally worth the views!

We popped into a little town on our drive back. There were some little shops to visit, a few place to grab a bite to eat, and a playground.

We pulled over throughout the day to take pictures or get a great view of something.

Our late lunch spot was another favorite…we stopped at the Yukon Suspension Bridge where there’s a great set up. A cute little cafe….

This was the view from my seat. :). We had a charcuterie board and six bowls of chili-delish!

Yard games outside to keep all the people entertained.

And this really cool, high, very scary {have I mentioned my fear of heights?} bridge that dangles you above a river below full of jagged rocks and rapids? hahaha! Kidding, kind of.

On the other side of the river was a little cabin set up like it would have been years ago and according to Tab and Nixon, the BEST views were on that side of the river. {Insert my eye roll here please.}

I think I’d have been just fine but the bridge itself was see through so I’d get about 1/5 of the way and panic. Needless to say, my views from THIS side of the river were just as beautiful I’m sure.

The only two scaredy cats who didn’t make it across. #shegotitfromhermama

These two are crazy.

After that great stop, we kept heading back toward Skagway. Our guide waits tables at a local seafood restaurant in town so even though we’d eaten not too long ago we popped in for snacks and lots of “Vanessa sent us” messages.

Then we showered up for a late dinner back on the ship.

Country music was happening in the Texas BBQ restaurant and country music is our favorite. We just couldn’t resist.

The ending to my favorite day. Skagway, you are amazing!

XO