R: August. NO TRAVEL! YAY!
N: Our niece Caroline, and her husband, Yoann visited us from France.
R: They mainly came to see California, but they hung out with us a little bit too. 😉
N: They even showed us places we had never visited in San Francisco. –We don’t go into the city very often.
R: Looking at the pictures, it seems like all we did with them was eat.
N: We also visited Stanford University. 🤔
R: Oh, well that makes us MUCH better hosts.🤪
Welcome to US cuisine: Fried EVERYTHING!
(From Left: Nicolas, Rachel, Caroline, & Yoann)
Stanford University
R: September 1, we flew to Vancouver, Canada, to leave the next day for our Alaskan cruise.
N: We had dinner with our nephew Damien, his wife Brianne, their little girl Emeline (just a few months old), and Brianne’s parents.
R: I thought we had gotten a picture of all of us, but I could only find the pictures of Brianne, Emeline, and me.
N: That’s okay.
R: You’re right. We have the most important people. ☺️
N: 🤨
Rachel, Brianne et Emeline
September – Alaska
R: Bon Voyage!
N: We set sail for a 10-day cruise to Alaska.
R: I don’t even know what to say about it.
N: I do! It was AMAZING!
R: Let’s just let the pictures and videos speak for themselves.
N: They still won’t do them justice.
Glaciers and Whales
Temperate Rainforest and Hikes
R: Nicolas walks very quickly. So, I was glad he had is bright rubber-ducky-yellow jacket to make it easier to spot him.
R: A lot of good the bright yellow jacket did to help me find Waldo… I mean Nicolas😉
Indigenous Totem Poles
… and not so indigenous!
R: We also had fun just relaxing.
N: There were nice dinners, and we got to dress up.
R: You always look nice & dressed up. But I have to admit, I enjoyed wearing that dress.🥰
N: In Icy Straight Point, we had an amazing whale-watching and the most over-the-top Bloody Mary I have ever seen.
R: One of the best part of Icy Straight Point was that I conquered my fear of heights. Well… “conquered” might be a stretch, but I confronted them and won. I went ziplining! 😄
N: I never EVER thought I would see you zipline.
R: Neither did I! For all of you out there, I am TERRIFIED of heights. I don’t know what got into me. I just decided, “Let’s go!” I won’t go into the details of the abject terror before we went. –It didn’t help that it was advertised as the “World Largest ZipRider,” with the top somewhere above the empire state building (see picture below).
But when the trees fell away and we plunged through the canyon, it was AMAZING. I loved it.😍 🥰
N: Alaska really was a great vacation.
R: Agreed. But this section of the letter has also been A LOT of pages spent on one trip. We gotta get things moving!
Over-the-top Bloody Mary (i.e., Lunch)