Although, not our first time to the Last Frontier, it is our first time together on a cruise ship. We are on our way to Alaska!

My dad inspired my love of travel in a very backhanded way. He used to drive truck while I was growing up, and to be honest, I would spend a lot of time looking at his atlases. It was fascinating to me that I could go to all of these different places – and these maps helped show me the way.

I know how cheesy that sounds, but all of it is true. Now that I’ve caught you up to speed. I think you can see the direction that this is going. In 2017, Andy and I wrapped up all 50 states in the USA. I’ve chatted a few times with my dad and realized that he was only missing 5 states.

In 2021, we were able to take him and my mom to Hawaii (number 46) to celebrate Thanksgiving. During that trip, we were cooking up how we could help get him to Alaska. We realized that the easiest way was likely through a cruise – get to see a lot – and a lot of really remote areas. We booked it with Celebrity Cruises!

So now my dad is going to be able to check off number 47 with this trip. You might be wondering, what states are left? Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire are all that he has to check off. (We are hoping to complete these three next fall – fingers crossed!)

That brings us to this week – both my parents and us flew into Seattle on Thursday, September 1st. My parents flew in a bit earlier than us, and we got checked into our hotel just before midnight.

Our cruise ship is leaving on Friday, at 4 pm from Seattle.

Up Next:
– Board the cruise ship