DAY 8 ALASKA CRUISE and LAST PORT OF CALL

Cruising into Victoria, B.C. we awoke at 9:30am. It felt like we had slept till at least noon. I dressed and headed to the Great Outdoors for my morning cappuccino and french toast. We will not dock in Victoria till this evening. We will have the day on the ship to do what ever. After breakfast I went to look at the T shirts they had on sell and finished up my gift shopping. I went to the photo gallery and found a decent pic of me with the sea otter mascot disembarking in Ketchikan. I got it because it came with a pic of the ship and I really wanted that keepsake. I went around to the internet cafe and got in on a "minutes sale". Got 30 minutes for $12. Sat down and immediately used half of them. I used the other half when I got back from our Castle excursion. I then went back to the room to pack my suit cases. We had to put them outside our door at 10:00pm tonight to be taken and sent to our airlines to meet us in Houston. Thank goodness we will not have to lug them off the ship, into a cab, through the airport, etc. The ship personnel also printed out our boarding passes for us. That makes going to the airport a breeze. It was a tight fit, but I got everything into my suit cases. I still don't know how I did it but there was a lot of huffing and puffing and laying across the suit case. I relaxed till time to go ashore. We even had a leisurely dinner in the Summer Place before we disembarked.

It was windy and cold getting off the ship in Victoria. We quickly found our bus and climbed aboard. Our driver told us all the history and highlights of Victoria. It is a very beautiful city with a beautiful coast line. Most all the houses look like Cape Cod Bungalows. We toured Craigdarroch Castle. It was really pretty and HUGE.

There was some beautiful flora in Victoria. I love seeing how the plants vary from region to region.

China Town

The Empress hotel. Sorry for the glare from the bus window. No tea with the Queen.

More touring of the city, then back to the ship about dark.

An ice cream snack, blog and a movie before bed.

We docked in Seattle about 8:30am, Sunday morning. Sunday morning was relaxed. After breakfast for the last time on the deck of the Great Outdoors we looked around our room for anything left behind and closed the door for the last time. We disembarked about 10:00am and hailed a taxi. He was a very nice gentleman. We told him we would like to go to a movie to kill time till our flight at 5:40pm. He drove us to a movie theatre downtown and gave us his number to call when we were ready to head to the airport. We watched "My Life In Ruins", cute flick, then went across the street to the Cheese Cake Factory for a late lunch and to kill a little more time. We had originally planned to sight see when we got back to Seattle, but fatigue got the better of us. After lunch, no cheese cake (too full), we called our taxi driver. He was busy so his brother, the taxi driver, picked us up. He was equally as nice. He told us of his country, etc while driving us to the airport. We bid him good bye and went into the airport. We did a little shopping in there...very cute stuff...then went to wait for our flight to be called. Maxine came through again and we boarded first. A few minutes into our flight the captain said to look out the left window (just happened to be my side) to see Mt. Rainer right next to us. Here is the incredible shot I got.

Had a relaxing flight and movie.

Glad to be home...sad to be home...miss Alaska. Hope you enjoyed the journey, I sure did. NCL is a fantastic Cruise Line. The Inside Passage is an amazing place to see. If you ever get a chance to visit Alaska, Take it! You won't regret it. It was so worth the year of scrimping and saving to take this amazing trip. I would go back in a heart beat, but I would like to see some more of what the world has to offer. Where to next? That's the question.