Jarig!

And then we had the 3rd Birthday bash for Rick in NL. This one with all the nephews and family in my mom's garden on a pretty sunny day.

 My sister and I and our offspring

and my mom and my sister watching it all

It appears Auke is a natural talent when it comes to cupcakes & cake decorating. Rick was impressed!

 And Kaat just ate al the decoration (spilled and unspilled).

and the older nephews Tjibbe & Jeppe are experts of their on right:

Batman Oma and Pirate Rick in a wooden spoon fight.

And Oma Marijke with all her grand children on the moped.

Rick loved having everyone around; especially his nephews

The big boys in the playground, Auke & Kaat loved the playground too and even the niece of Rick's friend Maartje from Houston came out to play as she lives at a stones throw of this playground. Small world!

 The playground is in a small park with lots of very high trees so in n time all the boys where playing with sticks in the woods.

 birthday dinner of fries, sausage & apple sauce

 or grown up food in a grown up setting

 including poetry read at the table -;0

Great party and really really nice to have both families and all kids together!

Birthday at School

Of course Rick also got to celebrate his Birthday at school. A day is selected in agreement with the parents and a big birthday poster is hung on the door. Rick got to wear a birthday hat all day and we where invited at 4 pm to take part in the cup cake bonanza (assuming we would provide such).

I don't think there are any parents who dare to bring anything else but cupcakes - as when you enter the room at 4 sharp you are met by 3 tables full of toddlers loaded with anticipation for their - CUPCAKES!

Rick was very very pleased with all the attention, above with Ms DaNiesha, seated between 'the Kalebs' as he calls them (being Kaleb and his twin sister) and his smile got even bigger when I also managed to join the party unexpectedly, albeit a little late.

After the cake there was some time for dancing, singing and rock & roll - and Eelco and I realized how we could really NOT do the job of these ladies all day.

After a little more fun we got kindly 'excused' and send on our way (w Rick), such that energy levels in the class could return to normal and the normal end of the school day routine could be resumed. Considering half the kids have their birthdays in the timespan of a month in this group they have to get quite effective at these celebrations. Still they managed to make it very special for Rick and bought him how to hold up 3 fingers instead of 2 in the process (which is not easy with the coordination of a 3 yr old!)

Capilano Bridge

The Capilano bridge is one of the first major tourist attractions of the Vancouver region. Completed i wood & hemp in 1889 people would make almost a week's trip to vita the 70m high suspension bridge. Still a tourist attraction, although revamped and partially in steel now, the bridge attracts some 800,000 visitors a year. Including me & Rick:

Well not really just us - Kaat joined us too - safely strapped onto daddy's back.

It was wet again that day so the whole tree top walk in the park surrounding the bridge was very slippery adding an unplanned level of adventure to the whole trip.

Nevertheless these kind of tree constructions are fun at any age to get around on - except when no strollers are allowed and your little boy has (as we found out later) bronchitis and wants his whole 18kg carried around those routes.

So we let Eelco and his mom do every bridge and walk and ramp in the forrest and retired a little earlier. Opa Sjoerd's glasses had broken so that is why he looks like a hippy wearing sunglasses on a grey & rainy day -;)

The main attraction though remained the bridge. I was kind of happy though that we made it all back across in 1 piece!

Just because I had 'missed' some of the high walks on the other side, once Rick was asleep in his stroller, Eelco dragged me out to do the last few overhangs....whuch! I am maybe also the only one who realized that Kaat can & will climb out out of that back pack rather swift and effectively so it was not just my own uneasiness with heights that got in the way.

Nice little trip though and at the end the sun came out long enough for us to enjoy the 1890's themed band playing and have some lunch.

Vancouver Science Museum

By the time we made it to Vancouver we had somewhat lucked out of good weather. The arrival was grey & dreary and although we had some reasonable improvement in the afternoon for a visit to the Aquarium and the famous Stanley Park the we received a solid rain day after. After attempting some of the other city attractions including a 'toy mall' we opted for a water tax tour to the science museum. Well we should have opted for that much sooner! We all have seen our fair share of science museums but this was by far one of the best.

Loads and loads of activities, many very physical, many with lots of balls and lots of water meaning a very very very very very happy Rick en many fun for any of us regardless age and abilities.

Rick was soaked in no time, but it would have been the same if we had stayed outside with less fun!

Many experiments could be conducted in pairs or groups. The pairing was not always fair -;)

Kaat had a big grin too all afternoon and was soooo happy that she was allowed to touch EVERYTHING, and could run after Rick.

Unusual for Rick there was no talking to anyone - too busy! Last but not least we made the golden oldies do the wheelchair race. Joke was impressively strong but too busy checking if she was still ahead, so then Sjoerd won. 

Of course Rick then wanted to try too.

Unfortunately by then it was closing time. Good news was we had another fun water taxi ride ahead of us to get back, and though still grey and windy it was no longer poring outside.

Our travel tip for Vancouver - regardless the weather - don't skip the science museum!

The verdict on cruising

With all the ports done we had one more day of scenic cruising and that wrapped up our cruise. So what was the verdict? Well very positive actually. I must say my expectations where not very high and I had quite some negative prejudices but was hoping that in a place like Alaska and by picking a 'higher hurdle' one way cruise things would be more up my alley. I have no means of comparison of course - but I would go again in a place like Alaska.

For me the image of cruise ships is the one below - and even when it was 'my cruise ship' it looked rather humongous and ugly from the key. However at certain angles - like above I could learn to love the view.

The kids loved it onboard and loved being near and around us so much. Kaatje sang, climbed, played, smiled,...

and walked

and walked

and walked some more accros all the different decks & rooms

All in all out of 2100 passengers there where only 14 under 12 year olds so the kids got loads of attention and mainly played together. They where too young to be left at the kids club (fancy but cut off is 3 yrs) and so could only go if one of us stayed too. Considering Rick & Kaat consider everything a payground no need to specifically go down there with them if it did not result in more play buddies. (Not a school holiday) Safe to say that in no time everyone knew us and we recognized nobody. We had lots of self proclaimed friends, most with grandkids they missed dearly.

The kids where perfectly happy using places like the onboard mini golf course as a play ground.

Or at night when we would hang out at the bar the kids climbed around in the enormous hall with fancy shiny lit stairs.

Onboard there is plenty entertainment in case the views or the ports don't offer enough. In some events, like the ice carving below, we had more interest in watching the audience then the carver. There where also talks by park rangers and other people of interest (dog sledge racers, writers etc), gambling tournaments, way too expensive art auctions, movies, shopping events, cooking demos, dance & song groups to take part in, a spa, a gym, a golf clinic and probably more. A daily captains log is issued to yoru cabin with 4 pages of updates on the days progress, plans & activities as well as a 'romantic quote of the day'

The pool opened once we where out of the worst wet grey and with some hot springs there too some people ventured out. Eelco and the kids stuck to the indoor pool a deck lower.

The ship had quite a lot of Restaurant almost all included in the all in price (except alcohol) and much much better food quality then I expected.  We would eat 3 course meals for dinner, breakfast could be formal or from teh buffet restaurant, cookies & snacks are provided everywhere all day and themes lunches or dinners are provided in the restaurants or on deck during 'scenic cruising'. The ice cream parlor, pizza place and the grill (greasy spoon) where more or less open all day and you could have (for free) fruit delivered to your room. Twice there was also a huge cake buffet.   

In the meantime the views during cruising days where amazing. It was not just a transit tour there was actually loads to see almost all the time!

Including lost of water planes landing or taking off near us

 

Alaska can be very wet & grey, but apart from the first 18 hours or so this is about as bad as it got for us from a cloud & grey perspective. Nothing to complain about either!

At night things tended to get more mysterious looking.

And closer to Vancouver and in the narrow passages there much more water transport of any kind. Did you know they invented the sea container in that region? 

I was kind of sad when are last night on board came up. Sharing the small cabin with the kids had not been ideal for my sleep, but just hanging around on the ship was very relaxing and there was lots too see and life was very easy. The tackier cruising port of Juneau was not my thing and I also did not like how many attempts there where to make more money out of us by Pictures of every port & dinner, or with sometimes very overprised excursions and the need to pay extra for decent coffee etc. However I felt more at home well not age wise, amongst the passengers then I thought and I have by far not seen and done everything there was to do on the ship. Still I am not so certain I would do something like this in the Carib. I think a somewhat more unusual location with more barriers to get to/from would be more appealing and I would want my own bed! Alaska is gorgeous though and with little kids this was an ideal way to see & experience loads.

Fortunately for us the holiday was not over at that stage. We had 4 more days in Vancouver left!