MACINTOSH MONDAY

So last Thursday 18th June Mr Macintosh turned 3! As is customary we get him a few little presents, usually consisting of some toys and treats. We posted this picture on Instagram which caused people to comment on how still and well behaved he looked waiting for his presents.

Whilst he is waiting patiently there he didn't always wait so well...

        

He spent quite a bit of time sniffing them and getting excited over the very gross animal smells he could detect from inside! I love the tongue out photo, shame its a bit blurry!

Mac is a master at opening presents. He can shred wrapping paper at quite a speed so he had fun opening all his presents. You see him demonstrating it by opening his frisbee, which he spends a lot of time wanting to crunch through! 

His favourite toy though is clearly his pheasant. He loves the noise it makes and the fact its small enough for him to toss around and play with. Its the toy he keeps going back to again and again.

Happy birthday Mr Macintosh! 
H

ALASKA - DAY 2

The next two days of the cruise we spent the whole time on the ship. We had to travel quite a bit of distance to get up from Washington to Alaska. Initially whilst cruising the Puget Sound the water had been quite still and we were going at a fairly slow pace but by day two we were out in open sea and the captain had considerably increased the speed. As a result it took me a little while to get my sea legs, but Andrew (who is quite a knowledgeable person on the subject of sea legs!) said that lots of fresh air and food would help. As a result whilst we were busy cruising up the coast of Canada and onto Alaska day two consisted of us walking around the ship outside, stopping to eat a bit, doing some more walking, some occasional reading time, lots more food and so on!

The evening of day two was the first of our two gala nights where we had the option of dressing up very nicely and eating a posh four course meal in the dining room. Obviously we took that option and enjoyed it very much!

Some night time strolling around the deck ended the evening which was pretty nice. At this point we still couldn't believe we were on the cruise ship and headed to Alaska. In fact we knew that by the time we woke up we'd be in Alaska and headed out to the first glacier. It was crazily surreal and we were loving every minute of it!

Stay tuned for our first actual posts of Alaska in all its amazing glory! 
H

ALASKA - DAY 1

We are home and now (mostly) ant free so I've had time to upload our pictures and begin thinking about writing a blog post for you. I'd love to get Andrew to write one too as it was his birthday present, but we'll see how that goes.

First off I want to say that our cruise in Alaska is amazing and I can well imagine that we lost social media friends through our excessive posting of amazing scenery. I'm afraid this blog post might not help either. Amazingly we didn't take thousands of photos like we usually do. I think there were two reasons for that; firstly it rained a fair amount and therefore we didn't want to keep the camera around too long as its not that waterproof and secondly I think we were too busy staring at all the amazing views to bother stopping to take photos. We did capture a fair amount on our iPhones so there will be some of those photos thrown in too.

Now onto the exciting stuff, what we actually did. Well at 6am on Andrew's 30th birthday we flew out of Los Angeles airport and up to Seattle. It was a crazily early time to fly but I didn't want any complications getting onto the boat if we had air travel issues. In the end we got there in plenty of time and having caught a train into the city centre we went about finding a good spot for a birthday brunch. 

It was a lovely place down near Pike Place market and we enjoyed just sitting and munching with no real rush. We don't do that often because we are usually on our way somewhere or we have Macintosh with us who doesn't sit still very well. So we loved it!

We then took a bus out to the cruise ship piers which was fairly straightforward but following the walkway down to the pier turned out not to be! Even so we made it there eventually and managed to get ourselves checked onto our ship, the ms Amsterdam. 

Once on board we had some time to explore before we started cruising out of the Puget Sound and away from Seattle. It was a gorgeously sunny day and we spent most of the afternoon up on the deck just watching the state of Washington go by.

Just before dinner we finally got round to opening Andrew's birthday cards and presents. Most of them had arrived by the time we left and were still in tact after the trip up. 

After that we had dinner followed by sitting up in the crow's nest watching the world go by. It was an amazing spot on the ship and wasn't often too crowded so we could find a spot and just curl up with a book or watch for whales. We spent a lot of time in there. Particularly because on the ship you could take the food and drink anywhere you wanted too, so we would often grab a tea or coffee along with some form of sweet treat from the kitchen area and just lounge around in the crow's nest. We definitely took advantage of the food!

So there we go day 1 of the cruise, and we aren't anywhere near Alaska yet! We were pretty tired after the first day, especially due to the 6am flight out of Los Angeles so we crashed pretty hard that night. It was a good job the rocking motion of the boat lulled us to sleep so well! 
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

I was ready to give you a good long post about some of the hilarious antics that Macintosh got up to whilst we were away. However when we arrived home last night we discovered that we had been invaded by a small army of ants! As a result I've not had time to write anything.

So instead you'll have to make do with this super cute picture our friends took of him and the knowledge that he had a grand old time stealing spots on the sofa, dragging socks into the garden, refusing to for walks until he was ready, trying to eat every bit of food he can and waking everyone up at 6am with his pathetic whining! Yeah he loved his time away!
H

#TIMONTOUR - YOSEMITE PART III

Overnight and as day three began so did the snow! It was really weird driving in as the pass got whiter and whiter. It didn't last long as there was soon bright blue skies and sunshine. It lasted just long enough for us to drive along Glacier Pass and get some amazing glimpses down into Yosemite Valley. Oh and to see the amazing Half Dome in all its glory. Take a look.

Just as we were thinking about leaving the pass the fog began to roll in and we lost sight of the valley. It did clear one last time for us to just look at Half Dome once more. 

As we left the park for the final time we swung via the Mariposa Grove to see some of the Giant Sequoias. They were insane! 

Overall it was an amazing trip. I don't think I could ever write about it, or photograph it in a way that truly shows what its like. That means the only logical thing for you to do is come and visit. Our tours really are the best!
H

#TIMONTOUR - YOSEMITE PART II

Day two in Yosemite started off pretty early and as we were driving in there was snow falling on the ground. It may have given us a slight panic that we were not going to be able to see a whole lot but we were preparing ourselves. After a quick check at the information centre to see what was open we hiked towards Mirror Lake. It wasn't a particularly long hike but we did see a coyote just chilling out before we got too far! (sorry about the quality)

It was still fairly quiet so there weren't many people around and we got to just enjoy being in Yosemite. We liked towards Mirror Lake and then hung out there for a bit just enjoying the moody atmosphere as the clouds and fog rolled around. It was amazing how clear the lake was. 

Once we'd spent some at the lake we continued wandering along a trail that ran right next to Tenaya Creek, which fed into Mirror Lake. Whenever the cloud broke a little bit you'd get glimpses of the face of Half Dome which was insane. You really can't picture the scale here. Its just so huge. 

After crossing over the creek we stopped near the top end of Mirror Lake for some lunch. Andrew took some more moody photos on the camera, Tim looked around at all the beautiful scenery and I watched (from a distance in a non-stalkery way) a couple get engaged. It was a good lunch stop!

We then wandered back from Mirror Lake towards the visitors centre again ready to take a hike in a different direction. It was a lot more rocky on the way back and there were some very brave squirrels that approached us looking for food. Don't worry we didn't feed them!

We then headed out along the Merced River to spend the afternoon climbing up to what we originally thought was Nevada Falls, but it was pretty foggy and to be honest a little treacherous due to the rain so we only made it as far as Vernal Falls. Still it was a pretty intense hike over the slippy rocks and up to the top of the falls. Amazing views again. 

We then wearily went back to our accommodation as the rain set in again. The evening was finished up with a meal at an amazing local brewery and postcard writing to explain all the awesome things we'd been doing. Oh and an early night ready to make the most of day three!

H