Tomorrow we board the ferry in Bellingham, Washington for our three-day cruise to Sitka, Alaska.

Our drive up the coast to get here has been long and, fortunately, uneventful. At times the scenery was breathtaking (Mt Shasta!); at times the scenery was monotonous (the Central Valley).

After leaving Disney, we braved the Los Angeles traffic and headed towards Davis, California.

En route we stopped at REI for Andy to replace his lost hat (unsurprisingly they did not have an XXXL available, so Andy crammed his freakishly large head into an XXL) and for Jay and I to grab some extra fleece.

In Davis we spent three wonderful days with Grandma Helen, enjoying delicious vegetarian meals and recovering from the Disney whirlwind. One day we mustered up enough energy to visit UC Davis, where we explored the arboretum and visited the farm animals.

From Davis we continued north to Oregon where we camped for two nights along the Willamette River at Black Canyon Campground. The weather gods smiled upon us and we enjoyed lots of sunshine and relatively warm temperatures.

Our last long driving day took us from our campground just outside of Eugene, Oregon to Bay View State Park near Bellingham. We all enjoyed exploring the rock beach and Andy and I celebrated 22 years of marriage (whodathunk?!).

Tomorrow morning we will do our last bit of provisioning (food, fuel) before boarding the ferry to head north to Alaska and then the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Hard to believe after a lot of dreaming and planning we are finally on our way!