The trip to Alaska was a 7 night cruise with 3 stops at Juneau, Skagway and Victoria. It shall take the days one by one with photos.

So once on board on the Friday we had a welcome reception hosted by Stampin’ Up! its a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones, which was followed by a lovely dinner.  Brian and I always spend the first day checking out all the decks and finding out where the ice-cream machine is (very important) all the restaurants, bars, best places to sit and watch the world go by on the deck and basically walk about 20,000 steps!

Saturday was a Sea day and Stampin’ Up! hosted a general session, this was here we got an Autumn-Winter catalogue, saw stamping demonstrations, lots of prizes, all attendee giveaways and found out all sorts of company related things including the venue for the 2020 incentive trip Maui  !!!!!!  Oh yes I am so excited about that, I can start earning it on the 1st October this year.  I was very lucky to find both Shelli ( Co-founder) and Sara (CEO) for a quick photo op.  These are the ladies that run Stampin’ Up!

Sunday was our first stop Juneau, we opted for a zipline and Glacier tour.  A little crazy because I am not a fan of heights, but I love adventure and flying at 100ft seemed like it would be an adventure.  It was! So standing at the top of the first platform 100ft up, that was swaying in the wind, my knees where like jelly and I had white knuckles from clinging on. But I’d signed up for adventure, so I sat into the harness and leaped off, the flying was AWESOME, the stopping awful.  I can’t explain the logic, but you are flying 100ft in the air knowing that all the safety lines are keeping you from falling, but once you stop the momentum pushes you backwards and I was terrified of falling off the platform.  Its not logical at all, zipling fab, stopping bad!

If you want to see me in action with no hands I did put a little video on my Facebook page HERE.

Following that we did some Axe throwing ( an alaskan tradition it seems) and then went to the Mendenhall Glacier, the glacier was fab, but I mainly went to see the Sockeye salmon spawning in the river.  When salmon are 4-5 years  they return to the river they were born in and spawn, and then die.   The salmon had paired up and where clearing the sand to make sort of rock ‘nests’ to lay their eggs into.  Its sad, but part of nature and the salmon are an amazing red colour!

We also saw  Bald eagles too!

Monday was another stop this time Skawgay an old Gold Rush town.  We had booked another adventure trip in ATV’s going 6000ft up to see glaciers and Glacial lakes.  We had packed for rain and cold, needless to say we didn’t need it, sunscreen was the order of the day!

That mountain top was a very lovely spot for lunch!

Tuesday was a sea day and by then I had lost my voice so it was quite a quiet day for everyone! we managed to spend time with friends and of course loved the spoiling by both Stampin’ Up! and the cruise staff, each night not only were there gifts from Stampin’ Up! but our steward made a variety of towel animals, a cute monkey!  We also saw demonstrations showcasing 8 of the new products from the new catalogue.

It was then that the fog started, so we had glorious weather but overnight the fog came in, it was like pea soup.  But thankfully it started to clear around 5.30am on Wednesday as we went into the Sawyers Glacier, I’ve always wanted to see icebergs, and there where plenty of them.  We were wrapped up tight, I finally got to wear my down jacket and hat!  Fuelled by 3 breakfasts, yes really well 5.30 is early, we watched as the captain steered us close to the glacier and the proceeded to turn the ship 360 degrees round 3 times!  It was fabulous and meant everyone got a great view.

Thursday was another shore day and for me the one I had been waiting for, we stopped at Victoria in Canada and it was Whale Watching day!

We were given some great safety clothing!

Our boat was filled with some awesome friends! Thanks Simon for the picture.

And we saw whales, Orcas from J pod, resident in that area, we saw about 6 different ones and hung out with them for a couple of hours, it was amazing, now of course due to legislation and to protect them we had to keep our distance, but our captain was great at getting us ahead of them so we saw them for long stretches at a time.  He also used a hydrophone so we could hear them, now that was so special!  I managed to get some cool pictures in the distance.  You can see the 2 fins, those fins were 6ft tall!

Now we had the lovely shaun with us and he takes some amazing pictures and has a fabby zoom lens! This is what we saw through our binoculars! and Shaun captured on film.

And then it was almost time to go home, a late night dessert party hosted by Stampin’ Up! lots of hugs and goodbyes and an early start for the flight home.

It was an amazing trip, whenever I talk to people about the incentive trips they always ask which one is my favourite, they all are!  Everyone is different and has special moments. I am truly grateful that my love of crafting allows me to earn these trips!

Please note : Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year.

So back to crafting on Wednesday, and I think my pre-order will be here, who needs to see some Christmas goodies?

To join the May 2024 Craft-Along, you must enter the Inkin’ Host Code below at check out and place a minimum order of £49 or €56 before shipping during April 2024. All orders below £49, or if you request it, will a get a thank you gift and card.

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