geo jane: yes, we went on a cruise for our honeymoon!

what a year 2013 was! so many weddings, so much travel, and yet, so little to say about any of the places we visited for wedding weekends. most of our attention went to the WEDDINGS themselves and to the wonderful friends and family we were lucky to be celebrating with!

having been together for ten years, tim and i did not view our honeymoon as a very important occasion. we believed that a honeymoon was traditionally a chance for a couple who had never traveled together (interpret 'traveled' in any way you wish!) to spend some time exploring a new destination. tim and i have traveled a bit together, and so we wanted to use the excuse of a honeymoon to see a new place and do something we would likely not otherwise do. we also wanted to spend very little money and use a variety of frequent flier miles and vouchers we had amassed.

....SO WE WENT ON A CRUISE! i could hardly believe it myself the day we booked it. but it made so much sense! we're both 'value for money,' people, and we don't love the idea of constantly spending, and spending, and spending every day. we also knew we'd be exhausted from wedding and bar exam preparation and the wedding itself, and did not think that we'd be up for backpacking or a long road trip. a cruise seemed like a great idea.

and it really was. i've been talking about putting this blog post together for a while, to outline how we used a cruise to be cost-effective and mix luxury with a bit of comfort and no camping. we had such a positive experience on holland america, which is viewed in the cruise industry as a "smaller, more intimate," cruise line. we started the trip in anchorage, where we spent one night, and then took an incredible train through mountains and valleys to seward, where we got on the boat, stopping in haines, juneau, ketchikan, and finally vancouver.

we did our research beforehand, which was CRITICAL to our enjoyment of the cruise thing. every time we stopped, we had a plan of attack, whether it be renting bikes for a day and traveling on a pre-determined route, hiking, swimming near a glacier, or seeing sarah palin's old house. we did not get sucked into the shore excursion sales pitch, nor did we have to spend any time with our fellow cruisers, who are not necessarily like minded, off the boat. the food was great, and we had so many wonderful sunset cocktail hours on the teak deck!