How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Last summer, our family was planning an epic road trip. I had mapped a route that would take us through Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Juneau, Anchorage, Kodiak Island (with a pilgrimage to Spruce Island built in), then back through Denali, British Columbia, Nebraska, and back home to Texas. The only way we could make this plan work would be to camp out and eat out of a cooler.

The biggest motivation was to spend some time together as a family, cultivate a sense of wonder in the boys, and see the glaciers before they melted.

That trip didn't happen.

Curiously enough, when we did the math, it turned out that we could fly to Seattle and then book a cruise to Alaska for roughly the same price as covering the gas, groceries and campsite fees. While I didn't get to camp out or make my pilgrimage, we did get to see glaciers and a whole lot of other things that we wouldn't have if we had driven. Here's that story:

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For more details about our excursions, see my reviews at NCL.