It’s official… I’m now Mrs. Awesome Sauce, and the hubs and I have just returned from our honeymoon. We spent a couple glorious days in Seattle visiting our wonderful friends Bill and Bobbi before boarding the Celebrity Solstice and heading off to Alaska. We rounded out the trip by spending a day in Vancouver before flying home yesterday.

As a writer, words usually come quite easily to me, but I must confess, that the sheer expansive beauty of Alaska leaves me at a loss for words. Living in Colorado, we’re used to seeing the mountains, but there was something about the mountains and forests up north that made them feel so much bigger. It was truly humbling to regard their silent majesty and watch the endless expanse of the ocean slip by.

Unfortunately, it was back to work for both of us this morning, and we’re currently busy wading through the mountains of email that piled up while we were gone. I plan to write a longer post about our trip, along with lots of pictures, but in the meantime, here are a couple snapshots to tide you over :o)

If you’re ever in the Seattle area, I highly recommend Boathouse 19. The patio overlooking the pier was beautiful and the food was fantastic. The clams were especially delicious!

Boathouse 19 also has some awesome drinks. This colorful concoction was very yummy, and more than a little dangerous as all I could taste was the lemonade. We also discovered a new beer that we LOVE called Irish Death. Now we just have to see if we can track it down locally.

We stopped in at Radiator Whiskey at Pike Place Market for some drinks and a couple munchies. Surprisingly, the cornflake-encrusted chicken livers with Frank’s Red Hot aioli was pretty damn good.

I LOVE butterscotch pudding, and am always happy when I can find it while out and about. The only thing that could possibly make it better? Bourbon whipped cream. Yum!

We also visited Pike Pub & Brewing at Pike Place Market for a couple drinks.

Ketchikan was our first stop on the cruise, and we immediately fell in love with the scenery. This was the view from our cabin the morning we pulled into port. I really can’t think of any better way to start the day.

I did manage to get some writing done while we were away… with the help of a cocktail or two.

We caught the tour of the Alaskan Brewing Co in Juneau and sampled some delicious beers. Even better, was that our tour included two of these sampler glasses to bring home! They’re now sitting safe and sound in our glass cabinet.

The sheer scale of everything in Alaska is breathtaking.

I adore this handsome fella SO much!

We decided to splurge and get a room with a private balcony, and boy, were we glad we did! The views we were treated to each day were truly spectacular.

The last stop on our trip was Vancouver, and while there, we decided to visit the aquarium. We had a great time checking out all the different kinds of jelly fish, tropical fish, and other cool creatures. I especially loved the otters and asked Mr. Awesome Sauce if thought I could sneak one past customs. He didn’t think so :o(

This guy was just so pretty, and really enjoyed posing for the camera!

Our visit to Vancouver ended with (no surprise) a trip to a local brewery where I may or may not have had a few too many drinks before stumbling back to our hotel for the night.

It was an amazing trip full of many firsts (first trip to Seattle, first trip to Alaska, first trip to Canada, first time on a cruise, first REAL vacation together…), and we were so lucky to spend it together. We met some awesome people on the ship that we truly hope to stay in touch with, and are so grateful for our friends and family who let us stay with them and took care of our fuzzy minions while we were away.

Stay tuned for more photos and details about our trip coming soon!

Stay cool ghouls & boys,