This past weekend we decided to visit one of our favorite coastal towns. We love Morro Bay for many reasons but the one I wanted to focus on is the cheaper/free things to do there. With our budget recently shrinking down our love for adventure has not.

 Our first stop was to the Morro Bay Aquarium. For just a couple of bucks (kids under 4 are free) you can have an up close encounter with some friendly seals. They are rescues and if you happen purchase a small bag of food they are pretty silly to win you over. They also have about ten fish tanks where can see what kind of sea life roams around the area.

 Next we were itching for a little treat so we hit up Sun-N-Buns Bakery. They have so much to choose from: cookies,ice cream, pastries and if you need a pick me a cup of joe. Plus I love their bright and cheerful shop.

Our last stop was at The Garden Gallery. It's like a small succulent wonderland. Such a peaceful and beautiful place to enjoy, also for free I might add. 

There is so much more to explore in Morro Bay I will have to do another post one day. I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you (who ever reads this) next Wednesday.

 

||Aly

Victoria, Canada

Our final stop and my favorite stop! Canada is a very tidy place... well, at least Vancouver and Victoria (the only 2 canadian cities I've visited so far). Canada makes the U.S. look like a sloppy neighbor. As always, we stayed close to downtown which was lovely. We found this harbor where they had an ice cream stand and cute house boats with so much character. Even one of the house boat cats was there to welcome us! We then ended up at the BC parliament building which is not only neat to look at during the day but at night they light up the whole building "It's a Small World" style. Across the street is the famous Empress hotel. You could hardly tell what the building looked like at some parts because of the dominating vine. The rest of downtown was just as charming and we ended the night at Swans, a darling bar with live music and yummy gin and tonics. The cruise was great and I recommend it to anyone who likes to cruise and has never been to Alaska. Hope you all enjoyed the posts. See you soon! 

Ketchikan, AK

This was by far my favorite city that we had visited in Alaska. It's actually Alaska's oldest city! We only had a few hours at the port so we stayed close to downtown. The best part was visiting Dolly's house. Here's a little blurb from Dolly's official website that describes what made it so famous in the town: "No. 24 Creek Street, Ketchikan, was the residence of Dolly Arthur. Dolly worked on Creek Street where fishermen, miners, and some more genteel characters, found entertainment and feminine companionship." I especially loved all the old kitchen appliances in her house! By the time we explored all of Creek street it was time to hop back on the boat and head to Victoria, Canada!!! 

 

Sitka, AK

This picture reminds me of the movie Moonrise Kingdom. Sitka...the land of the totem poles! A lot like Juneau Sitka is also a small quaint town. It's surrounded by small islands where each house has its own dock with a small boat to allow the islanders to travel to the city. The weather was perfect so we walked all over the place! The national park was filled with all sorts of plant life. My favorite were these interesting leaves that start out like little tubes and eventually twist out into leaves. I can't wait to show you all Ketchikan!

old school house

A replica of Russian Block house

Juneau, AK

Our first port in the last frontier! Juneau is a small, quaint town full of touristy things to do. Our first adventure was taking the tram ride up to Mount Roberts where I took this aerial picture of the city. Beautiful - am I right? When you get to the top you can watch a short movie about Alaska's history and even get a close-up look at an enclosed bald eagle! Next we went to the Mendenhall Glacier. Now that was something to see! The photo doesn't do it justice on how immense this natural art sculpture really is. The water around it was still a little frozen over. We finished off the day with some good beer and tasty salmon. Next stop, Sitka! That will be tomorrow's post! Hope you all are having a good week.

-Parrott Family Vacation-

 A lot of us kids live all over the place and with us just recently moving to Oregon getting all together can be a challenge but when we do it's really special. My husband's family takes a family trip every year. Since we've been together we've been all over the place with his family.

Our cruise to Mexico-2010,

Our getaway to Hawaii-2011,

And Last September our trip to Seattle-2012,

(Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality)
This year we are taking a cruise to Alaska! We've never been to Alaska before so it will be exciting to see. We leave in five days so I'm counting down. I promise to take a lot of pictures and share after we get back. Hope you have a great rest of the week and I will see you all later! 

xoxo Aly