Alaskan Cruise 2018

August 15, 2018

Alaskan Cruise 2018 - Day 1

HungryHeath goes on another vacation with his in-laws.

Day 1 - Wednesday, May 23, 2018
My magnificent mother-in-law, Linda, surprised us with a family vacation to Alaska.

See what had happened was, my niece, Katie, just finished her first year of college & her grandmother wanted to celebrate by going on a road trip. The plan was for the 6 of us (Shelly, her parents, her brother, her niece & myself) to travel from Houston, Texas, meet Katie at her school in Oklahoma, help her pack up her things, load them into the car & travel to Branson, Missouri. That sounded good, BUT with various doctor appointments for my in-laws, plus concerts that we had already bought tickets for, the road trip was out of the question. My MIL, REALLY wanted to go on a trip. This lead us to looking at cruises. We first discussed leaving out of Galveston, TX, but that part of the world during the summer is stupid hot. So our next thought was Alaska. We decided on a 10 day Princess cruise that was round trip from San Fransisco, California. This was the perfect idea, as my MIL absolutely LOVES San Fransisco! We stayed 3 nights & 2 days exploring the city, before the ship left. It all started with an afternoon flight from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to San Francisco International Airport.

UA1436

Warm nuts

In flight meal of roast, potatoes, roll, salad & turtle cheesecake

Close up of roast & potatoes

It's nice that the airline provides dinner, when you fly first class. I just wish it was better than hospital food.

As soon as we landed, we went straight to the hotel. Since there was 6 of us, we got 3 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf. Shelly & I were assigned room 489. After joining IHG Rewards, we have been staying at a lot more of their properties to try & rack up as much points, to be used for future free bookings. These "Express" hotels are pretty nice.

After we got settled in, we walked over to Surisan for dinner...

It's funny, Shelly & I picked this restaurant because it was within walking distance of our hotel & it was opened late enough, that we didn't have to feel rushed once we arrived in town. Her family turned their nose up at first. They thought that they wouldn't like it. We decided to order for the whole table, so that we could sample several dishes. Shelly and I prefer to sample several items at new restaurants, so this works great when we have family with us. Some of the dishes got skeptical looks and "oh, I guess I will try a bite" responses, which I love that! Once the food started coming out they each were asking for more and gobbling every ounce up.
Each person had their favorite dish, but everyone liked all we had chosen deciding they do in fact like Korean food. This will make it easier in the future to introduce them to more options. I like trying new cuisines and one of my favorite parts about traveling. I do research to try and find what that area is known for and where is the best place to order it.

They kept talking about what a great choice we had made. Linda, especially is like this. Awhile back, we introduced her to pork belly. She thought that she wouldn't like like it, but once she tried it, she practically became obsessed with it. If it's on the menu, we are now REQUIRED to order it. Not that I really mind.

BELLY POT
Tender braised pork belly w/rice

Next up was the Millionaire's bacon (The menu reads "as featured on United States of Bacon of Discovery Network, but I was unable to find it on Google)
This was almost as glorious as the pork belly. A++ dish!

Millionaire's bacon w/Yukon potato.
Thick, free range bacon, baked with brown sugar, cayenne, red and black pepper. Pre-made.

Another dish we fell in love with, was the CRISPY KFC. I have to admit, this family has a fried chicken obsession. This fried yard bird did not disappoint.

CRISPY KFC
Korean Fried Chicken. Double marinated crispy fried chicken thigh

Then there was the fantastic fried rice. I especially liked that it was topped with a fried egg.

BULGOGI FRIED RICE
Fried rice with bulgogi and vegetables

Linda is a soup-fiend. I swear this woman would be happy eating soup every day for every meal. So of course we also ordered a soup. I'm not much of soup fan, but this was stellar!