Where Bloggers Live 05.2025: In the Bag

Morning glories, welcome to today’s post, Where Bloggers Live 05.2025:  In the Bag.  Funny, I have done a lesson when substitute teaching where I shared everything in my purse (bag) with the students and they made inferences about my life and me from those items. It is designed to teach inferencing. If you are interested, you can get the lesson plan and printables, here, for free.  It might be fun to do with the grands, also!!

 

Today the Where Bloggers Live gals and I are sharing a peek into our bags.  Waaaay back in 2016, I shared what was in my bag/purse in a blog post, here.  Not a lot has changed.  Still too many credit cards in there and not enough cash!! And lots of photos and little mementos and notes from my loved ones.

So rather than repeat that article today, I thought I would share what was in my bag – as in suitcase – for our Alaskan cruise.

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Where Bloggers Live Series

 

Where Bloggers Live 05.2025

 

Our Alaskan cruise was not only our first visit to the 49th state but also our very first cruise.  I hope our first cruise of many more to come as it was delightful!!

In preparation for packing for our trip, Lauren suggested I start watching YouTube videos.  Would never ever have thought of that myself.  Seriously.  My girls, and even my sister, watch videos about everything.  Lots of how-to videos for different things.  So Lauren sent me links to a couple of videos about what to expect on an Alaskan cruise.  And from there I watched videos on everything related to Alaskan cruises.

These videos, one by CruiseTipsTV and the other from LifeWellCruised gave me some great suggestions about what to pack. After watching them, I started setting aside clothes I was considering for our trip.  I put things on the bed in our upstairs guest bedroom until we were ready to get out the suitcases and narrow down our choices.

 

This turned out to be a great way to see everything we wanted to take, to identify things we were missing, things we had duplicated.  And to separate items to be packed in different bags.

In the Bag

 

So, let’s get down to what made the cut.  What wound up in my bag?  I have to say, we both felt pretty well prepared with the things we packed and had available on the cruise.

Here’s are the outfits I put together.

Day 1 At Sea

For our first full day on the ship, I wore a soft cashmere-like mock neck sweater (Loft), chunky cable knit, V-neck pullover sweater (Old Navy similar) and high waist, straight leg Wow jeans (Old Navy).  On the ship, I wore white faux leather tennis shoes. My BFF Sharon gave me the fluffy white crossover bag.  It was the perfect little purse for our excursions.

 

Here we are participating in a watercolor painting class on board.

 

Dressy Night #1

Our first dressy night was the evening of our first full day at sea.  You might remember that I was asking for help in picking the right wraps for the 2 dressy evenings.  I had ordered 4 possibilities from Amazon and picked up a darling faux leather jacket with a peplum at my fave thrift store.  Couldn’t decide which choice worked best with which of the 2 jumpsuits I planned to pack.

For this evening, I wore the black, off the shoulder jumpsuit with long lace sleeves (JCPenney).  Paired it with a black, sequin jacket (Amazon) that PC had picked out.  We rarely go anywhere that requires us to get all dolled up.  This was really fun!!

 

Day 2 Juneau

This was an excursion day.  We were going to be whale watching on a small boat.  The weather was drizzly and gray, and in the 40s.

 

Layers were the name of the game on excursion days.  And actually, on the whole trip.  On this day I wore a heather oatmeal color turtleneck sweater under a wool blend plaid shacket (Amazon).  I purchased these black, fleece-lined leggings – loved them (Amazon) to wear under my lightweight, waterproof rain pants – loved them, too (Amazon).  I ordered size large in both of those because I wanted them to be loose enough to allow me to wear in layers.

Under the leggings, I wore midweight baselayer leggings (Amazon).  Wool socks and these waterproof boots (Amazon).  Added a fleece circle scarf and pompom beanie (Amazon) and lined, waterproof gloves (Amazon) that turned out to be more water repellant than waterproof.  But they were touch screen friendly and that was important.  That allowed me to snap pictures and keep my hands warm and somewhat dry.

My raincoat was terrific.  It is from Columbia and I picked it up at the outlet mall for around $30.  This one is similar but a whole lot more expensive (Columbia).  I appreciated the longer length of my jacket and the way the waist cinched but I forgot to cinch it!!

 

Tip

One of the great tips I picked up from the YouTube cruisers was to wear a brimmed hat (baseball cap, visor) under your hoodie.  In my case, I wore the pompom hat over a visor and the hoodie over the pompom!!  Layers, baby.  The visor or baseball cap is to keep the rain off your face.  And it works!!

Day 3 Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier

On the third day, we were at sea but cruised to Dawes Glacier and viewed it from the ship.  It was very chilly on the deck and very early.  To view the glaciers, I put on the same thing I had worn the day before for whale watching.  So ditto Day 2 for the first part of the day.

In the afternoon, we changed into clothes for Orange Night on the ship.  This is what I packed for that.

 

Puffer vest (Old Navy) and striped, boatneck sweater (Loft) with my Wow straight leg jeans (Old Navy) and the white tennis shoes.  This was plenty warm enough to walk about from place to place in the interior of the ship.

Day 4 Sitka

Excursion day.  We were back on a small boat again this day, out on the ocean searching for bears, otters, eagles and anything else we might see.  The rain was steady all day.  The wind was brisk, especially out on the ocean and and the temperatures were in the lower 40s.

 

Very similar to what I wore on Day 2.  Black mock turtleneck sweater (H&M), another plaid, wool-blend shacket (Amazon) with the fleece-lined leggings, waterproof pants, waterproof boots all from Day 2, my raincoat and pompom hat.

 

This photo was taken from our stateroom verandah in the morning before breakfast.

Day 5 Ketchikan

Our third excursion and the one I enjoyed most.  We attended a lumberjack show and then enjoyed all the snow crab legs we could eat.  The warmest of our excursion days so far but it rained the whole day.  Goodness, how I wished we could have pocketed some of that rain to take home.

 

On all of the videos I watched, the girls recommended packing a fleece jacket.  This was one of the pieces I bought new just for the trip.  You know how I love a pretty southwestern print.  I liked that the jacket was full-zip, too, (Amazon).  Another mock turtleneck (JCPenney?).  And all of the rest of the gear from earlier excursion outfits.

 

Why didn’t I cinch my jacket??

Dressy Night #2

For the second dressy night event, we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill, one of the nicer restaurants on the Westerdam.  I wore the green velvet jumpsuit my BFF Sharon gave me with a drapy, black, chiffon kimono.

 

Day 6 Victoria, BC

Most of this day we were at sea, pulling into port after 8:30 pm for just 3 hours in Victoria.  We had arranged to take a horse-drawn trolley tour of the part of the city near the port.  It was…yup, raining.  Drizzling, and breezy.

While we were just hanging out on the ship during the day, I wore a pink V neck, waffle knit pullover (Amazon) and my puffer vest and Democracy ab solution straight leg jeans (Amazon).  The pullover was an ideal weight and perfect for milling about on the boat.  I packed 3 pairs of jeans but only wore 2, and then only on the ship.

 

On the trolley ride, I wore a partially recycled outfit.  The fleece jacket with a white waffle knit pullover underneath.  Changed out of my jeans and back into my rainpants, and wore a headband to *try* to keep my hair undercontrol.  As you can see, didn’t have much luck with that.

What Else?

We packed a whole lot more in our bags but will save the rest of the ‘stuff’ for a part 2 post.  But before I call it quits today, wanted to share my pjs and my new bathing suit.  BTW, do you say bathing suit or swimming suit?  Or maybe just swim suit?

My pjs are also considered a jogger set but I never wear them that way.  I did think they would pass for joggers enough that I would feel comfortable wearing them on the verandah.  Sadly, they are no longer available on Amazon or I would buy another pair.

 

Bought 2 bathing suits this spring.  Took one on the cruise and wore it and with the cover-up to the hot tub.

 

No longer feel comfortable wearing anything but a skirted swim dress (Amazon).  Loved the bright tropical print of this one and the fact that it has a tummy control panel.  I don’t generally spend a lot of money on bathing suits because after 1 or 2 seasons of swimming in our pool, they are so faded and stretched out that they need to be replaced.  Have had the same experience with pricier suits, too.  Wanted a longer length cover-up (Amazon) to wear from our stateroom to the hot tub, and this one fit the bill.  PC wasn’t crazy about it at first, but when I tried it on, he changed his mind.

And…

Along with these pieces, I packed the obligatory undies and socks, of course.  And jewelry to match each outfit.  Was so grateful to have those great videos to help me pack for this wonderful adventure.  I was comfortable every single day.  If I were to pack for another Alaskan cruise tomorrow, though, I would take one less pair of jeans and one more pair of fleece leggings.

Your Turn

 

How do you decide what to pack for vacations and holidays?  Have you ever watched YouTube videos to help you plan for a trip?  By golly, I will be doing that from now on.  And pinning all of them to my Favorite Places and Spaces Pinterest board.  Are we friends on Pinterest, yet?

Do you have some fun summer travels planned?  We are off to Colorado the end of the month so I need to start researching what to pack for a week in the Rockies!

Thank you for spending a bit of your precious time here with me.

Hugs and kisses,