Well, that might not be true, but it won't be anytime soon.

Two summers ago, my family decided to go on a cruise to Alaska, via Seattle. We have extended family that lives in Seattle, and we thought it would be nice to take a nice cruise and then see the family and explore Seattle for a little less than a week.

 The story starts in Alaska, and if you've never been, there are two things you need to know: 1) The water is really choppy. Like one-day-I-couldn't-get-out-of-bed choppy, and 2) It's never sunny in Alaska. It's either cloudy or rainy or, if you're extra lucky like we were, both!

On the first point, I have to say that no one in my family deals well with boats, which should have been our first clue thta this was going to be an interesting trip. I spent an entire day in bed one day, because getting up and walking around left my stomach in some sort of civil war with the rest of my body. Not pleasant. That was the third day of the cruise.

 On the seventh and final day of the cruise, my sister came down with some sort of bug. As soon as we got off of the ship, she and my mother went back to the hotel, so that she could lay down and try to get better. My dad and I explored Seattle, which, despite the reputation it has, was much more sunny than Alaska.

The next day, my mother was sick as well, but my sister was starting to feel better. We figured that my mom had just caught what my sister had, and, following in my sister's footsteps, would be better the next day.

We were wrong.

She got progressively worse- her breathing was labored, she was exhausted for no apparent reason, and she was achey. My dad decided to stay at the hotel with her and send my sister and I out on our own, which was fine by us. Halfway through the day, while we were at some nice museum, my dad called to say that he and my mom were in the emergency room, the extended family was coming to get  my sister and I, and he'd call us when he knew something. I was paniced.

After a number of tests, the doctors told us that my mom had blood clots in her legs, which had traveled into her heart and lungs. No, she did not have a heart attack, but she was close. Yes, she would be okay, but Yes, she did need to have some surgery.

Unfortunately, by the time they told us this, our vacation was technically over, and we had nowhere to stay. My parents put my sister and I on our regularly scheduled flight back home, while they stayed in Seattle, because my mom couldn't travel yet. They came home a little less than a week after we got home.

It was an interesting vacation, and seeing that Seattle and Alaska have it out for my family, I won't be visiting again anytime soon.