Welcome Aboard

Aw, who needs pictures anyway? Seems I'm not a very good photographer, so we'll just proceed without them. For starters, Dan and I flew to Seattle, then met up with a group of folks rounded up by Julie and Lonnie for an unforgettable Alaskan adventure, then traveled by chartered bus to a port in Vancouver B.C. for embarcation. No dragging our luggage along with us from bus to ship, the cruise line takes care of all that for the pasengers, delivering it right to our stateroom. With 1 crew member for every 3 passengers, the service is outstanding. Fresh towels daily, chocolates and a list of the next day's activities left for us nightly, and a very polite and friendly room steward assigned to look after us for the entire week, left no doubt that we weren't in Boise anymore. We were realy and truly sailing on a luxury ocean liner, complete with 5 or 6 formal dining rooms, a casual buffet, several swimming pools and other sports and fitness facilities, spa, casino, night clubs, theater, shops, entertainers, and a naturalist to educate us and point out the wildlife we'd be encountering throughout our journey. We particularly enjoyed learning from him about humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, seals, sea lions, puffins and other birds, bears, and glaciers too. We've always been drawn to nature shows on the Discovery and National Geographic channels, but to actually be there in person to see and hear it firsthand is more of a thrill than we had even expected. Think about this: a sailing university! What a concept. I bet we'd see more kids enrolling in college and staying on board long enough to earn a degree if such a program existed. Several of us were brainstorming ideas on careers we could pursue in order to sail the world as we earned our daily bread. Pretty cushy work place that would be.
We picked up a few mementos in Ketchikan, our first port of call, which we were told is usually very rainy. But on the day we were there the skies were clear and the temperature was mild. We were eager for our second port of call in Juneau, where we visited with Dan's brother Robyn and his wife Candy and family for a couple of hours. Neither of us knew the other was booking a cruise to Alaska at the time we were making our plans back in March. We only found out in May, and made arrangements then to meet in Juneau. We ran into them again briefly the following day at our third port of call in Skagway. Dan and I thought our fare of $226 for the two of us on the Yukon Railroad to White Pass was almost as steep as the terrain we traversed, but when we considered that Rob shelled out over a thousand dollars for the same trip for his family, we felt we hadn't done too badly after all. It really was a blessing to have two of my sisters, Jenny and Julie, and brother-in-law Lonnie aboard the ship with us, and then to be able to see Robyn and Candy, too, was just that much more frosting on the big old blessing cake.

I especially delighted in our two days in Glacier Bay and College Fjord. The diversity of the Lord's creations upon this planet is astounding.. I want to know more, to hear more, to feel more, and that means I have to travel more. And Dan wants to, too! He definitely didn't expect to enjoy this trip as much as he did. But on the second day, when he started talking about ways we could tighten our belts and increase our savings so that we could take another cruise to Alaska, I knew he was hooked. Going on to Anchorage, and hurriedly taking in a few of its offerings like the tram at the Alyeska ski resort, the Wildlife Conservancy, the Native Heritage center, the downtown open air market where we found our best souvenir, a reindeer pelt, and listening to our chartered bus driver's descriptions of life in the Last Frontier,, the forget-me-not state, further convinced us to start planning a return trip to the wild and beautiful land of Alaska right away. Hey friends, pinch those pennies and come with us. You know it's true: The more the merrier.