ALASKAN CRUISE - 2006

A couple of weeks ago, we had the privilege of going on an Alaskan Cruise. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed family and friends(10 of us) and relaxed and enjoyed awesome scenery. I'm going to post pictures from the cruise from beginning to end.

The first couple of pictures were taken while waiting to board the plane in KC. We boarded Southwest Airlines on June 17th in Kansas City headed for Seattle. Southwest has open seating so we were fortunate to have Roger & Dee Dee with their small children boarding first and they saved seats in the front of the plane. We stayed on the same plane all the way to Seattle but went down in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada before arriving in Seattle. You will see Rog & I on the plane and then Brittany & Cooper were in the cockpit visiting with the pilot. Roger is getting everyone situated and the overhead luggage compartments closed. When we reached Seattle, we retrieved all our luggage(13 pieces) and took a shuttle to the motel. We arrived at the Marriott and enjoyed a very luxurious room and took some dips in the pool. You will see a picture of the beautiful pool and on Sunday morning(Father's Day), we had our own morning service down at some tables by the pool. You will see a picture of the 3 fathers represented at our service.

Now we are rested up and ready to begin our cruise. Rog & I are pictured by our ship, the Norwegian Star, and are ready to board. The next picture shows how big the ship is. We were on the 11th deck(top deck of staterooms) and our room(Brittany was in our room also) is pictured with the beds turned down for sleeping(with an animal on the bed made from one of our towels) and a balcony outside our room where we could sit and enjoy the scenery and see how fast we were moving. Rog would enjoy sitting out there and reading. You see that most of the time we wore sweatshirts or jackets as the weather was between 50-60 degrees most of the time. There was a walking/jogging track on the 13th deck which we enjoyed using almost every day and the scenery was beautiful as you can see in the picture.

Our first stop was in Juneau, Alaska, where we got off the ship(see Mary walking away from the ship) to do some shopping and you can see a picture of the main street and shops. The next picture is of gramma, Taylor & Brittany as we were leaving the ship to go hiking.We went hiking and it seemed so strange to be hiking in the mountains and not be short of breath but we had to remember that we were at sea level.

The next picture depicts the kind of view we had most of the time - the scenery of water on one side with other ships in the water and mountains with snow caps on the other side. The next picture shows us going into port with another ship going in to port right across from us.
Our next stop was Skagway, Alaska, where we did some shopping but our main interest here was to go on a scenic train ride. The train ride went winding up around some mountains and we were able to see some mountain goats as well as more lovely scenery.

Our next stop was at Glacier Bay where you can see a couple of pictures of a huge glacier. They are almost bluish in color and we were fortunate to see a huge chunk fall off(they call it calving) the size of a train car. I don't know if you have had that experience but you hear a cracking sound and then a roar like thunder and down it goes. After about 30 seconds, it comes back up in the water with only a corner of it bobbing in the water. It was raining that day but we didn't want to miss all of the sights so we were a little damp as we left there.

Our next stop was Ketchikan, Alaska. We always looked around in the shops but our main event there was the lumberjack show. The picture I have is of 2 men racing up those huge poles to see who could get to a certain point first. They would have competition of cutting logs, walking on logs while they were rolling, etc. so it was fun to watch.

Our next stop was Victoria, Canada. Our main interest here was to visit the Butchart Gardens so as soon as we got off the ship we went to see if we could get a taxi to take us there. Roger & DeeDee & Brittany decided to go with us so we hailed a taxi and off to the Butchart Gardens. You can see Rog & I pictured at the entrance to the gardens. There were beautiful flowers everywhere but I will just picture a few of the different areas. I'm standing by a huge flowering bush with my favorite color of flowers and then Rog & I & Brittany are sitting in front of a sunken garden area with a beautiful fountain. Then just a couple of pictures of flowers and you can see how big the area is - green and lush - and everything was groomed so perfectly. We spent an hour there and then had the cab driver take us to the downtown area so we could look around there. The last picture is some street dancing and the musicians were playing 3 home-made marimbas.

The picture of Rog by the window drinking coffee represents what Rog enjoyed the most. He felt that it was one of those good things that God had provided. God knows how much I enjoy relaxing and enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

It was time to get back on the ship and head back to Seattle and we arrived in Seattle on Sunday morning very early and by 8:30 a.m. we were getting off the ship and going through all the luggage headaches again. We could weigh our bags before we left home but now we had more stuff and hoped our bags didn't exceed 50 lbs. or we would have to pay extra before boarding our plane to head back to KC. We had to wait around in the airport in Seattle for a few hours but around 1 p.m. we were back on the plane to head for KC and arrived in KC by 6:30 p.m.(remember, we lost 2 hrs.) It was a direct flight back with no stops at all so the trip went fast.