I'm Baack!!!

I’m BAACK!! Vacation is over and it was WONDERFUL!!!! Not just for me; but, for all of us.

Our flights were uneventful – the way everyone likes them nowadays and I think Ryan just got spoiled all over again by flying first class. Seattle was cold and dreary; but, we were able to walk to Pike Street Market and watch some fish get thrown around, and then we took the tram to the Seattle Space Needle and could not believe the view of the city from on high. On Monday we were counting the hours until we could board the ship; and, as expected Disney had individuals pointing us in the right direction and we got through the lines quickly.

On ship we had lunch and then Ryan had already found out that there was a party on Deck 9 as we were about ready to leave – we were all on Deck 9 dancing and laughing and I knew this was the right vacation.

Eight days later I knew that this trip was well worth it. Alaska is beautiful – it is full of intense colors; green, glacial blue and grey. We had the opportunity of going through Tracy Arms – icebergs on all sides and they are not white; but, blue. The ice is so compressed that the only light that it can absorb is blue – and, did you know that small ice bergs are called “bergies”; I did not make that up it is true. Well, leave it to us to also hit a bergie – you could hear it crunch; the part that was worrisome was when the Captain and the Engineer kept looking at the side of the ship that hit the bergie; but, we finally took off and we knew that all was good.

Other things that I learned was that cities like Juneau and Skagway only have around 800 residents throughout the year and then they grow to about 3,000 during the tourist season. Both cities are extremely expensive as everything is either shipped or flown in so a gallon of milk cost anywhere between $5 and $6. There is no doctor – he visits once a month; but, there are Nurse Practitioners and just about everyone has flight insurance so that they can be airlifted to Seattle if they had something seriously wrong with them.

If we were disappointed about anything it was with not seeing any whales – next time I would definitely book a whale excursion. Also, neither my cousin Gerry nor Ryan caught any salmon when they went fishing. The salmon were plentiful as it is their spawning season but they managed to elude their lure. In Ketchikan there were people who were just fishing on the bridge over Creek Road – a local who snared a salmon let Ryan reel him in and the smile on Ryan’s face was priceless. He also got chosen to participate in the Lumberjack show and actually won the two man saw – I have to say that Ketchikan was one of his favorite days.

Every evening after dinner Ryan and I would attend the show – it is Disney’s version of a Broadway show and it would last an hour – Ryan really looked forward to them and thoroughly enjoyed them. I think I am cultivating a future Broadway attendee.

He also enjoyed the Oceanear Lab where he would play games with other children on the ship. It gave him time to be a kid away from us and it gave us an opportunity to do adult things. Okay admittedly the adult things were drinking and Gerry and I attended three (3) tastings. The martini tasting, the wine tasting and the mixology tasting – at each you are given five (5) drinks (no food) and it only cost $15. I also signed up for boot camp and attended 2 of the 3 sessions – I didn’t attend the last because it was our day to have our Character breakfast and I wanted to be there to enjoy Ryan’s reaction. My cousin went down to the Cadillac lounge a couple of times to enjoy the piano player, talk with other passengers and have a couple of Jameson’s.

Victoria in British Columbia is a very pretty town. We had high tea at the Empress Hotel and then toured the city – I would have enjoyed being there for the day instead of the evening; but, it was still a great experience.

Would I do this trip again? ABSOLUTELY and by the way there is another great nephew, Callum who I hope to introduce to traveling and appreciating each city and state for what it has to offer.

Very quickly it was back to reality by unpacking, doing laundry and paying bills. That was home life; and, it was time to get involved in reading all the email messages, responding to them and attending conference calls. The worst of it was that I caught Gerry’s cold and was really feeling awful. I am now much better and my life is back in order. I am also very proud of myself as only back 6 days and I have already worked out 4 times – so it really did help out to walk up and down the ship’s decks.

I will have these memories for a lifetime – I will now be able to cross off my bucket list “go to Alaska”.

Now to the next item.