Alaska, Day 4, Juneau

Juneau was a really cool town. It is the Capital of Alaska, well at least right now. They voted to move the Capital to Anchorage but they don't have enough money to actually move it! So, for now, it stays in Juneau.

There are no roads that go in or out of Juneau. There are "dead end" signs and then the road just quits. There are only three ways to get to Juneau: boat, plane and birth canal!

The famous Red Dog Saloon is there and of course, we ate there. Pretty tiny place for it being so famous. But now I can say that I've been there.

More t-shirt shops and jewelry stores to go through. I think we hit them all, too. Got a great deal on an "Aurora Lights" necklace. I bought several necklaces here in Juneau. All gorgeous!

We took a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier about 10 minutes away. This was the first glacier that I've ever seen. Wow! I can't believe how majestic it was. It looked so grand and steady. I know that they move several feet per month and looking at it just sitting there in all its grandeur made me realize just how insignificant and tiny we all are. There are many buildings that will be crushed in the wake of the glaciers. But the Alaskans all know that and they are not deterred. They deal with Mother Nature and celebrate the changes that the world will go through.

After the Glacier trip, we headed up to the top of the mountain on the sky tram. I don't like heights, and when we started up the mountain, I was just fine. Yes, we were very, very high, but I was firmly attached to a little cable and was reasonably comfortable. Until... the tram stopped 5 feet from the platform. And just SAT there! My heart began racing, and I tried desperately to control my panic attack. We got to the platform, finally, and I was able to escape quickly. Deep breath. I'm fine. Phew!!!

Played with my camera a little while up on the mountain. I was able to take this panaramic view while up on the mountain. Wow! Beautiful!

Also saw another Bald Eagle in captivity. It had been shot in the eye and beak and couldn't take care of itself. HUGE! and BEAUTIFUL!!!!

We drove by Sarah Palin's house and saw the capitol building. I think Sarah's house was much more impressive than the capitol. I didn't see her though.

We learned that a bear had figured out how to stand in front of the automatic doors in front of a local grocery store in order to gain entrance and to be able to pilfer through the food.

I loved Juneau and will GLADLY return there someday.

Alaska, Day 3, Sitka

Oh! My favorite place in the whole world right now. Sitka houses about 9000 people. Most of their houses are on little bitty islands just big enough for a house and maybe a satellite dish. Everyone owns boats. Very few cars.

I LOVED this house. SO cool! We arrived in Sitka around 9am.We were not able to get the cruise ship near the docks in this town so we all had to shuttle back and forth in these little boats. They probably had about 50 people in them. On our way back to the ship the guy that was driving our little boat didn't know what he was doing. I also think the tides were working against him but it took us 25 minutes to get a rope attached to where ever it was supposed to go so we could get off. It was a joke. Everyone was getting upset and telling the driver how to do it but I don't think it was completely his fault. We would get very close and then we would bump off the side and that would send us back out away from the ship. Over and over and over again. Finally some supervisor got on and got us in. He was so mad at our pilot that he was shaking. I fear the pilot may have gotten fired that day. This is the view from town looking out into the "bay". Not really a bay, don't know what to call it. Fjord, maybe? Anyway, the ocean that has no waves because we're really inland a ways. You can see the huge cruise ship looming in the background.

We walked quite a ways to a National Forest that had lots of totem poles from the indigenous Indians. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

This is where we saw our first Bald Eagle up in a tree. He was flying around at one point. Bald Eagles have a wing span of 8 feet across. Hold your arms out and add 2 or 3 feet to them. They really are quite impressive.

We shopped at all the little stores there. Lots and lots of jewelry stores. The cruise ship gave us a book that had coupons in them for charms and collector's coins from various shops. It was like a huge scavenger hunt. We went from shop to shop asking for our free items. It was a blast. You had to collect them from all four ports of call to get the entire sets. The charms ended up spelling out "Alaska 09". We got 8 "gold" coins, 4 coasters, Christmas ornaments, hats, necklaces and I don't remember what else. All free. Whoo hoo!

We went all the way to Alaska and found a Mexican joint to eat at. We shopped till we literally dropped! We got back to the ship around 4ish. Of course you have to add a half hour for the guy to get us docked right. But we were exhausted. We went back to our rooms to rest, then to dinner at 6pm.

At 8:15 we watched the cruise director and assistant put on a Blues Brothers show. That was GREAT! They acted just like John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd. We also watched a magic show this night. He was stupid but funny. Silly, I guess is a better word. And stupid.

After the shows were over, we had to go upstairs so we could see just how dark it was. This picture was taken at 11pm! Crazy!!!

The following pictures were both taken at 10pm. Both the sun and the moon were up at the same time. I just couldn't get over that sun! Good thing we had a room with no windows. We took our handy dandy clock that shines up on the ceiling which helped tremendously. Only problem was, the only plug was down by our feet so the clock showed upside down. Not good when you think its 6 am but its really 9!

Alaska, Day 2, at Sea

I was exhausted from the travels the day before. I did not realize that we were going to be traveling through Glacier Bay at 6am. My biggest regret: I missed it! But I got to see a few glaciers with some small chunks of ice in the water. They were magnificent! That doesn't even describe them. We took the day trying to get to know the ship. "Trying" being the operative word. I don't think we EVER got it down. It was kinda fun, though, discovering all the things that were going to be available all week.

We all had to participate in an evacuation drill and try on all our life jackets. I think they all fit!
There was plenty of entertainment, like stuffing chickens between people's legs and hopping around like idiots. It was pretty funny though. Stupid, but funny.

We ended the day with a show with singers and dancers. It was quite entertaining. We thoroughly enjoyed our first full day aboard the Carnival Spirit.

Alaska, Day 1, Arrival, part 2

The 30 people that stay in Whittier during the winter go to a bunker house and stay in there all together to help each other stay alive (I guess). They usually can't come out due to the weather.

Alaska, Day 1, Arrival

I am going to attempt the daunting task of recreating our recent trip to Alaska. So much to mention! Thought I'd break it up into baby steps for myself.

First, Craig & I took Clipsie, the big black dog, to Bethany's house for the week. We ate at Wing Stop and then dropped the boys off at their mother's house. We spent the night at Grandma Dixon's house and woke up at 5am to leave for the airport by 5:30am for a 7:15 flight. Caught the flight without any problems. Got to Seattle where I expected mom and dad to be waiting for us. They were nowhere around. I called them on the cell phone and they were in a completely different terminal. Their tickets showed a departure gate that was not anywheres near where they were supposed to be. Lucky we got together and all was well. We had to shovel food in our mouths because we had less than 30 minutes until the next flight.

Here we all are having loads of fun on the airplane!

We arrived in Anchorage at 1:05pm Alaska time (that's 4:05pm Central Time). We found the Cruise people and stood in line to get our passes to get on the bus to Whittier, 1 1/2 hours away. We waited for about 45 minutes and were called. Mom and dad got on fine, but there were not enough seats for the rest of us. They gave out too many tickets, I guess. So mom and dad made their way to the ship while the rest of us waited another 45 minutes for the next bus.

On the drive to Whittier, we stopped at this near frozen lake for pictures. We had to wait for a few minutes anyway for the tunnel to open in our direction. There was a railroad track that was cut through the mountain a few years ago and recently, they let cars use it as well. This is 2 1/2 miles long and its a one way, and traffic switches every half hour. So traffic was stopped to let the other direction of traffic through.

We came into Whittier about 5pm or so. (Whittier time) The town has a population of 800 in the summer and about 30 in the winter. The first glimpse of the cruise ship was awesome.

By the time we ate at 6pm, I was exhausted! I couldn't stay awake ANY longer. I went to bed at 8:30 but Craig couldn't sleep. He stayed up by himself until midnight. He noted that the sky never did get dark. The sun went down, but it stayed dusk all night. Cool!

A Bit of a Predicament

OK. Craig and I were discussing the Air France airplane that went down in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday and realized that we might be in a bit of a predicament. He has life insurance through his work. I am his beneficiary. But if we both die together, he has two people listed that are joint benificiaries: his mom and my mom.

Hmmm..... What happens if we all die together? We will all be on the same plane from Seattle to Anchorage.

He says that Sharon has to step up and show everyone this blog and be the benificiary and take care of all the kids equally and fairly. (Sorry, Sharon. That's an aweful big responsibility.) But he definately does not want his ex-wife to receive anything. The money is to go to the kids. Not her. Hope nothing happens, but if it does, well, here is his last will and testiment.

You can bury me with my life insurance. Won't be able to do much else with it.