Home again, home again, tra la la

When Jim went back to work the day after arriving back from Alaska, he found out he was going to be going to Arkansas a week earlier than he thought. He was to be in Arkansas for 2 weeks and Florida for another week. Well, there wasn't anything keeping ME in Ohio, so I told him I was gonna drive home. I left with Weezie, the cat, and Molly, yes, Molly, almost 18 year old Maltese on Monday, August 31. Since it was a 1400 mile trip, I knew I was going to have to take several days to drive it, so I drove 500 miles the first day and went to Louisiana, Missouri where we had lived for the previous year. Though the job was winding down, there were still friends there. I stayed 2 nights and visited with people that I very well may never see again. On Tuesday, Sandy and I went to see our Amish friends, Lizzie, Amos and Leona Yoder. They were so glad to see us. I had hired one of their nephews to draw pictures of Jordan and Hailey in their college graduation cap and gown, so I picked those up. This guy has never had an art lesson in his life. And, while their cheeks are not just exactly right, I still love them. He got their eyes exactly! I will scan them and put them on here. On Wednesday morning I had coffee and headed south. I had planned to stop at Jim's brother's house outside of Muskogee and spend the night, but his wife, Shelia was sick with flu type stuff, so I did not stop there. I wanted to get through Dallas so I did not have to mess with the traffic the next morning. I saw a hotel in Ennis and stopped. I had driven 700 miles at that point. Of course, the hotel did not allow pets and if you remember...I had a cat and a dog with me. It took about 6 trips to get my stuff and the animals into the hotel room. It had been a long day and I had not been on the computer at all. Anyone that knows me, knows I spend too much time on the internet. So, I got the laptop out and was caught up in all of my readings. I look over and Weezie is IN THE WINDOW watching people swim! WTH! I took her down and after a bit she was back in the window. After that I blocked it so she could not do that again! Ennis isn't very big and I did not want to get kicked out and have to start driving again! I got home the next morning and have been busy ever since. I've cleaned out drawers, cabinets, desks, etc. I still have more to do, but it is getting done! Hailey and I went to the IMAX and saw Under the Sea. It was really good. She had gotten free tickets to the Diamond Exhibit at HMNS, so we went to that, too. My niece, Abby came and spent last weekend with us. We had a really good time while she was here. Jordan and Candice have come and spent the night several times. I had some yard work for him to do. He has also cut down 2 trees and a large crepe myrtle. Jim is still in Arkansas (never made it to Florida). I don't know how long I'll be home, but there is plenty more to do. I've got a bid being done to install a sprinkler system and have the front yard re-sodded. Today I took Maddie and Ellie to the vet for their bordatella boosters. THAT is exhausting! I told Jim it was like taking 8 monkeys!

Our day back towards home

We were not flying out of Anchorage until 8:20PM, so we had all day to get to the airport. We got up, ate breakfast and left about 10AM. I hadn't planned anything for that day, so it was just up to whatever we wanted to do. We stopped at several different scenic overlooks (what is that dang word?). We still could not see Mt. McKinley, tho. When we got to Wasilla, I stopped at the WELCOME TO WASILLA sign so we could take a picture of it. I think Daddy thinks Sarah Palin is kinda hot, so he also got out to take his OWN photo! We found a place to eat fish and chips and Daddy asked our waitress where Sarah lived. She did not know, but knew which lake she lived on. We continued our trip to Anchorage and arrived at the airport a little extra early, but I like to people-watch, at airports, especially. I did not want to sit in the middle of the row, so I requested a window seat for me and aisle seats for Jim and my Dad. That put us all on different rows. After takeoff, Jim was able to change seats with the girl in the aisle seat on my row and there was no one in the middle. That left Daddy 2 rows in front of us. We watched a couple of movies on the 7 hour trip to Houston and seemed to eat most of the way! We arrived in Houston at 6:15AM and Jordan picked up my Dad. Because Jim and I were going to our new place of residence in Ohio, we had to fly another 2.5 hours to Detroit. After arriving in Detroit, we had to drive another HOUR! Wow, by the time we picked up Molly and Weezie and got home, we were delirous! We had a great vacation to Alaska. The cruise was great. The food was great. The scenery was fabulous. The company was great. I really cannot think of anything that I wish we had done differently.

Denali

Wow, Denali National Park where the highest peak, Mt. McKinley, in North America is. It started out a gloomy kind of day, but we had tickets for a 6:30AM bus into the park. You can only go into the park 15 miles in a private vehicle. We boarded the bus and headed out. First we saw some caribou. A caribou and a reindeer are the same thing, fyi. When we came to animals, the driver would stop and let us watch and take photos. We got to one normal stopping point and there were 2 red foxes running around. They were within about 12-15 feet of people that were standing around. I snapped a few quick pics of them. We also saw quite a few rabbits and squirrels running around. When we reached the Eilson Center, we coud not see Mt. McKinley. We toured around in the building looking at maps, photos and pictures and headed back to the bus to eat our lunch. (I had ordered lunch from the hotel) When we were leaving Eilson Center, our driver told us that a bus coming in had just seen some grizzly bears. I was so excited! After driving for about 15 minutes, I saw them! When you saw wildlife, you were supposed to holler to the driver. As soon as I saw them I hollered "grizzlies on the left". The driver stopped and I took a bunch of pictures. There were 3 bears just rambling along eating the tundra. The photos of them are some of mine and Jim's favorites. We continued along and FINALLY I saw it...a MOOSE! I had wanted to see a moose really bad. We saw a Mom and her baby laying on the ground. I never saw a bull moose, but I was ok with that. We continued down the mountain seeing some more animals, but it began to rain, so we could not see so well. After we got back into our car, we stopped at a couple of gift shops and bought a few postcards before heading back to the Lakeview Inn. We rested and ended up not going out for any supper. The next day we were leaving Alaska...

Anchorage to Denali

Jim and I took a hotel shuttle to the airport to pick up our car. We upgraded to a Jeep Patriot. We headed back to the hotel to get Daddy and then head towards Denali. We stopped for a sausage biscuite from McD and got on the road. We took a small detour to Talkeetna. It is a very quaint town. I picture hippies living there to give you an idea of what it is like. After walking around town for a while we headed back towards Denali. We stopped in Trapper Creek at a must-see. Wal-Mike's! There is SO much stuff for sale. Even an Amish buggy! I had read about it on the internet and knew we would be stopping there. Mike told us about a restaurant just a mile down the road, so we left there looking for some lunch! Our waitress was an Eskimo! I knew I was going to take her picture, but I did not want to be rude or sneaky about it, so I asked her if I could take her picture with my Dad and she obliged. After lunch, we started the final approach to Denali. We arrived in Healy where our hotel was about 6pm. We got checked in to the Lakeview Inn and moved in and found out there was a washer and dryer we could use. That was such a bonus. We would not have to go home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry. I stayed up until 11 doing laundry, but was glad to have been able to do it. Tomorrow is DENALI, the "big mountain".

Off the ship

Friday was time to disembark. We had packed all of our things on Thursday and put our suitcases outside our door to be picked up and taken to a holding area. We were in the group to get off at 9AM. That gave us plenty of time to eat breakfast and gather the rest of our things before going to the meeting area. When we got our luggage, we went outside where Jim (who is a world traveler) quickly snagged us a taxi van. The van took us on a quick 5 minute ride to the train station. We unloaded, purchased tickets for the 6PM train to Anchorage and walked across the street to see about going to Exit Glacier. This glacier is about 15 minutes from Seward, but we could not get on a bus until 10:30. We hung around killing time before getting on another shuttle bus. We rode out to Exit Glacier which we could see from the parking lot. Jim and I started the walk up to the glacier and Daddy walked around the bottom. It was not a long walk, but it was uphill all.the.way! Dang, I was getting winded. The closer we got to the glacier, the cooler it was getting. Jim and I had jackets with us, but we were warmed up from the walk, so we never put them on. We hung around for a bit taking photos and found a different route down. We found Daddy and waited for the shuttle to take us back to Seward. When we arrived back, we found a restaurant on the water and ate fish and chips. One thing about french fries in Alaska...they are delicious! Even on the ship we ate them probably every day. After lunch, we walked to town. It was just a mile, but a loooong mile! We walked in and out of the shops and bought some postcards. We did not want to walk back to the train depot, so we got a cab ride. It was the same cab driver we had when we got off the ship. At 5PM we boarded the train. It did not leave until 6PM, so we just toured the train and rested. It is a 4 1/2 hour train ride from Seward to Anchorage. It is a very scenic ride. We saw more glaciers and lots more waterfalls. We got in to Anchorage at 10:30 and Jim did his trick again by getting a cab very quickly. (I learned there is an art to getting cabs). It took about 15 minutes to get to the newly opened Crowne Plaze where we were spending the night. We were able to stay free with Jim's Holiday Inn points. It was a very nice hotel and we were dog-tired! Sleep time.

Hubbard Glacier

Thursday was a sea day. I woke up with Jim going outside on the deck. He said that Hubbard Glacier was in view. It was just HUGE!! THIS is what I thought a glacier was all about! Big.Blue.Ice.! You could hear the glacier cracking and calving. When a portion of a glacier falls off, that is called calving. Strange term, I know, but that is what it is. Well, the captain came on the loud speaker and had everyone on the count of 3 to yell very loudly. While we were yelling he was blowing the horn. This helps create some calving. While that is exciting to see, it is also sad, because that means the glacier is actually getting smaller. I guess we were just helping nature along. Captain turned the ship in a circle so that everyone could see from wherever they were. There was another ship coming in to see the glacier, so we left and headed for open water. We just cruised around the ship the rest of the day, laid by the pool (fully clothed) and went to the casino. This was formal night, so ate in the dining room. Jim and I each ate 2 lobsters. I love lobster!!! Daddy ate prime rib which he enjoyed.

Icy Strait Point

This is actually in the town of Hoonah, but referred to as Icy Strait Point. The excursion for the day was a whale watch. I had planned, read, researched, made reservations, and completely organized this trip for us. Except...I did not know what time we were to go on the whale watch. When we could get an internet connection before arriving, I got their phone number and Jim called to find out. 7:30!! OMG. It was about 6:30 at that time, so we ate breakfast in the Windjammer and then quickly went down to deck 2. Because there is no dock, we had to take a tender (actually one of the life boats that holds 150 people) to shore. We got off the tender and found Theresa, captain Shawn's wife. She took us to the dock and we quickly boarded. There was another couple on the bus from Ontario, Jim and Annette Gordon. They were very nice people. Shawn took us about 15 miles from Hoonah and we started seeing humbacks and eagles. Some of the whales would swim directly towards our boat and be within 15 feet of us. It was so awesome. I've seen whales before in Hawaii, but never this close. Shawn would move the boat when the whales would get too close to us. We took lots and lots and lots of pictures. One of them was a tail that was slapping the water. I emailed this photo to Shawn after we returned and he posted it on his website! There was a bump in the rug on the boat and Daddy fell and hurt his shoulder. He nursed it the rest of the trip. When we were headed back to shore, Shawn was radioed that some orcas, killer whales, were seen. We quickly found them and got more photos. After getting off the boat, there was an eagle on a post at the dock. Jim took some really cool pictures of it sitting and then flying off. We walked around the shops at the dock and then took a tender back to the ship. Oh, I lost my sunglasses on the whale watch boat! I NEVER lose my sunglasses!! But, for some reason, I took an extra pair. Maybe I jinxed myself.

Skagway

On Tuesday, we were in Skagway. After breakfast, we went to the dock and got on a shuttle to take us up into the Yukon Territory to where gold was discovered in 1898. Remember the people that we met in Vancouver who were the parents of a friend of Hailey's? Well, they were on a different ship, but in Skagway on the same day as us. We couldn't believe it when they got on our shuttle bus! They were only going on the 3 1/2 hour tour and we were going on the 7 1/2 hour tour, so we ended up just riding with them to the next shuttle bus. I still can't get over meeting them. Terrell, was our bus driver. He was very entertaining and informative. I haven't been on very many guided tours, so it was a plus that he was enjoyable. Terrell would stop for photographic scenery whenever we wanted. We saw a black bear at one point. The bears' back had some long cinnamon colored hair on it. We have a black bear rug and it does not have that on there. We continued on to Carcross. Originally, it was know as Caribou Crossing, but was shortened to Carcross. They had a barbecue lunch for us prepared. Afterwards we roamed around and went to an animal museum and looked at the Ididerod puppies. There were some puppies with their eyes still closed. We left Carcross and continued 10 more miles to Emerald Lake. I have to say it is the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. There are 5 or 6 colors of blues and greens. Absolutely gorgeous! We started back towards Skagway still on the shuttle. On our way to Fraser, BC, we stopped at Carcross Desert, which is the smallest desert in the world. The desert is the remains after a glacier completely melted. When we got to Fraser, British Columbia, we got off the shuttle and boarded the White Rail Pass train. More beautiful scenerey of waterfalls, train trestles, tunnels, and the original trail made by the goldminers in 1898. When we got off the train, we walked around Skagway for a bit and then back to the ship.

Juneau

We woke up Monday morning to a very dreary, rainy day. We were scheduled to go zip lining, and we were not sure if we would go or not. Daddy was just going to go in to town while we were gone, so we grabbed breakfast in the Windjammer and headed to the dock. We waited under a shelter until we found out that we would indeed be going zip lining. There were just 3 of us. Jim and I and another girl. We got on a small boat and took it over to Douglas Island. When we got there, we geared up into the harnesses, put our stuff into a bin and headed out to a weird Mercedes vehicle to take us up the hill (mountain?) to where we would start our zip lining. We were going to zip line over the deepest gold mine in the world, the Treadway Mine. It was quite a ride up and over all of the obstacles, but we finally arrived. We had a brief lesson at the "bunny zip". I had zip lined in Costa Rica last year, so I was quite confident in myself. It was different, in that we had to brake with our hands versus slowing down with our legs spread out and our left hand steered. It turned out to be more challenging than I expected, but I was sure that I had it down! Wrong!! After the first few zips, the guide tells me and the other girl that we need to use a different technique so that we are more in control of stopping. After that, it was much better. Jim loved it, but I told him that I thought it was better in Costa Rica because of the way you are hooked onto the cables. Fun, however! Because there were only 3 of us zipping, we were back on the ship in just a few hours. We found Daddy resting on the couch. We rousted him up and we went back into town, back in the rain! I had read that we needed to eat at Tracy's Crab Shack, so we headed there. We ate king crab, crab bisque, and crab cakes. They were delish! We shopped through town and went back to the ship.

Ketchikan

We spent Saturday, August 15 (Jordan's 27th birthday!) at sea. We just cruised (haha, pun intended) around on the ship and went to the casino.

When we woke up Sunday morning, we were in Ketchikan. Our first excursion was to go on one of the Deadliest Catch boats. The one we went on, Aleutian Ballard, had been retrofitted with stadium style seating. We boarded and took our seats and headed out to open water. They had a crab pot (cage) that they "catch" crabs and other fish and starfish in. I mean, they really do bring it in like they do on the show, we just aren't in the Bering Sea...in JANUARY!! Anyway, they brought the crab pot up and there were quite a few Alaskan King Crabs in it as well as other sea creatures. There was lots of hands-on, so we were holding, touching, photographing all of the animals. We then went near an island where some bald eagles live. The crew feeds the eagles and we watch as they swoop down to feed. It was really cool watching such regal animals in their natural habitat (even tho they were being fed). We saw a few whales while we were out, also. There was a fishing boat that we watched bring in a net full of herring (I think it was herring). It was a really good excursion. Jim took some awesome pictures that I will post. After we got back to the dock, we went back on the ship and just hung out until dinner time.