Where to start on a big trip

One would think that after being away from home for almost three weeks on a working vacation there would be no shortage of things to write about, especially since nine days of that time was spent on a cruise ship and visiting several ports in Alaska and even Canada. Here to start.

I took this cruise reluctantly because of past experiences on those big ships and losing bunches of money trying to break their banks with my skills as a slot machine player and the roulette tables. I also especially do not like being a willing captive with no way to reverse the unpleasantness of being cramped up in a small room with continuous reruns on the ships closed circuit television and more than $20 a day computer Internet services.

Big things

I said "big ships" in the last paragraph, which is an understatement; these boats cruising the Earth's oceans for pleasure seekers are massively huge.

The Golden Princess ship, which we were on, had 17 floors above the waterline with 40 feet of superstructure above that, it was 50 feet longer than three football fields and twice as wide. Our stateroom was in the next to last in the aft (back) of the boat and I counted some 225 steps to the forward elevators which could take you to most of the action onboard. We did catch up on our walking exercise.

I found out early in the cruise that it would be best not to gamble and find other things to occupy my time. It was good decision because I did not hear of even one person in our group of 40 who won anything and I only lost about $80. Seeing sights I had never seen and enjoying the ever plentiful food while gaining 10 pounds on top of the 10 I was already wanting to loose was very rewarding. We have been starving ourselves for the past 10 days in hope of shedding the weight gained.

Outstanding photography

We visited Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan while cruising the Inside Passage of southeast Alaska, where it borders Canada. Before returning to Seattle a short stop was made in Victoria, B.C., which was one of the most beautiful cities visited. The soil, weather and climate make for the most colorful flowers and trees I can remember seeing anywhere.

I have been sorting through the some 500 photographs I took of all the marvelous sights and scenery and have them down to fewer than 200 really great pictures to put into a slide show. While I did not see very much wildlife I did get some fairly good shots of whales' tail fins as they were cruising that area for food and mating. They will soon be heading back to the warmer water of the south Pacific to give birth and after a few months bring their calves back north to fatten up.

Snow and ice

The mountains out west are much taller and numerous than any I have ever seen in the Smokies, and seeing the three volcanoes from the air as we were landing in Portland was unbelievable.

We did see lots of glaciers but because of the increased calving, (the breaking away ice), the captain could not risk damage to the ship and did not get into Glacier Bay, where there are scores of huge glaciers.

Overall it was a great trip and vacation and I owe it all to the PW who put it all together.