ALASKA! July 09

Don was able to book a cruise to AK not too long ago and he believes in getting inside cabins which I have a hard time in - (a little claustrophobic or something). Don was returning the rental car when I embarked and I was SO shocked and excited to find they upgraded us for free to a window! I sure enjoyed having a window!!!!! I had to take my own pix to remember this moment!

We sailed out of Anchorage and ended in Seward on Celebrity cruise line which I highly recommend. The food was better than NCL in my opinion. Oh, those cool temps were nice! We spent a day in Vancouver and that was pretty fun having awesome cool weather.

This was one of my meals - quail. Oh my gosh every bite was so good! I really enjoyed the food (too much). There is food in heaven, right? They had a choice of wonderful desserts and everyone teased Don because he ordered apple pie alamode every night! After a while the waiter just brought it to him without even getting his order. Every since hearing about creme brulee on some movie (My Best Friend's Wedding?) I wanted to try it and it is yummy!

Watching the sun set from the ship was amazing. It took hours and didn't go down - it went sideways! It is unbelievable how long it takes the sun to actually go down once it is this close. At 11:00 p.m. it is still light! I loved having light so much but the winters wouldn't be so nice.

We never tired of looking at the rain forests and hiking in them which we did numerous times.

We hiked up and around Mendenhall glacier which was pretty fun! On one of our hikes our guide hiked the Appalacian trail in a 6 mo period! Wow - can you imagine doing that?

Wouldn't you love to get excercise on a trail like this every day??? We sure would.

After one of our hikes we took a raft trip down a river which sure was awesome. I could have rafted all day.

Oh, I love the rain forest! Why can't AZ have these????

It was cold at the Hubbard glacier but so beautiful!

Aren't the different colors of blues awesome!

This view was from Hatcher Pass trail hike we went on by Palmer AK where we stayed after we left the ship.

We hiked up to this lake and the water was freezing and people were swimming!

View in Denali Park. We really loved it here. We took a tour on a bus (private cars are not allowed in) and saw moose, caribou, pmarmigan, hare, dahl sheep, golden eagles, bears and cubs, a huge moose and other moose. I was surprised it was so exciting to see all the wildlife but it was great!

Not a great view of Mt. Denali but we were excited to see it! It is usually covered with clouds. It is the highest peak in the U.S. at 20k feet. At any given time there are 400 people trying to hike it. We have no desire to do that!

Grizzly and cub not far from our bus.

We had a wonderful 7 day cruise and it passed much too quickly. After we deported we took a train to Anchorage. The views were absolutely amazing. If you ever find yourself in that area I strongly encourage you to take that train trip. We saw some of the most amazing views from the train. We rented a car in Anchorage and drove north about an hour to Palmer where Don's son has a friend and we stayed with them. They are a neat family and have a great lifestyle (no tv and lots of outdoor stuff.)

Our trip home didn't go as planned - flying standby didn't happen as our half empty plane was taken over by Continental fliers when their flight was cancelled. A very very nice lady, LuAnn Callahan, who was flying standby as well took us home with her and we really enjoyed getting to know them. They have great views from their home and a mt. trail out their door that is awesome! Walking on that trail sure beats walking around my circle for excercise! I was so very sad to miss my niece's wedding though :). We ended up buying some very pricey tickets to get home but I did get home in time for the reception in Safford. All my kids came except Heidi. Mary and Jeff are moving to UT so this was a last get together for awhile for all us.