August flew by in a blink. I'm not sure where it all went, but the last week and a half was spent travelling. With some easy knitting (since I get nervous when I fly), my husband and I headed to Seattle to take a cruise to Alaska. It was my first time there; my husband's second. Actually, he lived in Alaska for about 6 months back in the mid-80s. When he graduated from college, he went to visit an aunt and uncle who lived in Anchorage. He intended to look for work up there, but spent most of his time fishing with his cousin. When his money ran out, he headed back to Ohio and ended up with a job at the company where I worked. We met about 2 1/2 years later and the rest is history.
Anyway, back to the trip. This was our 8th cruise. Just the two of us to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, which is coming at the end of September.
The cruise ship had a contraption that lifted about 150 feet above the ship. We went up and got a fantastic view of the ship and Seattle across the bay.
After a rough first day at sea, our first stop was Juneau. I knew it would be small, but I really didn't expect it to be as small as it was. We didn't do any excursions; just walked around.
I found a yarn shop and purchased a lovely skein of yarn from an Alaskan indie dyer.
When we went back to the ship, we noticed a bald eagle flying around.
The next stop was Skagway. It is a cute, little town tucked in a valley along the water.
We took an excursion that went out of town on the only road up into the Canadian mountains. Lunch was spent at an outpost that had an Iditarod dogsled team.
One the way to and fro, we stopped to get pictures of the beautiful mountains.
And lakes.
And roadside attractions.
Once we got back into Skagway, I popped over to a little yarn shop I spotted as we left in the morning. It had qiviut, arctic fox and arctic hare. I really, really wanted the qivuit, but I couldn't pull the trigger with the $180 for 2 ounces pricetag. The lady at the shop then tried to entice me to buy the fox by showing me a beautiful scarf made with it. Again, it was above my threshold. I did end up purchasing the hare. Unfortunately, Ed walked into the shop just as the lady announced how much I owed. He was shocked. I just tried to ignore him and focus on how lovely the skein is.
From Skagway, we sailed into Endicott Arm and saw the Dawes glacier. We couldn't get very close because we were on a very large ship. Later I heard someone say the captain was concerned because there were predictions of 60 mph wind gusts. He didn't want to risk getting us stranded. I appreciated his carefulness and concern for our safety.
Along the sides of the fjord were tons of streams flowing from the mountainsides.
We came across an iceberg with seals hanging out.
Once we got back to the Inside Passage, we started seeing whales again. (We saw many whales and dolphins while we sailed through on our day into Juneau also.) This was my one good shot of a tail. Most of my whale photos are of the water spouts and maybe a dorsal fin.
After another day at sea, which was much smoother than the first, we landed in Victoria, British Columbia. My parents had been to Victoria over 20 years ago. I remember them raving about Butchart Gardens, so I knew we had to see it. I can't imagine it being more beautiful than it was.
The morning after Victoria, we were back in Seattle and headed home.
We got home at 1 am Saturday morning. About 5 am I woke up hearing Squeaks crying at our door. Ed doesn't want her in our bedroom, so I got up and went downstairs to sleep on the couch. She curled up on the ottoman by me. I think she missed me.
You know what? I missed her also.
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