Alaska is. . .

• Anchorage-big, wide, clean, friendly
• the Snow City Cafe-french toast stuffed with mandarin cream cheese
• a great yarn shop with friendly knitters and local yarn
• Talkeetna-a rustic, historic village north of Wasilla
• the cabin way out there where we could hear the salmon jumping as we sat by the campfire
• sun until nearly midnight when the daylight just dims
• Homer-a little town that thinks it's big but it can't compete with the mountains and the water around it
• Seward with its gorgeous Resurrection Bay and the police officer who spent his shift shooing off a mama bear and her three cubs from the out of town bridge where they were fishing
• big sky, big mountains, wildlife
• SERIOUS fishermen and women who wear their waders all day long and even in town
• a secret restaurant that is rated one of the top ten in the USA by the food network
• a place that needs to be revisited

Real life in Real Time-Mendenhall Glacier

The power of Alaska is easy to see on the trail to Mendenhall Glacier outside of Juneau. Hike along with wildflowers beside you and icy streams gurgling down the hillside to your right. See some bald eagles perched above in the trees. Study the huge striated rocks that are so wondrously cut and colored by the glaciers that you just want to stuff some into your day pack to take home. And then you begin to hear the roar of the huge waterfall that is just to the right of the glacier which you begin to glimpse as the trail curves. And then there it is: the awesome edifice of ice that looks like some sort of fantasy created for a ride at Disneyland and then you realize that this thing is absolutely real and absolutely not created by any human hands. With the fog lifting above it and the waterfall bellowing just to the right of it, the glacier commands your perfect attention and you just stare and stare.

Floating Quarters

Alaska was amazing. I have no words to describe the power of Glacier Bay. We sailed in on a sunny, blue sky day on water that was as smooth as a mirror that reflected the glaciers and mountains all around us. The glaciers are interesting and we learned a lot about Marjorie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier but the power comes from floating through the bay which is so refreshingly cool and clean and so sharply focused in the bright air. The glaciers and the ice floes are a deep sky blue. I cannot even imagine what it must have been like for the likes of John Muir and others who went up to study the glaciers and that whole stunning ecosystem. I feel so fortunate to have been there.
The towns of Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan are clever little villages obviously started by hearty souls who wanted gold and had an itch to explore this last frontier. The people in the shops, even though most are newbies anywhere from a few years to several decades of inhabiting, have this special acceptance about their environment which rules every move they make. It was comical to see the fans on in Ketchikan on a day of about 65 degrees which they felt was a heatwave. They are warm and welcoming to all the tourists.
The cruise itself was okay. I was highly aware that we were living on a gigantic floating mall that sucked money straight out of the guests at every turn. It was difficult not to feel like a packed in herd of cattle being shuffled from one deck to another to spend money. And the impact on the environment is not something I even want to think about. Food rules. I don't get that even though I am one of the world's most enthusiastic foodies. Why does everyone base the quality of a cruise on its food? And how do you know if the food is better on this cruise or that? I could find something good to eat any time day or night. Lots of it was mediocre, but there was plenty of good stuff to choose from as well.
But I absolutely love going to bed with the ocean singing outside our deck door and waking up in the morning at a new port or just lounging in bed with the sun streaming over a calm ocean onto our bed. That, folks, is the absolute height of luxury.
More about this later along with some photos.