May 29 - Tuesday - Glacier Bay

This will be a relatively short note because it was a very calm day.

Breakfast again with Kate and Mark. Then Kate rushed off to see glaciers, whales, etc. I knitted and read. Also spent a little time doing some e-mail. Back toward the room about 10:30.

Scotty and I had lunch in the main dining room again. But not nearly as much as yesterday! Then off to the spa. I bought a day pass to the thermal suite. Lounged on the heated tile chaise. Sat in the mineral water soak. Fell asleep on the chaise. Scotty had a massage and facial so we separated. I came back to the room for a nap. What a way to spend the day!

Woke up about 5 PM and headed to the MIX lounge to find Scotty with our adopted bartender, Phillipe. The Spurs game was on TV, so we decided to skip dinner in the main dining room. At half time we came back to the room to finish watching the game and decide what to do for the rest of the evening. Ordered "The Book of Eli" to watch in the room, Then headed to the Lido to get a bite to eat before we retired to our room.

Dinner in the Lido was nice. Pasta, fusilli, and alfredo sauce with some salads on the side. Best part was seeing whales! A couple of tails just as we were finishing dinner. So cool!

Back in the room now, drinking wine and watching the movie. Tomorrow is Haines and I've already got directions to the local yarn store.

Nite nite all!

Monday - May 28 - At Sea and Eating Day

Spent a day at sea and eating … or so it seems.

Met Kate and Mark for breakfast after sitting and having coffee with a lovely couple from Indiana while waiting. That's one thing I like about cruising is meeting new people and just chatting for a while.

Nice breakfast at the Lido: scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, cantaloupe and bananas. So at least the day started healthy. Left there and went to the Explorations Cafe to get some Internet time. Did that and then sat by a window to knit. Of course, that attracted attention … many people on the ship know there is a group of knitters on board and we seem to be quite the novelty.

Started back to the room just as Scotty was leaving. We seem to be on the same wavelength on this cruise. So we headed to lunch together. Met up with a couple from the knitting group and shared a table with them. Had yummy lunch of Pistou Soup, Fruit Salad, and Mac and Cheese. That topped me off so we headed back to the room for a nap.

What I thought would be a short nap, but the Captain's announcements at 4PM woke me up. Changed into our fancy duds because it was formal night. Another wonderful meal: Shrimp Cocktail, Italian Antipasto Salad, and Beef Wellington. Finished off with Warm Apples Sundae. Oh boy! I am stuffed.

I sat and knit a while with the group and then headed back to the room for bedtime. No pictures today, but tomorrow is Glacier Bay, so I'll try to snap some memorable shots.

May 27 - Anchorage to Seward and First Night

May 27 – Anchorage to Seward

We were up fairly early (for us) today because Melissa had arranged for a couple of yarn shops in Anchorage to be open on a Sunday for our shopping pleasure! So, out the door by 8:30 to walk to The Quilted Raven.

To Scotty's delight, and that of her wallet, it was primarily a quilting store, with a little yarn. I picked up two skeins that had purples in them (my colorway for this trip) and the needles needed to start the hat from the kit I bought the day before at Oomingmak.

Once that was done, we were going to walk around downtown Anchorage, but a slight rain had started, so we headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the morning reading. Our luggage had gone away at 8AM to get ready for the train.

We gathered at 11:30 in the Holland America lounge at the Hilton to prepare for the bus. The room quickly filled with knitters and we had a great time chatting and looking at various purchases.

Took a short bus ride back to the airport, which also houses the train station. Once again, Holland America had taken care of everything, so our names were checked off a list, we presented our photo ID's, and were shown to our train car.

We had a lovely and very spacious booth on the train. The lunch menu was limited, but tasty and there was a full bar. I tried an “Alaskan Mosquito Bite” … vodka, orange and pineapple juice, and strawberry puree. YUM! Lunch was an “Italian Meat Salad”, which was a variety of salami, pepperoni, and ham on a bed of greens with Italian dressing. Pretty good, too.

Of course, the best part of the train ride was the scenery. Here are a few shots from along the way:

Looks cold, doesn't it? We did see one moose and a couple of eagles, but they wouldn't stand still for a picture! We landed in Seward in 4-5 hours. Once again, the train pulled right up to the port. We and our luggage were unloaded and we boarded the ship.

Found Kate and Mark in line to get our room key, but then didn't see them for dinner. We rushed a bit and Melissa had to work some magic with the Maitre'd because we were late getting off the train and through the line so our seating had already happened. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been a problem, but the life boat drill was coming up quickly and the staff was worried we would want a leisurely dinner and they wouldn't be able to finish serving us before the drill started. Not a problem. We were admitted anyway and dinner was magnificent. I had Pasta Putanesca. There was also an appetizer and soup, which I can't remember right now, since I've eaten twice more since then!

Standard lifeboat drill. No surprises there.

Melissa had arranged for a private cocktail party, so we headed for Crow's Nest to meet the rest of the tour group. We are quite a large group of very pleasant people. That's where we caught up with Kate and Mark and spent the bulk of the evening chatting about Houston, common friends, and life in general.

I had to get in a few turns at the slot machines, so I went off to the casino. Probably won't be doing that much any more this trip because it seems to have lost it's magnetism for me.

In bed an snoring away before midnight!

May 26 - In Anchorage

And so my vacation begins. Woke up to a rude alarm at 4:15 this morning. Had to be at the airport for a 6:15 flight. Why did I do that? I don't know! Other than it's about the only one that would get me from Albuquerque to Anchorage in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money.

So George and I stagger to the airport ... uncharacteristically, I had packed last night so had little to do but dress this morning. There was almost NOTHING open at the airport ... could have had coffee, but something cold sounded good. So I bought a Jarrito Strawberry Soda ... not exactly Big Red, but close!

The Delta flights were a pleasant surprise. If I weren't such a Southwest fan, I might be converted. On time, spacious planes, even the puddle jumper that took us from Abq to Salt Lake. The big plane from Salt Lake to Anchorage was great ... supposed to be full but at the last minute someone didn't make it, so the seat next to me was empty. How's that for luck!

Salt Lake City airport is spacious and clean. However we came in at concourse B and flew out of concourse D. Thank heavens we had two hours. It was about a 30 minute walk, and I was not strolling along and shopping!

Slept most of the way to Anchorage. Woke once for a diet coke and two cookies. That was the extent of the food on a 4 hour flight. Oh well.

Arrive in Anchorage a little early at noon. The Anchorage airport is also spacious and beautiful. Lots of stone work and stone sculptures of wildlife. Bags arrived in a timely manner and the Holland America greeter took it from there. I haven't ever purchased transfers from the cruise line before, so this was a new experience. Nothing to decide or chase down. Once you are in their pipeline, you end up where you are supposed to be.

The motor coach driver took us on a bit of a scenic tour, giving commentary the whole way into Anchorage from the airport.Did you know that Lake Hood seaplane base is the busiest airport in the world? I think the shuttle driver said 8,000 planes a month take off and land on the lake. Remember, flying is the way lots of travel is done in Alaska due to lack of passable roads.

By the time I got checked in at the Hilton Inn, it was almost 2PM and I hadn't had anything to eat but those two cookies. I headed out on foot to prowl around downtown Anchorage and find some seafood. Now here's the thing. I LOVE seafood (oysters, lobster, shrimp, scallops) but am only so-so about fish (salmon, halibut, cod). Well, guess what Alaska has PLENTY of? Yep ... very fresh fish. So, when in Rome ...

I had asked the shuttle driver for some recommendations and found myself at Humpy's Ale House Not a bad choice. They have a great micro-brew selection and a seriously good halibut burger. Sounds weird, I know ... but this wasn't your ordinary fish sandwich. I LOVED it! Halibut was flaky, but not mushy, and really flavorful. I might have to change my mind about fish. The Kassiks Nut Brown was a great accompaniment.

Well, I had to walk off that lunch, so I headed two blocks west to the Oomingmak Musk Ox Co-Op, home of all things Qiviut. Of course my knitter friends know of Qiviut. For the rest of you, it is the VERY soft undercoat of the musk ox, harvested by hand, and the warmest fiber for its weight. They don't sell yarn there, because, as the store person told me, that would undercut their craftpersons who do this wonderful knitting by hand. But they do sell a hat kit. Of course, I bought one and will knit on it during the cruise.Here's a picture of the Kit:

I will post progress on my ravelry page. If you don't have a ravelry account, you probably aren't interested anyway.

Still felt like walking, so I headed back toward the Hilton, but on the corner opposite the hotel was the Anchorage Marketplace. It's several square blocks of open-air tents, kiosks, and vendors of all kind. Jewelry, food, sculpture, clothing, fur, and leather are just a few. I didn't buy anything particularly Alaskan, but I did get this precious t-shirt for Madison:

Then I headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for tomorrow. I will be getting up early to visit The Quilted Raven, who is opening specially for us on Sunday morning before we catch the train to Seward. I will try to get Scotty out of bed as well, since they are primarily a fabric/quilting store.

Nite nite for now.

April 18 - Travel Plans

The plans for the year are shaping up ... and they look good.

Scotty and I will be taking a Craft Cruises trip to Alaska on Holland America the last week of May. If you are a crafter, knitter in particular for me, take a look at Melissa's Craft Cruises web site. She does a wonderful job of putting together instructors for classes while at sea and interesting shore excursions. I am really looking forward to this, even though we have been to Alaska before ... once is definitely NOT enough!

I'm trying to plan a trip to Houston and also one to New York for the summer. Both places are best visited NOT in the summer, but that's what my schedule looks like for now. About a week spent in each place should allow me to visit everyone I want in Houston and spend some quality time with Meredith in New York. Some friends have been asking when we are going back to New York, so perhaps I will arrange a group trip.

Then I have just finalized plans to visit DisneyWorld in December with the Hamletts. Of course Andrew will be too young to enjoy anything, but it should be quite a trip to see Madison's reaction to everything. I am really looking forward to this one, even though it's just in the early planning stage. We booked through David's Vacation Club rentals ... and saved about $1500 on the condo. We will be staying at the Boardwalk Villas in a two-bedroom condo for $2,470 for 5 nights! Whoa! If you are planning a Disney trip, this is the way to go!!

Will continue blogging while on the cruise and if I find any other superb deals out there. Happy sailing!

Mar 6 - Cruise Healthy

Statistics say cruisers gain about a pound a day on a cruise ... but you don't have to be a statistic. Cruise lines are getting behind the health movement with more spas and fitness classes, healthier food, and lots of options for exercise. Check out this article on Cruise Critic for all the details.

Don't be Late

How may times have I told you ... Don't be late ... the ship won't wait. Well, these guys had to run to catch the ship after a lovely day in port. And listen to the comments. The fellow passengers won't let them live this one down for a while. So remember ... get back to your ship on time!!

Video ... running to catch the ship

SOPA/PIPA

We now take a moment for a political viewpoint. Please contact your congressional delegation and encourage them to vote AGAINST the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation. See this link http://www.ted.com/talks/defend_our_freedom_to_share_or_why_sopa_is_a_bad_idea.html
for an excellent TED talk by Clay Shirkey on the opposition to this legislation, presented in clear layman's terms.

Addicted to Travel?

I love this article from The Independent Traveler!

http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/funny-travel/16-ways-you-know-youre-addicted-to-travel

Of course, I am addicted to travel! I can even relate to a couple of these. I am always planning my next cruise while on the current one! Future cruise desks are designed just for travelers like me!

Last fall, when I had several trips planned close together, I did actually live out of my suitcase at home. Why go through all the bother of packing and unpacking?

How about you? Are you addicted to travel and, if so, what kind and where??

Thinking of Europe?

Thought about going to Europe? Is it on your bucket list? Or is it somewhere you've been and can't wait to return?

See Europe via cruise! ... why?

1.  You can see several major European cities in one trip. The travel between cities is done at night so you don't waste touring time.
2.  You only have to unpack once! (one of my favorites!)
3. Once you have paid, you are not at the mercy of the dollar fluctuation for meals or tours.
4. Want to see the interior, rather than Mediterranean ports? Consider a river cruise. Just as luxurious, but sailing on one of Europe's wonderful rivers. Most of the major inland cities in Europe developed on rivers, due to transportation requirements, so you get to visit all the "biggies".
5. Many of the cruise line's European itineraries have overnight stays in the larger cities. So you have time for a longer tour and perhaps dinner or a show.

It's on sale now! This is WAVE season, when the cruise lines are offering some of their best deals. Royal Caribbean just announced $50-$100 on board credit for their European sailings. Other cruise lines also have offers.

Let's go to Europe this year!!

Don't Do Disney in December ... at least the last week

Hello, all!

Do you like my alliteration? It is meant to call attention to the HUGE crowds that flood DisneyWorld the week between Christmas and New Year's. I have been to Disney that week and had forgotten about the crowds until I ran across this blog post from Jack Spence. He experience the same thing I did ... Ginormous crowds, multi-hour waits, and not so much magic. Here are a couple of his pictures. You can get the entire view at his blog

That being said, I think one of the BEST times to "do Disney" is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The decorations are up (my favorite reason to visit then), the crowds are smaller (Disney no longer has no crowds), and the weather is OK (a few rain showers).

Many of you already know that Walt Disney World is one of my favorite places on earth. It is in a dead heat with cruising as my favorite vacations. But even a dyed-in-the-wood Mouse-lover like me can't stand the wall-to-wall people that Christmas week brings.

So YES! Book a Disney vacation this year. But let me help you pick a time when you can really enjoy ALL the magic!

Where Do You Want to Go?

Yes. It's the new year and everyone is resolving and planning. So, don't forget to resolve to give yourself a vacation this year and plan to book your cruise early. The best cabins in the best locations always go first.

And just in case you think cruises are warm weather only activities, check this out:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/slideshows/?ID=315

Happy New Year!!