Alaska

The Alaska trip was amazing! The weather was awful but the rest of the trip was wonderful.

We arrived in Seattle a few days before sailing for Alaska. One day was spent in the Southern Cascades in the area around Mt. St. Helen. It was not a clear day and we were never sure we actually saw Mt. St. Helen. We went as close to the volcano as we were allowed. Partway up the mountain the road was still closed due to the snow. We hiked a bit on the trail farthest up that was open. While the mountain in this photo may not be the volcano, it is an example of what the area looked like. The weather was too overcast for us to see Mt. Ranier before we left for Alaska.

Of course no visit to Seattle would be complete without strolling through Pike Market. Rows of gorgeous flowers first caught our eyes, then produce, pasta, fish, and lots of artisan booths and all sorts of shops.

My cousin M and her SO joined us on the cruise and what fun we had. R proposed to her on the first formal night and without hesitation she agreed to marry him. We are so happy for both of them! After beer and champagne, we tried to figure out if they could get married on the cruise, but in the end, the wedding will be in Phoenix next year.


One of the highlights of the cruise was sailing to the Hubbard Glacier. We got within a half mile of the glacier and just stared in awe at the massive wall of snow and ice. We saw calving several times, which is when part of the glacier breaks off.



The cruise included port stops in Ketchican and Juneau, Alaska and Victoria, British Columbia. While it felt like winter to me for most of the cruise, spring had definitely sprung in Victoria. (sorry, I couldn't get the picture rotated the right way.)



We took this cruise as part of a group of knitters. M and I attended classes on knitting and spent lots of time knitting and talking with other knitters. R and W seemed to have no trouble filling their time when we were knitting. We played cards and dominos and drank coffee with Bailey's. And in each port, we shopped at yarn stores. The SEX was pretty good... er, that's Stash Enhancement Xperience. I concentrated on purchasing yarn from local, independent hand-dyers. The four skeins to the left in the photo were in the goodie bag and everything else except the two skeins to the bottom of the photo are from local hand-dyers in Alaska.


Perhaps one day we'll return to Alaska, our 49th state.