THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKIN TO IT

along the seawall in Vancouver

The view from our hotel room

Okay, Okay, I'll come clean. We had an amazing time on the cruise. Started the trip by going a day early and spending it in Vancouver. It was my birthday. Stayed at our favorite hotel, the Blue Horizon. If you're ever in Vancouver for a night, you should stay. Great views of the city. Ask for an upper floor room. Rented bikes and cycled through Stanley Park, took the sea wall route right to the end. Went to Granville Island. All in all a great day. Met Sherry and Martin on Sunday and we headed to the ship.



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These ships are amazing. Ours was even small compared to some. The first words out of Martin's and my son Robert's mouths were Oh Shit, this thing is huge. The first full day was at sea and it was very rough. All of us were feeling somewhat queezy for most of the day. I couldn't sleep for the rock and roll of the ship so I made the mistake of looking out the window and the bloody waves were as high as the window, and we were fives decks up. Survived that and our first stop was Juneau.

Red Dog Saloon

View of Juneau from the ship

This is where the story gets really interesting. My husband and son are quite the hikers so they spent the day exploring the countryside. Sherry, Martin and I headed to walk the town and go shopping. Now you all know that shiny things follow Sherry home, well wouldn't you know it the first stop, a beautiful shiny thing attached itself to her finger. I am attracted to shiny blue things and I really wanted a pair of tanzinite earrings. I knew my husband would be upset but Martin told me oh go ahead, if you really like them. That was it. I asked if I could be his wife as well. He just had to become a different faith. So for the rest of the trip while my husband and son were either off hiking or exploring the ship. Sherry, Martin and I were an item. That's as far as it went though girls. They went to their stateroom and I went to mine.
This is the jewellery set that my "new" husband said was okay for me to buy. Aint it pretty.

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REd Onion Saloon

Stopping for coffee

famous Skagway Brewing Company


Main Street Skagway



leaving Ketchikan, view from the ship
Skagway was so quaint and beautiful as were all the stops. We visited both the Red Dog Saloon (Juneau) and the Red Onion Saloon (Skagway) which were both brothels in their early days. Tried alot of Alaska beer. Very good. Lunch was always a beer stop. I think of all the three, Ketchikan was my favorite. The legendary Creek Street, which were all small brothels built on stilts over the creek is now intimate, cosy shops run by long time residents. Sherry found her sweater that she had been looking for the whole trip in a small store called For Get Me Knot sweaters. Very appropriate. Thursday of our trip while exploring the beautiful Glacier Bay, my youngest daughter who was home alone, watching all the pets calls to tell us that she was in an accident with our van. Well we're about as far north a person can get with very limited cell service, although Sherry's worked just fine, so I told her to just deal with it, call the insurance, the police etc and we would see her in a couple of days. My remedy for dealing witha the stress of this, as I was petrified to tell my husband, was to drink lots of spiked coffee. Once I told him, felt much better. I think the baileys and amaretto in the coffee helped. As we left Ketchikan for our journey homeward to Vancouver, the night seas were not pleasant. My husband and son went to bed early and although Martin tried to stay up with us, he too succumbed to the seas and retired to his stateroom. Sherry and I felt that the only way to help us sleep through this was to spend the rest of the evening, into the wee hours in the Crowsnest, listening to awful Kareoke and drinking. She her martinies and me my Blue Cocoa Mojitos. Needless to say when I did retire to my stateroom, the rough seas didn't bother me at all. The last day was a full day at sea and the son shone beautiful for the first time since the day we left Vancouver. We had a great time and I want to thank Sherry and Martin for coming with us and keeping me company for alot of the trip and for getting us to our door safe and sound. Just found out that our van is a total write off so now am dealing with insurance etc. sure glad I had my vacation when we did as won't be venturing far from home for awhile. Resurrecting our old 1997 Safari Van to use till spring when hopefully can look at a replacement for my bus. Well this is my story and I'm sticking to it.

ships pool

our last sunset before reaching Vancouver

The famous Crowsnest Kareoke bar

another picture of glacier bay

Creek street (old brothles) ketchikan alaska

On Deck in Glacier Bay

this is my poor van. All this from trying to avoid a cat.