was the punch line of a joke our morning guide, Ron told us on our way back from the Dog Sled Summer Camp. He was a funny, older man who seemed to love his job. I could see why, Juneau, a pretty, colorful city and the capital of Alaska is settled at the base of a mountain, conveniently called Mount Juneau. There is also an island; Douglas, across from Juneau. It is only accessible by aircraft or boat and has more vehicles than people! Did Jun neau that? haha Our morning started at 4:05am. That's when the light started coming through [View Full Entry]

---

---

Due to sunrise at 4:57am, was awoken to the scenery of snow covered mountains west of us and then pine trees nestled below them as if on tiny islands. Our view was the Tongass National Forest and even though the weather was chilly, overcast and rainy, I couldn't sleep now! We docked into Ketchikan around 6:30am and went up to the Horizon Court for a breakfast of hash-browns, strawberry pancakes, pear, scrambled eggs and ham. What a combo! Out on the deck to take pictures, it was very windy and rainy, with the temperature about 43 degrees F. We were ready [View Full Entry]

---

---

9:30am: Got things ready for departure and went to the Princess representatives at our hotel to be told to come back at 11:30 because the ship was delayed coming into port due to stormy weather out of San Francisco. She said our ship would still be leaving on time but we wouldn't be transferred to it until about 1pm. So we used the internet and had a $6 bagel in the hotel restaurant. 11:30am: We were able to get our Princess cruise card and check in for embarkation at the hotel "Princess room" which made it very nice. Hung out and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Stanley Park: it is named after Lord Stanley and is the 3rd largest city owned park in North America. There were only 2 bus stops in Stanley Park with one being at the entrance and the other in the middle of the 1,000 acre park by the aquarium. Bernie thought we should get off at the entrance but I thought it would be better to be dropped off at the 2nd one. Boy was I wrong! What our original plan was to only walk about 1/4 of the 5.5 mile sea wall on the east side only; so we would be [View Full Entry]

---

---

Decided we would try a cheap breakfast, so we opted for the Denny's across the street from our hotel. Well obviously, cheap doesn't apply to food here. The prices were almost double of what we pay in Pennsylvania! lol I ATTEMPTED to order the "Salsa Denny" without tomatoes and the Asian waiter said to me a couple of times, "There's no meat on it" I was like "OK, that's fine. I know that". (there was no meat on it in the first place) He kept giving me weird looks about eating it like that. Finally I said, "I'll take the "breakfast [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Mainstay Hotel in Pittsburgh was very nice. It was like a suite with a stove, refrigerator and cupboards with glasses in them. Well our flight was delayed leaving Pittsburgh, while on the plane, so we literally walked fast from our landing in Houston and boarded our next flight to Vancouver right away! Some older man our our 1st flight wanted to know if we were "saved" and gave us "Jesus loves you Big" cards. On the 2nd flight to Vancouver, the man sitting beside me saw my Vancouver map and gave us advice on where and where not to go, [View Full Entry]

---

---

This will be another trip of a lifetime for me! I have always wanted to go to Alaska since I don't know when, to be honest. I've had brochures, booklets, websites saved and 4 (yes 4) DVDs of nothing but Alaska programs from the Travel, Discovery & History channels! I've got all episodes of Into Alaska with Jeff Corwin, Andrew (Bizzare Foods) Zimmerman, Big America, 1,000 Places to see-Alaska, Walking the World- Chilkoot Trail, Fearless Planet, Extreme Alaska, Travels on the Edge, various travel channel shows like Alaskan Wild, Wide Open, Artic Wildlife, etc., and even Sunrise Earth for goodnes [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just some pictures from Rothenburg, Germany which is a medieval city that also has a city wall. We ate, shopped at the Chrismas store (yes, Christmas shopping in summer) and purchased some ornaments and took in the city's sights, shops and street entertainment. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The breakfast selection was awesome this morning with a variety of choices besides the usual bacon and eggs. There was also smoked salmon, chocolate brownies and even pretzels! It certainly made up for no a/c. I have to say this was the best breakfast selection I ever had at a hotel! We stopped in medieval Nordlingen where there was a market area selling assortments of flowers, fish and fruits, mostly strawberries. The buildings were very cute with a variety of colors that included pink, tan, green and red. It still has a city wall which I found intriguing. There was a [View Full Entry]

---

---

I can't say that the breakfast was good with runny eggs, weak orange juice and some type of unidentifiable fruit. But having it with all our new Australian friends made up for that. Our destination today would be Munich with our arrival at the German border taking all of 7 minutes. Lunchtime, we stopped at the nicest rest stop. The restroom consisted of putting 50 euro cents in a turning stall to which you then got a receipt for 50 cents off lunch. haha After using the toilet, the commode seat rotated. I had never seen that and we were all [View Full Entry]

---

---