Alaska (summary 4)

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Greetings again:
The storms passed, so I'll continue and actually finish, except for some pictures later.

Alaska Summary 4

We arrived in the capital city of Juneau the next morning. Still to rain and clouds. Juneau is the only capital city in the U.S. that has no road leading to it. The only way to get to it is by plane or boat. Mike and I had a fishing excursion planned, so we were off early. To make a long story short, everyone caught a salmon but me. I never even touched a pole. Just when it was looking favorable with four poles in the water for me, the time was up and we headed back to shore. It would have been fun to land a fish, but if I went back, I would take excursions in the town instead of something else. I think the town’s history is fascinating. (Mike and I now joke that we were actually up there interviewing Sarah Palin for John McCain. 😊 ) By the time we got back to shore from fishing, it was lunch time and we met the girls at McDonalds. They were warming up after a morning of wandering and shopping. We returned to the ship and prepared for another 5 course dinner. Juneau is a quaint town with narrow streets and stretched between the mountains and the sea, and I’m still baffled as to how it became the capital. The ship departed and headed for Ketchikan, the rainiest city in Alaska. They receive 13 & 1/2 feet a year over 260 days of rain. I cannot imagine the depression I would be in if I lived in those conditions, can you? As I’ve said, Alaskans are a hardy people. We took an excursion to the Misty Fjords National Park. It lived up to its name. It was so cloudy and rainy that there was “mist” everywhere. Regardless, it was still beautiful. Here again, I would go to a Ketchikan land excursion next time as the scenery was not that much more spectacular than what had already been seen. Shirley did quite well on this excursion as her shoulder was feeling a little better and she wasn’t taking as much pain medication. We returned to Ketchikan and wandered through the streets for a while, then met up with each other and returned to the ship for another - you guessed it - 5 course dinner. (Ketchikan also lived up to its reputation and we got wet in our wanderings.) (If you’re wondering how we met up with each other in these towns, it was by cell phone. Coverage (AT&T) was unbelievable. We could often call the children from several miles off shore. So when we got separated and wanted to make contact, we just called each other.) As the ship pulled out of port we were eating dinner and visiting with our friends from Winnipeg, Veronica and Susanne. The trip to Vancouver took about 36 hours so we were at sea the entire Sunday. It was a time to relax a bit and begin packing. We enjoyed our last 5 course meal, gave our hugs of good bye to Veronica and Susanne and attended a good-bye show in the Princess Theater. We had attended several shows during the week. The entertainment is pretty good and wholesome. With the luggage packed and gone, we went to sleep to prepare for the long day home on Monday. Breakfast was at 5:45 a.m., departure from ship at 7, travel through Vancouver to airport, customs etc, and arrive at airport at 10:30 for noon flight to Minneapolis, then to Detroit, then the drive to Jackson. We arrived home at about 1 a.m. Very tired but very excited about what we had seen and done over the past two weeks. In conclusion, I would highly recommend a trip to Alaska, our 49th State which is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. This trip has been on my “to do goal list” for 10 years. I would go back if the opportunity presented itself, but want to do some things differently. I think it would be terrific to go by myself (not literally, but a small group) that would like to drive and explore some of the other areas of this great and beautiful State. Thanks for letting me share our experiences with you. I have enjoyed reliving our time with you. I will post some pictures in Summary 5. One thing at a time you know as this “old dog learns new tricks”. Take care and God bless each of you. Bill (for Shirley, Mike and Linda)

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