Monday, July 23, 2007

July 11 -- here we go........

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We are headed out on an extremely exciting adventure! Can you guess where we are going?






How beautifully green Michigan is.......






Big Water, Michigan style.






Then, there were clouds. Lots of clouds.


Eventually, the clouds broke, and we saw things we'd never seen in person.....

Mountains so tall they were snow-covered in the middle of July.






Glaciers!






A braided river.






One last hint -- this pic was taken five minutes before midnight on July 11.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.

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15 comments:

Kim said...

Alaska!

I need orange said...

You are so right. :-)

Kim said...

My Mom just bought a house in Wasilla... I'm sure a trip is in order very soon...

I need orange said...

I've been through Wasilla.... On the train, on our way to Anchorage. I'd have paid more attention if I'd known I "know" someone who lives there!

Tina T-P said...

Hey - welcome home - glad the dog is doing well - I'll look forward to seeing your pictures -
There is a Shetland Sheep breeder in Wasilla - as huge as Alaska is - what a funny coincidence to know of two people there in that town! T.

I need orange said...

Indeed!

Thanks for the good thoughts!

Kady Cannon said...

Not that big a coincidence. Alaska is huge, but there's not that many towns people actually live in :-) We have a friend you used to live in the Wasilla/Palmer area, too (Trustnluk).

I need orange said...

Very true.

It's large, and largely empty.....

Of people, at any rate.

We rode for miles and miles on trains and on the ship, and essentially never saw anything human. A town here, a town there, but mostly, just nature, no people.

Surely different from places where you can farm -- down here EVERYWHERE shows signs of humans.....

734elizabeths said...

Did you leave a note for me pencilled on the wall of the ship? We leave in three weeks.

I need orange said...

I was thinking, as I walked home from the bus just now (came home early to administer chemo to the dog) that I should ask you to take pics of the things I didn't think to take pics of. The dining room. The Lido (cafeteria).....

:-)

My brother's daughter's boyfriend's grandpa is either on the ship now, or gets on for its next trip south......

I'm not sure I knew that anyone I "know" went to Alaska before this summer, and now I'm aware of many. :-)

If you want to call me about shore excursions, I have some opinions..... :-)

I need orange said...

One thing I'd like to have known in advance is that they're not very fussy about "formal" on formal nights.

When my hs class was planning a 30-year reunion, the only thing they planned was a formal dance. I ranted about that to Martha and Laurie, and Martha told me that, for me, "formal" meant a new pair of black jeans.

I took that advice to heart (after some stressing) and wore new black jeans, one night with that hand-dyed shirt and another night with a fairly plain black&white plaid shirt. And my Clark's sandals.

No problem..............

How stupid -- to have to bring extra clothes AND shoes! to only wear for a few hours..............

Ah well.

Some people, of course, were dressed to the nines. Bob felt that if there was no mandatory tshirt night, he should not have to dress to suit those who wanted to pretend they were on the Titanic...... :-)

Of course one can eat in the cafeteria, but the food is much better in the main dining room.....

734elizabeths said...

I'm not scared of formal. We get season tickets to the opera every year, and you can always tell the difference between the people who are there because they love to see opera, and those who are there because they think it's a big fancy elegant thing to do. The latter are the people wearing cheap looking strapless floor length satin dresses and sparkly sandals, and the former are dressed in clothes that look nice and are comfortable for sitting in for four hours. Anyway, it's like tango - it's all about attitude.

I need orange said...

I, on the other hand, own no such attire...........

And still feel it's stupid to have a dress code........... :-)

One thing you may actually want to know is that there is one (1) socket over the desk-thingie, thwarting your need to plug in the laptop AND the camera charger.... Another time I would definitely bring a way to allow plugging of more things all at once......

I need orange said...

Something else you should surely know is Try The Berry Soup.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

One of our very favorite things from the dining room.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

ps -- they will give you recipes of anything you want -- just ask your server, and if that doesn't help, ask his supervisor........

I need orange said...

Something else to know is when the cruise itinerary says "College Fiords, 6:40 am" they mean "if you want to see them, better get up" rather than "this is when we park for the day."

I happened to be awake (combination of 4-hour time change and so much light so early). I cracked the curtains, saw a glacier, and leapt out of bed to get dressed and run upstairs.

They park near a glacier for a bit, then they move on....... At least that's what happened on our southward trip.

They are not kidding about head cover and gloves.

Glaciers are made of, like, ice, and they are huge, and the water and air near them is *cold*.....

We each had a fleece jacket and a windproof jacket with a hood, and it was good that we did.

Most of the time we were happy in short-sleeved shirts, but when we needed more, we were glad to have it.