Cooper comes for Fathers Day

 

Lundberg AK Cruise

 The Lundberg 2023 Alaska cruise was a wonderful week with our family in one of the most beautiful places on the earth.  Our ships was the Holland America Eurodam.  It had about 2500 people on board, which was smaller than other cruises we've been on and felt less crowded.  We started the fun on Friday night when we picked up Mom and Dad and went to Lori and Blakes.  In the morning we arrived at the airport nice and early and flew to Seattle where we met everyone else.  We had a little miracle when Pam was allowed to get on the ship without a passport.  Thankfully Madi had been able to locate her birth certificate and passport at home and it only cost us a little time and stress.  Saturday we explored the ship, ate great food and played card games.  Sunday we gathered for a beautiful sacrament meeting together.  We have two current Bishops, one past Bishop and a Branch President in our family right now.  It was tender to share our feelings about the sacrament.  Rand and Blake were particularly tender about the healing symbolism of the sacrament.  It was one of the best parts of the trip for me.  We spent the rest of the day playing games, eating and attending the dance show.  On Monday we arrived in Juneau.  Tony and I took a tour bus to the Mendenhall Glacier and had a wonderful hike to Nugget Falls.  The weather was cloudy and cool and the weather was perfect. On Tuesday we went to Icy Strait Point.  Tony and I rode the tram and hiked along the shoreline.  No scary zipline this time!  We discovered the ship library this trip and spent many hours curled up with a good book.  We also made good use of the gym and enjoyed the pool and hot tub with Russ and Pam one afternoon.  I like the times we had with each couple one on one.  

Sitka Alaska is absolutely breathtaking.  It has 15 miles of paved road.  Tony and I spent the morning hiking together then we joined everyone for a tour of the Eagle and Bear preserves.  Both preserves were fascinating.  We enjoyed our tour guide who was a jazz musician headed to the Lionel Hampton Jazz festival in Moscow!  We did get to learn a bit about native history in every city we went to, as well as interesting presentations on the ship.  The stories of abuse are horrifying, but I'm glad to have been educated on the Tklinget people and to hear their language.  I was geeking out about the lateralization of one of the phonemes. 

Ketchikan was probably my favorite day.  We found an "on your honor" bike rental place and rode 30 miles RT to the next town out of Ketchikan.  We rode down a steep hill that ended at a pristine lake.  It was worth the ride back up the hill and we had no bear encounters.  We did a tiny bit of shopping and were back on the ship in plenty of time, sweaty and satisfied.  This trip there were no close calls!

We didn't arrive Victoria BC until 8:00 at night and it was pouring rain.  Rand, Debbie, Tony and I braved the wet weather to get off the ship.  We were unsuccessful in our Putine search, but toured the free exhibit at the history museum, enjoyed the downtown lights and pier.  It's a beautiful city.  

Saturday we attempted to be the last ones of the ship.  Then we navigated ourselves on a bus to downtown Seattle.  All the girls (and Blake) spent the afternoon at Pike's market buying overpriced and delicious delicacies like nuts, cheese, dried fruit and noodles.  The rain was coming down in Seattle and I loved it!