A European River Cruise

Viking River Cruises has just announced a great deal. Anyone who books a 2009 river cruise and has ocean cruised before receives a special promotional discount of $500 per person. This is on top of the early booking discounts which can save you up to $2000. What are you waiting for? This is a tremendous deal! You could start in the spring with a Tulip Time cruise in the Netherlands. Cruise the Danube, Rhine, or Main in the summer. Book a Holiday Market cruise for next Fall and visit Christmas markets in Germany and Austria. This is luxury cruising at it's best.
Call me and we can get you booked on this great adventure.
720-524-8560

Still Looking for a Holiday Trip?

Are you still looking for something to do this holiday season? I was just reading about the airlines lowering fares over the holidays. This is great, because there are still sailings out there with availability. Imagine, not having to cook, clean or stress over the holidays. Take your family on a cruise and just enjoy yourself! Give me a call or shoot an e-mail if you want any pricing.

World's Largest Cruise Night

October 16 is World's Largest Cruise Night. This is a day when you can get some great savings on cruises and great extras like upgrades, onboard credits and spa credits. Check it out from the Featured Sale tab on my website!

Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington was the end of our 8-night cruise aboard the Celebrity Mercury to Alaska. We arrived early in the morning and Cathy and I opted for the Express Walk-off. It didn't end up being very express since someone with a foreign passport needed to clear immigration and they couldn't find her for a while. Finally though, we were off the ship and stored our luggage at a little office right at the pier for $3 a bag. We walked the short distance over to Pike Place Market just as things were opening.

I had never been to the market before-what an interesting place! The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and so cheap for a bouquet! The produce was a sight to behold, all those colors, and everything so fresh. I particularly enjoyed seeing the wreaths and strings of peppers. I never know there were so many colors. These were beautiful.

OK, so the first purchase I made was at a bakery counter for breakfast. I had an enormous, fresh maple bar. It literally melted in my mouth. They had these donuts that were the size of a dinner plate called a Texas donut.

Then we went on to the seafood-WOW. I have never seen so much fresh, beautiful seafood before. Cathy ended up buying a box of it and checked it with her luggage to enjoy in very land-locked Wyoming. We passed the counter where they throw the fish, but all I got to see them throwing was a bag of clams-that was kind of odd. They did have everything you could imagine-even the beautiful blue Parrot Fish.

We traveled the labyrinth of passageways under the main floor of the market and found a lot of neat shops. One that caught my eye had lots of old movie memorabilia along with novelties like metal lunch pails and scripts from movies. We came outside from down below to overlook a small daycare on the backside of the market. As we stood there on the landing, I looked at an apartment building across the way. On the small balcony of one of the apartments, I could see this figure, but couldn't quite tell what it was. I took out my camera and zoomed in to see a life-sized red plastic Indian, complete with spear and shield. I guess he was guarding the small kayak at his feet. Just thought that was kind of funny!

We walked back to collect our luggage and climbed in a taxi for the airport. At the airport I spied an Alaska Airlines plane that is painted to look like a giant salmon.

What a great trip it had been. I had learned so much about Alaska, among other things at our conference. I had seen some things I hadn't while we lived there. But mostly, I returned to a familiar place with lots of memories.

I am now planning our next cruise in January to the Western Caribbean. That will be different landscape.

Victoria, British Columbia

Our last port of this trip. What a beautiful day we had. It ended up sunny and in the 70's. When we got off the ship, we transferred to buses for a trip out to Butchard Gardens. This was about a 40 minute drive and we took a scenic route through a nearby park. The Gardens themselves are located north of town in an area that had been mined at the turn of the century for limestone. It took the Butcharts about 25 years to plant this 50+ acre showplace and it is impressive. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending half a day at a garden, but I was very surprised. It was gorgeous. There were different areas as we walked such as the Sunken Garden and the Japanese Garden. The Rose Garden had a tremendous variety of roses. As we walked along near the Japanese Garden there was a little peek-a-boo hole in the hedge from which you could see a small harbor that had been used for the mining and also by the Butchart family. It made kind of a neat photo.

We were here on September 21 and the explosion of flowers was incredible. I figured by this time of the summer, we wouldn't be seeing much. Victoria is know as the Garden City and I certainly found out why. I would highly recommend a stop at these gardens if you are visiting Victoria.

On our way back to town on the bus, we were able to catch some glimpses of the Canadian Snowbirds. This is a precision aerobatic team and they were flying in formation over the city. We didn't see the whole performance, but sure got an idea of what they could do. There were nine jets in some extremely close formations. It was fun to see.

We were dropped off at the ship and took a taxi into town. We had the driver drop us off at the Empress Hotel as this is one of those places that you just have to see. What a beautifully grand, ivy covered place. It sits right on the edge of a harbor with great views. We walked on from here toward the Chinatown area and visited some very bustling shops along with a stop for ice cream! Then we made our way along the harbor, past the Science Museum and back to our ship. It was a lovely walk and only took about 20 minutes from the heart of town back to Ogden Point where our ship was docked. I of course got a kick out of this since that is my last name! As we pulled away from Victoria, it was the most beautiful evening. The sunset was amazing, full of yellows, oranges and pinks. It was sad that we were about to end our journey, but Cathy and I were going to extend it as long as we could. We opted for the Express Walk-off for the next morning so we could explore a bit of Seattle before our 3pm flight home.

Sitka, Alaska

Sitka was an interesting little town. The ships cannot dock, so all are anchored out and we were tendered in. The tender dropped us off right near the little "downtown" area. The fist thing we did was head over to St Michael Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It is right in town and for $2 you can go in and look around. It is a beautiful rustic little church that still holds services.

We looked around in the shops and there was a lot of Russian influence here. One shop that was really neat was called Fairweather Prints on Lincoln St. It is a locally owned shop with lots of wearable art that is hand painted, silkscreened or embellished. The variety was quite impressive and the colors were great. Lots of greens, blues, purples. Some of the pieces had whales or turtles on them. Worth stopping in.

At 11 am, we were scheduled to go kayaking with Sitka Sound Adventures. They are located in an old blue school bus right where we had been dropped off by the tender. Emmi and John got us all checked in and we literally walked right to the waters edge and into the kayaks. This was a great tour in that it was just me, my friends Danielle and Cathy and our guide, John. It was the first time I had been in a kayak with a sprayskirt and rudder. The ones I had been in previously were open since I was in Caribbean waters. Boy do I like having a rudder!

We paddled out from the small harbor area across to a cluster of small islands. There were quite a few fishing lodges located on the islands, but because of the time of year, they were closed down for the season. One other interesting building we paddled past was a lighthouse. John told us that it is owned by a local dentist and can be rented out. It is a working lighthouse, but because of it's position, by the time you would see the light, you would be in trouble. John took us close to the shores of the small islands and we could see seastars in the clear water. There were many eagles in the trees and we saw one nest that was enormous. We saw a lot of bull kelp floating in the water along with the odd dead salmon.

One fun thing was that we had a sea lion checking on us. It would stick it's head up out of the water, see where we were, then disappear again. Soon it would resurface to check on us again. It came up right behind Cathy at one point.

After our wet paddle, it was time to get back in the tenders and head back to the ship. Once on board, I spoke with a nice couple I had met from Tennessee. They said that they had simply wandered around the town and come across the cemetery. Sarah told me that it was a pretty creepy place. Others had gone to the Raptor Center where CruiseOne presented a check for $3000. Celebrity Cruises also presented a free cruise worth $3000 for an upcoming fundraiser they will have.

It was then goodbye to Alaska since the next day we spent at sea. Our final port of the trip was Victoria, British Columbia.

Juneau, Alaska

We pulled into Juneau and it was overcast, but very nice out. Once off the ship, we walked across the street to the offices of Orca Enterprises to check in for the whale watching tour we had booked. This is a small office just across the street from the Mount Roberts tramway. In the office, we got our tickets for our bus and were ready to go. The buses took us on about a half hour ride north to Auke Bay. On the way, we did get a glimpse of Mendenhall Glacier. Once we got to the dock, we walked down to our purple jetboat. I had heard about this company through CruiseOne and that Captain Larry was the only one to tour with. It was a pretty amazing tour. About 25 of us loaded onto the jetboat and we headed out to the water. There was a naturalist on board who was telling us about the area and the whales we were likely to see. This naturalist was working one of his last shifts before going to Hawaii for the winter to guide whale watching trips there. Since these are some of the same whales, it make sense for him to hop back and forth between the two places. We were told that the whales we may see that day would be humpbacks and possibly minke or orcas. The sun was poking through the clouds as we made our way out and was beautiful on the glaciers in the distance.

We slowly passed a small island to get a look at two bald eagles who were hanging out there. On the next small island we saw a group of harbor seals. Then, someone spotted the first spout from a whale. We pulled up in an area near a smaller jetboat and Capt. Larry killed the engines. As we sat there, at least eight different humpbacks showed themselves. The naturalist was telling us the names of some that he recognized. We saw quite a few terminal dives so got a good look at the tails of these huge animals. The best was yet to come, though. Very close to the small jetboat, one of the whales arched up to a full breech, then followed with a headslap. The naturalist on board was as excited as we were to see this. He had been recording all season and said he had only see this happen about a dozen times. The whales eventually moved on and so did we. As we rounded an island on the way back to Auke Bay, a bald eagle was spotted in a tree. Capt. Larry pulled in fairly close and the naturalist went out on the back deck of the boat. He called the eagle with a very convincing sound and then threw a frozen fish out in the water. The eagle glided out of the tree, swooped down with talons bared and plucked the fish from the water. It was quite a sight to see.

Once back in Juneau, we were quickly reminded that this is the state capital by the protestors with signs near the dock. We decided to get a bite to eat at a place recommended by our guides on the boat called "The Twisted Fish." It was also right at the dock area by the ship. The menu had a lot of fresh fish items and I ordered the halibut tacos. They were very good, but the pico de gallo was very hot! A bottle of Alaska Amber Ale helped out. My friend Danielle spoke with a couple who had gone over to Mendenhall Glacier for the morning and they said they were able to see a brown bear there on the trail. It was quite exciting for them.

We walked up from the downtown area to St Nicholas Church. This is another example of the Russian influence. It sits just outside the business district of town on 5th street. As we came back toward the dock, we popped into the Red Dog Saloon. It was pretty crowded and a piano player had everyone singing. It looked like a good time.

One thing about going to Alaska at this time of year, everything is on sale. Many of the shops were having end of the season sales and prices were pretty good.

By the end of the day, it had begun to rain again and we got back on the ship. Next we were headed to Sitka.

The Hubbard Glacier

On our way up to the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska, we had to travel outside the Inside Passage to Yakutat Bay. I could tell that we were no longer in those protected waters with a little rocking and rolling on the ship, but it wasn't bad. The captain announced that we would be traveling through a particularly narrow area and there was a good chance of seeing some whales. I made my way out and up to the front of the 12th deck to watch and sure enough, we saw three or four whales.

As we entered Yakutat Bay in the morning and made our way up to the glacier, the water changed drastically. It became like a sheet of glass and soon we were seeing chunks of ice floating in the water. It was cold, a bit windy and had that typical Southeast Alaska misty rain for our trip up the Bay, but we stuck it out on deck so we could see it all. The waiters on board were coming around with trays of drinks. Not fruity cocktails with umbrellas, but thermal mugs of hot chocolate into which they could add a shot of Baileys Irish Cream. The first ice we spotted in the water was some bigger icebergs. Most were a beautiful light blue color. The naturalist on board explained that this comes from the ice crystals which make up the glacier absorbing all the colors from the light except blue. These icebergs were also very opaque meaning that they had not been compressed very much when they were part of the glacier.

Coming closer to the glacier, we started seeing many more small bits of ice floating in the water. These became more abundant the closer we got. I did spy one larger piece that was incredibly clear and dark in color. This had apparently been greatly compressed in the glacier. We were told that the ice we were seeing was probably between 200 and 400 years old.

It was very misty and then to the right of our ship, another ship the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas appeared out of the mist. That was an eerie sight. To the left was the Turner Glacier and shortly after it came into view, it stopped raining and the sun was shining way up on the glacier. Every once in a while we would hear a crack that sounded like gunfire in the silence around us. We soon found out that the sound we were hearing were chunks of the massive glacier calving off.

Then straight ahead was the Hubbard Glacier. We were told that it is six miles across it's base. It was massive. We got as close as was safe and could certainly see multiple calvings. We could see huge slabs of ice breaking off and violently splashing into the bay. Right after seeing this begin, we heard the gunshot sound that accompanied it.

I have mostly cruised in warmer waters, and this was amazing to me seeing all the ice in the water. The surface was very calm and rippled ice and all with any disturbance.

The captain sent out one of the lifeboats and the crew was able to snag a fairly large piece of the ice which was brought on board and put in an aft swimming pool for all to see and touch.

As we headed back out of the bay, I reluctantly returned inside the ship to dry off and warm up. I couldn't believe how much time I had spent out on deck to see this glacier, but it is truly one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. The captain then pointed the ship toward Alaska's capitol, Juneau.

Ketchikan

Day two of my recent trip to Alaska aboard the Celebrity Mercury was spent at sea cruising the Inside Passage. It was an eerie day. When I woke, it was a little foggy, but as the day progressed, you could see nothing beyond the ship. I felt like I was in a Stephen King novel. Around 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon, we sailed out of the fog and it turned into a beautiful day.

The next morning I woke early to see Ketchikan coming into view. I stepped out on my veranda and into a misty morning. We were just pulling up to the dock and through the fog I could just make out the Cape Fox Lodge with it's funicular crawling up the hillside. After eating breakfast, we were off the ship. My friend Cathy went to a small coffee kiosk and had a cup of Raven's Brew coffee which she really enjoyed. Then we boarded our bus that was to take us 10 miles north through the Tongass National Forest to Totem Bight State Park. This park was built as a replica of a Tlinget native settlement. There are 13 totem poles as well as a community house set right near the water's edge in a very natural setting. We walked a short trail through the temperate rain forest to reach the settlement. It was an incredibly peaceful area. As I was walking through, I veered off to the "beach." In Southeast Alaska, this is an area at the water's edge that is rocky and covered in mussels and kelp.

Back in the town of Ketchikan, our first stop was a shop my kids had remembered from visiting when we lived on Wrangell Island. KetchiCandies is still there and still selling lots of sweets. We meandered along the road and made our way up to Creek Street. This is an historic area of town which used to be the "Red Light District". The creek was filled with spawning salmon. Standing on the bridge, you could see them swimming up the creek and smell all of those which had already died.

I walked into the Scanlon Gallery and saw a whole wall featuring artwork by a friend of mine in Wrangell, Brenda Schwartz Yeager. I have several of her pieces and ended up buying a couple more. She paints watercolor images of the Southeast on old preserved navigational charts and they are quite unique. There were also prints by Rei Munoz and Barbara Lavallee. Cathy, who is quite a foodie, stopped at a little counter near the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show and had a crab and chowder meal. It was fantastic, both dungeness and king crab. I went into a gift shop and found the Alaska Wild Berry Products chocolates I had been looking for. They are made of a berry jelly which is dipped in chocolate.

We reboarded the ship and started away from Ketchikan. As we were leaving, we watched floatplanes taking off and landing. We glided past two of the Alaska Marine Highway ferries, the MV Columbia and the MV La Conte. Then to my surprise, I saw the Cornelia Marie docked near the ferry terminal. This is one of the crab boats featured on the Discovery Channels "Most Dangerous Catch". It had been a beautiful day in Ketchikan, didn't rain on us, and we were headed up to the Hubbard Glacier.

My New Blog

Thank you for visiting my brand new blog. I just returned from an 8-night cruise to Alaska aboard the Celebrity Mercury and thought this would be a good place to start. I will be writing about all the different ports over the next few days so keep checking back.

I lived in Southeast Alaska in the mid 90's and didn't know how much I would experience that would be new to me. First of all, a lot changes in eleven years! The towns we visited had grown.

I left Denver on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning to get to Vancouver via Seattle. During the flight to Seattle, the sky was clear and I got an awesome view of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier (yes, that is a picture I took above) from the plane. It was almost as if the pilot was doing a fly-by of Mt Rainier, we were so close. When we were transferring to our little Air Canada Jazz jet, there was not a cloud in the sky.

Upon arriving in Vancouver, going through customs was a challenge. We snaked through a line like we were at DisneyWorld for an hour and didn't even get to go on the Dumbo Ride! Once through customs, we found a taxi and were off to the ship.

The Mercury is an older ship, having it's maiden voyage in 1996. Even so, she is in great condition. Once we got to the pier, we went right to the counter, checked in and walked on the ship. We were greeted with champagne and escorted to our Concierge Class cabin. We had champagne and chocolates awaiting us in our cabin.

As late afternoon approached, we had our mandatory lifeboat drill and then began to sail North. I stayed out on our veranda for a long time watching the coast float by. People were on a bridge that we passed under waving to us as we left.

That night, we had a "White Night" cocktail party in the Navigator lounge that had an amazing array of goodies. There was everything from sushi to chocolate. What a way to set off on this adventure.