ALASKA CRUISE, Part 1

Before my final semester of college, I wanted to take a trip with my grandmother. She's not in very good health and has limited mobility, so we decided a cruise to Alaska would be perfect for us. As much as I love the mountains, I was STOKED! Continental was so kind as to upgrade us to first class on our flight to Vancouver.

We cruised with Princess and I was very impressed with my first cruise. Although the Alaska Cruise on the Inside Passage is generally an older crowd, I still had a great time and loved all the amazing scenery. At our first port of Ketchikan, I did my only solo day-excursion without Gram. I took a float plane into Misty Fjords National Monument, then road a boat back across the bay. Check out the Wiki link to see some beautiful pictures.

Riding in the float plane with a bird's eye view was a truly spectacular experience. The fjords themselves were stunning, and sightseeing by boat was a great way to see wildlife and get an up close view on things. Crossing the bay back to the port, I did get a little seasick (well, VERY seasick) but everybody else saw some whales.

Our 2nd port was the capital city of Juneau, where we did a tour of the city that included a trip to Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is carefully monitored, and the amount of melting on the glacier over the past few decades is shocking.

In Juneau, we also visited a Salmon fishery, where it took me the whole trip to get Gram to pronounce it sam-on instead of sal-mon. She still calls is sal-mon. Finally, the tour included entrance to a museum that had some interesting things on the history of Alaska and the area and a short walk through a temperate rainforest.

Next Stop: Skagway & Glacier Bay on our way to Anchorage.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I am so blessed to have been able to spend that much time with my grandmother.

ALASKA CRUISE, Part 2

My all time favorite excursion on our cruise was the bus tour of the Yukon Highway tour out of our final port of call, Skagway. Trivia fact: of the 3 towns we stopped at, Skagway was the only once accessible by road, the others were only accessible by water or air.

Around every turn and bend, there was a breathtaking view as we entered into Canada. The forests stretched as far as the eye could see in between mountains and the striking blue waters of the lakes fascinated me.

We stopped at Emerald Lake, which radiated stunning colors from all the mineral deposits. Driving further north, we stopped for lunch at an "interesting" lodge/ranch/farm/tourist-spectacle. We drove past a desert (in the cold mountains) carved out centuries ago by glaciers, and we stopped in the quaint little town of Carcross, where I received my first stamp ever in my passport.

Back to Skagway, we took the White Pass Railroad on one of the most specatular rides of my life. Built during the great goldrush and completed over 100 years ago, it's a testimony to many who died building it and it's an engineering marvel. Though shut down for a few years, the fabuous ride has been revived in the past decade and is a must-do for all tourists.

We traveresed this amazing country-side in such a awesome and unique way. We crossed over numerous rivers- some whitewater rapids that had never been successfully paddled. I can't say enough wonderful things about this excursion, but Gram sure was happy when we were back on level ground (or the gently swaying boat!).

Our next day on the cruise awoke to find us touring Glacier Bay National Park. Being so close and near to these amazing glacier was a truly awesome experience. Learning about the history of the area, the geology that created such remarkable feat of nature and watching for wildlife made the bitter cold somewhat tolerable.

Gram and I drank lots of hot-chocolate out on the deck.

We ended our trip at the port in Fairbanks, Alaska. A short little bus ride across the Kenai Penninsula, past Cook Inlet where the landscape had been carved by the sea & moutnains, earthquakes & volancos. I would have LOVED to extended our stay a few more days to visit the highly-acclaimed Denali National Park, but instead I had to return home for the first day of my last semester of college!

We arrived in Anchorage early in the day, and I wandered around the funky and fun downtown area while Gram rested from our long journey. That evening we boarded our plane back home, and we were treated to one more breathtaking view from Alaska.

Glaciers are cool.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A trip to Denali gives me a great excuse to go back.

Life Travel Log

Sort of along the same vein as my wine bar compendium, I wanted to create a permanent list of my past travels and future travels that will sort of help me stay organized. I've blogged about some of these & this will be a good reminder to blog about the rest in the future. I'll keep it updated as we travel.

**All links are to blog entries**
**Updated May, 2010**

1987-1998 Colorado Skiing: Winter Park, Breckenridge, Steamboat, Vail, Wolf Creek

High School Summers (1995, 1996, 1997)- Kayak Boundary Waters in Minnesota, Hike Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, Canoe Delaware River between NY & PA with my church youth group

1999- Atlanta & Savannah, GA (college in Georgia)

2002- Cruise Alaska with Gram (Part 1 & Part 2)

2004- Lake Tahoe with Hubby (Part 1 & Part 2)
Ecuador Mission Trip

2005- Miami, Florida (H's law school)
Italy & Greece (Milan, Venice, Rome, Santorini, Mykonos, Athens)

2006- Puerto Vallarta for a Scouting Trip

October- California Coast, Santa Barbara & Big Sur

2007- Puerto Vallarta (Wedding) & Los Cabos (Honeymoon, Food, Entertainment)

Colorado Rocky Mountains (Red Rocks, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Rocky Mountain NP)

2008- Brazil & Argentina (Buenos Aires, Paraguay, Iguazu Falls, Parati, Rio de Janeiro)
Detroit, MI
Sarasota, FL
Manitou Springs,CO (hiked Pikes Peak & Railway)
Joshua Tree National Park

2009- Washington, DC for Inauguration
February- Cozumel Mexico
March- Walt Disney World (Epcot, MGM, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom)
April- Austin
April- San Antonio for Fiesta
May/June- South Africa Trip: Dubai, UAE, South Africa (Cape Town, Kruger National Park & Johannesburg), Mauritius
August- Chicago
October- Austin

2010
February/March- New Zealand
June- Seattle
July- Pittsburgh & Philadelphia
August- Columbia, South Carolina
October- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

STATES I'VE VISITED

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia

STATES TO VISIT

Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming

COUNTIRES I'VE VISTED

Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Greece

COUNTRIES TO VISIT
Peru, Ecuador (Galapagos), Chile, New Zealand, South Pacific Islands


GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I have a VERY serious travel problem, and that's FANTASTIC news ;)

Year 22

Year 22 (April 2002 to April 2003)

I spent lots of time with Zoe that spring in the numerous Austin dog parks. We did puppy obedience and basic obedience classes that summer.



Gram & I took a cruise that summer to Alaska- it was amazing & so beautiful!


Zoe spent a ton of time in my parent's pool, becoming a master swimmer! Did I mention that they were nice enough to let me (and my dog) move home every summer of college so I could continue working at my engineering internship?


Continued dating 2 men, on and off again. What a heartbreaking and stressful time. I did lots of sightseeing in Austin and camping with Christian.

In December, I graduated with highest honors from the College of Engineering with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Sue & Done came down from Colorado & all my family came up to Austin.



Gotta love the chessy graduation pictures! I'll post the rest of them some other time....

Christmas at Grandma's with the kids- my sister was an actress even then! I find the background much more interesting- I remember all those afghans around their house, that nativity scene was there every year, the hunting guns that stayed in their built in cases and the assortment of other random things out and about their house.



I started my first official day of work at a real-life engineer on January 2nd. It's been an awesome job and I've been there ever since!

Ran my first marathon in Austin in February- threw up a few times, but I finished! My mom was awesome to take me and follow me around the course to make sure I didn't die.



In February, I wanted to experience Mardi Gras in the French Quarter, so I met up with Stephanie & Bruce for a weekend of craziness.



March trip to Tony in North Carolina- got to tour the C-130's that he navigated on & went to an airshow.

Happy Birthday Gram

Toady is Gram's Birthday! Growing up, it was just the gals- me, mom and Gram for many years. We had a great relationship growing up and continue to share a special bond. This is her birthday 27 years ago, and somehow I still got cake and a hat.

We took our big trip together to Alaska in the summer of 2002.

Our trip was shortly before my college graduation in December of 2002.

All the girls again- even Zoe, in 2004 when we had some family photos taken.



And of course she made the big trek down to Mexico last February to watch her only grand baby get married. She loves her grandson-in-law and is always reminding me how lucky I was to marry such a wonderful man.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm very blessed that Gram can still live on her own, drive herself and hangs out at mom's house most weekends.

1000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE

One of the great gifts that I gave H last year for Christmas was the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. As you can see by our past travels, we LOVE to travel and can spend hours day dreaming about all the fantastic places we must travel. The book release corresponded with the show on the Travel Channel.

Gram & I in Glacier Bay (page 565) on our Alaska Cruise

We enjoyed looking up past places in the book that we've traveled, planning out our Colorado trip to Rocky Mountain National Park (page 589). Of course our drive up the Pacific Coast Highway was gorgeous and had to make the list on page 578. We reminisced about our Italy and Greece trip- glad to know we saw a few of the places before knowing we had to go there before we died.

H & I at Villa Vizcaya in Miami (page 605) in 2004

During our Honeymoon in Cabo, we checked off Whale Watching on the Baja (page 779). I missed the Galapagos Islands (page 836) and the rail in Riobamba on my Ecuador trip. We scoured the pages of Brazil & Argentina, to make sure we didn't miss any must-see sights in our upcoming trip. Google Earth even offers a very cool option that shows you all the places listed in the book.

Us at the Red Beach in Santorini, Greece in 2005 (page 172)

Have fun travel-dreaming!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: This travel Tuesday is taking me to Little Rock!

Wanaka to Fox Glacier

I'm posting all out of order, but it will just have to do for now! Departing Wanaka & heading up the west coast to our next destination, Fox Glacier, we enjoyed driving along two stunning lakes- Lake Hawea & Lake Wanaka.



The water in both was a brilliant blue & they were flanked by spectacular mountains for shorelines.



We pulled over at a few places & look-outs to learn about how the glaciers came to carve out this area & learn a little bit of history.



At the Lake Wanaka Lookout, I was reminded of some of the terrain up in Alaska on the Klondike Highway.



It was still pretty chilly in these parts, even in summer & the strong winds made a jacket a necessity.



This little rock beach made me wish we'd packed a picnic to sit on the shore and enjoy the waves.



I loved catching glimpses of far-off peaks piercing the sky through closer valleys.



We also started to see many smaller glaciers clinging to the mountain face in this area.



I love all the layers in this photo- flat valley floor, gentle river, rolling hills, towering mountains, a glacier, blue sky & puffy clouds.



We traveled along the lovely Makarora River for quite some time on the journey & H kept wanting to stop and fish (if we had any fishing gear!).



We kept driving further north & deeper into the mountains, but it was looking like rain ahead.



We couldn't resist pulling over for another picture beside the idyllic river.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Survived Austin with the kids & have no plans, other than relax, next weekend!