All in the same boat...

...in the vein of Robert Fulghum... "All I ever needed to know, I learned on a Cruise Ship" ........

Have a buddy & stick together: they are your best life preservers in an emergency.

If you find yourself drowning, keep your head up & tread water until help arrives.

When facing a stiff wind...there's warmth and safety in numbers,

and a good hat makes all the difference in the world.

Get up and see the sunrise and you will be rewarded with the best views.

When two powerful sources come together (salt water and Ice)

someone has to learn to give..and it usually begins with "I"

There's always rough water ahead

revel in the stillness while you can.

Take turns --sometimes you are the captain and sometimes you are first mate...

Remember to turn around frequently

So you don't miss the magic behind you...

It's important to see how far you have come in any journey

Close your eyes and make wishes

And if you are patient enough you will be rewarded (like whale and otter sightings)

Don't rock the boat but DO lean on others when you don't feel steady

No matter how cold the water is, brave it and go in...

it builds character

Use your imagination and creativity everyday

and create some fun

Talk nice and play fair

Realize you don't need a lot of space or things to be happy- a book and a bed is abundance

Be sure to eat your veggies but save room for dessert

Laugh everyday it's as essential as clean ocean air

Follow the leader and stay on the path

Making fish lips makes fish taste better

Using face muscles counts as a daily exercise

Explore your surroundings, & know your port from your aft side

Be on your best behavior, someone is always watching.

No man is an island (or iceberg) talk to new people who are in close quarters with you

Keep your batteries charged and your eyes (and lense) open

Look at things with from anothers perspective (see the "kissing couple?")

Golden rule: Life is full of imperfect moments (blinks, missteps) -- chuckle at them, pat them on the shoulder but PAY MORE ATTENTION to the perfect beauty all around....it lends to smoother sailing.

Featured: College Fjord, Glacier Bay, Mendenhall Glacier

Sunshine Sarah

If everyone is smiling in a room, chances are Sarah is responsible....
Crying babies are charmed and calmed by her presence, hungry masses are fed and lounge around thoroughly content by her superb cooking, and teenagers are entertained by her creative "feats of strength" like raising your leg straight up and onto the counter top.
She tries to hide from the fact that she is the perfect hostess... generous, kind and welcoming, but no matter how much she downplays her abilities and talents....

She SHINES!

Sarah, wish we were all there to celebrate your Birthday, and thank you for everything you have done for all of us. You are truly a gift. May you be showered with all the goodness in life.

We love you!

Slightly farther North than Stockholm, Helsinki & St. Petersburg

This could be a picture of any mainstreet in the U.S., right?Don't know what I expected-- old railroad wood town perhaps?--but this modern street is in Anchorage Alaska. I was surprised to see all the flowers in the veryt tidy city. Everything there was certainly BIGGER: the salmon are 8 feet long, the earthquakes are 9 on the Richter scale, they have gigantic mountains with live volcanoes that spew ash, and 70 inches of snow in the winter....

And did I mention that when we got there at midnight it was as bright as noon! The sun never really set. Brendan is complaining here that he has to go to bed with the sun still up.

We had a huge fireplace at the place we rented but thankfully it was a balmy 50 degrees in mid July so we didn't have to light it!

To combat the 26 hour jet lag (from Rome to Munich, to Chicago to Anchorage) we hit the coastal trail to see the wildlife. We were told that every year people get mauled by bears, and charged and stomped by moose that run freely in the city so we were on high alert (ok so only I was)

We learned on the hike not to get anywhere near these beckoning mud flats. Apparently you step one foot in them and sink faster than in quicksand, and because they are situated in a glacial fjord, the tidal current is the fastest in the world--- and so if the mud didn't smother you, the sea water would drown you before help could arrive. Captain James Cook came through here to try to find a Northwest Passage and had to turn around because of the mudflats, so this inlet is called Turnagain Arm. Well we took the hint and "turned" from them.

We came across lots of wild berries everywhere...and where there's berries there are bears...

I was lagging behind taking pictures and noticed everyone was getting away fom me.

And then they took off...course I'm thinking....great I've fallen into the classic blunder.... you don't have to outrun the bear--you just have to outrun the slowest person in your group...which meant I would be the bear's squeaky toy to gnaw on.

But turns out they were just father/son bonding tryring to figure out if a 40 yr old father is still faster than a 14 yr old teenager

I caught up to them in what looked like a snowy field

Not sure what this cottony plant is but it dusted everything like a carpet of snow. I was just glad it wasn't September or it would have been the real stuff

Natalie spotted this cute bumble bee and then looked up

and spotted this super scary bee nest that had bees everywhere...ok this time I took off running.

Mid run I noticed something was eating the bark off the trees all around us. Natalie called out excitedly and I stopped in my tracks.

Kinda cool, yet unnerving looking around and seeing a moose staring you down.

She didn't look too mean but I decided not to push my luck.

We saw a bull moose lounging 50 feet from this sign

The rack on this Bullwinkle had to be nearly 4 feet across...I have no idea how they can hold their heads upright.

He got tired of us snapping the camera and moved on

The next day we picked up Trevor at the airport. He flew in from OK from his Intensive Wrestling Camp. He was leaner and tired! (He had to run a half marathon before he could be released from camp.) But he was game for taking a hike at Eagle River Preserve

This place was 30 minutes outside Anchorage and absolutely gorgeous. There happened to be an uphillrace here on the main trail so we took off on a side path.

We had the place to ourselves...we never came across another person

This was a beaver watching deck

We could see the dam but no beavers

But we did spot

this elusive, rarely sighted, semi grin Trevor squirrel.

Wwe went further into the forest and the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance.

The river had overflowed its banks

and made everything muddy and swampy so it was a breeding ground for the pesky insects

Fighting off the blood hungry mosquitoes became a full scale job

We came to a very lush part of the woods and hoped they'd leave us but they redoubled their biting.

Brendan didn't seem to be overly bothered with them near the end of the hike,

but Natalie was being swarmed. Trevor picked her up and starting running with her .

My camera didn't catch the black swarm after them. Trevor created a great diversion and made Natalie laugh which took her mind off the ear buzzing and biting.

The next day we checked out and loaded suitcases and kids in the car....you can only see Trevor's knees he was completely buried under the Samsonite

Natalie didn't have much more space but they made the best of it.

We took this ghetto bus to the cruise ship to Seward. It was an old Advantage shuttle painted over... the windows rattled and the driver going crazy fast in the rain and the people around me where gripping their seats and looking alarmed. I think they would have rahter taken their chances on the mud flats instead.

This is a waterfall down the road and there were fisherman everywhere.

This is Beluga point where the whales come and eat the poor seals.

We had no luck seeing any this day