Behold Alaska- a Magnificent State

Well, I must say it was a little rough getting into Anchorage due to a brake mechanical failure on our plane in Dallas that took 2 1/2 hours to repair! Our flight was already 6 hours and 50 minutes into Anchorage. So we ended up getting to our hotel around 10:30 pm ( sun just setting there) which was around 2:30am Boca time! Well, I've decided that very minor inconvenience just smoothed the way for our SPECTACULAR weather!! Someone should bottle us and take us on all cruises or trips where they need good weather!! Everywhere we've been this year they tell us how terrible the weather was the week before we got there band that they're having the best weather all year now!!

We enjoyed Anchorage in our short time there. It is the largest city in Alaska (300,000) but it has a very small town feel to it ---Sort of like Wichita, Kansas . Everyone is very nice. We rented a car and drove around town. Bill managed to find all three properties he used to manage 25 years ago. They are all in good shape.

We sailed on Regent's Navigator last night. Our rooms are great. They do a nice meet and greet thing right after the life jacket drill. They make an announcement to come out of your cabin into the hallway to meet and greet your neighbors. Butlers and stewardesses are there filling your glass with wine or champagne and passing canapes to all of us. It was a fun way to meet our neighbors!! We have some lovely people on our deck! Including a gentleman from Hayes, Kansas who knew my dad's dear friend, Syd Platt who recently passed away. Such a small world.

Today we have been sailing to see the Humboldt Glacier. At first glance from far away it doesn't seem so impressive BUT as you get closer you can tell it is 400' high with 800' below the water. The Captain told us this was the best viewing day all season so far. We have bright sunshine and no wind.

Sorry, we just took a short break for 20 minutes to see about 10 humpbacked whales breaching. So cool!!!! Very hard to photograph though. You just have to get lucky! Hard to get your camera focused quickly enough to actually get them!! That was sort of the end to a perfect viewing day. I missed the first few jumping because I was in the shower. Let me tell you, it is some kind of cold to be wet in a bath robe and be outside. That might have had something to do with my lack of quickness getting photos!!! BRRRR!

The GOD of weather continues to bless us this year with great weather for our trips. We'll hope HE stays with us until the end of this venture!

Tomorrow we have two tours from Sitka
- Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest in the morning followed by Sea Life Discovery Tour. We don't want to miss anything and since the weather is so awesome- we are excited!!! Duffy is doing great and very much enjoying herself. This a beautiful, calming, relaxing visual feast for the eyes! More tomorrow. I'm posting photos of our cabin and the Humboldt Glacier and the seals we spotted!!! Loving Alaska! The blue ice is the glacier. It has that color because of the minerals inside the ice.

One other interesting fact. On our drive from Anchorage to Seaward to board the ship we passed several "Ghost Forests"! These are trees that were swamped by the tsunami after the 9.2 earthquake here in 1964. There were 20 lives lost - all in Valdes where there were a group of school children on the pier when the wave came in. The "Ghost Forests" exist because the trees were saturated with so much salt water that they don't decay. The trees stand like solitary ghosts. We are only seeing about the top third of the trees because the bottom two thirds sank into the ground during the tsunami. Very interesting. Lucky that so few were killed. The wave went back more than 30 miles into some of the canyons.