Day 26 My bags are packed and ready to go.. not yet

Today we are floating around in the Pacific. I joined the crew and the captain again in singing our farewell to this collection of guest. Tonight I will have my final dinner on board with my daily dinner guest. As always my dinner guest come from a variety of places and this time they are all from the US. They are from Toms River, NJ; Detroit, MI and Denver, CO. They are from a variety of backgrounds with one of them owning his own company that is a research firm. We have had a lot of good conversation will miss meeting for dinner. Tonight we will have a complimentary bottle of wine thanks to the dining room staff and have a grand time enjoying the napkin ballet and the tossed salad. The ocean has been a bit choppy so I am getting used to bouncing around everywhere. This afternoon I will don my t-shirt and walk 3 miles again for our on deck for the cure breast cancer walk. It always amazes me when I see the number of survivors who join us for the walk. More often than not they a more physically fit than most of us! I am so proud of myself that I am already packed but I almost made the mistake of packing everything including my underwear for tomorrow. I can be such of a blonde at times

Day 25 Ketchikan,,,Land of Much Kitch and Lots of Rain

Today was the first day in which the weather did not cooperate. Rain! Rain!and More Rain! And in the rain I went for a walk to the old part of town and visited Married Mans Trail. This has a bit of history itself in that it was the way the married men of the town snuck into the brothels without their wives and family and friends seeing them. Today it has other uses. The salmon stream is there and there were hundreds of salmon sitting below the bridge waiting to climb up the stream to spawn and eventually die. I looked over the bridge and all you see is salmon, salmon and more salmon. There is an art gallery there that I visit every time I am here because I love the work of this one artist. Well low and behold he was in the gallery and we got to chatting. His work is mainly stained glass and fusion glass which is what I now work with from time to time. His name is Marvin Oliver and if you want to see some of his work you can go to www. marvinoliver.com . He showed me slides of some of his works and they were phenomenal. He has a work that he created for Seattle Childrens’ Hospital that weighed 7 tons when it was completed. It was one of the many whales that he creates in his other artwork. I must say the conversation was wonderful and I learned a lot from him about fusion glass. I may have even found the solution to the problem we were encountering back at the college studio. Time sure is flying and I am wishing I could stay longer. Maybe Alaska will be somewhere in my future even though the friars have never been up here before it sure would be a nice place to live, I have already picked out my island but the only problem is that it is under water 60% of the day!

Day 24 Farewell to Juneau

We arrived in port today and was greeted by one of the warmest days of the year for Alaska and for our cruise. It was 71 in downtown. As I continue this last leg of my month long cruise I am spending much of my time doing the typical tourist routine of looking for a good bargain. I wish I could bring a piece of Alaska home to everyone but it just not possible. Instead you will have to settle for looking at my many photos to see what you are missing and believe me there are lots of them to share. While were in port today a huge eagle kept flying around the ship and there were sea lions playing in the waters off the port side (that’s the left side of the ship in case you were wondering!) and they were putting on quite the show for the passengers. I can’t imagine anyone being unhappy with this cruise. We have had fantastic weather and many wonderful sights and sounds. I was so tempted and almost bought my Sarah Palin in 2012 NOT candy bar but decided I shouldn’t show my political activism for the next election quite yet. There were some humorous sayings on the candy bars like Sara Palin I can see Russian from my Igloo and Sarah Palin Never Again to name just a few. I leave the Capital of Alaska knowing that it is the only capital of any state that the only way you can get to it is by air or boat. No roads lead to Juneau. Now there is a new fact for your memory bank!

Day 23 The Wind, The Sun and Glacier Bay

Well in case you think I am making all of this up and I am not really in Alaska, I have included a picture of me in front of the Margorie glacier. The weather today was phenomenal. After passing through dense fog in the morning the sun was completely out when we arrived at the glacier. The temperature was a heat wave. It was in the high sixties. We had the usual polar bear plunge when the temp was about 52 degrees outside and believe it our not there were about 40 people who jumped into out unheated pool. Some people will do anything for a free bottle of champagne or a chance to play $50.000 BINGO. The cruise is soon ending and I have yet to see the Comedian who lives across the hall from me come out of his cabin. His name is Barnaby. Don’t have a clue what his last name is but he looks like he went to Woodstock and never came home. His act is a combination of magic and juggling with humor tossed in between.

Tomorrow it is on the big city of Haines. Population 800 during tourist season and 200 the rest of the time. It is home to the Alaska State fair so I will get a chance to share in that adventure. As I cruise along it really is like being at home. I love meeting all kinds of new people but I also love the crew and staff. I am treated like I have been with them for months. Oh wait it minute is has been almost a month. Everyone takes care of each other. The talent is phenomenal and one of the actresses made her debut at paper Mill Playhouse in NJ. Her name is Julie Bell and what a voice she has. One of the other cast members was in the Broadway cast of RENT and in fact when I went to see it a few years ago he was in the cast. It truly is a small world.

Day 22 At Sea Visiting the Ivy League of College Fjords

Today we just sail around in the ocean for a little white until we get to College Fjords which as you know is a collection of glaciers founded by John Muir. What was unusual this time around was the amount of sea life we have seen. There were whales and sea lions all around us for much of the trip. I even saw a whale jump completely to the surface but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me. As the days count down I don’t know how I will feel about leaving the ship. A part of me cant wait to get off but another side of me says its so nice seeing everything I should stay, I have been scouting out a few deserted island in case I should desire to retire up here some day.. Alwayshad a dream of an A-frame house in a wooded area with a fireplace and all glass widows and a basset hound as a canine companion sitting by the fire and just enjoying all God has given me. Maybe that’s why I am a Franciscan. If I realize anything on thie trip it is just how wonderful our God has been in creating all the things of this universe and how we are charged with taking care of it. It reminds me of the yoga course I took in Vancouver years ago in which our teacher taught a first people’s song, Its lyrics were simple while its message was then and still is very powerful. It goes Hey Yonga Gho Yonga Hey Yonga Gho which simply transliterated means “The earth is our mother, we must take care of her.’ As we get through the disaster if the oil spills and others like it I am reminded of the wisdom of this simple hymn and the canticle of creature of St Francis. Let us give praise for all of God’s wonders everyday. I will stop preaching now and enjoy!

Day 21: Seward....The end is Near

It is hard to believe that I have been at sea and in Alaska for 21 days. Each day is just as interesting as the last. You will see from the pictures just how small these towns are. Seward’s main street is only about five block long. In the distance is Marathon mountain and believe it or not they actually run a marathon to the top of the mountain and back. I can’t even walk up a flight of stair without being out of breath much less running a marathon up a mountain. As the day goes on the ship empties out and fills back up. By the time we depart there will be another 1200 guests on board. It is amazing how fast the crew is able to turn the ship around.. As I sit in my cabin typing this I thought you might like to see what my cabin is like and what just one of my meals is like so I am including a couple pictures from my cabin and the duck l’orange from dinner.

Also as I sit here I listen to another rehearsal of the shows. My room is over top the stage so I get to hear every show 3 times a day. Who knows, I may be added to the show. Oh I forgot I already get to go on stage and sing with the crew and cast every week. I maybe the only priest aboard HAL ship that does it but I really do enjoy being a part of the crew and I knew the song we sing so it became pretty easy to join in with everyone else. This afternoon’s mass had about 25 people and later on I have the crew mass. I really enjoy the crew mass because the like to sing and they participate. We walk by faith as they say!

Day 20 At Sea The end of another week

Today we are at sea getting ready to go to the Fjords. Here we visit such places as Harvard, Yale, Columbia but no Princeton. The weather is again fantastic. It rained and we were shrowded in fog all day but when we got to the Fjord the sun cam out and the vie was fantastic. Tonight os my last dinner with my international dinner guest. We had a really fin time and were joking with each other all through dinner. We all got invited to next years cruise when our new friend turns 77 on 7/7.

the dining room staff wow us with yet another great dinner AND a little entertainment on the side doing the napkin ballet and tossing our salds in a very unique way. As we ate dinner we had the college fjords in tha backgroun and what a view to see. It was truly a pleasure enjoying our dinner conversation each night where we briefed each other on what we saw or did during the day. Tommorow they are all going seperate ways. One goes to Edmondton, two go to Voctoria and two drive through the rest of Alaska going way up North as they say.