At College Fjord

Well, I know some of you are anxiously awaiting word on the cruise thing. Without wasting any time I’ll get right to the meat – I loved it! Can you believe it!

Two issues concerned me.

Issue #1 – Do I really have to dress up for a formal dinner two times?

Yes, but I found out that few guys are packing tuxedos these days. I got by just fine with a sports coat and tie like half of the other males. Some of the older men didn’t even go that far, wearing a wrinkled shirt and maybe a tie about 30 years past prime. This confirms a theory – you reach an age when you do pretty much what you darn well please and dare anyone to question you. (I’m not that old – yet).

Issue #2 – Do I really have to sit at the same table with the same people each night? What will I say? I’m an introvert, remember?

OK, it wasn’t that bad. The two other couples at our table were very nice. That’s good. I would have been majorly ticked off if they would have been jerks, whiners or grumpy. They weren’t. However, they made us look like world class conversationalists. Can you imagine THAT! We really didn’t have anything in common and they weren’t too forthcoming with the talk.

Sample conversation:

Us: “So, have you cruised before?”

Them: “Yes.”

Us: Well, did you enjoy it?

Them: “Yes.”

Us: “Do you have any children?”

Them: “Yes.”

After that snapshot of table conversation, I found that I was content to smile, stare over the heads of my table mates and watch glaciers or something like that, or even just water. It wasn’t bad. Plus, the two waiters that we had every night were Mexican and we passed the time having more conversation in 30 second Spanish sound bites in the midst of serving than with the others. Not only that, the food was good – really good!

Here’s the list of what we really enjoyed.

• This was a really cool way of celebrating a 40th wedding anniversary.
• The scenery was out of this world! There is no picture or words to describe what we saw. Really. I was totally blown away. I’m glad we spent the money to have a room with a balcony.
• The entertainment was first class. There was always something interesting to do from music shows, comedians, magicians to lectures on really interesting stuff, including 4 by naturalist Kathy Slamp who was raised as an MK in Alaska.
• Whale watching – not only orcas, but we saw tons (quite literally) of hunchback whales from the ship. We even saw one breech (jump totally out of the water). In Juneau we went with Herv and Merv’s whale watching one day in a little boat for only six people. We had an amazing time with several whales surfacing within 20 yards of the boat – about as close as I care to get. Our guide was as amazed as we were. They always see some whales, but not as many or as close.
• We loved walking around the little Alaskan towns of Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway on the three stops our ship made. Did I mention the weather was perfect? Everyone we met talked about how horrible the weather has been this season, until the day we arrived.
• Glacier By and then College Fjord. I have no words. We stood in awe. We saw icebergs calved. The weather was such that we saw everything, even three bears scavaging a dead whale washed up on shore.
• Following the cruise we went on land excursions to Denali Park and McKinley Park. Another wow! On one tour a grizzly bear approached from the right, crossed right in front of the bus and we were able to watch him scoot along for a long time. Shortly after that we saw several caribou including the most mature male (from his antler system) our guide had seen in 20 years. We also saw moose (more than one – mooses? I know it’s not mice, but don’t fully understand why), and other assorted critters. Our guide was out of her mind, crazy excited. She does this tour all season long a couple of times a day and has only seen four bears all season and never up close like this. Seriously, she was goofy-giddy, all smiles and much more excited than even we were. On another tour our van was able to pull up right alongside of a huge black bear feeding on berries (like 6 ft away).

Everywhere we went locals and guides told us that we have had the best weather of the season. They also said we have seen more than just about any other group. At McKinley Park our only slight, selfish disappointment was not being able to see The Mountain, Mount McKinley, Denali (it’s so big it has three names!) in all its glory.

The last morning we sat and watched as clouds threatened to give us a show. Honestly, it was like the mountain was an old time burlesque dancer, teasing by showing just a little bit of herself form time to time.

From there we went to Anchorage to spend the night and next day before flying home late Thursday night. We woke up the next morning to a crystal clear day, looked out the window of our 8th floor hotel room and saw the entire Alaskan Range including McKinley. This was the first day in 39 straight days in Anchorage it had not rained and the first day in two months they had seen the Sun. Yes, it was the day we were there. Yeah, we saw it all!

Here’s what I’m taking away from this. I would have missed this fabulous display of God’s creative genius if I would have not have set set aside my little issues, personalities quirks, likes and dislikes. You might remember that I said this was going to be a streeeeeetch!

Well, I’m glad I stretched, even when it was not comfortable for me. We saw things many people will never see. We saw more in one trip than many see in several trips to Alaska.

Many people, I think, go through life comfortably hidden away in their little bubble. They don’t like change, or stretching, or stepping out beyond their comfort zone. Consequently, they miss out on the fullness and beauty of life that God has for them. How sad.

All year we have had the theme of Grow. I’ m very excited for this Fall because on September 12th we start our next series called Breaking Through Glass Ceilings. It’s all about growth. I suppose you could just sit back in your little bubble, but I would urge you to come and stretch with me. You never know what you’ll see.