Alaska Cruise, 1996

This year for his continuing medical education trip Hugh signed up for a meeting held on a cruise to Alaska. We flew from Charlotte to Seattle to spend a few days before heading to Vancouver. We arrived at SEA-TAC and took the shuttle to our hotel. We were in our room and refreshed from our trip in a matter of minutes. We took off without a plan and just wandered our way to the water's edge. Everyone was gazing upward and we asked why and they said it was a Blue Angels exhibition. We stood and watched, just amazed at how fantastic these pilots are. We made our way on down the hill and before long we were at Pike’s Market. We saw the famous flying fish and stopped for lunch at a local restaurant there. We wandered and shopped our way around the city after making reservations at a great seafood restaurant for the evening. We only had a short visit but we love Seattle. Click here to see Seattle Pictures

The next day we took the bus to Vancouver. It was a fun trip with much to see. We arrived late afternoon and checked into our hotel. We walked around after we checked in and had a nice dinner close by. While we were in the city we rented bikes and road all along the beach roads and in to the outlying areas. We went to see the play Tommy; this was a special treat for Hugh’s birthday! One full day we took a tour to Vancouver Island and Butchart Gardens. We loved the gardens so much and also enjoyed the Empress Hotel in Victoria. When we arrived back in Vancouver we could see our ship. Tomorrow we board. Click here to see Vancouver Pictures

We had an easy embarkation and found that we were able to get unpacked and settled in before the safety drill. We were surprised that one of the other doctors at this conference is someone Hugh knows. Hugh got registered and we made plans for a large table at dinner. We went on top for sail away and it was a beautiful day! On this cruise we had a captain who loves whales and he played whale songs and would slow down the ship for us to photo them. We watched massive icebergs calve and shoot water high into the sky. We saw salmon spawning, took a 15 mile scenic downhill bike ride in Skagway, and Hugh dove in Ketchikan while I climbed a mountain to a beautiful waterfall. In Juneau we booked a seaplane adventure called glacier flightseeing. It was a 6 person plane and we wore headsets to hear the commentary. We took off from downtown and soon saw the remnants of the mining in the area. We flew over 5 different glaciers including the Norris, Hole-in-the -Wall and TAKU. The Juneau ice fields cover 1500 square miles and range from blue pools to deep crevasses. We spent lots of time at the windows or on top if the weather permitted looking for whales, bald eagles, and bears. This was a wonderful trip with a great group of people. /susan Click here to see Alaska Pictures