Marriage Advice

My cousin's wedding was supposed to be tomorrow. They had postponed the blessed event a couple of times already, and when they finally had a wedding shower, we were all asked to give advice with our gift.

**I hate this! I don't have marriage advice; I never been married, and, quite frankly, I like it that way.**

So when it was my turn, I was slightly tongue-tied, and idea-less and blurted out, "Well, you shouldn't get married. It's advice I've lived by my whole life, and it's made me pretty happy."

**Not that I have anything specific against marriage, just that I'm unconvinced being married would make me happy. Maybe someday I'll meet someone who I have to been with forever, but it's not happened yet.**

So my advice got some laughs and everyone kind of joked about it. As I was hugging my cousin goodbye and telling him congratulations someone mentioned my advice. He turned to his fiance and said, "Well, you have 6 weeks to decide if you're going to take it." hahahah

Today, she called off the wedding. I am not feeling particularly responsible, because EVERYONE knew something like this was coming, but I'm feeling a little disconcerted.

Skagway, Sitka, College Fjord

In Skagway I went to the top of White's Pass, again the scenery, you just can't believe it's for real.






Sitka was a tender port which means once you're off the ship, you're off. And once you're back on, you're back on. Not technically, but it's such a hassle otherwise. It was also the first day that we had less than 70 degree weather. It started out high 50s and a little chilly, but warmed up later in the day. The raptor center was awesome!






As we entered College Fjord we were at dinner. The waitstaff, they left, went out on deck to take pictures. They told us that they had never seen it so clear, and some of them had been there a dozen times. Again, so blessed by wonderful weather.



Iceberg, Right Ahead!

It's a Whale...A Whale

Juneau. I went on a whale watching excursion and it was fantastic. Whales galore, everywhere we looked. My cruise-mate Elna, who was cruising solo, and I went together and had glorious time. Again, 70 degree weather, lots of whales, eagles, and sea lions, followed by lunch at the Red Dog Saloon. It was a great day.

You can actually see the whale in the foreground, and the blow from another whale in the back.







When I got to dinner that night, a found a miniature road cone on my plate. The story of the stolen road cone and guerrilla art having now become legend.

Alaska

We took the Quick Coach (not so quick) from Seattle to Vancouver where we boarded the ship, got all settled in, and met up with the rest of the travel party, and yes, Carnival still has warm chocolate melting cake on the menu. When they take it off, they will lose me as a customer.

The next day was a sea day, which we spent wandering around, playing trivia games, reading and gazing at the spectacular scenery.


Our first port was Ketchikan. The weather was great low 70's, completely clear. Very picturesque and lovely. I walked all along the creek and then met up with the official tour to go to Totem Bight State Park. It was meh. Our guide had a lot of good stories, but lacked any story-telling ability.

Yelling Pig Ladies and Road Cone Mischief

The vacation was wonderful. We had beautiful weather, and it was pretty much the best vacation ever! WONDERFUL!

We flew into Seattle a day early to meet up with a cousin who lives there. She took us to Pike's Place, lunch at Lowell's (the turkey club is fantastic), where I got yelled at by a ceramic pig lady, (NO PICTURES!). I just thought, "Lady, you're in a stall in the most famous public market in the USA, and last month....last month, I got yelled at by an Amish guy. You, do not scare me."


After we walked through the market we went to a sculpture garden. There is a sculpture there that looks kind of like a giant prehistoric bird, and AL was telling us that someone came in during the night with a miniature replica and a nest that was laid at the foot of the original bird sculpture. It caused a huge controversy and was eventually removed. (I didn't take a picture because I didn't think this bit of guerrilla art would be important). As we walked among giant road cones, I mentioned that we should find a regular road cone and duplicate the previous guerrilla art. I should say here, that I'm all for throwing out ideas like this, but have never been strong on the follow through. AL, however, delights in this sort of mischief, and the end result is:


After leaving us to check in at the hotel and freshening up a bit, we met back up for dinner and wonderful conversation.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there, but especially to mine. Because I could not have asked for a better one!

Pictures

I've got new posts up for each item from The List on 1000 Places to See, and all the photos are up (with some duplicated...Flickr was being finicky) on Flickr.

Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll get new posts up here with some of the funnier (and for us the most memorable) moments of the trip.