Category Archives: 2022

In 2015, we spent Christmas on a cruise ship in the Caribbean and had a wonderful time. We thought we would do a repeat, only earlier to help us get in the holiday spirit but still spend the holiday with our family. We booked what would be a great trip on our favorite CruiseLine, Princess. We drove to Fort Lauderdale and stayed overnight to be sure we would be there in plenty of time for the departure.

As usual for Princess, as we departed the port, there was a “sail away” party on the top deck and the Captain used the ship’s horn to play the first couple of bars of the theme song from the TV show, Love Boat. Later in the cruise we realized he did that every time we left a port. Kinda Cool!

The first stop was Princess Cays, Bahamas, which is an island owned and operated by Princess with lots of gift shops and beach. Since most people got off the ship, we decided to stay on board and basically have the ship all to ourselves. ALONE AT LAST!

We were disappointed because the ship was not decorated for Christmas yet and we were looking forward to getting in the spirit of things early in December.

The second stop was the Dominican Republic where we took a sightseeing adventure, and traveled through San Marcos Village and up the rugged trails of Puerto Plata’s highest mountain, at 2,600 feet (792.5 meters), Isabel de Torres. The spectacular views of the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer-one of the province’s most popular landmarks and a smaller-scale version of the iconic monument that overlooks Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Afterwards, we continued on to visit the botanical gardens, a showpiece for native plants and blooms.

We headed back down the mountain to explore the historical core of Puerta Plata, taking in the Plaza Independencia, a central park with Victorian-style designs, pretty gardens and flowerbeds.

Of course, we did our part to add to the economy. Puerta Plata is where we bought a beautiful ring that has a larimar on one side and amber stone on the other. Very unique.

Next was San Juan, Puerto Rico with a walking tour through Old San Juan. This seven-to-ten block area had over 400 restored 16th and 17th century Spanish colonial buildings. We stopped to prepare and eat a lunch of mofungo, a traditional Puerto Rican dish made with yucca. We walked to Quincentennial Square, which overlooks the Atlantic from atop the highest point in the city. Some of Old San Juan’s finest landmarks are its churches. Our walk included a stop to admire the great architecture of San José Church, San Juan Bautista Cathedral, and Cristo’s Chapel.

From here we traveled to St Kitts, one of our favorite Carribean islands. Since we have been there so many times, we just did our own thing with no planned excursion.

When we left St Kitts, it was dusk, and our sister ship was leaving at the same time creating this beautiful image of the ship all lit up at night.

Our last port was St Maarten and a visit to the Dutch side and a boutique rum factory with an unbelievable number of flavors to choose from at such a small factory. We learned they ship their products to the US, and they are sold at Total Wine shops.

On one of the sea days, we watched a food demonstration where these culinary geniuses created these masterpieces.

On the last sea day, they finally broke out some of the Christmas decorations. Well, you know what they say, “Man makes plans and God laughs”.

Our family suffered a loss this year when our son-in-law’s mother went home to be with her parents. Although she was in California when she passed, her ashes were taken to her beloved Hawaii for a traditional Hawaiian service. The entire service was steeped in ceremony from the beginning when the urn containing her ashes was taken down the aisle in a procession led by men blowing a conch shell horn followed by her husband and then the rest of the family, to the end when all the women performed a moving hula to the song written by the last reigning Queen when she was taken out of office. The service was held in the oldest Christian church in Hawaii where she and her husband were married.

Ward did a beautiful job eulogizing his mother and all her earthly accomplishments..

The Hula performed by all the women led by the Hawaiian Minister.

Everyone was comfortably dressed including traditional leis.

Sightseeing was not on the agenda, but we went to the Punchbowl cemetery and placed some of leis on the graves of Chasmin’s parents.

The Royal Palace where the Queen was held until the United States government took over Hawaii.

Aloha.

Flowers in Ponce Inlet

Pretty homes in Ponce Inlet

Restaurants we liked

Other pictures

On Wednesday morning at 6 am, two rangers from the Glacier Bay National Park boarded our ship just as we entered approximately 45 miles of bay leading to Margerie Glacier. This is required of all cruise ships entering the park and they narrate your trip up the Bay for several hours. The park is made up of 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers, forests, and waterways and is considered a highlight of the Inside Passage. At one point, the entire bay was glacier, and the melting ice is responsible for all the water in the bay. Unlike glaciers in the contiguous U.S., some of these glaciers are retreating and others are advancing.

Notice the blue hue of the ice. Spectacular!

The icebergs floating in the water are chunks of ice breaking off the glacier, called “calfing” and serve as a resting place for wildlife. In fact, we were told that baby seals are placed on these icebergs by their mothers until they develop enough blubber to withstand the cold glacial water temperatures.

Later that same day, we boarded a smaller whale watching boat that took us to a part of Icy Strait where whales are known to feed. All the whales we saw were Humpbacks.

We spent over an hour watching whale after whale blow air through its hole and then dive for a fish dinner. Sometimes, we just saw the back, sometimes, the tail when they dove deeper, and on a few occasions, we actually saw them breach like in the first picture. One thing we learned that we had never experienced before was the breath of a whale. We had turned the boat into the wind and suddenly there was this terrible odor in the air. The guide told us it was the breath of the whale, almost a belch letting out the air in his stomach where all these fish are rotting.

Glad I’m not a whale!

The day after Juneau, we docked in Skagway and since our planned excursion didn’t start until after lunch we decided to strike out on our own and check out the town. Skagway was the starting point for many of the gold seeking miners to head into the mountains looking for gold. It was also where they returned when they found nothing. There were more bars and brothels in Skagway than permanent residents and the town retains its small-town charm away from port, but in the immediate port area nothing but souvenir shops.

After lunch we were met by our guide to head off to a sled dog encounter way up in the hills where the temperature was at least 15 degrees cooler. Did I mention in Skagway port it was in the 90’s.

Once we arrived at base camp for the training facility, we were loaded on to these monster trucks modelled after WWII German vehicles used to move troops.

At the camp, there were four teams of dogs hitched to sleds with wheels. We then became the “load” our team was carrying during their summer training for the Winter races they would be competing in. At least two of the dogs in our team had actually competed in the Iditarod and so had our driver. These training sleds go about 25 miles per hour which seems much faster when you are sitting on them, but the dogs are trained for endurance not speed.

Then came the best part, the puppies. There were two litters of puppies. One set of five, were 3 months old and extremely loving and affectionate.

The second set was seven puppies 3 weeks old and a very exhausted mother.

After the partying was over and we had a day or two to get things together, we began our graduation trip with Rebekah and Kyle driving up the coast of California with stops along the way to our eventual destination of Seattle and a cruise ship to Alaska. The first stop was in San Simeon to see the summer home of William Randolph Hearst the media mogul. Years ago, when we had the whole family in North Carolina, we took them all to see the Biltmore home in Asheville and we knew the kids would find this just as spectacular. At its peak, the campus was 250,000 acres with its own private zoo. Hearst did a great deal of entertaining here and often had movie stars and politicians of all stripes as guests.

The houses and all the surrounding designs were the joint ideas of Hearst and the first woman architect of renown from San Francisco, Julia Morgan. She was one of the most prolific and important woman architects ever to work in the United States. It’s estimated by some, that it would cost Five Billion dollars to duplicate the property in modern times, and that is before the current supply chain issues and costs.

The opulence is staggering.

The next day we stopped in San Francisco to take a boat trip under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island. Very windy and slightly chilly while much of the country was having a heat wave.

Leaving San Francisco, we headed to Oregon and the Avenue of Giants.

Hard to believe trees can grow this big and live this long.

Our final stop before getting on the cruise ship was Seattle and the famous Space Needle built for the 1962 World’s Fair whose theme was “The Age of Space”. Built with a futuristic design, it was recently upgraded to include a rotating restaurant and a second glass floor observation deck. The tower provides a 360-degree view of area including Mount Ranier in the background.

The cruise ships you see in the picture are at the pier where we boarded our cruise.

Right next to the needle was the Chihuly Garden and Glass Gallery featuring the glass art of Dale Chihuly which exceeded our expectations. Every time we turned a corner into a new room we were blown away by the spectacular artistry of the glass. Remember, pictures never capture the total impressiveness of the reality.