Colorado

Our trip to Colorado started with a visit at Council Grove lake with Jon & Tarenda and their boys. Tarenda fixed us breakfast which we enjoyed on the deck looking out on the lake.
Then it was on to western Kansas and an overnight visit with Randall and Michelle. Randall was still recovering from a run-in with a bull, which laid him up for several weeks. He was still hobbling around on crutches when we were there. That didn't keep him from grilling a fantastic chicken feast. We had a great time catching up with them and their family and took off the next morning (our 35th anniversary) to drive through western Kansas and eastern Colorado to Aspen. It was a breathtaking drive over the pass.
We were able to stay at a beautiful condo graciously offered by friends. We had 5 wonderful days there with Dick, Nancy, Emily, Bethany and Lynn ,Jean, Amy, Jesse, and Anna. Our daughter Jessica and her husband Sam joined us mid-week. Daryl and his girls Courtney and Tiffany joined us on Saturday night so they could climb Castle Peak with Bob, Lynn, Anna, and Sam.
We moved our party to Dillon on Sunday and welcomed the rest of Daryl's family, Tomma and Corbin. Tim, Sharon, Kristi, Jon, Kari and Karrisa came in on Sunday night, too. One of the things we did that ended up being the favorite of most of us was a bike ride down from Vail pass.

Alaska is beautiful

I'm not going to give details of each day of the cruise 'cause that would take way too long. I just want to say that this cruise met every expectation I had. The scenery was literally looking at God's creation without any interference by humans.

The first day we visited College Fjord, the second Glacier Bay.






We didn't stop and leave the ship until day 4 when we spent the day in Skagway, AK, an old gold mining town. We did a little hiking or walking around at all the ports, but didn't take any excursions. Day 5 was a stop at Juneau, and day 6 at Ketchikan.

We ended up in Vancouver and spent the day getting up to Grouse Mountain overlooking the Vancouver harbor and the city. Too bad it wasn't a clear day. The view would have been spectacular. As it was with the drizzle and haze it was only fabulous.

This picture was taken by Bob as the ship came into port very early on July 4.

We've been cruising!

I have to admit that I am very intimidated by the thought of actually "writing" anything that someone would want to read. I trust that even though my words don't go together as beautifully as either of my daughters', I will be able to at least describe what we have been doing.

I've wanted to go on a cruise for decades, and it hasn't even been on Bob's list of possibilities. I've been wearing him down, though! With the encouragement of friends, we went online together to look at what was available for Alaskan cruises. It was a fun evening sitting together at my desk playing with the various combinations of cruises and flights to points of embarkation and debarkation. We finally settled on what we thought was all the various pieces and booked the cruise and the flight in early June, just 3 weeks before we left for Alaska. This is called cruisin' on a shoestring!

The only piece of the puzzle that we didn't know was missing was the transportation between airport and dock. When we arrived in Anchorage and were on our way to the hotel via their shuttle, we asked the driver if he also drove their guests to the cruise ship dock. He informed us that it was an hour's drive away and we would have to arrange our own transportation. Thankfully we had arrived the day before our ship left, and we found a shuttle in the Anchorage phone book. No problem! We then took full advantage of being in such a lovely city with beautiful weather by taking a long walk. We discovered the busiest float plane "airport" in the world at a lake nearby. Of course Bob was fascinated watching the planes land and take off.

Bob & Sandie at Frontier Ranch in Colorado, March 2005. 

The Adventure Begins

As we start this year of traveling I'm going to begin a journaling adventure that far surpasses any writing project I've ever attempted. It may not be very good reading, but I'll try to capture what we are experiencing. I'll have Bob post his musings, too. We welcome your comments.