Google now has map searching at http://maps.google.com. It is in beta but seems to work well and the maps are very nice. I just typed in my address in the search bar and it took me to a close-up map of my house. There are options to get a link to that page (the URL has a lat/long in it) with options to get driving directions as well.
Greg infected us with this game. I don’t know if there is an official name but the basic purpose is to “collect” all the US license plates in a year. The first of a group to get them all wins.
I’ve often wanted help with recognizing a strange tag when I couldn’t quite read the state name (maybe because the owner put one of those annoying tag holders that covers part of the tag). Well, I found this page that contains License Plates of the United States of America. Enjoy!
The cruise/tour to Alaska was everything we thought it would be and more. It was most definitely the best vacation Denise and I have ever taken. So much so that we have already started dreaming about taking another cruise in a few years (maybe after Alana is through college).
I’ve also decided to upload these articles on my web page and add a link to the blog template so they will be easier to access in the future. Over time I may add more pictures (now that I have all the film pictures developed $$$). I’ll post links in my blog if I make major updates to any of the entries.
I hope you have enjoyed vicariously taking the along cruise with us. If any of you decide to take such a trip, feel free to ask loads of questions and I’d be happy to share a look at any of the other 200+ pictures that I did not post to this blog.
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We disembark today. Our vacation is almost over. We sat our luggage outside our stateroom before 6:45am and leave for breakfast about 7:00am. After breakfast, we went to the Piano bar to wait for our bus to the airport. To facilitate orderly disembarkment, the passengers were being called in the order of the times of their airline flights. After a short wait, our number was called and we headed for the exit. As was fitting, we passed Fran, Suzie, Ben, and Bruce as we left the ship (we had met them on our journey to Alaska, and we left them on our journey home). After a final bus trip to the airport, we claimed our luggage and proceeded to check-in. Inside the airport were several LONG lines. Denise went and found the American Air queue which was much shorter. After answering all the security questions and checking in, our luggage was tagged but given back to us. We had to take it through customs before we could put it in the luggage handling system. Since we had just arrived in Canada and were headed for a US city, we had to officially enter Canada and leave it in the airport. We also had to declare anything we had bought during our stay in Canada (all of an hour, in line), stand in line to purchase a Vancouver Airport Improvement Fee certificate and then stand in another line to give somebody our Vancouver Airport Improvement Fee certificate, stand an a line to have our passports checked, stand in another line to go through security, and then FINALLY walk to the international concourse to find our flight. All that took almost 3 hours. |  |
grabbing a snack and spending the last of the Canadian money we had brought, we sat down at our departure gate to wait for our flight. We flew to St. Louis where we changed planes and then on to RDU. Neither Denise nor I were “randomly selected” on the return trip. Denise’s dad was circling the airport waiting for us. A short trip back to Cary and our adventure was over. Now we just have to unpack, wash clothes, and go back to work tomorrow. Back to the real world — bummer!
After all the excitement of our last ports, we decided to just spend the day in port on the ship. The town of Ketchikan was mainly a shopping zone and we had not signed up for any of the out-of-town excursions.
As we neared port, I went on deck to watch the captain dock this ship. Ever tried to parallel park a cruise ship, well out captain did a wonderful job. I never felt anything. (Yes, he put the ship between the two ships below).
From our stateroom, I could see took this shot of the main street sign welcoming folks to Ketchikan
Check out those stairs! Good thing they have a tram that takes folks up that hill.
Having the ship to our selves, we had a very relaxing day reading, visiting the different lounges, library, game room, pool area, etc. We attended a line dancing class lead by some of the Statendam Cast members (i.e. professional dancers) which was very good.
Dinner was formal again and we again had the Hotel Manager and his wife as guests at our table
Tonight was the night Denise had been waiting for all the cruse: The Dessert Extravaganza! There were more calories per square foot that I have ever seen in my entire life
As you can see, the desserts were not just good for eating, but were also good for looking out (Yes, that is a white chocolate lion and a watermelon carved into a flower. It the kitchen staff had been working all day on this masterpiece but the passengers made short work of it.
After desert, we went to the Crow’s Nest lounge to dance off a few calories (yea right!) and ended up winning another bottle of champagne.