I don't think I've ever been away from blogging for so long. We really didn't have any internet access to speak of the whole time we were away, and it's taken me a week to get myself reoriented to being home. A lot has gone on.

Our sister-in-law lost her courageous battle with cancer right before we returned from our trip to Alaska. Tracy was home just two days and then flew to Phoenix where her memorial service was held on Saturday. A dear friend also passed away last week, and I attended his funeral yesterday. Both died far too young, but we are relieved to have their suffering and pain come to an end.

While we were away the contractor was able to gut our kitchen. We have just a sink now, and that's how it will be for several weeks to come. The finish date is the beginning of October. We had gotten everything out before we left, but have spent some time this week, reorganizing and moving boxes so we can cook and eat in the dining room. Our microwave, toaster oven, and grill (on the patio) seem to work just fine. It's good that it's happening in the summer when we can grill easily.

So, Vancouver, Victoria, cruising, and Alaska . . . It was all fabulous! We'd never been on a cruise, and someone on the ship told us we'd have two reactions when it was over:  Why had we waited so long? Where will we go next? We're not ready to plan another one quite yet, but it wouldn't take much to convince me to go on a cruise again. The service was superb, the food excellent, and there was always too much to do. On the several days we had "at sea" much of our time was spent on our balcony, looking at glaciers, and the gorgeous scenery. I took, as always, far too many photos to ever print or use, but photography was a bit tricky since nearly all of it happened from a bus, a train, or a boat. Not the best circumstances for great photography. At the last minute I decided not to take my tripod, and I'm glad, as I don't think there would have been many occasions for using it. I've sorted through the nearly 2,000 photos (just mine, not Tracy's or our friend's!) and eliminated all the awful ones and duplicates, but there are many, many more to delete. I did crop a few so I could post them today.

Here's a look at the atrium on the Island Princess. The boat was beautiful and our stateroom was lovely.

We chose wonderful excursions. There will be more about them later, but one of my favorites was the photography excursion in Juneau to Mendenhall Glacier and Auke Bay for whale watching. We were able to hike up to Nugget Falls. This was probably the nicest day (weather-wise) we had during the trip.

In Talkeetna, we took a river raft trip down the Talkeetna River. Here are the four of us before we left for the trip. Although it rained prior to our trip, and after our trip, we lucked out and got a dry ride.

In Denali, we opted to extend the wildlife tour from four hours to eight hours, and what a good decision that was. Most of the beautiful scenery and all the wildlife was spotted after we would have turned around on the first tour. We saw lots of grizzly bears and caribou as well as moose, a wolf, a porcupine, and Dall sheep. These guys were pretty close to the road, so getting a decent shot from the bus was a bit easier.

I'll be working on catching up with all your blogs in the next week, but it will take me awhile. The number of posts in my Google Reader account is kind of scary!