Tue 6/29  --  Fairly leisurely morning ... breakfast with E&A, M&D, K&C ... mine was a fruit bowl, orange juice, hot tea and a blueberry muffin ... met the bus about 11:15 am for transfer to train station ... train was 1/2 hour late ... didn't arrive until 12:30 ... the twelve of us had tables for four next to each other ... there was an empty table near and Murphy asked to move there so she didn't have to ride backwards ... lunch was very good ... we sat at a table with Ed and Andi ... I had a chicken pesto sandwich and the other three had cheeseburgers ... back upstairs to our tables ... there was a lot of picture-taking going on with all the awesome scenery although there was no wildlife sightings ... arrived in Talkeetna for our bus transfer ... arrived at the Mount McKinley Wilderness Lodge about 6:45 pm ... Ken and I had dinner with Dick at about 8:15 at the 20320 restaurant ... Kent, Linda and boys were already there and E, A, C, K, & M came in about the time we were finishing ... it had been raining pretty much all day but we were prepared for our walk to the restaurant with rain coat and umbrella ... our waiter was from Willows, CA (not too far from Gridley where we grew up) ... this was his second season here ... Dick gave him a bad time but he was a really good sport 

Wed 6/30  --  Leisurely morning ... passed on breakfast ... Ken sending e-mail and picture to support group friends and to family ... spent from 11 am to about 6:30 in the lodge reading, computering and meeting new friends ...  had lunch in the bar/restaurant w/ K, L & boys ... boys left on Talkeetna bus at 1 pm for their fly-fishing excursion ... had dinner w/ K & L (boys not back from fishing) in the 20320 Restaurant @ 7:30 pm ... heard the boys come in about 10:10 ... next morning Linda said they took the boys to the bar/restaurant on their return because they hadn't had dinner ... E, A, & M went on a plane around Mt. McKinley ... the weather didn't allow a landing on a glacier ... D, C & K went into Talkeetna ... Dick said he came home early - no plane ride for him ... C & K came home about 7:00 and had dinner ... apparently E, A & M were about finished with their dinner and a group invited them to join 'them' for a piece of cake (not sure what they were celebrating) and M shared she had become a great grandmother that afternoon ... Ed saw it in a Facebook posting

Sat 7/3  --  bags out @ 8:30 ... didn't feel like breakfast ... had a breakfast bar ... bus left at 11:00 ... had a short stop at a river and glacier lookout to delay the arrival at the one-way 2 1/2 mile tunnel ... the direction we were headed is available only on the half hour ... we had our turn at 12:30 pm ... the drive through the tunnel takes a little more than 6 minutes ... at the other end of the tunnel is the small town/port of Whittier ... approx 325 residents ... we completed the health questionnaire on the bus and then entered the building with four bus loads of people ahead of us in line ... until we spotted the Elite/Platinum line and we walked to the front of the line and were on the ship before 1 pm ... we found our room and talked to Kim by cell phone ... they were about 1 hour beyond the tunnel ... after settling in a little in our room (no luggage yet) we headed to the Horizon Court for a light lunch ... A, E, C & K stopped by for a couple of minutes as we headed for the ice cream ... we ran into W, L, K, D & C ... Ken went up a deck to take pictures and K, D and C got some lunch ... We all headed to our cabins and only had 45 minutes to organize after luggage and head to the wheelhouse Bar for a cocktail party organized and paid for by Suzy (travel agent) ... how nice ... we then headed to our respective dining rooms for dinner ... for this first night only our group was split up ... K, L, L, W, C, K, M &D to one and K, R, E, A, K, D & C to a different Dining Room ... after dinner we were sent to our muster stations and then spent some time on our balcony watching the sights as we had started the cruise while in the muster station ... Kim and girls joined us for a short while and then ken tried on his tuxedo to be sure it was okay for our first formal night tomorrow night ... after that Ken went to the show in the Princess Theater and I stayed in the cabin to organize our stuff

Sun 7/4  --  Lots of r/W/B on the ship ... people clothing & Princess decorations ... not sure why but I felt exhausted this morning ... we had breakfast in the Horizon Court with Kim & girls. It was hard to find a table ... the five of us had to squeeze in a table for 4 ... Delaney wasn't doing very well - sea sickness ... Kim went to the infirmary and bought some pills ... C & D "sleeping it off"... C's jet lag and D's sea sickness ... relaxed in afternoon ... first formal night ... K & I had picture taken with two different backgrounds before dinner ... were in our official Dining Room with assigned tables ... the 9 Smith families at one and the Myers clan at another ... all the men looked special in their tuxedoes including Wes with his Grandpa's top hat ... the ladies all looked lovely too ... Andi even had a hair cut/style and color for the occasion ... all 15 of us had our pictures taken on the grand staircase ... we had several Smith Family photos taken ... The Smith Family minus L & W went to the Princess Theater for the production "Dance" ... all went back to cabins for an early night

Mon 7/5  --  Breakfast with K & the girls ... Delaney is doing much better today ... back to our cabin for a while ... today is Glacier Bay ... down the gulf of Alaska, past Cage Fairweather (fun name), Icy Point, Astrolabe Point, Cape Spencer  into Glacier Bay ... K & girls came back from swimming just in time to see the huge Margerie Glacier at the top of Glacier Bay ... spent about an hour in front of the Margerie Glacier while the Captain maneuvered  the ship so the glacier was visible to both sides of the ship ... while the port side faced the glacier we watched and watched and although we heard some cracking we only saw a tiny calving but eventually while the starboard side was facing the glacier there was apparently a significant  calving ... as we sailed back down through Glacier Bay we had a good view of Lamplugh Glacier ... had we been situated in a different place on the ship we would have had a sighting of John Hopkins Glacier and Reid Glacier ... we didn't see much as we sailed back down through Glacier Bay ... we hadn't yet had lunch ... met up with Kim in the Horizon Court (D & C had grabbed a quick lunch along with some cookies while we were patiently waiting on our balcony hoping to see some calving) and E, A & M joined us at our table ... joined everyone for dinner ... had a ladies only table at the table for six but Linda and Karen presided over the guy's table ... Linda, Wes and Ed joined K and I in the Princess Theater to see the comedy show then ken and I saw part of the trio (violin, guitar and accordion) present popular classical songs ...  very enjoyable ... we stayed to check out the Karaoke and kept hoping there would be at least one person that would actually sing but after about five non-singers/duets we gave up ... Ken went back to Princess Theater to catch the comedy show thinking the second show might e different but not so

Wed 7/7  --  Juneau ... up at 5:30 am to watch the ship pull into the dock ... didn't leave the ship ... Ken wasn't feeling very well ... mostly hung out in our cabin & balcony & people watched ... saw Ed come on board ... I did spend some time outside the Explorer's Lounge so I could watch activity in the karaoke and did some reading ... of course we didn't miss a meal but I definitely ate more than Ken at breakfast and lunch ... formal night again ... many of us ordered lobster and shrimp and a few ordered beef wellington ... had more smith family pictures taken ... went to the Princess Theater for a hypnotist - she had about 15 volunteers on stage and it was a great show - very interesting ... all of the Smith family was there except Logan and the Myers Clan sat two rows in front of us ... it was definitely the most enjoyable by far ... returned to our cabin early for a good night's sleep 

Thu 7/8  --  Ketchikan ... docked by 9:30 ... decided to pass on breakfast and have an early lunch to prepare for our 1:20 excursion ... didn't do much shopping but did walk into the town to see what was there ... we did remember some of the stores from our 2000 cruise ... in 2000 we were berthed in the 'front row'- just walked off our ship and the shops were right there  -   today there were two ships docked in front o us (Holland America and the Golden Princess) so it was quite a walk down the waterfront ... after lunch we exited the ship and had quite a long walk again to the Aleutian Ballard - it was docked beside the Holland America ship ... the excursion was very good and met my expectations from listening to Clyde, Donna and Dennis's descriptions and watching the video - they pulled in two different crab pots and some prawn pots and anyone that wanted to could have their picture taken holding them ... they pulled in two huge tubs - one with a huge very ugly eel and one with an octopus ... they didn't pass those around! there was also a pretty ugly rockfish ... all during the trip they talked about experiences of being a commercial fisherman and how hard it was and it could be very lucrative financially, or the season could be a total bust where you owed the Captain instead of the other way around ... they worked as independent contractors and not as employees ... the Captain showed his experience as a 21 year old that ended up in the water with two others without survivor's gear or life boat and no time to put out a mayday call ... as a young man he had no belief in God but that day he prayed to the God that he had no relationship with and asked Him to help them ... there was a fisherman somewhere in the area that had a bad morning fishing and instead of waiting until the afternoon as he usually did he felt compelled to go back into port and on his way he discovered the three men ... being an experienced fisherman he and his deck hand were able to get the men into the cabin and take off their wet clothes and warm them with the few blankets and their own coats and took them into port for medical attention ... he obviously never forgot that experience but was never able to find the fisherman to thank him for saving his life ... he had some other inspirational stories to tell and left some of us with some teary eyes ... it was an absolutely wonderful excursion ... we arrived back in our cabin at 5:25 with only five minutes to get dressed for dinner ... we were a little bit late but we made it ... went to the evening show in the Princess Theater and then watched/listened to the end of a Country Western "name that tune" competition while waiting for the group Indigo to play C&W songs ... it was more a ho-down with line dancing lessons and I gave up after a while and returned to the cabin ... Ken returned some time later    

Fri 7/9  --  Ken's BD ... turned our clocks ahead last night and it is 9:45 and Ken is still sleeping .. went to the navigation presentation in the Princess Theater at 11:15 and then to lunch in the Horizon Court .. saw Kim & girls, E&A, C&K and sat at K&L's table as they were finishing up .. the boys joined us a little later .. back to the cabin to pack