Alaska Cruise

 

Wow, what a fun fast week!!

Getting here was unbelievably awful but since the bad start, it’s been AMAZING!!

First of all…weather…perfect! I carried my winter jacket all the way to northern Alaska and Canada and never even put it on!! Even more…no rain all week!! Sunny and beautiful every day!!  Even T-shirt weather most days!! We even went swimming and hot tubbing several times!!

Sunday we made it to the ship without incident…took a shuttle and got in pretty quickly and easily. We got a wheelchair and special treatment due to gpa. Dad with his cane and Diane as well…we got the handicapped special treatment.

Our room was nice…smaller than our last cruise (no couch) but comfy and well-kept. Our dude did up our room twice a day!!  We had an obstructed view but it was ok. I probably wouldn’t do that again.  It did help me to not want to be in the room too much which was good since we were wanting to do stuff with the family.

Sunday we enjoyed the buffet and checked out our rooms and the ship. We went to a comedy show in the evening and he was actually clean and funny. I love comedy shows!!

Monday was at sea day. We were able to have meals together and hang out. There was another comedy show and we stayed up late playing Qwix and golf. We hung out with Michael and Wendy…everyone else went and did their own thing.

Tuesday was Ketchikan Alaska. We watched the lumberjack show and shopped around the town a little. The show was really interactive and fun!! We found a couple of shirts and some fuzzy slippers.  We took a public transit shuttle and took a loop around the town…which was free and actually pretty cool!! (We were trying to get to Walmart but took the wrong shuttle!! Oops! No Walmart for us!!)

Wednesday was Juneau Alaska. We rode a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about two hours to hike around and explore the glacier. So beautiful!! Then we rode a tram 1500 feet (I think?!?!) up the side of a mountain and had a beautiful view of the city.

Thursday we went to Skagway and rode a train for about two hours up a mountain. Reminded me of the Heber creeper. So much spectacular scenery. Also so many people!!  We were able to walk around Skagway afterward and found Dr Pepper…there was none on the ship and all our people really wanted it .

We found a store that was like a little Costco…they had tons of products from Costco they were selling.

I bought a couple of kid's books to add to my collection about Alaska and the train.

We had about a day and a half at sea after Skagway until we made our way to Victoria Canada. At Victoria, we went to Butchart Gardens which is so nice.  

The week kind of runs together in my head but we were able to go to several comedy shows, jazz bar, theater production rock opera…so cool!! And singing. 

There was a dude that told us all about wildlife. We saw some whales and sea lions over the side of the ship.

We’re currently on a shuttle getting ready for a long day at the airport.

CONTINUED: 

A couple more Travel stories:

We were scheduled to leave Seattle at 6 pm Sunday evening and arrive in St. George at midnight. Shortly after arriving at the airport, Eldon received a text that the flight was postponed for two hours. We knew that would mean that we would probably not have time to make our connecting flight home. 

We rushed when we got to Seattle but missed the 11:35 am flight by minutes. I don’t know if there was room anyway but we were too late to even try. 

The next flight was 1:30 pm.  Diane and I went and tried to get us on standby … 7 of us… the lady said to come back in 45 minutes. We went to the help desk line. 

(First, we tried a couple of gate agents…they all said no they couldn’t help us)

There was only one agent assisting and a pretty decent-sized line. The poor lady must have had a tough one at the front because we stood there for about 45 minutes before the line moved again. A second and third agent finally came.

Unfortunately, Diane got on the phone and her app to try to fix things herself and accidentally booked herself for Monday at 1:30 pm instead of Sunday. (In her defense she asked for Sunday and the computer flipped the dates). By the time the agent answered the phone her seats were gone.

When I finally got everything arranged and called to tell everyone to report for the flight…they had all gone to find lunch. Ahhhh!!!

Luckily Andy was babysitting the bags and was able to get them all to come back quickly!!!

I was able to get the other five of us on standby and by the miracle of miracles we ALL got on the flight. We were all over the plane but we were all flying!! A tender mercy!!

Turns out the flight we were supposed to take was delayed so much that had we not been on the earlier flight we would have been stranded in slc overnight again. 

A special thank you to the guardian flight angels that made it possible to get home!

When we arrived in SLC we missed the connection by about 7 minutes…seriously !!! ( there was about a 20-minute delay because a girl threw up on her way into the plane…poor GPA had to sit next to her and she threw up a couple more times in the flight…it will be a miracle big he doesn’t get the flu!!!). Instead of getting home by 6, we got home at midnight.

That did allow us time to eat smash burgers and hang out for about 6 hours together!!!

(As we were all leaving to catch the flight to St. George they called Eldon back and he had to take a separate shuttle. Thank goodness he made it!!

Another little tender mercy:

Eldon, Diane, Gpa, Andy, and I all came over together on our edge to the airport last week. We loaded up with all our luggage and tried to exit the lot tonight…expecting to pay about $70. When we tried to get out the machine said to read the bar code reader…only there was none. In the Sun it disappeared and was completely white!!! Oh no!!

There was a call button for help and we got super lucky. We explained the situation and he said…I’m gonna help you out! And the gate was raised and we didn’t have to pay at all!!

06/18/23 Sorry you will have to deplane

 Aaagh!!! We’re on our way to Seattle. We made it as far as SLC and had a four-hour layover. We got settled on the plane to Seattle and somehow I managed to get an empty next to me!! I put on a movie I’ve been wanting to see. The storied life of Aj Firky. 20 minutes delay. No biggie.  Then the dreaded…I’m sorry to announce that the pilot cannot make it and you will all need to deplane and reschedule your flight. Noooooooo!!! 

The line was horrendous. Eldon and Diane managed to get in line earlier than us and we were supposed to get next. Seriously…next…when they announced we had to get in a different line.

Our luggage was a problem that took two hours to resolve…actually three for Diane’s luggage and she didn’t even get hers back until the next morning.

Kade Christensen - Physical Therapist
Met on the plane - works with Starr Cooley

Dad and Laura’s checked bags were sent to Seattle so they only had what they packed in their carry-on…which was not much!!

We were given hotel vouchers…guess what? Got Eldon and Diane and Dad reservations at one hotel and then it said it was fully booked!!! 

But Diane was having extra luggage issues so we kept Dad only he didn’t have a room. So we shared ours.

We ordered Lyft and waited and just before the driver was to arrive we got a cancellation notice!!!! And the Lyft voucher disappeared. And it’s like 2 am.

What the heck?!?!

Thankfully a new voucher eventually came in and we ordered another lift. Unfortunately, he was coming from Kearns and would be another 26 minutes. We finally made it to the hotel at 2:30 and all tucked in by 2:45 am.

We first got flights flying us from SLC to Vegas to Seattle. No.

Then they booked us for 9:45 pm Saturday. Ugh.

We decided to present ourselves for the 3:30 pm flight and ask for standby.  And miracle of miracles …all 5 of us got on!!!!!

And we just barely landed!!! It’s 4:30 in Seattle!! They are an hour's time difference.

We had some time spent on the phone with our motel…apparently they canceled us when we no-showed last night. Charged us for the night but then canceled the second night.. But after going the rounds I think we’ve got it figured out.

I’m hoping to have some really good stuff to report as we continue our venture!!

So I thought I was done…but wait! There’s more!! Haha

We got to the hotel and there was a several-hour problem. Diane and Ben had a room…only Ben gave his to Dad. So Ben and we had no room. There was a lot of going the rounds and we ended up in a nasty hotel next door with two double beds and Ben and Laura ended up with two doubles at the same hotel as everyone else. Ugh!! We all paid in February in full!!!

We got everything settled at about 8 and then at about 9, we got dinner. We played some games and hung out in the kitchen area for a couple hours. Then shuttled back to the airport to get Grandpa's lost luggage. 

It’s now midnight (1pm our time) and we’re just settling into bed. 

The shuttle is at 10 tomorrow to board our ship!!!!

John 14:15…if you love me keep my commandments…that’s Dad's thought for you.

Grandpa says to look up trembling Zeezrom. Great story!! 

My thought is  Someday, you do not know when you will be driving down a road. And someday, you do not know when, he, or indeed she, will be there. You will be loved because, for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone.

It’s from my movie…and choosing to let love in your life.

Love you Katie girl!!

06/11/23 Busy week

 Super busy week as I worked in the court all week. Melissa (the new girl that replaced Mindy) is on a cruise to Mexico and so I just moved my office upstairs and hung out with Ahriya (pronounced Are - e - ya) all week.  She is still pretty new and learning all of court from ground 0. She is 27 years old and recently got her marriage annulled because her return missionary, temple marriage husband got into porn, drinking, gambling and exploring women on the internet. She is really beautiful and also a return missionary and it's just tough cause she did everything you're supposed to and it just didn't go as planned. I think it was official last Wednesday or Thursday when I was working up there and she came out crying and gave me a big long hug. She is really sweet and we had a great week together.  That was certainly not what she thought would be happening at this stage in her life. 

Since I was upstairs all week, Jeremy came up each day to say hi, check on things, give me assignments, etc and then I wouldn't see him again most days. We were fortunate that it was a light week down there (Thad took off 2 of the days so that helped!) and while I had some work to do, I was able to contribute most of my work week to the court and training Ahriya. 

Dad fell and scraped up his knee a week or two ago and we're still working on getting him healed up. 

Wednesday we went to a new chicken restaurant down by Hilton Drive (Bluff Street) in St George. It's called the "Crack Shack." (cause you crack an egg...chickens...)  Sounds like a drug house, but whatever! haha. B&L brought Dean - who turns 4 this week - and of course dad and GPA were there and we had a nice visit. Dean was talking my head off (haha!) It's like he all of the sudden can talk and he's full of things to say. Super cute. Taylor and Kennedy and their baby came towards the end and visited a bit too. 

We did tie dye Wednesday night with the girls. Girls Camp is this week but I am not planning to go since it's Thursday - Saturday and we leave on our cruise Friday evening. I could go for 24 hours but I just think it's too much right before a big trip. Also B&M are coming down and possibly on Thursday (could be Friday) but I'd like to spend time with them as well. I'm super sad and so are some of the girls but I am planning to miss it. So I'm trying not to know too much about it so I don't be too sad! 

I ordered off of a new chinese website called TEMU where you get really cheap things and they steal your information. At least that is the word I heard AFTER I placed my order. I got 10 items -- 5 dresses, 4 blouses and a pair of sneakers for $60. SO it may be true what they say! 

I deleted the app right after I ordered but maybe it wasn't fast enough. I am happy to report I found a super cute dress for me for Holly's wedding so it was a good spend for me! (unless bad things happen later!)

There was some nasty post about Dr. Brown terrorizing children when you go back for dental work. Did you have any awful experiences?  I thought you liked Dr. Brown. Holly says she did (like him).  I was just wondering. 

AJ & Becca came over and swam and had dinner Friday and Saturday and they are coming tonight for dinner. He sold his first house this week and may have two or three more good prospects. (Course nothing is done until it's done!) but he is feeling like it was a good week and he is happy with his new job so far. 

I painted some cute rocks instead of pickleball Saturday morning (cause everyone is out of town this week and AJ had a cold and also didn't want to play). 

And I made a beautiful cheesecake. 

I am reading a book called, Through the Window of Life...A vision of the glorious future that awaits the Lord's Followers. It's about a lady who "died" in 1999 and while she was dead she spent time with Christ who showed her the window of life -- basically she was able to see the future unfold. (her future?)  Anyway...it talks about all these different things that will happen in the future...a pandemic, flooding, the government making everyone have chips implanted in their hands to get food, a foreign army coming and doing bad things to people and people having to flee their homes...I'm not done yet...but some of it sounds pretty accurate to what's been going on in the world and it was published in 2006 (before COVID).  

I don't know how accurate it is but the underlying message -- which is more important than the details of the misery coming our way   - is that those who follow Christ and have faith in him -- while they won't be spared necessarily - will have peace and guidance and the Holy Ghost prompting them what they need to do so that they might avoid some of the hardships out there.  That seems to be key - remaining worthy to hear Him so that we will know what we need to do. 

It's a good message that is worthy of hearing even if the rest of the story is or is not accurate. 

A quote from the book: These last days are a time for celebration, not a time for fear. The Lord is coming! What a wonderful time it is! Let's not fear! As you read this book, you will learn that fear is not of the Lord. Fear can actually cause greater harm if you succumb to it. 

Love you Katie! I'll send pictures in a little bit. Off for my Sunday morning walk and then ward council.