Holland America Cruise 08/23/10 through 09/06/10

Check out the summary which is the last posting. Images are inserted from first to last for each article. Page down to skip the text just to view the images. We have extensive editing yet to do on our journal for next few weeks. Images are inserted in front of each article topic and above each image is a brief description.
NOTE: Except for the map and ship, you can click on any image for a larger view.

We have examined and selected the "story telling" images that are samples of all photos taken. As we examine images from the larger collection, we will upload them to a photo sharing site and announce the posting here. Glaciers and flowers were the main attractions at the ports. It is almost worth the trip to see the flowers in Alaska. The glacier's are awesome to say the least.

Of the places we visited, the town of Sitka was our favorite. The best view of a glacier was in Juneau. Homer was keen for fisherman, but not for tourists.

A side note:
We learned that many shop owners and those making a living from the tourist are "snowbirds" that move to the lower 48 in the winter, although some of the coastal towns do not get as cold as we might think.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Skagway to Anchorage


Glacier Bay 8/28
(Note that clicking on images produces a larger view)

first glacier and closest to ship






Snow capped Surrounding mountains were most impressive
image zoomed in with 50x lense

standard view without zoom lens


The second glacier from a distance
image zoomed in with 50x lense


image zoomed in with 50x lense

Actual view from ship without using 50x zoom lense
on video camera:




Skagway 8/27
Larie admiring the blosoms Skagway Walkway

Flowers up close in Skagway
Downtown Skagway




>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

8/27 to 8/30:
8/27 Skagway
8/28 Glacier Bay
8/29 At Sea
8/30 Anchorage
Thursday 082710 follows:
11:12 PM 8/27/2010

We took city shuttle to the ship after Larie made an

appointment with the hair dresser at 1:45.

12:33 AM 8/28/2010
We walked to the hair dresser then returned to the ship on the

same city bus.
3:29 AM 8/28/2010

At 3:00 pm we attended afternoon tea. Ship will remain in

port until 8:30 so I thought I would upload Sitka Notes to

Cruise Blog.

Hope everyone is well and all is well. Lord Willing, we will

return home on Wednesday September 8th. I am in Library where

eight internet computers are available, but I am using my

netbook as my notes are recorded on it and I need to open my

blog and make entries for Sitka while the ship is docked in

Skagway. Earlier I found a better wireless connection on deck

8. So I will proceed up to that area and see if the signal

strength is stronger there than here which shows four bars

instead of five. the speed is still shown as 64 bps. At stern of ship on Lido

deck the signal strength is 2 out of five bars. I will try

observation room at the stern on level 8 and test signal

strength again.
So I proceeded toward the stern on deck 8 and found 5 bars in

the swimming pool area. I then proceeded to deck 9 in the

observation room with 180 degree view and derided this is the

best place on the ship for connection with the internet. It

is quite and signal strength is excellent.

4:09 AM 8/27/2010
19 minutes 1st
message re balance see internet manager.
4:48 AM 8/27/2010
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
72 minutes balance
110
72
19
38 twice first login experienced blocks to logging in to blog.
not using time for e-mail...responded to Salvador's comment.
57 used
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

6:52 PM 8/27/2010
We are entering glacier bay and expect a lecture and walk

around the same deck as our cabin. So I will go test the air

to report the temperature. Hmm, it is in the 50's. But with

the wind when moving it feels like the 40's

4:26 AM 8/28/2010
I am uploading still images from olympus camera and from video

sandisks still images. After returning home I will burn

videos on CD as there is
a lot of editing to do. We have good videos of the glaciers as

well as numerous
snap shots. After about 3 hours of viewing glaciers, we

attended afternoon tea. Then Larie did her walk and I moved

images to the acer and rested. Tonight is formal dress wear.

9:14 AM 8/28/2010
We had a pleasant dinner at the Pinnacle, and the on to "fang

movie" Tonight was formal wear, so first time I had to wear a

suit. We sat through 15 minutes of "fang" about Alaska gold

rush and a wolf. Then at 8:30 I went to the gym to do my back

exercises and Larie stayed in the cabin. We examined next

day's events and checked activities of interest. Tomorrow

being Sunday we will have our own service after breakfast and

then attend non-denominational service and singing at 9am.

While I was taking photos of Glacier today, a gentlemen

invited us to attend the 9 am service. He described his

church with a long name that I do not remember, but when I

expressed that we were members of the Church of Christ he

responded that we both believed in Christ, and that his church
was too much different than the Church of Christ. I mentioned
the steps to salvation but there was no response.

All of the glacier photos were uploaded to the acer so we are
ready for tomorrow. We will be headed west and out to sea for
Cook Inlet and expect to arrive at Kodiak, then Homer, then
Anchorage.

Next port is Homer.
7:14 PM 8/28/2010
We slept late and we may eat breakfast in the Fontaine

restaurant if we can be seated. Then we will have our own

service in the cabin and at nine we attend the

nondenominational service.
11:03 PM 8/28/2010
After 9am service we proceeded to the queen's lounge to hear

about excursions on succeeding ports.
Anchorage was discussed as cultural. Homer small town 6k pop

$15 shuttle all day on and off stops. Kodiak was spoken of as

fishing capital of the world. Bear on other side of island

accessible only by air from our ship. Next day, Thursday is

hubba glacier and on Friday, JuneauJuno where we scheduled a tour

with a salmon bake.
That will be our last shore excursion that was planned

earlier. We canceled a wait listed tour for homer so we will

visit the town and return to the ship early.

3:36 AM 8/29/2010
attended computer workshop first how to use windows messenger.
Windows live messager faster with a few more options. Option

to record and send.
(The instructor is a happy smiling all-the-time computer nerd)
download.live.com
live mail, photo gallery, etc.
Instructor dislikes norton and Mcaffee as both loaded with

clutter. Free version works better.
remove norton properly. check "remove norton",
security essentials recommended. removes virus and mail ware.
crooks starting to target small businesses, install mail ware
on business computer. wifi outside business recording credit
card transactions.. sold to people in Europe. ..
best to check bank accounts/credit card accounts daily to
protect against unauthorized use.
FRAUD INSURANCE. Comment on https:// Mcafee easier to
installer. Good protection is when you will hardly
microsoft.com/security_essentials.
>>>>

7:34 PM 8/29/2010
We just finished complimentary room service. We devcided to
stay aboard today as the ship is docked in the biggest city,
Anchorage. So we dressed in our work out clothes and in
addition to walking our deck, we will most likely also go up
to the ship's gym. We decided to cancel our reservations at
the Pinnacle Grill for the rest of the trip. Larie believes
we are over eating there, and the reservations also tie us
down to meeting the reservations at specific times. We have
other choices such as the Fontaine dining, Lido cafeteria
style or the snack bar at the pool.

We will prepare to add 8/27 through 8/29 for upload to travel

blog today.


8:53 PM 8/29/2010
As I was hoping to "prethink" plan what we could use, I failed
to bring along address labels. But I did place an address
label on one of the 8 gb flash drives. So, images that will be
shared in the digital workshop will hopefully be copied to
8 gb with my name/address label will be used for images from
the workshop, so I named the thumb/flash drive "IMAGES"
I have another 8 gb Kingston thumb/flash drive that I will use
to back up images that I took on the cruise. As mentioned
earlier, I will need to transfer the video tapes to CD when we
return to Austin.

A-data 4 gb thumb/dash drive was prepared in Austin to enable
me to get to my globs and other sites with appropriate
id/password. I also included health history,just in case that
was needed. Due to the limited access to internet I will used
this data very little

10:11 PM 8/30/2010
Oops, we arrived in Achorage on Monday 8/30.. where did I go
wrong with the dates?

log on and off with pdf copy of blog...
before uploading sitak to Anchorage
http://alaska14days2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/cruise-journal.html
71 min start

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