an artistic journey

First some background information; last August, my friends, Monica and Leslie, and I took a class with Tim Holtz. At that time he told us of a scrapbook cruise being held in May of 08 for which he was the sole instructor. We were hooked and signed up. The cruise was for May 10 to 18 and it was to travel Alaska's Inside Passage. Our first destination was Seattle. We lucked out, the weather was perfect when we arrived. We were able to walk around the city, see the Tower and ride the Monorail without any of Seattle's reputed rain. Sunday morning we had some time before we were to board the boat so we went to Pike's Market. What a beautiful open air market. It was brimming with flowers for Mothers' Day. We walked up and down the market listening to the various vendors hawking their goods. It was a fun morning. At noon, we packed up our belongings and headed to the ship. The boarding process was very well organized. There were over 2,000 guests on board and 1,100 crew. Our group, those taking Tim's classes, amounted to approximately 200. We were a small part of the larger picture. Once we boarded we were sent to the pool deck to enjoy drink and food. The sun was out so we found some lounge chairs and snagged a waiter, KB. We were having a fabulous time and we hadn't even set sail yet. Once we departed there was a lifeboat drill and then we were off to a reception for the scrapbookers where we met up with Tim, Mario and the rest of the group. Then off to dinner and I finished the day with some time on the exercise bike. The gym overlooked the ocean. What a way to work out! Sleeping was very restful, we had an outside cabin with a balcony. We kept the window opened at night and the ocean sounds were very soothing.

Day Two: Rough seas. Barf bags were placed on the window sills around the decks. Reminded me of our honeymoon. We got up late, ordered room service and watched TV. We were at sea all day and had a 2.5 hour class with Tim. During class the seas were especially rough and some people had to leave the class. We made a sweet book with lots of fun products. We got lots of products too. I felt like I was on Oprah's Christmas show. Near the end of class there was one huge lurch of the ship and then all was quiet. The seas were no longer rough. A waiter tried to explain that the ship had been trying to get in to some kind of lane. The lane was smooth, everything else rough. I don't really understand.

Day Three: Mid afternoon we arrived in Juneau. Rain has stopped but it is cloudy and chilly. Leslie and I signed up for a photo class. Our first stop was Treadwell across the river from Juneau, It is the sight of a defunct coal stamping plant that ran full time at the turn of the century, 19th to 20th century that is. It was said that the stampers went 24/7 except for July 4th and Christmas Day. On those days it was so quiet townspeople had a hard time sleeping. From here we stopped at a point that allowed us to see Juneau. We did see some eagles sitting on top of street lights. Very reminiscent of the pigeons in Rhode Island. Eagles are scavengers and like to hang out where food is plentiful, for example, the town dump. This city is only accessible from sea and air. There is a highway that is 40 miles long but it doesn't go anywhere. Juneau is the largest city, in the US, by area, over 3000 square miles! We then headed for the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is magnificent but you can see .
the affects of climate change. The glacier is receding at a rate of 500-600 feet a year. In the early 1900's it receded at a rate of less than 25 feet a year. We spent time walking around the park. The light wasn't that great for taking pictures but it was still an interesting trip. Before we went back to the ship Leslie and I stopped at a local watering hole, The Red Dog Saloon and had Alaskan beer and Reindeer Kielbasa. Once on board we were treated to a wonderful sunset.

Day Four: The boat sailed all night and when we awoke we were is Skagway. The sky was ominous but the rain stayed away. That is until we decided to venture into town. Leslie went on a train trip, Monica stayed in the room and I roamed around town. Skagway was a town that was formed to be the starting point for gold diggers to get to the Klondike gold fields in the Yukon. When tourists are not in town Skagway has a population of less than 900 people. It is said that Skagway means "Place where only stupid white men would live." It is always windy, rainy and cold. The forest service had a nice building that showed a filmstrip of the gold rush. Very interesting. Canada required that the miners have a years provisions before they came into the Yukon. To carry that many supplies they would take what they could carry to the top of a hill, return to the bottom and get more stuff and keep repeating the process until all their supplies were at the top of the hill. Then the process would begin all over again. It took, on average , three months to travel 25 miles. Many horses died on this trip. So many the trail was called Dead Horse Trail. It was still raining when I got back to the ship. I sat in the dining room and read my book. The waitress came over and pointed out the sea lions playing in the harbor to me. They were funny looking. To date I've seen 4 sea lions and 2 eagles and lots of seagulls.

Day Five: Today we are headed to Glacier National Park. The park rangers came on board around 5am and gave us little fact tidbits every so often over the intercom. The rain had let up but it was still overcast. Leslie and I ate breakfast overlooking the water. At around 9:30 we went on deck to see the first of many glaciers. The blue sky peeked through and then the clouds started to drift away. It was very cold and windy on deck so we got some
loaded hot chocolate. The ship hung out at the glacier for about 40 minutes, it was getting cold so we decided to go back to our room and get warmer clothes. Wouldn't you know it, we missed a chunk of glacier cleaving off into the water. Monica saw it, she had come up on deck looking for us. The ship then headed for Johns Hopkins Inlet to see more glaciers but the Inlet was clogged with ice and we couldn't go up the inlet. With the clouds gone it turned into a beautiful morning. We stayed outside most of the day. We had another class with Tim and ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant where they cooked at a table in front of us. Fun to watch and the food was delicious.

Day Six: We awoke in Ketchikan to cloudy skies and cold temperatures. Leslie signed up for a boat ride so Monica and I decided to walk into town. Monica was looking for an old Alaskan license plate. She stopped a mail carrier, Wayne, who gave us a tip on where we might find one. The tip didn't pan out but we saw an old car that led us to Daryl and Daryl. What characters. Monica still didn't get her license plate but we got a great story to tell. Daryl 1 was willing to sell Monica the plate off his car for $30. That's not quite what she wanted. The other Daryl was three sheets to the wind and did lots of talking. We then continued on our way and went into a very nice store. The woman behind the counter was very helpful. She said there was a nice Totem Park a couple of miles up the road and a great Espresso Bar on the way there. We began the walk and saw the Espresso Bar. It was a tiny building in the parking lot of a truck parking lot with a large sign that said Espresso. We didn't stop but walked the 2 miles to the Totem Park. The sky cleared up the temperature warmed. By the time we got to the Totem park we were carrying most of our clothes. Once we got to the Totem Park we went into the gift shop to inquire about a cab. The guy said that a free bus would be along any minute. The name on the bus was "The Bus." We took the bus back to town and stopped at a museum that was part of a library. It appeared that the items were donated by the same family since all the stories and tidbits were about one family. Including a plaque that stated that so and so died last year. No indication of what year that was. There were also lots of pictures of ships that were grounded. Still don't know what that was about. After the library we headed back to the ship. It was time for another class with Tim. This time alcohol inks on clear plastic made into a book. Interesting. Jim West, with Scrapmap then told us that we were headed to the true inside passage where the land would be within spitting distance of the boat. Well, we stayed outside until dark and the land kept getting further and further away. We did see lots of whales snoozing off the bow of the ship. Some even flipped their tails in the air.

Day Seven: What a beautiful day. We sat on the deck and read and drank. Very relaxing. We had our last class with Tim. We embellished a picture frame with memento's of Alaska. After class we had a cocktail party with people from our group. Tim gave away bunches of stuff. I won a complete set of color wash inks. I have no idea how to use them. But I will learn. After the party the ship landed in our last port, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. We were only there for a couple of hours but it was worth it.

Day Eight: We woke up in Seattle. Every part of the trip went as planned, the boat, the ports and the plane. Paul was at the airport when we arrived. It was good to see him. I had a great time, what a wonderful trip.