Santa School

Do you know there are a lot of older men, with real round bellies, real white hair, and real white beards? I sure wasn't aware of the number of authentic-looking Santas out there. This trip changed that. Whether on the ship or in port every time I turned around there was Santa. It's been a bit fun. (Although I did challenge a Scooter-Santa to a scooter race and he wouldn't take me up on it.)

Today all the Santas from the Santa school led a sing-a-long for the passengers. Christmas songs, of course. Who knew? Christmas in June in Alaska does exist!

Glacier Bay Day

Glacier Bay Day is always a special one. Although we didn't see any large calvings we did see a few small ones. And although it was rainy and cold I did get some nice pictures while we were there.

Mini Adventure

Today Scooter and I roamed the rainy, cold, pretty-much-empty streets of Skagway, Alaska. About as mini an adventure as I can take right now. 

I did stop at the quilt shop and bought the pattern for this colorful quilt. 

And admired a possible new snowman quilt for next Christmas. I didn't get the pattern but figured I can make do without it. 

Tomorrow, Glacier Bay. 

Un-Adventure

As much as I promote the suck-the-marrow life I'm feeling quite like the hypocrite.

Yes, I'm in Alaska. Yes, I'm trying my best to choose joy. Yes, I'm keeping myself busy as I wait for my knee replacement. However, the swimming is making the knee worse and I am finding myself more exhausted and in pain as each day goes by. I'm finding it hard to keep up with this adventure. 

The closest thing to an adventure today? Taking a picture in Juneau. That's all I've got. 

Best $109 I Ever Spent

It's cold and rainy this trip. 51 degrees cold. Throw in the wind and rain in Ketchikan and brrr.

The pool isn't much better. While I've been swimming anyway, the water is a bit too chilly to spend much time here. 

What makes up for all the cold is how I spent $109. Access to a sauna, three steam rooms, and these. The tiled loungers might not look like much, but they are heated. Really heated. And a great place to fall asleep. Not that I intend to sleep, but every time I lie down it seems to be a side effect of relaxing in a warm place.