It's another busy summer in Alaska! This is Week 5 in 2010; there will be 12 more. The season began in Whittier, AK on May 22 aboard the Coral Princess. After three weeks, I "transhipped" to the Sapphire Princess where I am now. At the end of July I will tranship again to the Island Princess. These three ships have two different itineraries so it makes for an interesting summer. Moving from ship to ship is a bit hectic because I have to move my stuff on and off and then fly to the next ship. Once there, I have all new people to begin working with. It does, though, make for great variety, and after ten years on the ships I know a lot of the captains, cruise directors and staff.

I continue to pinch myself that God gives me such an unbelievable arena of beauty and people in which to work. What a blessing!. As always, I continue to have new and unbelievable experiences. The picture below is one of the serendipities of this job. After dozens of sailings past the site of Mt. St. Elias, I finally saw the entire mountain in late May.

Mt. St. Elias

 

In 1741 Vitas Bering sailed into Alaska waters from Russia for the first and ONLY time. He sited this mountain during his less than 1/2 day visit. On his way home, Bering lost his life in the Pribilof Islands off the Aleutians. This 18,000 foot mountain is the 5th tallest in North America and is shrouded in clouds about 90% of the time, so it is truly unbelieviable that Bering saw it. I have been past this mountain over 100 times, but June 2010 is the FIRST time I've seen it completely. I was (and still am) ecstatic about that day.

July special: The Little House Series:  Purchase Little House in the Arctic AND Little House in the Rain Forest for one reduced price and NO shipping. These popular books are the true life Alaska adventures of my family during the 1940s and 1950s! Each book contains 12 pages of vintage photos! You will love them.