Why Alaska?


Hello! Today I am starting a new blog to share with readers some musings about my recent trip to Alaska. My husband, Calvin, and I had dreamed of this trip for many years. We decided to schedule our trip this summer before we accumulate any more birthdays. We have always enjoyed travel but have mostly journeyed in the Midwest where we live. Notable earlier exceptions included two trips to New England and another to the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Perhaps after I conclude my musings about Alaska, I will try to remember some highlights of those earlier trips to share.


Our entire family also has great memories of five trips to the delightful city of Charleston, South Carolina, where our oldest son and his family lived for seven years. The main item on our agenda on those trips was to enjoy time with our son and daughter-in-law and their two cute, smart, amazing children! However,  being the history enthusiasts that we are, we also toured many important and instructive sites that taught us about the heritage of this important city.


So why did Calvin and I dream of visiting Alaska? The amazing scenery that is totally different from the cornfields and rolling hills of Nebraska was the main draw, of course. We wanted to see the mountains, glaciers, open spaces, and wildlife of this one-of-a-kind place. But also, as people who have always studied the frontier history of Nebraska, we also wanted to see the only real frontier still left in the United States. And though we aren’t really beach people, we do delight in the sights, sounds, and smells of the ocean. Calvin had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and we thought it was about time he did!


So last fall we booked our trip through AAA.  Since we had never taken a cruise before, we wanted people with expertise to plan for us. We decided on an 11-day land and sea tour with three days on land and eight days on the cruise. We also added one day in Anchorage at the beginning and one day in Vancouver at the end. So the entire trip was almost two weeks. The last day of the trip, we were ready to get back to the cornfields! But visiting Alaska is an experience neither of us will ever forget.


For this blog, my plan is to write a post about each of the days we spent on the trip. I will try to post about once a week. The photos will be mostly taken from those created by my husband, Calvin, who operated a studio as a professional photographer for 20 years. So needless to say, his skills far exceed mine. I will add a few of my own too. I hope you enjoy reading my reflections in the coming weeks.

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