Trip of a Lifetime

I've had several trips of a lifetime. My son is famous for his once-in-a-lifetime trips which began when he was in college. Apparently even visiting the same place a second time is a once in a lifetime event if you have passed a huge milestone in the meantime. Like now being actually old enough to drink because we know that in college and especially on spring break, there is NO underage drinking ever.

But I believe that this is a once in a lifetime trip because I'm sure I'm not doing it again, or at least in the same manner because it was expensive!!!

I've recently returned from a two week cruise/tour. We went early and spent two days in Vancouver, BC, Canada and then set sail for a week aboard the ms Volendam from the Holland America Cruise Line. After a week onboard the ship, we embarked on a week of land tours going to the inside of the state of Alaska.

Everything in Alaska is big. Cities are the size of states in the lower 48. Sitka, the largest city is four times the size of Rhode Island. And with a population of under 10,000. Denali park is larger than the state of Massachusetts. Tongass National Forest is over 17 million acres. That's larger than the ten smallest lower 48 states. Larger than West Virginia, but smaller than South Carolina.

Distances are vast, places are huge, and the population is sparse. However, tourism is thriving. Juneau alone brings in about a million people a year via cruise ships, and considering how short their tourist season is, that is a tremendous amount of people. Although they do have wonderful winter vacations, too – according to the AK tourism people.

We had many adventures and mostly perfect weather. We rode the world's longest zip line on the very day that it opened. We went kayaking during an amazing break in the weather, drizzle before and pouring rain after, but sunshine while we were paddling along. I fed a reindeer. And we were in the lucky 20% of visitors who get to see Denali free of cloud cover.

The trip was wonderful. I met many interesting people – both Alaskans and fellow travelers. I learned so much. I walked through rainforests and boated to within a half mile of a glacier face while the guide told of large waves developing from calved bergs.

I met people who are absolutely enchanted with their home state or adopted state. It seemed that every person from AK was thrilled with the beauty and natural splendor of the region. And they shared that enthusiasm with us, gracefully and gratefully.

And yes, I saw an Eskimo or Athabascan Indian. And trees. And mountains. And oceans. And fjords. And glaciers. And wildlife. And bald eagles. And thankfully for me, no bears.

It was a once in a lifetime trip and I loved it.