Skip to main content

Alaska here we come!

First and foremost, let's kick off this blog with a most important recognition today – Happy Birthday to our youngest, Caleb, who also just completed the requirements for his Masters of Arts in Organizational Management!

Caleb Beard
Master of Arts in Organizational Management '23
 
Now, to the topic at hand - As seasoned travelers, we've explored numerous countries around the globe, setting foot on every continent except Africa (coming eventually). Our most recent travel was to Antarctica last February, and staying true to our theme of embracing cold climates this year, our next destination is the beautiful wilderness of Alaska.   Here's a musical interlude to set the tone:




Tomorrow, we'll rise at an ungodly hour to catch the 5 AM Hickory Hop to Charlotte, where we will embark on a journey to Vancouver, British Columbia (by way of Chicago). There, we'll board a cruise ship (Celebrity Millennium) on Friday, marking the beginning of our exploration of Alaska's inner passage.

Now, let's get back to the heart of the matter -- getting ready! Traveling doesn't faze us. We know that unexpected things happen – flights may be delayed, luggage might decide to take its own journey, and hurricanes can pop up and disrupt plans. But that's all part of the adventure. Before you can embrace the "adventure" part, there's the "work" part – specifically, figuring out what you'll need and fitting it all into luggage that meets airline requirements and is still manageable to lift.

This time around, however, we faced a unique challenge. Apart from our incredible Antarctica expedition last February, it's been three long years since we've truly "traveled." The COVID-19 pandemic certainly clipped our wings, grounding us for an extended period. Consequently, all the travel gear we had accumulated for those spontaneous trips had somehow scattered throughout the house, making for quite a pre-travel scavenger hunt.

First on the list were luggage tags – not the flimsy paper ones the cruise ship requires you to print out, but the sturdy plastic holders that our friend Don gifted us last year that make sure that the flimsy paper ones actually stay attached to your luggage.  After an hour and a half search, we found them in a bin under the bed in the guest bedroom.

Then there were the Apple AirTags, which we had purchased last winter but never bothered to set up, aside from the one on LJ's backpack (which had not been activated). Initially, there were three more of them somewhere in the house. After a search that felt like an eternity, one of them miraculously surfaced. At least now we each have one to place in our luggage. So, if by chance, our bags decide to go on a solo adventure, we can track them and ensure they're having a better time than we are.

Multiply this treasure hunt experience by a dozen or so missing objects, accounting for extension cords, sunglass cases, caps, and more, and you'll have a good picture of the chaos that has occurred for the last week or so.

It's now about 7:00 p.m. the day before departure and most everything is assembled and packed as much as possible in our luggage. Anything we might need for tonight, i.e, CPAP machines, will find their place in the luggage tomorrow morning, just before we venture off again.  Anything we can't find -- well, we either didn't need it anyhow, or there'll be a place to find one along the way.

Thanks for following along on our journey!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday, Sept 8, 2023 - Seward

So our cruise venture ended today, and 3 of our band head back to reality.  They have a train ride from the seaport to Anchorage, where they will catch their plane for a very long ride home. Celebrity has the exit process down.  Your luggage is snatched the night before and you have to be out of the room by 7(ish), you can get breakfast at the buffet and then wait in the lobby until your number is called.  For those of us going on to the land part of the trip, our luggage will magically appear wherever it is that we are going next. It's hard to get much smoother than that. We leave the ship today and begin the land portion of our trip.  Because the writing of these days is delayed, there may be some details that we miss.   We signed up for the land portion of the trip.  Most of this is done by “motorcoach”.  This is travel agent talk for “Greyhound Bus”, but the bus stops are cleaner and panhandlers aren’t usually coming up to bum a cigarette or c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Busy, Busy Busy

Since exiting the ship on Friday we have been super busy going from place to place on the land portion of this trip -- on a bus.  Today we are moving from Denali National Park area back to Anchorage -- on an 8 hour train ride. More posts to follow....sometime....we're drafting them today and tomorrow.  Will post when we have internet access again.   Thanks for following along.
Post a Comment
Read more

Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 (Labor Day)

Icy Strait Point Monday – Labor Day, for perspective – was scheduled for a whale watching tour.  We’ve done these before, and sometimes they are hit or miss.  It all depends on whether the whales decide to be cooperative.  This tour “guaranteed” that we would see whales, though, and have to say they did not disappoint.   It was also only 3 ½ hours, which was much more doable.  After that long, the whales had things to do and were tired of performing for us. This outing started with us gathering in the ship’s main theater, where we were assigned to groups / boats.  We actually liked this excursion better than the one the day before.  It really didn’t go far from the cruise ship – which was in the “cruise port” – which seems to consist of one berth and a metal gangway down to the smaller boat docs.  To say this location is primitive is a significant understatement!  There was hardly a point on the entire excursion where we could not see ou...
1 comment
Read more