It is very tedious to have to listen to the conversation of someone telling you about their vacation.  Rather than providing entry after entry of “How I spent my summer vacation” I thought I would give you some  highlights.

 

Someone and I participated in “The Polar bear plunge”.  This consists of jumping off of the third floor of the ship into a fjord fed by melting glaciers. I didn’t ask how cold the water was.  I think the fall was more scary than the water. I did it on the eve of my birthday. It became a sort of baptism – I jumped in as ’40’ and came out ’50’.  It wasn’t too bad; it reminded me of a cold plunge in Lake Michigan. All the same, I did not stay in for very long.  I was proud of my bravery.

We saw plenty of glaciers,  but the one in Baird was the most spectacular.  The dark blue ice gets this way from intense compression.  The guides retrieved chunks of icebergs, which were served in my bourbon.  Imagine drinking water which hasn’t been water for thousands of years!

We did a lot of kayaking, which was good exercise and jolly good fun.

We entered the “Ugly Alaska T-Shirt contest”  with our group being the “Boys of Sarah” We only got honorable mention, alas.

There were plenty of totem poles. Someone, the old meanie, forbade me to buy one as it is not in the budget.  I had to settle on T-shirts.