Alaska and More

My husband Tom and our good friends, Doug and Julie Ward, just returned from a wonderful Holland America cruise to Alaska via the inside passage. It was a wonderful trip out of Seattle with stops in Juneau, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Ketchikan, and British Columbia, before returning to Seattle. We took Amtrack out of Portland and boarded the Rotterdam not far from the Space Needle. I did some sketching on board the ship - there were lots of beautiful pieces of sculpture and floral arrangements, and I also did a couple very quick paintings from our veranda, which looked pretty much like very quick paintings. I used my camera to capture some of the beauty of the ship, the scenery, the food, the adventures, and the Butchart Gardens, and wish to share a selection of those photos with you. There is no way to really convey the freshness of the air, the clearness of the water, the crackling sounds and thunder of the Hubbard Glacier calving, the aromas of the dining room, the musicality of The Neptune Trio each night in The Ocean Bar, the invigoration of our windy walks on Decks 3 and 9 each day, the trickiness of manuevering the ship when the seas became more turbulent - but perhaps these photos will give you some sense of why it was such a memorable trip. Hope to get a few good paintings from this batch.

I had a good day today - hope you did too. Donna

Well, I had high hopes to share a slide show of about 35 images, but the slideshow didn't transfer so you'll have to be content with just a hint of what we experienced. Sorry.