Jim and I on the spur of the moment booked a cruise to Alaska for our 40th anniversary.  I seriously can’t stop talking about how amazing this trip was.  The ship was amazing, the staff top shelf, food and wine over the top.  What made it so special for me was being able to play dress up.  I’m normally a jeans and runner type of girl, always have been, but now and again it’s fun to be girly.  On this trip you could hike during the day, come back and get all cleaned up and act like a princess (ok more like the dowager Queen).  There were 2 formal nights where I was able to wear the dresses I wore to my children’s weddings.  I even packed high heels.

Jim laughs at me as I still gush over the trip.  As each year comes and goes (way too quickly) the ability to walk on glaciers and climb up mountains will be harder to do.  On the days when we didn’t leave the ship, you could wander around from balcony to deck, to bar and always have a view of the water and coast.  It was like a floating cottage.  The guests were very chatty and had some amazing stories to tell.  Surprisingly there were people on this trip way older than us.  Their stories were amazing.  These were veteran cruisers, one couple were hopping around the world from cruise ship to visiting friends to cruise ships and finally back to Australia, they were in their late 80’s and their laundry was done for them, their bags were transferred, what a story they had to tell.

Looking back I wonder what else made this cruise so special.  One of my favourite cities to visit is Rome, you feel like you have gone back in time to when Julius Caesar was alive and all those history lessons were coming back to life.  This part of the country is like God’s Country, it was mystical and magical.  I was in awe seeing these gigantic glaciers and mountains, the clouds touching their tops, or their tops peeking out.  As the gigantic cruise ship slowly cruised up Glacier Bay, a hush fell over everyone.  You travel the world and see so many amazing man made inventions and then you go to Alaska and see Mother Nature’s Beauty and Majesty.

I’m not sure if cruises will recover as quick as the rest of the world.  As Jim and I talked about retirement being around the corner, cruising was going to be a big part of it.  On the list was a Baltic cruise, a river cruise, now who knows.  I am glad I have this memory and fingers crossed I get to cross a few more of these cruises off my list and definitely a return to this one.