Janie Weeks

Hello to our friends and family!

I'm going to try a little something here that will be different from my previous blogs. I'm going to write about a cruise. In fact in this single blog I'm going to write about three separate crusies.

I don't usually write a blog when we take cruise vacations. We have cruised many times but traveling via cruise is a whole different genre than traveling by land. Times in port are short and very busy; times on ship are fun but there's not so much to write home about except for the fun we have relaxing near the pool and meeting wonderful new friends. We visit on deck or in entertainment venues; we call each other by name; and we have dinner and drinks together and tell each other stories about our lives. We promise to stay in touch after the cruise but invariably never do. All our cruise friends have a special place in our hearts but I'm sad to say, at the end of the trip we will probably never see them again.

Still blog conversations about the people we meet, how much we ate and drank, and short blurbs about our brief shore excursions probably would not make for such great reading material. Plus in the absence of good WIFI and in the presence of the abundant food, friends, and plenty to keep me occupied, I just don't write blogs about our cruises. In this particular case, however, these cruise experiences, I think, will be unique. It's not the Caribbean, it's Alaska! Norway! Finland! Sweden, Estonia Denmark and Russia.

People who cruise a lot tell us an Alaskan cruise is the best anyone can make. The scenery and the wildlife is said to be spectacular.

Cody and Tessa, our nature loving-girls, are traveling with us! You will get updates as I can write them and send them. Please be advised, I may write them and save them until I get home and have good Internet again. If that happens, the stories and photos may come to you all at once but they will have been written day by day.

I'm really excited about seeing the Way Up North, Alaska, our 50th state and maybe our most natural. I promise you . . . this will be fun!

Then not to let too much dust settle, three weeks after Alaska, Stan and I are undertaking two more cruises. You may have followed us on our 77-day trip in winter of 2017 that began in Norway and the Arctic Circle then took us through countries of Scandinavia and Central Europe. This 2018 trip will be a much more brief and easy trip. Its purpose is to fulfill a burning desire I have had to re-see as much as possible of the wintery territory we visited in 2017 but this time, in summer time, in the green.

We will start off in Homburg, Germany on a 9-day cruise through the Norwegian fjords. Then a few days later we will travel to Copenhagen to board another ship visiting Baltic ports for an additional nine days. I simply cannot wait to see the deep-water fjords of Norway and their steep mountain sides that are surely a luscious green this time of year, and I'm looking forward to seeing the beautiful island city of Stockholm when it's simply brimming with flowers. Most of all, I am thrilled at the prospect of visiting St. Petersburg, Russia.

I hope you enjoy traveling along with us!