The Flagg Agency

Chuck and our daughter at Hubbard Glacier

This morning I was looking back at pictures from our first cruise. We went to Alaska in 2004. My daughter was just 15 months old. Now she is eight and quite the cruise veteran. I still have the pictures from the cruise. So many of them look like others I have seen on the internet. There are the same shots of Hubbard Glacier.

Muddy from ATV riding near Denali National Park

Last year, I wrote extensively while we were on our Celebrity Cruises’ Alaska CruiseTour. My daughter and I were looking at pictures from our adventure when she asked, “How did mud get there?” I reminded her this was the day we all rode ATVs through the mud near Denali National Park. She was full of huge smiles as she began to remember that day.

Do you see the similarities between my hand and a map of Alaska?

Show the shape of Alaska with your hand

The shape of Alaska

After spending nearly two weeks there this summer where our tour guide on the land portion of our trip pointed out that you can sort of make the shape of Alaska with your right hand, I came to realize that Alaska is best viewed with the naked eye. Recently I was reading this post by Evelyn Hannon, aka @Journeywoman on Twitter, and under the last picture on the first page, Evelyn had noticed a woman viewing the magnificence of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg through the lens of her camera. Her comment made me think back to our recent trip through Alaska.  I know first hand how wonderful Alaska is and that you just want to capture all of its beauty with your camera.

Laura and our daughter on ATV in Alaska

Long after the travel bills are paid you are left with the memories of an incredible vacation. I asked Laura if she thought I should share the cost of the incredible journey and opportunity we had just experienced. She said it is very rude to talk about money, but she did it agree it would help people with their planning.

I

I have a new girlfriend and her name is Diane…as in Steak Diane. On our cruise on Celebrity Millennium, we ate at the Olympic specialty restaurant for a date night.

Our first experience with specialty dining onboard a ship was on our first cruise on Celebrity Infinity when we did a seven night cruise to Alaska from Vancouver.