Skagway, Alaska

On our way further north to Skagway, the Garden City of Alaska. Located at the northern tip of Alaska's Inside Passage.

Our ship docked in port.

Skagway has only ~850 year round residents. It is now a restored gold rush town and the head-quarters of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park.
We visited the actual site of the gold rush town, then just a mass of tents. This visitor site is a recaptured vision of what it probably looked like and the people dressed, spoke and acted as if they were back in the early 1900's. Below I "had" to step into the Brothel : } The women got $5 per 15" of their services. It was the only tent that had a bed in it! I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be up here in the dead cold of winter....all for the rush of gold.
We went all the way north to Fraser, Canada by train then had to be brought back via bus. The tour bus guide was extremely entertaining. This was a bridge we had to cross over that was attached to the ground only on one side due to the frequent earth tremors. This was a fault line area and proved to be more stable for the bridge this way! A little unnerving to say the least BUT adventurous : }
So to get up to Fraser, Canada we took the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad. This is the train that carried tens of thousands of men with picks and shovels and 450 tons of explosives over a 26 month timeline over a century ago during the gold rush. They overcame harsh climate and challenging geography and earned the name"the railway built of gold". Along the way north, these are some of the scenes we were blessed to see. Looks like a mighty BIG bear crossed here, maybe more than one?!!
If you blow this pic up you will see the path the gold miners used to get into the mines. This path was in Dead Horse Gulch. It earned this name! The miners came from all over the world in search of gold. They brought horses that they loaded down so heavy with equipment they could hardly stand up. These horses were required to walk this path and of course, many slipped off and fell to their death. Others that made it over this path, either died from heart attacks from carrying too heavy of loads or pulling things way too heavy or died from not being cared for properly. In one year, over 3000 horses died : {

One of the many old wooden bridges over deep ravines and gulches the train had to cross.

You can see the the ocean in between the mountains at this height from the train.

Got a glimpse of our trains' engines as they pull us into the tunnel in the side of the mountain.

We were allowed to stand outside on the small platform between the different train cars. Fun!

These flags were on the border between Alaska and Canada. We had to show our passports at this point!

In Canada, standing outside the caboose before getting on the tour bus to head back down to Skagway.

Simply gorgeous!

Ketchikan, Alaska

This is Ketchikan, Alaska where the Salmon come to breed. They were literally jumping out of the water [see below] that it made you laugh and run to the water's edge to watch. There were soooo many fish.
I thought this view of the water was unique. It was in the Ocean View Cafe' and was behind a table that we sat at where you really don't notice it. It took me by surprise. I was on the 10th floor looking down at the water.
This was our first night out and this is where we ate every single evening at 6:00. Here we are toasting towards a wonderful, safe vacation together : }
You'll be seeing several landscape pics that were just too beautiful not to share. This one was taken in the evening. When the sun was coming up "and" going down, the colors of the sky just exploded.....so awesome Lord!

Sunrise shot! Made me just want to pray....and I did <><

Alaskan Cruise 8-10

This is our first cruise, ever! We are beginning to chose things off of our "bucket list" and we decided to do the Alaskan cruise thing for our 10th anniversary. We also invited our very good friends and neighbors, Marjean & Steve Parliament, to come along with us. We had a FABULOUS time!! : }

This is the sunset as we're out at sea on our way to Skagway, Alaska. The colors of the skies were gorgeous.
Here's our first whale sighting - a humpback whale's tail fin Here's his hump as he prepares to dive

Another sunrise shot that just goes beyond words to describe

This is our State Room - over sized Queen bed with "plenty" of storage space for ALL our stuff. We had a small deck right outside the sliding glass doors that looked out over the ocean. Awesome!
Just boarded and out walking around on the top deck.....very excited and already have the camera out! : }

There's Mount Rainier in the distance. It was spectacular, so much larger than I even imagined.

This is downtown Seattle seen from the top deck of the ship. Beautiful and so clean!

Nanny Noni in Chicago 8-10

So....Tim was offered and accepted a job in Chicago, WOOOHOOO! Now this means they want him to begin NOW, but he has "things" he has to do first in order to make a move across the country with his family. This is where Noni [me] comes in : } They asked me to meet them in Chicago to stay with Emma Mae while they house hunt and check out schools for Emma. I arrived on Sunday evening and helped out until Wednesday morning and had an AWESOME time.
T&T plan to use the L-train for the majority of their travels in town. Taking the L gets Tim to work downtown in 10", plus a 10" walk to the train versus ~45" drive on the congested highway. We drove past the place Tim will be working at. The next 2 pics are views from the car. Quite metropolitan!!! He has to wear a suit and tie every single day : }

These are a few pics of the downtown streets of Lincoln Park. This is the area they will be living in. It is so quaint and has a very vintage feel. Reminds me of my childhood in St. Louis skipping down the sidewalks, riding my bike and playing hop-scotch. I saw many young moms pushing strollers just walking about and several getting on and off the L with their kids and strollers. Absolutely loved this area!

We had lunch to celebrate everything that was planned for and accomplished during this trip. They found their home and Emma's school. Here we are at Pot Belly's known for their sandwiches and they were really good.

While T&T were visiting schools, Emma and I walked the streets and talked with the locals. We came across this wonderful girly-girl shop, Stinky Pants. We had a blast in here. Emma was as excited as I was to check everything out. She did make out pretty well with a new raincoat and matching boots. The temp this day had to be in the 90's and it was humid. She "had" to wear her new coat and boots in case it rained! : }

Just a few shots of what the downtown area looks like. Their home is on one of the side streets walking distance to the downtown and L-train.

You can see the L-train tracks going over the street here.

Look at the old rennovated buildings. Love it!

OK, so on Monday, T&T left at 7:30am and returned around 4ish. Emma Mae and I literally played ALL day. This is the game "Hungry Hippo's" with play dough. We made pink fish for the hippo to eat and a black bird to sit on his back. Then Emma decided she didn't want the hippo to eat the fish, so we had to make little blue eggs and place the fishes in a pond of their own : }

T&T took us out to play miniature golf after dinner one evening. Emma wanted no instructions what so ever, she knew how to play this game. It was so funny! She did it and felt accomplished in the end!

Here's T&T totally veggin out from their first day of house hunting. They have so much on their platters right now and persevere on. There IS a light at the end of this huge tunnel.

We were all just sitting around talking about the days events, and Emma had ALL this energy. So she decided she was going to put on a show for us. As we're all sitting on the couch, she comes in with her new panties I brought her on her head and her new PJ bottoms wrapped around her shoulders. She starts singing [with her eyes closed] and dancing around on the mattress [her bed on the floor]. It was quite delightful and gave us a much needed laugh after a hard day.

Emma and I played Go Fish cards which she loved and caught on to rather quickly. Below she is making those eggs for the hippo to eat, while pushing the fish away for safety. The fish are those little orange things with black eyes : }

We took a break from the hotel room and walked around outside for awhile. We looked at all the flowers, the pool and checked out every hallway. She took this pic of me which I think is very good and centered.

Here she is just talking away and walking around : }

We sat for a few minutes on a patio outside and she starts to look into my purse. I asked her what she was looking for and she says, "Something exciting Noni, show me something interesting" LOL to say the least. We dug around until we found my "saw" [nail file]. That kept her busy doing her nails then mine. Between the shopping, eating, Starbuck visits, playing, reading, looking at flowers, taking many pictures, doing our nails, checking e-mails, watching movies of Veggie Tales.....Emma Mae is quite her Noni's grand daughter. We are two peas in a pod and I LOVED every single minute spent together.

Here she is sending her Papa an email : }

Our visit to KC 8-10

Rod had a conference in Kansas City, so we came to the Plaza as tourists this time. Normally when we go to KC, it's to see the boys and we stay with them. This time the U. of KC put us up in a hotel on the Plaza....COOL!! We went out to dinner with the Med-El team [sponsors of the conference] on Thursday evening at EV [Extra Virgin] and had foods like: Trout Cheeks, Duck Tongue taco's, fried Pig Ears and Bone Marrow. Extremely Different but we tried it all except the Bone Marrow : } They wanted to take us out again on Friday evening but we had plans to visit RA and see Phil cook. They wanted to go too, so......we took 12 work friends with us to RA : } Great fun!
Phil is the 3rd chef at RA and was able to come out of the kitchen often to visit with us. Above and below are desserts "he" made for everyone. It was sooooo good and so beautiful to look at.

Susan made it into KC after work just in time to enjoy dinner with us!

Great pic of Rob and Rod!

Upon arrival at RA, Phil came out to see us in the bar area. I took several pics of RA so you all can see where Phil works. It is really cool and quite the "young professional" place. Lots of music! I think dad and I were maybe two of the oldest people there : } It didn't matter!! I was on a mission to see our son work. We even got to go into the kitchen and watch him at the stove. I didn't take pictures of that since I'm "sure" Phil would have been utterly embarassed : } I am soooo very proud of him, I could burst : }

Walking around the Plaza on Saturday morning after being treated to breakfast at The Cafe', a very quaint France-like place.