We’re on our way home. The car’s nose is headed south, like she knows where she’s going. We got on the 5 fwy and have been on it for two days. And we’re still only in southern Oregon as I write this. Here are some photos I’ve snapped along the way. Above is a small lake just below the Olympia (Oregon) State Capitol building. We had dinner at a restaurant almost in its shadow.

The Peace Arch at the U.S. – Canada border. We sat in line for about an hour to get back onto U.S. soil and during one of the long wait periods I hopped out of the car and took this picture. There were hundreds of people having family picnics near here. It’s a lovely park. Just not much fun when you’re waiting. And waiting. The cars are at a dead stop. They allow cars through in groups of about 40-50, then you crawl forward car by car.

See the small Canadian flag done in flowers over onn the right side?

We spent the night in Olympia at a fairly nondescript B&B. Not memorable enough to even mention. But they recommended dinner at the Waterstreet Cafe. Very nice food. I had a bread salad (picture right). And I had a glass of delish prosecco (sparkling Italian wine).

This morning we headed out to visit friends of ours who own a winery near Salem. Stay tuned for more info and photos about that. We have been in solid rain all day, but will be breaking out into the hot California sunshine tomorrow.

We’ve spent countless hours on the ship this week. We did take a tour – in Juneau. The other shore excursions were excessively expensive, we thought, so since we’d been here before, we decided not to partake of others.  Dave has had some problems with his prosthetic legs – mostly chafing and small sore spots around his knees where his legs rub on the prosthetics. He manages to walk some, but nothing extensive. When this happens he must lay low – not overdo it. And since I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot, I’ve not been walking all that much either, so we’re a real pair! Am so glad we had a nice verandah stateroom, though, as we were able to enjoy sitting there for many, many hours.

Consequently, we’ve spent more time on board than most people. I brought along my Kindle, with several books loaded on it. But since the Zuiderdam (pronounced zeye-der-dam) has a very extensive library, I decided to utilize theirs. And read some books I might not normally have done. I’m not going to take the time to insert links into this post now (takes way too long on this shipboard internet connection) so will just have to do that later on.

Testimony (Anita Shreve) – almost like a Jodi Piccoult book, I thought. Shreve took a very volatile subject (rape . . . or was it rape, the reader questions from about the 3rd page?) and tells each chapter from the point of view of the many different people who were profoundly affected by the event (not just the 3 barely adult boys having sex – and videotaping it – with a 14-year old girl at a private school) It was a fascinating read.

It Ain’t All About the Cookin’: a memoir (Paula Deen) – hmmm. Well, more like a tell-all of Paula Deen’s life. She said she didn’t hold anything back, and I learned things I almost wish I hadn’t. Certainly learned more about her sex life than I ever wanted to know. She did pull herself up by her bootstraps, and definitely knew how to stretch a dollar to feed her children. Until she met Michael (her current husband) she made some really bad choices in men. Until recently Paula didn’t have a very good self image. And her language? Oh my goodness. What a foul mouth she has, and makes no apologies for it.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (Colleen McCullough) – You know Colleen McCullough, the author of The Thorn Birds, The Ladies of Missalonghi, the 7 books in the “Masters of Rome Series,” the first one was “The First Man in Rome,” and one of my favorite books, Morgan’s Run. She’s a prolific writer. This book is so off the normal track for her. It’s about Mary Bennet – you remember her? The younger, lesser sister from Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s classic? McCullough takes that singular character, skips 20 years and has written a book about a year of her life. Mary spent those 20 years caring for the Bennet mother until her death, and where the book starts she decides to become an agent for change. She knows children are being exploited in the workforce. It’s very much in the Jane Austen style. Cute book.

Are You Somebody? An Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman (Nuala O’Faolain) – actually this book was one I brought along with me. For my book group which meets the day after we get back home. I’d never heard of this author. And obviously I’m not all that well-read in the classics. O’’Faolain drops names (author’s names) like bread crumbs on a nature walk. Mostly Irish and English authors I’ve never read. And most I’d never heard of, either. She grew up poor, although she did get a very good college education by great happenstance. Learned more about her sex life than I wanted to know, too, which started at a frighteningly young age. (What IS it about women baring their sex souls?) She grew up in an era when being Irish was nothing to be proud of, but later in life, when she finally makes a name for herself in the world of journalism, she finally accepts her Irish-ness and moves back home to Dublin. Single. Lonely. Unhappy, mostly. And still looking for the right man. But at least she’s on her own and financially independent. Reading this book prompts no interest in reading any of her novels.

Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Dr. Nick Trout) – Another memoir, this one from a veterinarian. The cover was what got me – it’s a photo of a very adorable Boston terrier with the doctor’s hand and a stethoscope pressed to the dog’s chest. Wouldn’t be interesting to anyone who doesn’t love animals. Medicine has always fascinated me, though I don’t suppose I could have been a physician. But reading this book, a compilation of stories about a day in the life of a veterinarian, convinces me I probably wouldn’t have what it takes to be one. Interspersed amongst the stories are chapters and paragraphs about veterinary philosophy (pet insurance, euthanasia, even the wisdom or lack thereof, of some cat and dog names. Very interesting read, though.

I was enamored with the little topknot on that one pine tree. These islands are just barely above sea level, all covered in trees.

Here was another little bitty island. Cute as a bug, eh? I thought so. There are some homes (few and far between) on an island or two – much bigger islands than this one. All accessed by boat since we’d see a tiny dock and one or possibly two small boats with outboards. One with a small wind machine. There has been zero wind today

Tomorrow morning we get off the ship early. Very early, actually. We have to put our suitcases outside our stateroom door by 1 am. We exit the ship at about 7:30 am, then will take a little minibus to where our car has been parked all week (a short distance, maybe not more than a couple of blocks, actually) and off we go. Hoping the waiting line at the U.S. border crossing will be short.

So I’ve written up a blog post about all the books I’ve read these past 7 days. Many more than usual. Tomorrow we’re driving south and I will likely write up something about it the next day. We’re headed towards home, but won’t get there for a few more days yet. Thanks for coming along on the photo ride with me.

This is the Margerie Glacier, deep in Glacier Bay National Park, as far into the Tarr Inlet as you can go, with Mt. Quincy Adams (13,650 feet) and Mt. Salisbury (12,000 feet) in the center distance. In the foreground is the face of the Margerie Glacier, but it continues up with the river of ice through the center of the picture. The temp was about 50 most of the day, but very pleasant sitting in the sunshine.

When we took this cruise last time, years ago, we didn’t have a whole day in Glacier Bay. We came into the Bay during the night, woke up to the massive face of one of the glaciers (not sure which one), hung around for a couple of hours waiting for the glacier to calve. It didn’t, even though the captain sounded the ship’s horn, which sometimes will cause one (and likely the Park officials have laid down the law about trying to cause calving anymore, because the glaciers are receding at such a rapid rate). Back then, we saw some of the whale breeding grounds and did see whales off at a long distance, then we left in order to reach Sitka by early afternoon.

This time we spent the entire day there, from early morning when we picked up some Park Rangers who gave us mini-lectures on the ship’s radio periodically during the day. We “hung out” at the Margerie Glacier (pictured above) for about an hour or so. During that time we could hear the glacier cracking – sounds like gunshots or as rumbly as thunder). An eerie sound. Then hung out a shorter time at the less attractive Grand Pacific Glacier.

This looks like a rock wall, but it’s all glacier. Just black because of all the dirt and rock the glacier picked up when it was growing. Now it’s receding, so it drops small chunks of ice, but when this one calves it looks the same, because it’s so full of dirt and gravel.

This was as close as we were allowed to go in the Johns Hopkins Inlet (Johns Hopkins Glacier is right there in the center as it meets the sea). Harbor seals give birth (the Park Rangers call it pupping) on small icebergs way back in there (the safest place they can birth because of land predators like bears). Except for the ship’s engines, it was ever so quiet.

The Park Rangers spent some time talking about the glaciers. Their makeup, their history, and about the known evolution of them. The map they gave us shows the glacier masses over the course of the last 100 years. They have ebbed and grown, both. But she said that the glaciers receded PRIOR TO the Industrial Revolution, too. That likely thousands of years ago the glaciers did the same thing – receded dramatically. Not that man (and the burning of fossil fuels) hasn’t contributed to it, but they do believe it’s a natural phenomena.

As I’m writing this we’ve actually just docked in Ketchikan (after a long 8 hours or so at sea, when my stomach was not happy because we were actually out in the open ocean). We did see a few killer whales cavorting just beside the ship last night as we were eating dinner. That was fun! But I didn’t have my camera with me. I was concentrating on keeping my stomach under control as we were lightly rolling. Seasickness is just a fact of life for me. Hard to believe I married a man who is a sailor. He’s incredibly patient and understanding with me, though. Even he gets seasick occasionally, although I’ve never seen it happen to him, and we’ve been married for 26 years.

It’s overcast, foggy and cold here in Ketchikan. So don’t know that I’ll have many photos. Stay tuned.

Ohhh, is that a postcard picture, or what? I think that’s the best photo I’ve taken so far on this trip. That’s the Mendenhall Glacier – well, the glacier is below the trees. We were on a nature walk near there, and just beyond the flowers is the Mendenhall River (the runoff from the glacier). It was a picture perfect day too.

That’s the Mendenhall Glacier. Receding at startling rates, the experts say. We watched half a dozen calfing icebergs as we stood and watched. A young fellow waded out into the river (on the right side near the icebergs) and hugged one of the icebergs, then quickly (shall I say – very quickly) waded back out. He was in the water up to his waist. Brrrrr. The forest ranger said the water temp was about 50. The outside temp was about 83.

In this picture you can see beautiful downtown Juneau. Did you know that Juneau is only accessed by air or boat? There is some bit of town beyond that hill on the left (the road to the glacier), and residential areas across a bridge to the left. But really, that’s it. The governor’s official mansion is here, although I think most state business is conducted in Anchorage. The folks in Juneau were stunned by Sarah Palin’s resignation. Juneau boasts just one fast food restaurant (a McDonald’s), a Wal-Mart (where our guide says a dozen tortillas cost $10 – a form of highway robbery he thought, and he had a few words to say about Wal-Mart’s “discount” shopping vs. truth in advertising), and a Costco. Our guide, Patrick, a young native Californian, moved permanently to Juneau about 2 years ago (he’s a junior high history teacher) after having worked in Denali National Park for 2 years and deciding that the close proximity to nature was where he wanted to be. About the only thing he misses about the lower 48, he said, is Mexican food.

Before we reached Juneau yesterday we went into Tracy Arm, a fjord here in Alaska. This was new territory for us as we did not see it on our previous Alaska cruise. It was really beautiful. It didn’t hurt any that it was a sunny, clear day!

Some buttercups. At least that’s what other people said they were. I’ve never lived in buttercup country, so I wouldn’t know.

Some other people knew they recognized these flowers, but couldn’t name them. However, they said they were the biggest ones they’d ever seen. The picture covers about 18 inches, if want some perspective.