North to Alaska

We leave this morning for our Anniversary trip up the inside passage to Alaska.  We have been looking forward to it for months.

Never done anything like this.  We aren't even sure what to pack.  Many decisions, including most importantly, which two bottles of wine should I take.  We are allowed to only bring two bottles with us, not for any particular reason except that these ships are basically designed to take as much money from you as they can.  And alcohol sales, of course, bring in big bucks.

I decided on two Italian red wines.

Now that this decision was made then we can turn our attention to less important decisions such as the clothes we need for dancing (Vicky has packed four--4--dancing dresses even though I have explained that the "dance floor" is probably the size of a postage stamp and that people will likely be doing wiggle dancing on it leaving little room for us;  but we'll find a way somehow), our hiking gear, and so on.

We have signed up for two shore excursions--both hikes.  We could have signed up for shopping excursions instead, but if we wanted that we could have stayed here and gone to a shopping mall to celebrate our anniversary.  Besides, what (besides maybe another dancing dress) will we need to buy?

One part of the journey will have special meaning to Vicky.  Many years ago she ended up befriending an elderly woman who became very important to her.  For about year Vicky brought her dinner every night...until she died.

In Grandma Shook's younger years, around the turn of the century, she was a cook in the gold fields in Alaska.  She had to go by horseback to get to where she cooked.  She said she baked "hundreds of apple pies" for those "boys."  Vicky got her pie crust recipe from the recipe Grandma Shook used.

We have a number of items in our home that Grandma Shook gave to Vicky, and they are special to her, and to us.  

Here is our ship: 

Stop reading at this point unless you are a baby boomer, and can remember Johnny Horton's song North to Alaska, and the John Wayne film that told the same story:

Way up north (north to Alaska)
Way up north (north to Alaska)

North to Alaska
You go north, the rush is on
North to Alaska
I go North, the rush is on

Big Sam left Seattle in the year of ninety-two
With George Pratt, his partner and brother, Billy, too
They crossed the Yukon River
And found the Bonanza Gold
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome

Sam crossed the majestic mountains (mush)
To the valleys far below (mush)
He talked to his team of huskies (mush)
As he mushed on through the snow (mush)
With the northern lights a-runnin' wild (mush)
In the land of the midnight sun (mush)
Yes, Sam McCord was a mighty man (mush)
In the year of nineteen-one (mush)

Where the river is windin'
Big nuggets they're findin'
North to Alaska
They go North, the rush is on

A-way up north (north to Alaska)
Way up north (north to Alaska)

North to Alaska
They go north, the rush is on
North to Alaska
They go north the rush is on

George turned to Sam
With his gold in his hand
Said, 'Sam you're a-lookin' at a lonely, lonely man
'I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land
For one small band of gold to place
On sweet little Vicky's hand       (Note, I made a subtle change to this line)

'Cause a man needs a woman
To love him all the time
'Remember, Sam, a true love is so hard to find
I'd build for my Vicky, a honeymoon home      
Below that old white mountain
Just a little south-east of Nome'

Where the river is windin'
Big nuggets they're findin'
North to Alaska
They go north, the rush is on
North to Alaska

They go North, the rush is on
Way up north (north to Alaska)
Way up north (north to Alaska)
FADES-
Way up north (north to Alaska)
Way up north (north to Alaska)
Way up north.