Smiles and a glimps of Juneau, Alaska

Hello again dear blog friends.

Thanks to all of you who wished Tom and his family well on my last post.

June will be greatly missed.

I have been gone since May 5th.

I had a group of 25 I was taking on a cruise to Alaska.

I was sad that I had to be away from family at that time

but we ended up having a nice time cruising with clients and friends.
I also missed being able to get to my computer and visit you.

I look forward to catching up now that I am home again.

...

Before I share my Alaska smiles with you, I have wonderful news.

This is my biggest of all smiles.

My dear grandson, Justin, who just graduated from his army

special training to be a medic,

got his mission call while we were in Alaska.

We are thrilled that he got his call to serve his mission before he got deployed.
The army will grant him 2 years leave since he got his call before he was deployed.
He was called to serve in Guatemala in the same area that John served in
46 years ago when he was a young missionary.
How neat is that! It is really special to John to have his grandson
going to the same area he knows and loves.
We are thankful that Justin has been called to serve the Lord
and preach His gospel.
We are thankful that this dear boy is willing to work in this missionary service for 2 years.
We know that God will bless him and keep him safe.
...
Now... here are my Alaska smiles to share with you.
On May 5th we boarded The Celebrity Mercury

It is a midsized, older ship, but she has charm and was lovely.

It took us 3 days of cruising though beautiful areas to get to
our first port which was Juneau, Alaska.

Our first excursion was to the Mendenhall Glacier.

It is really breathtaking.

It is a huge river of ice.
It is hard to tell how really big it is from this picture I took...
but it is 1/2 mile across here from side to side and 150 feet deep.

We spent about an hour and a half at the glacier

and then we went

on to our...

...Next excursion which was a Salmon Bake.
We went with our friends, Craig, Kris and Meryse.

Meryse is our 85 year old neighbor.
She was amazing on this trip and kept right up with us.

We all enjoyed the beautiful Juneau scenery.
This waterfall is near town, just about a block off the main road .

The salmon bake was near the waterfall.

We had a lovely time...

...enjoying this delicious salmon dinner...
...being with our friends...
(Kris, Craig and Meryse are delightful.)

and enjoying the beautiful scenery God has created for us.

You can see that we have had much to smile about.
We feel truly blessed that we could make this trip.
As I mentioned, I booked 25 on this cruise.
A number of them were in their 70's, 80's and one couple was in their 90's.

I am thankful that we were all kept safe and healthy.
I am thankful that we had this wonderful experience.

I will be sharing it with you in my next few posts.

Now I must cook dinner. Mindy and family will be here soon.

Then I will get to visit your blogs and catch up on what you've been doing.

I hope you have had lots to smile about too.

Hugs, Lura