As promised here is more of my later life and some of my older life. We just returned from a Cruise/Land tour to Alaska with our Daughter and Son-in-law. And here comes the some of the older life. For those of you who don't know our Daughter, her name is Linda and she just celebrated her 53rd birthday, which is quite an accomplishment, as you will understand as we go on with this story. Linda was born 11 Jul 1958 at the Army Hospital in Fort Lawton WA, which was located in Seattle on really prime real estate. I was at the time still stationed on my first ship, USS Whitehurst DE634, that was just transferred from the active fleet in Pearl Harbor to become a Reserve training ship in Seattle, which just happened to be my hometown. We arrived in Seattle, I believe in Sept or Oct of '57 and Rae preceded us there. She became pregnant shortly after the ship's arrival, I don't know how that happened, one of the mysteries of life.
At any-rate it turned out to be an extremely difficult pregnancy for Rae. At one point, in the spring, I don't remember the exact date, some time in Apr or May, during one of her many stays in the hospital, I was home with our oldest daughter when I received a phone call from the hospital telling me I should come in because they weren't sure that Rae would make it through the night due to her pernicious vomiting that they could not control and anemia. When I arrived and after I saw what bad shape she was in I spoke at length with her Doctor, an Army Major, and begged him to take the baby and save my wife, he refused, I guess because that was the law in those days, at least for the Army. As you can tell, Linda made it, just barely but she did, and we are eternally grateful that she did. I told the Doctor that my ship was scheduled to depart Seattle for 6 weeks of training in San Diego and he told me that I could not go, he didn't understand the way the Navy works. I went back to my ship the next day and requested some leave and was refused. When I went back and told the Doctor what the ship said he told me to stand by. Shortly a Army enlisted man, don't know their rating structure at all, came into the waiting room and asked for me, when I identified myself
he said come with me, so being a dumb ass 2nd class I did, and when took a ride back to my ship where he asked me who was in-charge. I told him that the Executive Officer was the man he would probably want to see, he went aboard and asked the people on the Quarterdeck to speak to the Exec. of course they wanted to know why. When he told them he had a letter from the Commanding General of Fort Lawton they offered to take it to the Exec., he said no that he had to deliver it personally. After the trip back to Fort Lawton, I returned to the Ship, where I was told the Exec. wanted to see me immediately. He was livid, I had no idea what was in that letter. But the Exec. told me that I had to put in a request for "Humanitarian Shore Duty", and also 10 day of emergency leave. He also informed me in no uncertain terms that the request for shore duty would not be granted and that I would have to pay my own way to San Diego when my leave was up. I do remember this was on a Friday. I got Rae out of the Hospital on Sunday, and on Tuesday we were sitting in our house, watching TV and someone knocked on the door, it was a Western Union messenger with my orders to 4 months "Humanitarian Shore Duty" at the Naval Reserve Training Center in Seattle. As I said Linda was born 11 Jul 1958, and an uglier baby you couldn't imagine, full of scratches and bruises, Rae had an extremely long labor, and when she first saw her newborn she cried. It only took about 3 weeks when most of the marks, we thought some of them might be permanent birthmarks cleared up and she turned into the sweetest, holy terror a parent could hope for. I guess this is one of the times that as the song goes "some of Gods greatest gifts are unanswered prayers".
Well, that was more than I had planned on saying, but I guess I have been known to run off at the mouth (or pen as it were) occasionally.
Linda has been wanting to take an Alaskan Cruise sometime and this seemed to be the best year for it to happen, so we made our reservations on Princess Cruises to depart Vancouver BC, Saturday June 23, sail north with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway before arriving at Whittier Alaska to disembark and begin the land portion of the Cruise.
Because we had to take a motor coach, (bussie for you lowbrows), from SeaTac Intl. Airport to Vancouver, Linda volunteered(?) to drive, from Chehalis, they picked us up at about 6:00AM, check in time was 8:30AM. Everything worked great, we were a little early which was okay because I think all 4 of us hate the idea of being late to anything. Beautiful drive up I-5 through Seattle and points north. The last time I crossed the border at Blaine WA was about 63 or 64 years ago, a lot different now where we just drove through, the Border people asked if we enjoyed our stay in Canada, this time we all had to disembark from the bus, have our passports checked, I don't think they checked the luggage tho. Anyway - we arrived at the pier where the Diamond Princess awaited our arrival prior to sailing. Both couples had balcony cabins which makes for a much more enjoyable cruise. We spent Sunday at sea, ate dinner in the semi-formal dining room, (don't have to dress up tho). If you have never been on a cruise eating in the dining rooms are a real treat. We had two waiters, with a menu that is out of this world. The portions are well within reason, that's the reason Rae and I prefer the dining room as opposed to the Buffet, where you can eat all you want and usually do. The only time we didn't eat dinner in a dining room was on dress up nights, I suppose we could have but think we would have been uncomfortable doing so in casual clothes. In the evening we went to a stage show, they have two showings each night. Some are stage productions and others were a magician and a standup comic. In Ketchikan all four of us went on a Lighthouse, Totems and Eagles tour, really just a bus tour of Ketchikan and surrounding areas, but the tour guides make these tours interesting. From Juneau, Rae and I went on a Whale watching and Wildlife Quest, and if we hadn't had enough water on the trip up this was a boat tour. We were quite fortunate, we were able to observe, humpback whales, a pod of orca's(killer whales), sea lions and many eagles both mature and adult. Linda and Vic took a Bike and Tram Elevation Sensation ride and from what they said they had a great time. I might mention here that the weather in all three of our ports was not the best, but I assume that is to be expected in Southeast Alaska. On to Skagway, where we joined together to tak the Rail, Summit, Suspension Bridge and Garden lunch tour. This consisted of a train ride over the basic same route the the Alaskan Gold miners took from Skagway to the Yukon on their search for Gold. From what the tour guide told us very few of the many adventurers were successful in the quest for gold. The scenery on this trip was magnificent. Saw some bears, mountain goats and of course eagles. The tour takes you into Canada, so another trip through customs, not quite as painful going into and coming out of Canada on the way back. The suspension bridge was fun to cross, not really that exciting, its really well constructed out of metal, but it does sway somewhat. Had lunch at a quaint little restaurant farm style place and had a nice tour of the farm afterwards. Then on to Whittier, but on the way spent an entire day viewing some of the many Glaciers that make up Alaska, in Glacier Bay and College Fjord. They are really fascinating, think Linda and Vic really enjoyed that part of the Cruise. During this part of the cruise we were able to see several bears, eagles and whales. Arrived in Whittier on Saturday Jun 30., where we transferred to buses for our trip to Denali, or Mt. McKinley, whichever you prefer. Some Alaskans object to calling it Mt. McKinley, never really understood why, but it seems he never once visited it. Seems to me if someone name the largest Mountain on the North American Continent after me, I sure as hell would have gone and visited it at least once. Of course I can understand why the native Alaskans want to call it Denali, that was the original name, oh well can't please anyone. Don't think Vic enjoyed this part of the trip too much, to much sitting on the bus, as old as we are it was welcome for us. The weather cooperated for this part of the trip, although we only got a glimpse of Denali, going with the natives cause I hate politicians. Took a "nature" walk of about 3 hours by Byers lake, think Vic enjoyed this part of the trip, he just doesn't like sitting for such long periods of time, can't blame him really. The tour guide was quite interesting and informative. The only problem was that Linda got eaten up by mosquito's, guess Mom and I are too old and tough to be any good for them, not sure what Vic's problem was. The tour guide, whom they call an "expert naturalist" was able to provide us with some a "healing salve" that Linda said really helped with her bites. Didn't see any wild life on this part of the tour, but did see a lot of flora, didn't realize there are so many poisonous plants in the world. Spent the night at the McKinley Princess Lodge. Unlike the cruise part of the trip, we had to pay for our meals, and let me tell you eating in Alaska is an expensive proposition. Caught the Coach to our next stop at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Aren't they clever name one Lodge McKinley and the other one Denali, try to keep everyone happy. The coach trip was about 2 1/4 hours and was a pretty interesting ride. One thing I will say about Princess Cruises they do train their guides, bus drivers and all the rest of their help extremely well. Some of our hotel chains and transportation companies, especially AmTrak could take some lessons from them.
After arrival at Denali we took another Bus into Denali National Park, (actually Denali not McKinley). This was a 5 hour tour on a converted school bus. The national park service will only allow certain types of buses inside the park confines and the normal tour coaches don't meet their requirements. This was a great tour, it is really amazing what the Glaciers have done to the countryside. We didn't see to much in the way of wildlife, but did get to watch several Caribou by a river. The next day was on to Fairbanks. But, before we arrived at the hotel we were dropped off at an authentic stern-wheeler for cruise on the Chena and Tanana Rivers. Because this is within the confines of Fairbanks, some of the homes along the river were just fabulous, still wouldn't want to live there, with to much of the year without sunshine. Surprisingly Fairbanks is quite arid, doesn't get much more rain than San Diego. During the cruise we had a bush pilot demonstrate take off and landing alongside the boat. Along the way we stopped at an "Indian Village" where we saw demonstrations of salmon drying, a fish wheel, and native arts and crafts put on by the native Athabascan's. We also observed from the stern-wheeler Susan Butcher's famous Iditarod sled dog team. Prior to the cruise we had lunch, almost like a schoolroom lunchroom, but it was good, and plentiful. After the cruise we were whisked by motor coach to our hotel the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. Next day up early and off to the airport for our trip home. One thing I would like to point out here, I love to fly, but have avoided it as much as possible after listening to the horror stories of how the TSA treats people and in invasive searches one has to go through. Now, I don't know if what happened to us is peculiar to Fairbanks Airport or not, but those TSA agents were professional, courteous and gently with us. The total body scan, is nothing, all one sees is basically an outline. There were a couple of spots on mine and when I asked what they were the agent told me that it was nothing and explained that those things happen occasionally. Let me warn anyone who does fly, everything must come out of your pockets, including kleenexs. Linda accidentally left some kind of bottle of lotion in her carry-on luggage, the TSA agent had her take it out, examined it to make sure it wasn't anything prohibited and gave it back to her. If this is the small price we have to pay to be able to fly safely, I don't mind at all.
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