Seward is a Folly

Friday, August 30, 2013
Seward, Alaska, United States
After having dug out my fleece and other woolies, I departed Kansas City at seven in the morning for Minneapolis hoping that the flight would be on time since I had only a half-hour to connect. That connection time had me worried about luggage so I had determined that I would travel with only a carryon bag. No tuxedo and formal shoes on this trip. I fit a suit into a roll-aboard along with shirts, ties, walking clothes and a warm jacket. I wear a sport coat and my walking shoes on the plane. We're on time and, thanks to my Million Mile status on Delta, I was upgraded to first class on the nearly six hour flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage.

The movie selection included two films I had missed: "Mud" and “42 .” Both were good even on the tiny screen. The view outside my window for the last ninety minutes was big screen and spectacular.

On time in Anchorage, the Royal Caribbean representative asked me to wait for twenty minutes and she would put me in an eighty dollar seat on a charter bus to Seward, a two hour drive south, where the Radiance of the Seas awaited. I waited. Less than half full, the bus took me through mountains and along rivers to Seward where the ship sat promising a very different Labor Day week than I had imagined less than two days before. Arriving in my stateroom at 4:30, I had time before we sailed at 8:00pm to walk five miles on the deck. I had wanted to text a final goodbye to Megan, Eric, Miles and Cianan but Sprint had no service for me in Seward. No bars on the phone, lots of them on the ship. Dinner is at 8:30.

My table for twelve hosts two nice ladies from California, a couple from Illinois, a mom and her eight year old daughter from Seattle and me. An adjacent table for twelve holds only a lone man so I invite him to join us. He is from Vancouver. We get along well and the eight year old is a model kid at the table. We won’t be lifelong friends but our dinner conversation is fine. The man, Brent, has just spend three weeks with bears. He has good stories.

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