Welcome to you! If you were one of the five to read my first blog post, welcome back!

My original thought was that I would post weekly. Well, that did not happen. 2024 started off a bit different than expected but that’s life, right?

January 1 began with taking my adult son to the ER for the beginning of a two-night stay. The next week a moose walked in front of my car and stopped it immediately. A month later, I was in another accident. These were not expected events, but all turned out fine. My son is fine, and I was not injured at all in either accident. However, my car did not survive. Back to sharing a vehicle with my husband. I may revisit any or all of these incidents in future posts.

There have also been plenty of good times this year, as well. In between the two vehicle accidents, my husband and I went to spend a week with our daughter, son-in-law and 10-month-old grandson in Austin. (The week we were gone was probably the coldest week of the winter at home.) We also spent time driving around Homer and Anchor Point visiting beaches and appreciating the beautiful winter scenery. We also made a second trip to Austin to celebrate our grandson’s first birthday. What a treasure he is!

So, how did Alaska end up on our radar as a place to live?

We were officially introduced to Alaska in July 2013. A year or two before, we started planning our first vacation since raising children. Russ had always wanted to visit Alaska while I wanted to go on a cruise. My mom had wanted to one day go on a cruise but passed away before that dream happened. This encouraged us to combine both our dreams. We cruised the Inside Passage visiting Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway. We disembarked in Seward and immediately boarded a train to take us to the airport in Anchorage for our flight back home.

The entire trip was so amazing we planned a repeat for two years later—same cruise line, same ship, same stops. The big difference is we added a seven-day, six-night land tour to the end of the cruise. Via bus and train, we visited Anchorage for one night, Talkeetna for one night, Denali for two nights and spent two nights in Fairbanks. We had a tour guide for parts of the trip while still having time to explore on our own.

The first trip we jokingly discussed moving to such a beautiful place as Alaska. I loved being on the cruise ship so much, though, I wondered if my feelings of peacefulness were mainly from being on the ship rather than the locale of the ship. However, after the second trip, the discussion became more serious.

To be continued. . .