Cruisin'

It's that time of the week - injecting a little geographic exploration into an otherwise sedentary life.

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Yours truly is going to be out of town for a little while - about 10 days - for an Alaska cruise. No doubt future posts will be filled with stories about icebergs and polar bears or whatever else is there. Black bears? Moose? Maybe I need to do some research before I go.

Leading up to this trip, people have been asking me "are you EXCITED?" - maybe less of a question and more of a statement. Well yes and no. I'm sure the natural beauty of Alaska is something else - or so I'm told. And I do like nature. Love Switzerland's Alps and Glacier National Park's winding roads and Ireland's cliffs.

But what is fascinating obsessing me more these days is the cruise itself. I've never been on a cruise ship before - unless you count the overnight ferry from Italy to Greece where I slept on the floor with my backpacking buddies. I've been on river "cruises" - a three-hour tour. A three-hour tour. But never a floating hotel.

I'm not really a cruise person. That I know of. While people I know have been on many cruises - mostly Caribbean and warm weather - it's not necessarily a vacation I would choose for myself. I'm used to hauling my bag from hotel to hotel. Struggling to lift it onto a train (sometimes as it pulls out of the station). Packing and unpacking at each destination. Relearning my surroundings every few days. Finding decent restaurants. Walking miles between monuments.

Hmmm....might be a nice change of pace.