Hodgepodge ~ September 16, 2026

 Happy Hodgepodge Day!  Thank you Joyce for hosting.

1. How do you define beauty? 

Kindness and confidence portray so much beauty in a person.  Beauty on the outside only goes so far.  It is much more about what is on the inside.

2. Have you ever taken a trip by train? If so where did you go and what did you think of the experience? If not do you have any desire to do so? Where would you like to go? (You might find inspiration here-The Best Train Trips in The World)

Well, yes I have, thanks for asking.  My first train experience was from Minneapolis, Minnesota to West Glacier, Montana.  It was 24 hours on the train and so cool to go through North Dakota and see so much of the USA I would have never probably seen otherwise. In 2013, we did a quick trip from Washington DC to Charlotte, NC so the girls could have their first real train ride.

We spent a month living in Brussels, Belgium so we took trains a lot during that time.

We quoted this for years..."de volgende halte is" means "the next stop is" in Dutch.

This was the train we took for a weekend trip from Brussels to Paris.

We took the chunnel train from Brussels to London on Isabella's 13th birthday.

More recently as I shared here, I took Amtrak last month from Vancouver to Seattle.  If you're wondering, the business class ticket was worth the small upgrade price.

I will write about this train ride later, but we took the most amazing train ride excursion in Alaska too.

I have also taken the train a many a times in New York City, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Paris and throughout Belgium.

Thank you for reading my train talk! :)

3. Shell shocked, bombshell, bandshell, shellacking, in a nutshell, walking on eggshells...choose one and tell us why you chose it, or how it relates to your life in some way currently.

I would say in a nutshell, I am feeling content with life now.  I am so thankful for the growth I have experienced through being alone and the transitions that have happened this year.  In a nutshell, I am claiming peace for my life and learning/practicing not giving anyone else power to take that away. It is a good place to be!

4. Tacos, pistachios, oysters, clams, eggs...your favorite food on the list that comes in/with a shell? 

Eggs would be my favorite from this list.  I like pistachios, but I like them unshelled, like my eggs, ha! 

5. Are birthdays a big deal in your house? Is your own birthday a big deal in some way? Elaborate. 

Yes ma'am. I actually just said those words to my daughter two weeks ago.  I mentioned I may be traveling near her birthday but would be back on her actual day.  I told her every birthday is a big deal and to celebrate.  Here is a link to a past post on my kids birthday party themes.  I loved planning their parties!

Here are a few of my birthdays in years past:

This is with friends from church at my 54th party.

With my sister on my 50th

This was 40 something

This would have been 44 when I lived in Colombia.  My sweet Colombian friend wanted to celebrate my birthday with me.  She knew only hello and thank you in English and that was about all I knew in Spanish too at the time, but we sure laughed a lot together.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Last week the ladies at my church had our bible study kick off gathering at the rooftop of a local building overlooking the square.  We had appetizers and desserts surrounded by friends and a pretty view!

It felt appropriate to end this post with a picture of a train, ha!

Enjoy your day!

Juneau ~ September 15, 2026

 Good morning!  Today I am sharing my next port of call, Juneau, Alaska.  Did "juneau" Juneau is the only U.S. state capital that cannot be reached by car or highway? You can only get there by airplane or boat.

The morning before we arrived, we were up early to see some glaciers, but we had super foggy weather.  We had our cups of coffee and hot chocolate ready.  

We would randomly see ice floating in the water this morning.

Y'all, I miss the me in August wearing a hat and a blanket over my sweatshirt! Our room had what they call a infinite veranda, where the balcony is integrated into the room itself instead of being a separate outdoor area. There is floor-to-ceiling glass: The outer wall is a large window with a button control, which you can see behind me. You push a button to slide the top half of the glass down so opening the window lets the breeze directly into the seating space inside. There are bifold doors that separate the veranda nook from the main sleeping area & there are also automated blinds that close for privacy or darkness.  We loved this room!

Oh Alaska, you are stunning!

We hired a driver to take us to and from Mendenhall Glacier.

We took the mile walk up to the falls and had fun taking pictures there!  The views all around us were so pretty!

Our driver dropped us off downtown and we walked around this area before walking back to the ship.

We found a Taku gift shop and this was special to Brook because she had done a school project on this area.  

That evening, a picture was taken of me staring out the window at the views taking pictures.  I did this quite a bit!

The day ended with a beautiful sunset.

Thanks for coming along on today's stop!

Hello Monday ~ Ketchikan/ September 14, 2026

Good morning.  I hope you are doing well with the start of a new week.  I am joining today with Hello Monday with a quick weekend recap and then finally a post on our first Alaskan port from the cruise. 

I am counting last Thursday night as a part of the recap where I joined Jenn and some friends at the movie to see Practical Magic 2.  It was a fun night, cute movie and such a cool theater. 

Friday night, I joined Jenn and and these lovely ladies to celebrate their birthday.

Now on to our Alaska!  After our first day at sea, the next day we finally had our first sight of Alaska!

Our first port was Ketchikan. We walked this city and did some local shopping instead of any excursions.

This is a super popular place to eat, but we did not eat here. It is listed on all the Ketchikan travel pages. The line was long!  We just got a drink at a coffee shop and ate back on the ship.

Creek Street is the local shopping area of Ketchikan.

This sign made me laugh, as this place was called the Sourdough Bar & Liquor Store.

We got back on the ship and I loved taking this picture of my girls looking for wildlife.  Having binoculars was fun to use on the cruise!

From our room, we were able to see a plane land at the local airport, which I thought was cool.

That night after dinner, I enjoyed a mocktail strawberry daquiri, which was included with our drink package.  It was a good drink and I had another one on another day.

As we were walking around the ship that night, we saw our cruise director and it was fun to get a picture with him.

We loved our first day with our feet touching the ground in Alaska!

How was your weekend?