We were probably the only two people in the U. S. who had never watched the movie Titanic. Yesterday we joined the crowd. It so happened our son and wife could not come for Easter dinner because of an illness in the family (dog had the flu). So we looked in the movie schedule and Mary picked it out, the 3-D version. Undoubtedly a good movie, I didn't particularly like it because one dramatic scene followed on the heels of another so that I could never relax. The date it sunk: April 12, 1912, one hundred years ago.
Reminded of a trip I took once on a ship, I dug out this picture taken in Alaska in the fall of 1968 as I stood on the dock waiting for it to arrive. The ship was named the M. V. Wickersham and was a working ferry on the inland passage. I had driven up to Alaska a week or so before but decided it was not for me to stay with winter coming on. I drove from Anchorage to Haines in time to catch a ride. I bought a ticket and surrendered my '66 Impala which the dockworkers drove in the hold with other vehicles. Quite the experience it was! The ferry system is a working system for Alaskans to get from one port of the state to another or move commerce along or haul sightseers like me. Not a very large ship, It did a lot of rocking and rolling in the rough water. Prince Rupert, BC was my getting off 30 some hours later, a trip I've never regretted or forgotten.
To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we traveled north to Alaska on Carnival Cruises which proved to be an entirely different experience, strictly tourist. Each day we would float into a different port, disembark, and walk through the tourist trap businesses set up and waiting for us. Anyone for Brazilian sapphires? Some of it was authentic, though, such as the narrow gauge railroad to the top of Whitehorse Pass, a trail where thousands of gold-seekers once walked up to fail at prospecting. Another interesting stop was church at the Diocese of Alaska cathedral in Juneau, a ramshackle wooden building with squeaky floors and pews.
Other than those two trips, the only other floating I've done was in fishing boats.
