Saturday, July 13, 2013

North to Alaska! Part 4 - The Tracy Arm Fjord, June 26, 2013

Anyone up for an ice cream social?
This is Part 4 of my series of trip reports about my recent trip to Alaska.  This installment will cover our visit (or more correctly, our ship's visit) to the Tracy Arm Fjord, about 100 miles south of Juneau.  If you haven't already done so, I would suggest reading the first 3 parts of my series.

Part 1 - Background Info
Part 2 - Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and Sailaway
Part 3 - Ketchikan

If you would like to view the entire collection of photos covering the Tracy Arm Fjord, you can view them here.  Disclaimer:  some people apparently believe that all photos of glaciers look alike.  There are a lot of photos of glaciers both in my Flickr set, and in this post.  View at your own discretion, and don't say you weren't warned.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

North to Alaska! Part 3 - Ketchikan, and a Major Personal Milestone - June 25, 2013

Overcast skies and rain greeting our arrival in southeast Alaska

This is Part 3 of my series of trip reports about my recent trip to Alaska.  In this post, I will cover our visit to Ketchikan, our first port-of-call in Alaska.  If you haven't already done so, I suggest reading Parts 1 and 2 first.

Part 1 - Background Info
Part 2 - Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and Sailaway

If you would like to see my entire collection of photos of the Ketchikan area, you can see view them on Flickr here.

North to Alaska! Part 2 - Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and Sailaway

Mt. Rainier, Washington

This is Part 2 of my series on my recent cruise to Alaska.  In this post, I'll cover our time in Seattle on June 21st and 22nd, prior to boarding our cruise on the afternoon of the 23rd.  If you haven't already read Part 1 of the series, which provides background on the trip, you can read it here.

If you'd like to see the complete photo album of our time in Seattle, you can find them on Flickr here.

Please note that this series is a report on the trip in general, and not specifically the cruise.  I'll post a review of the actual cruise separately.  In the meantime, if you can't wait, you can read my review on Cruise Critic here.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

North to Alaska! Part 1 - The Background

South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm Fjord

I've been wanting to go to Alaska for a really long time.  Finally, the chance presented itself this past week.  Along with my mom and dad, my brother, and my youngest sister and her husband and son, we took off for a 7-day cruise to Alaska, with a day in Seattle to start off with.  This will be a multi-part trip report, as we saw a whole bunch of stuff, and honestly, each port we visited is deserving of its own write-up.  This will serve as Part 1, some background on how this trip came together.

Scheduled Posts Starting Saturday

Now that I've (sort of) gotten the hang of this blogging thing, I've decided to start posting on a set schedule.  I'll make one last exception with my first post on my recent trip to Alaska tomorrow, but thereafter, all posts will go live Saturdays at noon.  That way, I won't have to waste your Facebook feeds with announcements of new posts, and also, won't have to promise more than I can deliver when work is busier.  In weeks I have a lot of stuff to write, I'll have several posts going up at once.  I may occasionally make an exception and do an unscheduled post if there's something that's just really burning a hole in my brain, but I'll try to avoid that as much as possible.

Thanks for your readership!

Monday, July 1, 2013

The Ethics of Exploiting Travel Pricing Errors

Nothing gets travel bloggers, not to mention the travel industry's customers, more riled up than the issue of "pricing errors" when it comes to car rentals, hotel rooms, and airfare (though the problem tends to be most acute in the area of airfare).  Today, I'll compare the competing views on whether or not it's ethical to take advantage of pricing errors, and my personal take on the issue. 

For those who are dying for a report on my recent trip to Alaska - relax.  I'll start putting posts up later this week.  It takes longer than you might think to sift through photos and write up an article that's interesting to read, after all.

No, This Blog Isn't Dead...

...the author has just been on vacation.  I will have a multi-part trip report to post about my recent visit to Alaska, starting later this week.  In the meantime, I'll venture into the world of "travel ethics" in today's post, appearing later today.