Alaska, Part Two

Blogging from my Seattle hotel room, then I'll catch the 5:30AM shuttle to the airport tomorrow morning.  Woof!

Very grateful for these two - Megan (from Houston, TX) and Amy (from Ontario, CA)!!
*Side note:  The dress suggestion for this night's dinner was "A touch of orange" because it's Holland America's signature color.  On the first day of the cruise, Beth's team gave us tote bags with orange scarfs on them, so tons of people (myself included) used that for our orange item! =)

I spent the second day of the cruise doing whatever I wanted, but feeling fairly isolated and unsure how to approach people.  Then I met Megan (center) and her mom during the first shore excursion at Mendenhall Glacier.  They invited me to join their dinner table (316), and I'm so glad I did - I sat with them the rest of the week, and it made a world of difference!  

Beth with her granddaughters, Willa and Annabeth ❤

The only photo I took during the worship...

"Now this gospel truth of old shall not kneel, shall not faint.
By His blood and in His name, in His freedom I am free
For the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me!"
One of my favorite lyrics in any worship song!  The worship and the content of these sessions became more powerful for me as the week moved forward - I'm sure mostly because my heart was tuning in and coming into better alignment with Jesus.

The indoor pool and hot tubs (3) on the Lido Deck (Deck 9) - there is also an outdoor pool and hot tubs!  I used the indoor hot tubs twice and enjoyed them!

This = "the Crow's Nest" a Starbucks-style room with lots of big tables + board games, puzzles, couches, and a bar on Deck 11 (the highest floor of the ship).  Megan, Amy, and I hung out and chatted for a couple hours there after dinner!  Each of us has a plan to write a book and/or Bible study and/or start a podcast, and it was great to talk about those ideas together... then Amy asked Beth (during a Q&A session) if she might be willing to teach women about how to teach God's Word, and Beth said that's exactly the kind of thing she hopes to do more of as she moves into her 70s! ❤

Rainy weather in Ketchikan - I was grateful the ship had umbrellas we could borrow!

I did a little shopping then caught the 9:30AM  showing of "The Great Alaskan Lumberjack" for my shore excursion that day!  Lots of hyping up the crowd, but it was entertaining and fun... 

'Twas an absurd competition between America and Canada, and America took the victory!

Yay, new hoodie!  And yay, repping the OCC in Alaska! ;-)

"Who names their boat Coast Guard anyway!??"  -Joey Tribbiani
I ran out to the balcony to get this pic when I saw that we were passing them! lol

Back row: Mary Gail, Diane, and Yvette
Front row: Lucy, Amy, me, Megan, and Teresa
(Donna was feeling seasick that night, but she's in our next day's group pic)

I love this element of cruises - that everyone spends the day doing their own thing - different excursions and activities on and off the ship, then the big group comes together for dinner and you get to hear about all of it!  Plus all of these women were there for Beth Moore, so there was a lot of Christ-centered conversation, which made me happy!!

Beth stopping by our table for a minute and filling us in on a story she started but didn't finish during the Q&A on stage! =)

Balcony pic pre-whale watch outing!

Yay for the towel animals - always fun on cruises!

I also appreciated that they had short videos with details and suggestions for each port stop on our stateroom TVs!

"Infinitely more than we might ask or think."
"through His mighty power AT WORK WITHIN US"

All glory to God!

PS having my phone on airplane mode with slow internet connection for the better part of a week was good for me!  More extra rest, time outside, and journaling by hand!

I'll write more from my own home tomorrow night!  For now, I need to get some sleep.  Thanks for stopping by, friends and fam!

❤ ❤ ❤