Thanks, Canada

*Post title courtesy of Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother:
Robin:  "A marathon!?  That's like 42 kilometers!"
Ted (with all the sarcasm):  "Thanks, Canada - I'll take it from here!  That's like 26 miles!!" lol

They had this fun frame set up for people to pose for photos, but it also held a perfect view of our ship from that spot! =)

Yay for the Canada photo op, even if the angle of the sun kinda messed with our photo! lol

The Christ Church Cathedral - it's very pretty inside, according to Google.  (My original plan was to tour it, but not enough people signed up for that excursion, so it got cancelled and refunded.  Then I decided to join Megan and Theresa for the Butchart Gardens instead!!)

It was a 30-minute bus ride there and back, and we arrived there around 8:30pm... they have little lights placed all around the gardens, but we would've loved a daytime tour here!

Night mode photos keep things interesting.  "Hold still for 4 more seconds" over and over - I finally started videoing and/or turning on the flash.

This space is called "The Sunken Gardens," and it's really beautiful and colorful!

Some close-up flower pics - I stopped and smelled the roses repeatedly - it was hard to miss the inviting floral scent everywhere you went there!

Lots of floral archways - almost as good as being under a tree bridge! ;-)

The dragon fountain with lavender lighting

Our stepping stone pathway to the Italian Gardens

Sunken Gardens sunset selfie! lol

We witnessed a live proposal there, so that was unexpected and fun!

Megan got this great pic of the British Columbia Parliament buildings on our bus ride back to the ship!  LOVE the lighting!!

Email from Christine Caine early in the cruise that feels like a timely word from God on both sides (the doors He has closed and the doors He is opening).  Between that and the whale watch prayer, I feel like I got answers to some questions my mind has been circling around for quite a while.

Speed-writing is not my gift, so I'll write the Seattle post after Dad's birthday dinner... off to Saltgrass to meet the fam!!  Thanks for stopping by, and hope your week is off to a great start!  "God is with you and for you in every decision, leading you into your destiny!"

❤ ❤ ❤

Beth Moore Cruise, Part Three

Okay, friends!  I have 45 minutes before I need to leave for Dad's Birthday dinner, and I'm attempting to finish three blog posts in that time.  This post = Alaska - Part 3, then Canada and Seattle will get their own separate posts. =)

Pic with Beth Moore and Travis Cottrell - Friday, July 31, 2026 ❤

I had room service delivery twice for breakfast on the balcony, but most days, I went down and grabbed a table for one - it felt pretty awkward to me at first, but there were so many others doing the same thing that I leaned into it and started to enjoy it - I adore breakfast foods and fantastic ocean views, and that morning, I stayed at the table a bit longer to write this card I'd bought for Beth.  (I failed to get a photo of the back side of it, and there were two more verses I included on the insert).

Verse for the day - I was feeling the renewed strength this verse speaks about, and the reference to eagles made me happy after seeing a few of them in the wild! ❤

We had morning devotions with Curtis, Beth's son-in-law.  He taught on Matthew 16, and my notes include "Be responsible with the responsibility God assigns you" and "Never stop asking God for more understanding of Jesus."

Standing in line for the photos with Amy Switzer, my new friend from Ontario, Canada - yay, God for connecting me with her and Megan!!

Cool painting of our ship =)

"To Lindsey - Jesus is life - Love, Beth" ❤

I've been a fan of Beth for almost 20 years, and I feel like I know Travis thanks to Melanie and Sophie's podcast, where they've both made guest appearances!  So much love and respect for both of them - and I'm very grateful to have these photos!!

The Dive In is an obscure little poolside restaurant that I found out about on our second to last day on the ship - they serve great cheeseburgers, fries, and hot dogs.. yay!  I grabbed that, along with a slice of cookies-n-cream cake at the random "Cake Me Away" party - you know I'm in for that invite! lol  

Ran into Megan and Theresa and joined them for lunch before my 1:30 hot stone aromatherapy massage at the Greenhouse Spa!  I very much enjoyed my massage and my mani/pedi, BUT Holland America needs to back all the way off on the aggressive sales pitch!!!  Gracious - I bought (and then returned!!) over $300 worth of spa products I knew I didn't want bc I couldn't say no to them for the 15th time.  Didn't love that - we're paying enough for the spa treatment, thanks.  But yay for easy returns!

My view of the canoe shore excursion coming back to shore -- on the Sitka tour bus, I sat by a woman named Joyce who was also there to see Beth Moore.  She was in her 70s and came with a friend who was 83, and they did the canoeing excursion!!  Impressive and inspiring to me - I so applaud that activity level and sense of adventure!  Zero interest in white water rafting, but I could try this next time on calm waters!

This and the above pic are out of order in this post, but whatever.  I was in the ice cream line right behind Beth and the Cottrell family, and I got the pineapple sorbet in a cone, same as Beth. lol  Yay! 

I finished the Bourne Trilogy (love it!) over the first 4-5 days, then watched this gem (About Time) while I packed all my things back up!  Such a good movie!

Travis sang a solo - the lyrics were about the wonders of God's creation, and they included several pictures of things we'd just seen in Alaska - very well done and powerful!

Amy saved me a seat near her up front for Beth's final teaching - and I was also able to grab a free copy of her Aligned: 31 Days of Prayer devotional.  Grateful for this chance to unplug and hear from Beth and hear more clearly from Jesus - it really was a gift!  And I'm excited to get started on that study soon!

Our final worship song together was In Christ Alone, one of my all-time favorites.

"No guilt in life, no fear in death.

This is the power of Christ in me.

From life's first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home, 

Here in the power of Christ, I'll stand!"

Final dinner that Friday with Amy and Megan and the Table 316 crew!!

I was the outsider they invited in, and by that last night, I felt comfortable enough to ask for a group pic! =)  We had an 8pm shore excursion, and the three-course meal was slow, so I asked our waiter to bring my banana pudding dessert at the same time he brought my eggplant parmigiana (technically my first time trying that - yum!)  Anyway, he misunderstood and brought everyone's desserts along with their dinner, and some of them had ordered ice cream. lol  My bad, but I'm sure they brought them another one after Megan and Theresa and I got off the boat in Canada... more on that next!

❤ ❤ ❤

Alaska, Part Two

Blogging from my Seattle hotel room tonight, 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 all tote bags with orange scarves on them, so tons of people (myself and Megan included) used that scarf 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 - "For God so loved the world..."), 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 very much enjoyed them - my first time in any pool this summer season!

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 uplifting to talk about those big ideas together... then Amy asked Beth (during the fantastic Live Q&A session*) if she might be willing to offer a book or online workshop teaching women how to share/teach God's Word, and Beth said that's absolutely the kind of thing she hopes to do more of as she moves into her 70s! ❤  *Beth, Kendall, and Travis all had articulate, heartfelt, and Spirit-led responses to the questions asked in that session - very encouraging to hear!

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

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

'Twas an absurd competition between America and Canada, and (according to plan) 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 over 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 that 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!  (In so many of these photos, it looks like a fake scenic background, but it was very real and awesome.) ❤

Yay for the towel animals - always fun on cruises!

I also appreciated that they had short videos with a few details and shopping 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 will write more from my very own home tomorrow night!  For now, I need to get some sleep.  Thanks for stopping by, friends and fam!

❤ ❤ ❤