National Adult Literacy Database

February 15, 2010

The following story was written by Ron Greenhorn, from Nanaimo, BC. Ron was born and raised on beautiful Vancouver Island. He leads a very busy life, working as a volunteer with various community programs in Nanaimo, including the Foodshare organization, and the local Morrell Nature Sanctuary. Ron loves to travel, and he has also been actively involved with the Special Olympics for over seven years. Among other awards, he earned a Bronze medal for skiing at the 2007 winter games in Kelowna.

My cruise to Alaska

by Ron Greenhorn

Itinerary: Cruise Inside Passage, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, and Ketchikan.

It’s January 07, and we were sitting around Food Share and Cathy was showing us pictures of the Alaskan Cruise that she just came back from. She was telling us about the wonderful time she had and the interesting people and places she saw. She had us excited that we all said we wanted to go on the same trip. Can we go on the cruise to Alaska? Can we afford it? These were some of the first questions we had for Cathy. Cathy said that it would take a lot of hard work, but we should be able to pull it off. We scheduled a meeting to decide when we wanted to go, and how we were going to get the money to pay for the trip. The first thing we did was contact Angela who works at BCAA, for schedule and fare information. When we decided on the date May 14, 08 we knew how much the trip was going to cost us.

We put together three fundraising events to help cover the cost of the trip. We did two beer and burgers events and dance bottle drive.

Tuesday May 13th we packed and we were ready to go. 8:30am Wednesday morning we were on the ferry to Vancouver, and by 5:00 pm that evening the Carnival Spirit was on its way to Alaska, full of cheering passengers.

That night we had our first meal on board ship. Exploring different parts of the ship we stopped at a karaoke bar and make fools of ourselves trying to sing. During the week we visited several night clubs offering all kinds of different shows including musicals, and magician.

Cruising the inside passage several cruise directors got every one involved in fun games. We stopped in Juneau, we did some shopping and took in a tour. Next stop was Skagway. We went to the saloon where I had my picture taken with two lovely show girls (that was my favourite part of my trip). We also went on a tour of Skagway.

Going through Glacier Bay we saw glaciers and sea lions.

Last stop Ketchikan, we went on a tour of the town. Then we went shopping. Next we were in Vancouver going home on the ferry. Our week was over.

Lots of shopping on the ship and all the towns.  Lots of tours! Before you go, book online or the cruise will be full.

[This story was taken with permission from In Our Own Words, September 2008, published by Literacy Nanaimo, now called Literacy Central Vancouver Island.]