We Take Ourselves With Us

Our second stop on the cruise was Athens--we'd be there for two days, so when we were planning the trip, it seemed to make sense to book a tour of the Acropolis on day one to anchor our trip.  Then, the European heatwave made itself known like Hephaestus bringing all the fire.  The forecast said 101 as a high, and in fact, it was so hot the day before  we arrived in town that the Acropolis was closed for the entire afternoon. Luckily, we at least had the sense to book the earliest Acropolis tour we could.  Our group was small--just 8 people, and we'd all been together on the Olympia tour as well.  (Highly recommend Travel Insiders, a local team we booked these two excursions with.)  So, we were through the ticket gate and on our climb up to the Acropolis quickly.  One observation about the climb: the entire walkway to and from the Acropolis is made of marble--shiny, slick, no-traction marble, which made for an interesting journey up (and down) the ...

The disembarkation from the Sun was super easy, and after a few moments of my freaking out about a missing bag because the port's yellow lights turned our seriously tomato red suitcase orange (my bad), we were on our bus to Anchorage and zipping through another full sun, blue sky, gorgeous scenery day. I think I've mentioned before how wonderfully welcoming and friendly Alaskans have been this whole trip.  What I might not have mentioned is how they all clearly love living in Alaska.  Some have made a definite life choice to live in the state: they mention a love of the outdoors and the sense of community that is engendered because of the juxtaposition of small population and distance.  Others are native Alaskans and simply cannot imagine living anywhere else.  Our bus driver fell into this camp.  Highly social, filled with information on geography, geology, nature and history, and another storyteller. As non-native Rochesterians, we ofte...