An awesome, cool trip

Young Chang

Marie and Bill Griffith were among the last seafarers to snap a

photo in front of the Hubbard Glacier before it made headline news

earlier this month with a glacial lake outburst.

What the Newport Beach couple saw, before this flood of sorts that

declared the glacier unsafe for following ships, was very up close

and blue.

“The ship’s log said this was the closest we had ever come,” said

Marie Griffith. “We were half of a nautical mile away from the

glacier, which is very close I guess in those terms.”

Most surprisingly, the glacier was more the blue of the ocean

instead of white.

“First, as we approached it, it looked as if the boat was going

right through a punchbowl full of ice cubes because the chunks of ice

were all in the water,” she said. “It literally loomed out of the

water, and it was just awesome.”

The couple left for their Alaskan cruise on Aug. 10 with two other

senior couples from Newport Beach. They went on a round trip --

Seattle to Seattle -- stopping in Ketchikan and Sitka, among other

cities. Griffith laughed and admitted that she always said she would

wait until she was old to take this trip. Her recent vacation proved,

though, that an Alaskan cruise doesn’t necessitate sitting around and

staring off the boat.

“There was plenty of everything,” the senior said. “Beautiful

scenery ... you enjoy the luxury of the ship for certain ... at night

they had New York-type shows three or four nights ... and a very,

very busy, active casino with gambling.”

The Griffiths and their friends spent some nights playing bridge

and most nights eating and drinking on a boat that gave them each

their own veranda suites with decks.

On their first night, the group dined in a two-decker restaurant

done in a mezzanine style on top that required somewhat formal

attire.

“They had a great fanfare at the end of the meal and a parade of

waiters wearing moose hats, carrying trays of chocolate mousse, to

the delight of all the patrons,” Griffith said. “It was cute. It was

corny and hokey, but very cute.”

One of the most awe-inspiring moments for this traveler was seeing

Hubbard Glacier.

“It made me say a little prayer because it brought God very near,”

she said.

Her husband agreed that the view was amazing because it was had on

a fairly clear day.

“But I think Ketchikan was my favorite,” said the retired FBI

agent. “I think it had more of a flavor of the Alaska we read about

in the books of earlier days.”