Enjoying a cruise today is noticeably different than those my wife and I did some 25 years ago. That reality was dramatically in evidence when we took a Princess cruise earlier this year, and the memories we experienced “back then,” still color my thoughts today. In the 1970s research shows that about 500,000 people took a cruise every year. In the cruise industry today (2019) the cruise business has grown considerably.

Dog mushing is Alaska’s state sport, but it’s so much more than that. Mushing is so entwined in Alaska’s history, it’s almost impossible to think about the state without thinking of the dogs.

I had just put my head down on the pillow. The day had been a fun – but it was also long and taxing, and a good night’s sleep was in order. Suddenly, the blaring sound of a bulldozer burst into the room. I bolted out of bed. I looked at my watch – it was 1 A.M. I charged over to the hotel window and pulled open the curtain. Across a small creek, there was a man outside who was really operating a bulldozer. His family must love this, I thought.

“Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!” headlined the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July of 1897. “Sixty Eight Rich Men on Steamer Portland arrived in Seattle with ‘Stacks of Yellow Metal.”‘ The news spread like California wildfire, and the Klondike Gold Rush began. In the first ten days over 1,500 people left for the Klondike. Within the next six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers steamed …