My Alaskan Cruise

Pictured above are the REAL Ellen, Sue, and Tanya riding the Skagway Railway.

I and my two best friends and our husbands just returned from a 7-day Alaskan cruise, an experience that provided many useful details for my January 1st release, ALASKAN CLUES.

Our embarkment on the Star Princess began in Seattle, and we spent two days at sea eating, drinking, watching shows, and playing games.

Below are the real Tanya and Ellen in the dining room. Those are my husband's fingers in the shot!

Our first stop was Ketchikan. Here's what it looked like from the ship:

While there, we drove Zodiac boats and looked for eagles and other wildlife. My husband and I are ready to board below.

We also saw salmon and a harbor seal at Creek Street, where the salmon were spawning and one enormous harbor seal had a monopoly on the buffet!

From Ketchikan, we sailed to Juneau. This is what it looked like from my balcony:

As we were driving to Douglas Island for our hike, we snapped photos of the Mendenhall Glacier. We were supposed to hike to the glacier, but there was a glacier flood when Suicide Basin overflowed, so our excursion was modified.

He we are, my husband and me, on the hike on Douglas Island standing in front of a tree growing out of the bedrock:

After the hike, we took a boat out to see Orcas and Humpbacks.

I took videos of both and posted them to my Instagram and Facebook author page. Here's the Orca video on my Facebook page. And here's the Humpback breaching the water on my Facebook page.

Here's a screenshot of the Humpback taken from the video:

Skagway was next. There, we saw breathtaking views from the train. Here we are boarding:

And below are just a couple of examples of the incredible views:

Terry (Tanya) thought our train was going to go over that broken bridge. That HAS to go in the book!

We also spent an enchanting evening in a secret speakeasy on the ship called "Spellbound," an intimate and magical place full of oddities and delights. We each had two hand-crafted, original cocktails and watched a magic show, where I got to be an assistant! It was pretty spectacular, even close-up.

Below are the real Tanya, Ellen, and Sue at a table in the secret speakeasy:

Our last stop was Victoria, Canada.

I also caught a few stunning photos from my balcony. Here are two of them:

Above, beautiful fog on the water. Below, a glorious sunset.

The disembarkation came way too soon! But my husband and I had an enjoyable evening in Seattle.

He still caught his finger in photo, but, except for the man photo-bombing me, he took a beautiful shot!

I can't recooomend this cruise enough. More importantly, I can't wait to write the book!

ALASKAN CLUES will soon be available for preorder. Stay tuned!