I am back in San Francisco now, after 10 days away. My trip included 3 days in Seattle, 7 days at sea in Alaska's Inside Passage and Glacier Bay and in the ports of Juneau, Skagway, Haines and Ketchikan Alaska, and a very brief stop in Victoria, BC.

It was a pretty great trip. This was my first time being on a sea cruise, and I would say that this sea cruise was kind of like three trips in one:

1. being (on land) in Alaska
2. being on and around the sea
3. being trapped inside a hotel (or a mall disguised as a hotel)

That last quality was the part I liked least, but the others were great. If anything, I would have loved to spend more time in Alaska (on land).

So, it was interesting too not blogging while I was away. I definitely had some withdrawals and a number of times when I was imagining blogging about what was going on.

In general though, from my experience on this trip, I would recommend not being online at all while on vacation—it was really good for me to get totally out of the online-head.

It is nice to visit a place, like Haines, Alaska (FYI, where Anastasia and I had a great day kayaking), and not also have one's attention connected to and affected by events and people around the globe. At least for a vacation!

Actually, that gives me an idea: someone should set up an "on vacation" chat room for people who are obsessed with being online, even while on the vacation. However, the major feature of this chat room should be that no one can say/type anything! No news sometimes really is good news.

Anastasia took about 10 rolls of film worth of b&w and color photos, and between the two of us, we also took about 220 digital photos. I will be posting some of the digital photos online soon for my family and friends to see, and I will post a link to them on this blog too.

I might highlight a couple good photos so you don't have to sit through my whole "family vacation slide show". And, I am sure Anastasia will have some great photos that she will scan and post online at some point too.