Per Perkins Perhe: October 2025

not finished, but posting to save, come back for the rest of the story.

And here we go on a 10 day journey. Friday morning we arrived at the airport. You saw Nell and Kimi hugging at the airport as the final picture in our last blog. After checking luggage, Trevor and Nell tooks us to the Delta Sky Club, which Trevor qualifies for through his business travel. He knew I would love.

In fact, this painting graces the front of one of Trevor and Nell's Utah art books, and I had admired it in the past.

It was great to get a meal before taking off, as it allowed me to take my pain pills, so that was a plus, and helped the day to get off on the right foot.

Here are a few of us in front of the cruise ship.

Following are most of our pictures that were taken on the ship. This one is Becca and I in Nordic Sweaters.

First off, we all had magnets on our doors with our 450th anniversary sign. It made it so much easier to find each other, especially when it came time to deliver Secret Ben gifties. Emily conceived the idea based on the secret sister from girls camps past, and secret Santa gifts we have done at Christmas on occasion. More about that later.

Here are a few of the kids doing a bumper car activity.

Here's Kimmy at dinner one night. It was so fun to have her along.

Mike, Brittany, Emily and Becca, also at dinner. We tried to dine together each night, as we had so many different activitiies in different combinations during the day.

Here are me, Dad, Spencer and Brittney. We were always seated at two tables.

Kimi and Ashley the last night, when it was just the four of us.

The evening Davin and Bri were in sick bay, with Nell and Trevor in attendance, Brittany gave out the funky cat shirts she had gotten for all. It was a little anti-climatic, as our hearts will all in sick bay with Davin, who had, that afternoon, swallowed something in his roast beef sandwich that scratch his esophagus, and then imbedded itself. They were planning to have a helicopter come to get him. The seas were rough and I was terrified what such a flight would mean.

Here we see a girls night in Becca and Emily's cabin. Here Darby is having a makeover, while Emily proves there is room to lay down in the window. I also got a makeover, thank you Becca.

Another fun activity that we did twice was to watch movies on deck. First of all was The Proposal that is 'set' in Sitka, that we would soon be seeing. Of course, when they played Wicked, I was in!

The brave ones sat in the hot tub, as it was chilly on the open deck.

Here are Becca, Emily and Trevor. The first night it was me Brittany and Emily.

This is Dad and I the second night.

Another fun thing was the 'Paula and Scott anniversary socks' gifted by Brittany for all, modeled here by Ashley.

Here we are with the Hall cuties.

Dad relaxing in our room.

Ready for formal night. Unfortunately, everybody ran off before we could get a picture together.

But we ran into this handsome man in the hall.

And his cute wife too.

One night Darby and Davin took a Cha Cha class, how fun is this?!

You'll not that they are wearing our cruise shirts.

So here we all are in our Cruise Ship, all of our children on earth, save only Belinda, from whom we have not heard in years. We are missing Emily and Becca's husbands who were holding down the fort at home.

Of course this group out did ours size wise, but they were not really a group. I asked someone what encompassed their group, work? Family Reunion? or? he said, "Its somebody's birthday whom we don't know." I walked away confused, but Trevor had asked someone else and found the back story. Hahaha It turns out someone on the precruise website had invited people to buy the same shirt she was buying for her husband's birthday. I am pretty sure that were more than a hundred people involved.

We loved this piece of 'art' in the hallway where most of us were staying. Its been my word of the year for a few years now. Today in Conference Elder Carlos A Dodoy quoted Russell M Nelson when he said, "The Joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." He then said that if our focus is on Christ, and living the gospel that He has provided for us, we will feel that joy. I had always thought the quote meant focusing on the good in our lives, to stay positive, but I actually prefer this meaning.

Here Dad and I join with Kim, Hannah and Bryan Scott to hear a lecture from a Former Park Ranger, about the Public Trust Lands in Alaska. Brittney watched the same presentation from the floor above us, as we heard later.

There was a shortage of seating, and Kimi and Hannah share a chair.

Later in the week we went to another lecture by the same man with Spencer and Brittney, about how the CCC restored the native peoples' cultural history, mainly by the recarving, or copying of antique totem poles. Interestingly, they also establish dog kennels to house large dogs needed for winter travel, off road in the territory.

Here Becca and Emily, who shared a room, and left their husbands at home to manage the children.

This is the Solarium, where the kids spent a lot of time, even eating in the smaller buffet.

There were lots of these huge round chairs, and they enjoyed relaxing, while watching the ocean through the glass walls. They even saw whales and even a seal from this child free space.

Now I will share each of the four stops we made. The first was Juneau, the state capital. The only state capitol in the USA that cannot be reached by car. We saw many totem poles while of the ship on this cruise.

We spent the day with Emily, Becca, Ashley and Kimi, who found this painted rock, and got to take a picture which she sent to the website on the back before rehiding the rock somewhere else in town.

This statue is of Secretary of State Seward who manage the purchase of the Alaska Territory from Russia.

This bear statue was a lot of fun.

How funny are our girls ...

But they did overcome and tame the wild bear.

Behind them here is the State Capitol building. I know that my uncle Harry Arend, who was a supreme court judge here for 5 years during the 60's would have been in and out of this building. I tried the handle of each of the locked doors along the front, knowing that I had grasped a handle that he used during his tenure here. I never met him, though I did meet my mother's sister LaRee, who raised my mom, once when we lived in Bountiful. She was his wife.

Another Totem ... After we walked around town and saw a couple of beautiful Finnish looking buildings and churches we head back to the ship, while some of the kids joined together and did some serious hikes in the hills about the town.

The next docking was in Skagway. Trevor and Spencer had made arrangements to rent a car to drive up a long canyon that lead to White Pass which is in a Canadian Provence.