Number 6: Meet someone you truly admire, ask their best advice

So.

I met Diana Gabaldon! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) The parenthesis indicate how I felt inside when anticipating her arrival onstage... and when I saw her, she was every bit as fresh faced and genuine as I expected. After all, she is my FAVORITE AUTHOR!!!

I have never attended a book signing, or even really made an effort to do so. Which I should consider odd because of my deep love for all things 'book'. I have discovered that I very much like them, and will continue to seek them out! I will be forever grateful to the young lady at Chapters who tipped me off that Diana G. would be in town. (THANK YOU!).

She arrived in a funky gypsy type dress that speaks to an inner spirituality that radiates in a bright aura around her face. Approaching the microphone she made a light joke about her height, or lack thereof, and promptly re-adjusted the microphone with a laugh. She wasn't affected by the shackles of propriety that we all put on ourselves, no stuffy suits or airs or importance, she just went up there... 100% Diana.

I was already enchanted..

She spoke of her journey from biology professor to world renowned and award winning author... I won't go into the details but I will mention that she had us all hanging on her every word, and it was a packed house at McNally Robinson! She basically decided to write a novel as an experiment. Having much experience writing other things, mainly science based (and comic books!) doing a novel felt like a challenge she seemed to feel she had to do. With a 'now or never' attitude, she told NO ONE that she was attempting this. Alas... she wrote snippets of almost the whole first book, with some prompting by friends on a literary forum she sent it to an agent. Within days of submitting the manuscript to 5 potential publishers, her agent had 3 offers on the table.

Alas. A novelist was born!!!!!!

There is a lot more to the story, believe me! She has spun tales of wonder that have captivated audiences in numerous languages for years. With more projects on the table we can only expect more from her :D She has podcasts along with the books you can check out, plus many websites with a large fan following.

I love her because she is intelligent, but not egotistical... beautiful, but not 'affected'... sweet, genuine and confident...and overall can tell a great story full of layered details, passion, excitement and true history... as Janine says, you 'FEEL' Scottish when you read them, and she is right!!

SO! The piece of advice. Turns out I didn't have to outright ask her because she gave a wonderful piece of advice to all of us, maybe without even knowing she did.

When she was talking about how she started writing the book, she didn't tell anyone. She mentioned that was because she didn't want people to talk her out of it. Alas! There it is. Just do what you want, and who cares what everyone else thinks! Something I already knew for sure, but it is kind of amazing to discover that Diana herself subscribes to this very notion.

Number 30 and Number 4: Go on a Cruise! Visit Alaska!

Ok, I admit it was already booked before I came up with this idea but it was something that was sort of on my life long 'to do' list. Especially the part about it being an Alaskan cruise... there is something romantic and rugged about Alaska that just appeals to me.

So we set sail from the Port of Vancouver on Sunday August 30th, sailing on the Norwegian Sun. The weather was completely outstanding because I guess Vancouver had not had rain all summer long!! So sunny skies for us!! Our room was just perfect, all we needed it for was to sleep and shower as we planned on spending no time in it at all.

So the room is long and not super wide so getting a great shot was a bit challenging. But basically behind the curtain is a large porthole. I loved that it had a porthole, made it more of an authentic cruise ship experience!! There was a king size bed, which is actually 2 beds pushed together, but still great! When you first walk in the room there was a huge closet on the right, and a full bathroom on the left. Then there was a desk, mini fridge area and a yellow sitting chair that was kind of in the way but was really comfy so I forgave it:D I think next time we would do a balcony because we missed being able to open the window when it felt stuffy in the room.

This picture was actually taken as we got back to our room the first day... and there was a little towel creature on the bed!! There were three different days they did this, all port days, and I thought it was simply the greatest thing!

Ok, enough about the room!! I could go on and on about this cruise, and am in the process of making an awesome scrap book complete with pictures, cruise newsletters, and journal entries... so you will just have to see that.

The FOOD! I was a little worried about this part because I read some article that the guy said he went on a cruise and in 10 days gained 25 pounds. I gained only a few and lost it as soon as I got home... so I am thinking that guy must have really had to work at it to gain that much!! There were 9 restaurants on board, as well as other bars and a dance club, a coffee place and an ice cream place. Nuts!! I don't think I really had favorite restaurant but I LOVED the breakfast buffet. I am a slightly picky eater in that I dislike what I term to be 'boring' food. The food on board was anything but boring! And the breakfast buffet was even better. They had anything and everything you could want, but my favorite was this muesli dish, and they had all the coffee you could drink...all day long!

The ports of call for us were Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. I loved them all for all different reasons. Ketchikan is the Salmon capital of Alaska...

And it was such a pretty little town too!! Lots of history, all the bars were built on the boardwalks instead of on land. The reason for this was during times of prohibition the little boats would go under the boardwalk with the bootleg whiskey and rum and then when the tide came in... up they went to a trapdoor in the floor, delivering the bootleg alcohol to the proprietor and the local law enforcement none the wiser... very clever indeed. We spent part of the morning in a lumberjack show too!! Along with exploring the town and having fresh fish and chips by the ocean at lunch it was a perfect day!

Juneau was definitely more urban being the State Capitol. We spent most of the day whale watching... stay tuned for that in another blog! However we did have a few hours before that to walk around and take pictures...

After we left Juneau we sailed into the Tracy Arm Fjord to see the Sawyer Glacier... the water was green and aqua and the glacier was so blue it was surreal... a quiet and peaceful journey... and one of the main reasons we went to Alaska. I got some great pics of the journey into Tracy Arm, but the camera died so Todd got all the pics of the glacier. However below is the colour of the water…

Skagway was a very cool place mostly because it had a lot of 'Alaskan Frontier' feel to it still. We spent a little while exploring, then lunch at the infamous Red Onion Saloon which was a brothel back in the gold rush days, and then the afternoon was spent on the White Pass Scenic Railway. This railway was built to accomodate the men of the Klondike Gold Rush. It was much easier for them to access the Yukon by a few hours on a train rather than hiking up through the mountains... with a ton of supplies (literally)... up a steep mountain... 100 pounds at a time... in winter... yikes.

I honestly think my favorite moment of the trip was there in Skagway... or outside it actually. There was a point on the train trip that we were told to look out the window and you could see a trail still snaking around the side of the mountain, this was one of the actual trails that the men of the klondike gold rush went up... up up up in below freezing weather, where they carved a stairway out of ice into the side of a mountain... they called it the stairway of gold. Then as we were leaving port that day, it was about 8:30 local time and the sun had set behind the mountains leaving behind a damp chill that blanketed the mountains with mist, like silken covers.... it was almost like the ghosts of the klondike men had come home to sleep... eerie.

The ship overall was fun! We took in a few shows, my absolute fav being the one with Steve Hites, who was a local from Skagway and his performance was the history and stories of Alaska in song. It was incredible... he was a wonderful performer and I would go see him again in a heartbeat. He was selling CD's at the time and I was unsure if I wanted one, but I have looked it up and if you send him the money, he will send you a CD, so I plan to do this. We did scavenger hunts, played bingo and did a few seminars... but overall we were outside taking in the mountains. Nothing makes a person feel humble and small like the mountains. We didn't partake in the nightlife aboard because frankly being up around 5 or 6 in the morning to not miss out on Alaskan fishing villages and ghostly train rides can take its toll on a person! Besides, I can get drinks at home... but its not everyday that I can be out taking pictures of a mountain only to look down and see a whale rolling in the water.

Number 24: Own a Piece of Vintage Luggage

Ok, I admit with this one I am cheating a little bit because it bends my own rules. I did get this particular piece a few weeks ago, winning it on an ebay auction, which frankly was another first for me. I was never sold on the whole ebay thing... seemed like an awful lot of work! Until a random rainy day had me searching on ebay for a movie from the 1990's that I cannot find anywhere. I don't recall how I came across the bag I eventually bought, but it is the entire reason I joined ebay, set up a paypal account and went head to head with someone called J*****L. I snipped it out from under the other person with only a few seconds to spare, and was strangely ecstatic about now owning this bag!!

SO! Let me describe the bag, and why I think its almost significant. First of all, its orange... very cool in my opinion! As an individual who has spent enough time at airport luggage round-abouts looking for my black suitcase that everyone seems to have, the idea of a cute orange bag was intriguing. Second, it is definitely 'Vintage'. Putting aside the fact that its considered environmentally friendly to re-purpose things, I simply have always liked some of the styles from the 20's to the 60's... especially the 60's, and that is the era this bag supposedly originates from. An era where things were made to last, and to make an impression. Completely different from the throw away society we currently live in. And the coolest part! Its Amelia Earhart luggage! I simply had NO IDEA that this significant woman had had her own line of luggage! Yes, yes... I see the irony. It is manufactured by the Baltimore Luggage co. which I have learned still holds the rights to manufacture the line. Its popularity has diminished, and they stopped manufacturing it decades ago. However... I wonder if with all the new info on Amelia, and the movie coming out it would be fun if they did put out some new Amelia luggage, with an old century style twist.

So basically, I love this fun orange bag that works perfectly for carry-on luggage. I know it looks like a bowling bag, and I don't think it is... and even if it was, don't think I would care. :)

So... why I think this small and random ebay event is at all significant? I do believe it has now started a love, potentially life long, of vintage luggage... I am HOOKED! I find myself looking for ideas online, and checking out all the vintage and thrift stores I can find. Some of the stuff I may buy wouldn't be used for actually luggage, but pretty storage boxes, bed for kitty, etc. I have made it my mission to own an Amelia Earhart Train Case... for no other reason than I simply like them :D

So that is my fun and random start to my adventure!

oh, and the numbers are in no particular order. I just like the idea of not following the list 1-30... of just going all over it :)


To read an article about how they may have found out, quite recently, what happened to Amelia Earhart, click HERE

First Post

OK... and I am off!

30 things, over three months. A challenge designed to... well, have fun, experience things I simply haven't and maybe meet some cool people, catch a fantastic photo along the way. SOOOO many people, especially women abhor turning 30 and I have asked the simple question of 'Why?'. Personally I feel that getting older is not something you can avoid, so why sweat it!

And now... for my first post!!