North to Alaska

The month of July has been almost like one long vacation. During the July 4^th weekend we went to Dallas for a Johnston visit and enjoyed watching a Ranger baseball game in 105 degree heat.

That next Thursday we flew to Seattle for our long anticipated Alaskan Cruise. My Mom and Dad took the entire Winger Clan on a cruise for their 50^th wedding anniversary. There were 19 of us who were able to go, and it was amazing! You can see a compilation of many of our pictures here at my flickr account.

We saw awesome sights, ate fantastic food, and were entertained to the max, but I believe the family would agree with me in that the best part of the trip was the dinner time we shared each evening. There is no better way to enjoy someone’s company than over a good meal. I was extremely blessed to get to know nieces and nephews in a way that I never had before. The seven days aboard the ship seemed long at times, but it takes a little time to build relationships. It was a joy to watch my children become closer friends to some of their cousins, some of them they only get to see a couple of days each year.

I was disappointed when I found out that there was no way we could attend Sunday Mass in Juno, Alaska while we were in port. I had already booked a whale watching trip for my Mom and Dad and our family. As we watched the first whale we saw rolling in kelp, I thought to myself, “Is this it?” A little while later we came upon a gam or gathering of whales. This in itself was unusual because the humpback whale is a solitary creature.

We were watching this gam and all of a sudden one of the whales jumped out of the water or breached! I just barely caught it out of the corner of my eye and then shortly later she did it again! Chills went down my spine. The group of whales then began “bubble net feeding” which our guide told us was a truly rare sight to see. The eleven whales in the gam would circle a school of fish and force them to the top of the water and then all of a sudden all eleven whales would surface with their mouths wide open eating the fish. The boat engines were shut off and an aqua microphone was lowered. We could hear the leader of the gam “singing” orders to the others as they circled the fish forcing them to the surface and synchronized their burst to the top. Again I could feel the chills.

Later our guide explained how rare it was for us to see all of the sights we had seen. In fact, she put the odds of us seeing all the things we saw at a 0.016% chance. Some might call it luck, others chance or maybe even destiny. I believe that it was the Divine Providence of God that put us in this position. He was always there, but from the first moment the whale breached I felt His mighty Presence.