This Alaska cruise was the perfect venue for a family reunion

By James Walsh, The Minnesota Star Tribune

Restless, I wheeled up to the coffee shop and bar on the 10th deck at the bow of the Westerdam. Through massive, slanted windows, a dense midmorning fog obscured everything as if the ship were crawling in the center of a heavy, low cloud.

All around me, people filled the comfy armchairs, reading, chatting, sipping beverages.

Then, the fog cleared and, ahead, smooth, unbroken sea. Until … there, 100 feet off the bow, was the unmistakable long back of a whale, the first I’d seen after days at sea. As it slowly dipped beneath the surface, its distinctive tail rose from the water as if to wave goodbye.

It was not my intent to take a second cruise so soon after my first , a journey last year to Norway and the Arctic. But the idea was spawned by m