I was on a cruise in Alaska. We were pulling into Juno that day, and my hubby and I were going to do our *one* excursion and fly over the glaciers. I was in the gym riding the bike when the captain came on over the loud speaker and, in his thick Norwegian accent, offered condolences to all the American passengers. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked the guy on the bike next to me. He said, "oh, didn't you hear? Two planes hit the WTC."

I hopped off the bike and ran to our room, where my hubby was still sleeping. I turned on the news and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Of course, being where we were, it was like being a million miles away.............totally weird. It extra sucked because our 2 year old son was home with my mom in California, so were clammering to get to a phone to just..........talk to him. Hear his two year old voice. SOMETHING that would reassure our completely illogical fears and emotions. Very kindly, the cruise ship offered free phone service for the rest of the trip. Incredibly cool of them.

Then, the planes were grounded, so no trip over the glaciers, and we weren't even sure we'd get home via plane. Luckily, 50% of planes starting flying again on Sunday, our day to fly home, and our flight was one of them that got to go. Otherwise, we were going to rent a car and drive home from Seattle. I needed to see my son and just hold him.

My mom told us, after we'd returned, that our son had seen the news with the plane flying into the building. He said "oh no, broken." More profound words were never spoken.