49 or 50?

49 or 50?

For some reason, those numbers make me instinctively think of age.

As we approach that milestone of five-ohhhh!, most of us pause to consider exactly what that change from forty-something to fifty-plus signifies.

We will have to live to be 100 for that to be called "middle aged."

When in school, even forty sounded old, possibly too old to enjoy life at all, whereas by the time we reach senior citizenry, we might fondly think back to that as a golden age when we finally understood how the world works and had both the physical health and financial wherewithal to thorougly enjoy the best of it, no matter what that may be for ourselves personally.

However, I'm not talking about age.

I'm talking about something that happened in 1959.



On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash.

Elvis Presley had enlisted in the Army in 1958, and Chuck Berry soon ran afoul of the law, so it's understandable why teens may have felt like the music died in that fateful plane crash.

About thirteen years later, Don McClean had an unconventional #1 hit with his anthem commemorating the decade that began that day.




But actually, this is not about those deaths in '59, or even Heinz 57, which must have had a boom of its own as the age of rock made hamburgers and french fries staples of our diets.

It's about 49 and 50.

In 1959, we welcomed two new states to the USA: Alaska and Hawaii.

Alaska became a state exactly one month before "the day the music died," whereas Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959.

It's easy to remember Alaska was 49 if you think "Hawaii Five-O."



While the re-make of "Hawaii Five-O" has come up with a different explanation for the name of their task force that now stretches the law, the real reason for the title of the original all-business police force was that Hawaii had recently become our 50th state.

If you're wondering what this has to do with travel, then you obviously have lived a very sheltered life.

Hawaii and Alaska are treasure troves of unique vacation highlights that shouldn't be missed.

Why have I lumped them together again, 58 years after they became states?

While approaching the tenth anniversary of my travel blog, I decided to go back to begin re-coding and refurbishing past posts, which no longer display properly and often have dead links or deleted videos embedded.

Voila!



It turns out my very first blog post was a summary of our Alaska cruise from 2002.

The most recent post prior to this one happens to be a summary of our Hawaii cruise in 2015.

I can say for a fact that I now take a lot more photos and include a lot more information than I did when the blog started. You can verify by checking out the hotlinks above.

I thnk you'll agree that if you're looking for your next great vacation, our 49th and 50th states make wonderful cruise destinations.

You should definitely do them both, and repeat as desired.

The only question is, which one should you do next?

Better service leads to better trips!"