Alaska Day 6; Glacier Bay

September 11 - Day 6
Oct. 12th, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Glacier Bay

Woke up very early for our scenic cruising day in Glacier Bay National Park. Park rangers joined our boat first thing, and we headed into the looming fjord.



The temperatures dropped noticeably as our boat entered the narrow channel surrounded by steep slopes. We dressed accordingly. As you can tell by my ensemble, warmth trumps dignity.






(salt water ends, fresh glacier water begins)



There's just no describing the immense presence of a mass of ice thousands of years old and hundreds of feet high. The jagged bluish spikes of ice don't look THAT big...


...until you see a speck perched on the tip of one and realize it's a bald eagle (and they grow 'em big here). This bergy bit was about the size of a small car.


These glaciers are MASSIVE. We were lucky enough to see some spectacular calving. I'll never forget the sound of it - first the crackling snaps and thundery rumbling, followed by bits of snow trickling from the face. Then the dramatic detachment or lazy slide of ancient compacted ice. The falling mass hits the water, creating a very distinctive boom that can be heard after a slight sound delay. All told, we spent a few hours watching Reid, Lamplugh, Johns Hopkins and Margerie glaciers




We also saw a seal swimming alongside our boat and looking up at the boat like "Um, hey guys? You're kind of interrupting my lunch."



We went back to our room for the ride out of the park. Justin sat out on the balcony (again, SO worth it) to watch our departure. I casually asked if him if he'd seen any animals along the shoreline, to which he responded, "No, I haven--- HOLY CRAP! GIVE ME THE CAMERA!"




We did some more whale watching that afternoon and saw a few pods - one pod of 3 whales was having what looked like a lovely time waving their flukes and smacking the water. We snacked throughout the afternoon, and that, combined with the boat's increased turbulence, meant we weren't hungry for dinner.

I don't have a lot of words for today because the pictures say it all. The boat observed a moment of silence at noon to remember 9/11, which added the gravity of the day and this whole trip. I feel incredibly lucky to be here. We've experienced so many different things - radically different plantlife, animals, weather, culture and landforms. I look forward to every single day, and I can't think of anywhere else in the world I'd rather be.

Alaska Day 5; Skagway

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September 10 - Day 5
Oct. 8th, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Skagway

Will the beautimousness never end?!? Seriously. This place is crazy. Today was no exception. We ate breakfast a little later than usual, and the crowd was noticeably thinner (a good thing - usually it's packed). The boat actually got into the Skagway port at 6 a.m. We got off the boat right away at other ports, typically around 8. But since we had an entire day onshore (boat doesn't leave until 8:30 tonight) and no excursions booked, we took our time.

Spent the morning meandering around historic Skagway in the first real rain we've had. It's a very cute town. They've maintained a lot of their original buildings, constructed when the city grew to accommodate gold rush prospectors. Of course, we had to walk through the obligatory row of diamond and foreign gem stores squeezed in with local historic buildings and places like the Red Onion Saloon, a renowned brothel.

We wandered wetly through town for a few hours before taking refuge in a little bar/brewery (they seem to have a lot of breweries up here...). Wrote some postcards and warmed up with coffee and hot chocolate. The weather improved a little bit, but we decided it would probably be more fun to book a tour with one of the local companies than continue to wander. A lot of the Princess tours had been cancelled due to fog and rain, so we heard a lot of those people changed to the White Pass Railroad tour. In an attempt to avoid that crowd, we decided to take the Yukon Adventure Tour with the Skaguay Tour Company.

Instead of packing into a coach bus or cutesy train with 1,000 immobile people, we joined one young couple from Utah and our guide in a eight-passenger van (sidenote: I mean no disrespect to the old and/or handicapped. I love old people - ask Justin. I always point the cute ones out. They're all wonderful, friendly, sweet people... just aaaagonizingly slow).

Before we could go, I had to run about a mile back to the boat from town to get our passports. I got through security (they x-ray our bags and we have to walk through metal detectors to get back on the boat. I feel secure), grabbed the passports and hoofed it back to the pier where I caught a shuttle back to town... enter our Elderly Friends. With lots of bags and canes and coats and walkers and slowly-counted exact change for the fare. Getting on and off at every stop on the way downtown. Justin is waiting at the tour company. Our tour leaves at noon. It's 11:56. Slow.people.are.killing.me. Anyway, I made it back right at noon, and we got started on the 65 mile drive.



Holy. Cow.

Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip. We passed through four ecosystems on our way up the coastal mountain between Skagway and the interior valley. I can't remember the official ecosystem names, but they were all distinct. Skagway gets a ton of rain, so it's pretty lush in this area. As you move up the mountain, the evergreen trees begin to radically morph. They start to shrink so much that by the time we reached the (very foggy) summit, we couldn't see any trees over 3 feet tall. Hundreds of years old, but smaller than a yardstick. An intense wind blows over the mountain for weeks at a time in winter, so the midgety trees have actually adapted to the brutal conditions up there. Natives called the wind "skagua," which turned into the town's namesake. Not only are the trees tiny, but their branches also face the same direction - another evolutionary response to the skagua.




The fog got so thick at the top of the mountain that we literally couldn't see more than 3 feet in any direction. We stopped at one point where the fog wasn't as dense so we could feel the climate (collllld and damp). Our guide also told us the wild mountain blueberries were good this time of year, so we picked a handful and ate them...

HOW COOL IS THAT??! I ate wild blueberries off the side of an Alaskan mountain. You just can't do that on the Railway Excursion. We stopped several times as we ascended into the Yukon. Once for this contortionist Sitka Black Tailed Deer:





We actually went into Canada (hence the need for passports), and the weather in the valley was completely different - sunshiney and only partly cloudy. That area (I'll just refer to it all as The Yukon) is definitely in autumn mode. The aspen trees are ridiculously golden, and a ton of red and orange foliage also set the mountains on fire. You can see it all creeping up the land.

The water is also this crazy neon teal color - a result of glacier dumping their silt in the watershed.




We followed the Klondike Highway around Tutshi ("too-shy") Lake, an enormous body of water that wraps around the mountains. Natives had this belief that Tutshi Lake holds a gigantic Fish Father and hugenormous Fish Mother who are responsible for spawning all of the smaller fish of their kind. Oddly enough, science actually backs this theory up -- it's estimated that an 80-year-old fish has spawned 70% of the local population. Cool how culture and science mesh.

We made a few stops, notably at Lake Bennett and Bove Island. These pictures say more than my words ever could, and even these images don't do the experience justice.








The tour usually ends at Bove Island, but we had a little bit of extra time. Our guide, Matt, asked if we wanted to continue into the Yukon. We all did, so we got to visit Carcross (short for Caribou Crossing).

This tiny community barely dents the sprawling valley. We visited their visitor's center and general store and took in the view. It's kind of a weirdly still town. People were probably at work and kids in school, but it seemed so... I don't know, 'still' is the best way to describe it. They're not terribly far from 2 major towns, so I'm guessing most people commute. Just another example of life slowed wayyy down to a very deliberate pace. Can't help but appreciate that. We spotted a couple of sheep on the side of a far-off mountain and took a few minutes to look at them through our guide's high-powered binoculars. Very cool.

On the way back, our guide pulled over when he spotted something he thought was a mountain goat. I have NO IDEA how he spotted it - said goat was about a billion feet up on a cliff side. Sure enough, upon further inspection we saw Mr. Goat staring us down like he owned that rock. Pretty cool goat (as goats go).

We stopped again at Bridal Veil Falls (totally original name, right?) with a bunch of people on a biking tour. I don't know how the bike tour operates without regular biker injury. It's perpetually foggy up there, but they still do excursions down the windy, wet road. Where the cars drive. In the fog. With medians ending in cliffy drops. Glad we biked in Juneau instead of Skagway!!

While stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, we saw the White Pass train cross some falls.

We got back into Skagway around 4:30. Weather had improved a little bit - I mean, it was no Yukon Valley, but at least the rain had stopped. We got a late lunch at Starfire, a Thai Place Matt recommended. WOW. We got spring rolls and fresh rockfish. Possibly the best Thai I've ever had. Good enough that Justin, who's had unimpressive experience with Thai before, decided Thai is his favorite food.

We wandered through town a little bit longer and made our way back to the boat.

We ate dinner at the Santa Fe Restaurant later in the evening. Not as impressed as the other nights (or maybe Starfire spoiled us). I had venison loin, and Justin had crab legs. He also had a hearty caribou sausage stew and I had a chilled berry soup. Like every other night, we pretty much crashed after that. These long days in ports are definitely exhausting!

Alaska Day 4 ; Juneau

Sept 9, 2008 - Alaska Adventure
Oct. 5th, 2008 at 7:48 PM
Juneau

Days are still getting better and better. Woke up at 6:30 as we entered the Juneau area. Justin ran to top deck to watch our entry. I, however, was still slightly exhausted and took my time getting ready. He saw some huge moutainy waterfalls as we came into port.





We met up for breakfast before heading into town. Our long anticipated Bike & Brew wasn't until 2, so we decided to spend some morning time getting to know Juneau. We saw the state capitol building, which was fairly unimpressive. It's one of the only capitol buildings in America without a dome. Apparently a lot of government meetings are held in Anchorage anyway, even though Juneau is the capitol. Later on we saw the governor's mansion, too. Palin doesn't live there, much to the chagrin of Juneauites (Juneauans?)... we could tell by the plethora of Obama signs in the neighbor's yard. We gave our legs a pretty good workout by walking around historic downtown, visiting the famous Red Dog Saloon and dodging the numerous jewelry stores.


(the dinky capitol building)




Juneau is the second largest city in the world. It's over 3,000 square miles in area. Still, by about 9:30, we'd seen as much of Juneau as we could on foot. We stretched out things and just sort of wandered around more until finally sitting down at a local coffee shop for coffee, hot chocolate and "Mt. Juneau" Gelato. Made our way back to the boat for lunch before our afternoon excursion...

The Bike & Brew was TOTALLY the highlight of today. I feel like we really saw Alaska. We had 8 riders in our group -- us, a middle-aged couple from Orlando, an old couple from England and an old couple from Australia. Most of the bike ride was smooth, cool and serene, always with lush mountain views and often with postcard panoramas of the Mendenhall Glacier. We stopped briefly on the banks of Auke Lake, which is right below Mendenhall. Big chunks fo ice (bergy bits - that's actually the technical term if I haven't already mentioned it) floated in the weirdly teal-ish lake. Got some cool glacier pictures, drank hot apple cider and just marveled at the wonders that we're privileged to count as part of our country. Awesome.






After our brief stop on Auke Lake's beach, we continued riding to a wooded dirt trail. I can't possibly describe the incredible beauty of this ride (I have a feeling I'm going to run out of words pretty quickly when detailing this trip). It's like something out of a dream, and I can honestly say it's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. As one guy put it, it wouldn't be entirely surprising to see hobbits and fairies coming out of the forest. Everything was covered in moss, making the trees and boulders look soft enough to sleep on. The trees let in this storybook kind of light that just soaked into the moss. Saw a few well-placed waterfalls within the woods, making it even more unreal. This is my new "happy place," a picture of such natural serenity and comfort that I will remember forever. No wonder the bears like it!

Once the riding portion ended, we got to walk around the Mendenhall visitor area to look for bears (they're very active lately since the salmon run is in full swing). Saw lots of tourists and no bears... until we were walking back to the bus and a HUGE black bear ran across the road less than 100 yards ahead of us. I'll be the first to admit that my initial instinct told me to run at the bear to get pictures. Thankfully, millions of years of ancestral evolution quelled that stupidity before I had a chance to act on it. My species didn't survive by running at 400 pound animals with nothing but a (heavy, yet insufficiently dangerous) camera as weaponry. I tried to get a picture from a safe distance, but he lumbered into the woods before I could adjust my settings. Still... we've been here FOUR DAYS and we've seen salmon, whales, sea lions, dolphins and a BEAR. This vacation is officially exceptional.

(Can you see the bear?)



After the Big Ass Bear encounter, we loaded into the van for a visit to the Alaska Brewing Company for free beer samples. As in 6 ounce glasses of all-you-can-drink beery goodness. I tried their Summer Ale, Winter Ale (made with spruce tips), Alaska Ale, Alaskan Amber, Oatmeal Stout and Smoky Porter. I shared some with Justin, as they packed a pretty good punch. All actually tasted quite good, even the kinds I wasn't sure I'd like. The brewery tasting tour is free to anyone who wants to partake. Alaska law won't let them give it away if it's too much like a bar, so the Brewing Co. doesn't have any seats and doesn't serve food. (After a few of the tasty beverages, though, nobody cared that we had to stand). Sadly, we had to leave.

Justin and I went to dinner with the Florida couple at Taku, and amazing fish smokery / restaurant. Got salmon tacos, salmon croquettes and clam chowder. Also picked up some hot smoked salmon for eating tomorrow. Mmmm. Most people have tried the cold smoked variety, but hot smoked seems to be the preferred local method. Little pinecone looking things from alder trees smoke and allow the salty brine to preserve the salmon. Good stuff.

We made it back to the boat and decided to take photos of our departure from Juneau. Grabbed the tripod and headed up to top deck as we pulled away to port.




We decided to take advantage of one of the ship's many hot tubs that evening, so we suited up and went to 14 aft. I've heard sitting in a warm, bubbly pool in cold weather is actually quite enjoyable. I don't doubt this, but the 15 seconds between disrobing and submerging... not so pleasant. The tub wasn't as warm as we'd hoped, so I took one for the team and ran across the deck to test the other tub. I managed not to slip and break my face (which would have frozen to the deck like a tongue on metal...okay, maybe I'm exaggerating), and frostbite didn't damage anything important. Not sure if it was actually warmer than the other tub, but it sure felt better than the 40ish degree air. I told Justin to come on over, and we relaxed for about 15 minutes before it started raining on us.

Inevitably, we had to walk through the open air to get back into the ship. I chose to ignore the possibility of people walking by and giving me weird looks... Re-clothing on the inside of the entrance door/hallway just seemed smarter than standing in the wind. Dignity schmignity.

After tubbing, we headed back to the room to crash. Another long, fabulous day in paradise!

Alaska Day 3; Ketchikan

Day 3 - September 8, 2008
Sep. 27th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Each day keeps getting better! Woke up at 6 a.m. and opened my eyes to look out our balcony door at Ketchikan's mountains and a gorgeous blue sky. That view, combined with the cool Alaska morning air (we slept with the door cracked open) made a wakeup experience I will likely think about (with envy) every remaining Monday morning of my life.



We grabbed a quick breakfast before leaving the boat for our first excursion - the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, which we enjoyed. The lumberjacks... lumberjacked (springboard, boom run, log rolling, chopping contests, etc) and injected a fair bit of comedy and audience interaction. One lady got to take home a tiny log chair carved with a chainsaw in front of our very eyes.








The show lasted about 45 minutes, giving us almost an hour and a half before our next excursion. This was good timing, since we had to be back on the boat by 1:30 p.m. for a 2 p.m. departure. We used the time to meander around Ketchikan. Most notably, we visited Creek Street, which runs along Ketchikan Creek.

The Coho (silver) salmon and pink salmon are still running, so we got to see thousands of big fish stuffed into this tiny river. Watched them traveling upstream... such a weird phenomenon.






They work so hard to jump up waterfalls and crazy obstacles just to lay their eggs and die. I wonder if they realize they're going to kick the bucket soon. I think the hundreds of already-dead fish might clue them in. That's a lot of work with a morbid payoff. Other than seeing the salmon (who aren't on the cruise company's payroll), we found Ketchikan surprisingly touristy. And I don't so much mean that local people were the ones trying to make a dollar on we vacationers -- I would expect and even support that. Tons of jewelry stores selling tanzanite and diamonds and amorite and Guess watches and "gold in quartz" clogged the streets. They all bail in winter season, leaving boarded up stores all over the city. Kind of sad. Ketchikan did seem like a cute town, though, once we got past "cruise city." Definitely wish we had more time to explore the park behind Creek Street. The region is literally a rainforest. I always equated rainforest with heat, but I now understand how cooler temperatures and such a lush, verdant environment can coexist.



We got back to the boat around 11:20 since our "Totems Traditions Tour" met to leave at 11:35. Found the tour lady after a few minutes. She seemed a bit frazzled - checked our tickets and told us to sit on a bench until the second bus came (first was apparently full). Flash forward 40 minutes.... still no bus, and tour lady is hiding in a van somewhere while 8 frustrated tourists sit on a bench waiting... Finally one of our fellow benchmates found tour lady, who had apparently FORGOTTEN ABOUT US. She ended up just piling us into the van and driving us to the totem park. Once we got there, the mood lightened considerably. Our actual tour guide was great - very mellow, knowledgeable and subtley quite funny. The totem park was lovely. We walked through the slightly chilly forest until it opened up to a big lake. Several tall totem poles stood around the like like they were watching the water.








We didn't have time to do any more sightseeing after the totem tour since we had to be back at the boat by 1:30. Our forgotten gang of 8 went straight to the tour desk to complain about our unpleasant tour lady and missing part of the excursion. They ended up comping half of the price (yay!). Justin and I went to the Princess Theater for another naturalist talk after that - this one about Alaska's geology and glacier science. Cool stuff. Afterwards, we joined Rob the Naturalist and others in the Wheelhouse Bar for post-presentation discussion. Topics of conversation ended up ranging from Palin again to climate change to healthcare. All really interesting and surpringly not too controversial. We went up to 14 aft after that for more whale watching. Not long after we got there, we saw what looked like "lensing," an effect that happens when whales are bubblenet feeding. Sure enough, whales started diving in those areas! Got some excellent tail photos. Seeing humpbacks that close is just beyond amazing.






The whales eventually left (or the boat left them), but we got to watch a gorgeous sunset.

Once it got dark, we changed into our "smart casual" ensemble again and went to dinner, this time at the Italian-themed Vivaldi Restaurant. Our ridiculously decadent dinner included:

Justin - shrimp cocktail, eggplant parmigiana, a WEIRD jellied beef consomme (aka clear cow jello), a spinach salad, aged NY strip steak and the previously-mentioned Love Boat dessert.

Kate - Proscuitto crudo with melon (I could have died happy right at that table. SO GOOD), rustic minestrone, spinach salad, rabbit with homemade noodles / brown gravy / bell peppers, and tiramisu.

Yeah, after such gluttony, we just went to bed. The boat hit some rough water as we did, but exhaustion and the food coma quickly overruled that sensation. We passed out, so in love with Alaska already and looking forward to another port day!

Alaska Day 2

Day 2 - September 7, 2008
Sep. 26th, 2008 at 7:51 PM
10:56 Vancouver Time / 9:56 Alaska Time

It's almost Ketchikan (AK) time. We had a relaxing but full day at sea today. But first I'll recap the rest of last night. We got to the show about 25 minutes before it started. Got good seats in the surprisingly large theater.

The show was decent once it started. My eyelids were verrrry heavy leading up to it, though! First the ship's entertainers sang and danced -- great choreography and mostly great singing. The cruise entertainment director introduced himself and the rest of the "specialty" directors. The comic came on after that and was quite funny. A considerable feat considering a) the crowd was uber-tired and b) he himself had been up since 3 a.m. Eastern. Came back to the room after the show ended and crashed most blissfully. I later heard that a lot of people thought the singing/dancing weren't very good. Maybe it was my exhaustion evaluating their performance...

Back to today! I woke up around sunrise and glanced outside at a gorgeous day. Went back to sleep until the alarm went off at 7:45. Look out the window to an impenetrable fog so thick there was absolutely no horizon. Weird.

Took a shower and was pleasantly surprised by the water temperature and pressure. Shower is barely big enough to turn around in, and the toilet sounds like an airplane potty, so I didn't have high hopes for the shower experience. After freshening, we headed for breakfast.

I guess they're catering to an international taste since we have travelers from all over the world -- U.S. of course, a lot of Aussies and Brits, Germans, French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. So the breakfast buffet had a ton of unfamiliar options. They had your standard American selection of sausage, bacon, eggs, cereal, pancakes, hashbrowns, oatmeal and bagels. They also had lots of fresh fruit, yogurt, boiled tomatoes (which I'm coming to love), rice pudding, Muesli mush, fried rice and baked pears. Good stuff.

Following breakfast, we headed back to the theater for a presentation given by the ship's "local shopping expert." Yeah... We thought it was going to cover good local places to visit, maybe include some detail about our port city histories and cultures. Turned out to be a realllly long infomercial for chain jewelry stores that, incidentally, have some ties to our cruise company. By the end, we were sick of hearing about Diamonds International (sounds totally local, doesn't it?). I think the "local shopping expert" gets a commission from them.

Once that presentation finished, we stuck around for the naturalist's talk about Alaskan wildlife. Having just sat through a painful infomercial, we were worried that he would be discussing canary diamonds or something. He was awesome, though. Funny, engaging and super informative. And not selling anything. That presentation lasted about an hour, after which we headed up to the Calypso Deck for a SUSHI BUFFET! It was a step above grocery store sushi, but not quite as good as restaurant sushi. Some rolls were better than others. Can't go wrong with salmon, but the ones with royal purple rice and picked veggies weren't so fabulous. Overall it was decent and very filling. A very nice older couple joined our table, and we chatted for about 15 minutes. I love how friendly everyone is on this boat! Joining strangers' tables isn't something you usually see back home. It's just easy to talk to people here.

Justin and I went to the naturalist's 3:00 show about whales after finishing lunch. Again, hilarious, interesting and educational. Aaaand Justin and I got to be on TV. All the presentations are taped and played back on the ship's channel on all our room TVs. The naturalist, Rob, asked for 4 kid volunteers. There was ONE KID under 15 in this room of 200ish people. So he asked for people 25 and under... Justin and I slowwwwly raised our hands when it became evident that there weren't going to be many other U25ers. We joined the little kid and another kid who looked about 18 onstage.

Me & the 2 other guys got to play the role of krill (tiny shrimp that whales eat). Justin played the whale. Our newly assembled troupe did a Broadway-worthy rendition of whales casting bubblenets to corral and eat krill. In nature, whales will swim in tight circles to out the less-than-brilliant krill, who bunch together in their panic... creating a tasty krill meatball for said whales to easily eat. I'll let you imagine this scene onstage. Justin "swam" around us and made some awesome bubble noises into the mic while we screamed in tiny shrimp voices. Needless to say, our performance garnered laughs, compliments and a horde of devoted admirers. One guy told Justin, "I took a picture of you onstage, and you might be the only whale I see on this trip!" I wish we'd thought to ask him to email the photo to us, as we have no lasting evidence of our epic moment in the limelight.

Once the show finished and our 15 minutes of fame concluded, we hung out in the lobby with Rob the Naturalist for awhile. Conversation ranged widely, and we discussed the politics of native whale hunting, ANWR drilling and Sarah Palin.



Got all gussied up after that for our first formal dinner. Went to the Savoy tonight and sat very near a window this time. The two couples next to us ended up being very nice, and we had a great time chatting about travel, families, etc. Not long after we sat down, a large pod of tiny dolphins started playing next to the boat. Like RIGHT outside our window! They were incredible - leaping over waves, flipping and generally being happy. Food was quite delicious tonight. We started with a free bottle of wine, courtesy of our travel agent (thanks again, Cruise Holidays!). We picked an Italian red that was surprisingly awesome (usually we drink white -if any- wine, but tonight we thought we'd go for something different).

The first course included the MOST AMAZING crab quiche on the face of this beautiful planet and sliced duck with a raspberry saucy drizzle. Our soup course: lobster bisque with big lobstery chunks and a chilled yogurt & tamarind soup with lemon zest. Tasted like a melty lemon creamcicle. Dinner course: grilled Ketchikan silver salmon in dill butter for moi (I'm eating all the fish I can fit in my face) and a crawfish dish with a light tomato base & saffron for Justin. Dessert: Justin got an assortment of petit fours - fudge, compressed nut, cream puff and a weird chocolately liqueur ball covered in sprinkles. Our waiter, Yves, ROCKED. Just pleasant and really funny. He gave one of our table friends a trick spoon for his souffle. I also got the souffle, which was a decadent chocolate and hazelnut creation. So light and super moist, plus the million calorie buttery vanilla cream sauce that came on the side. I drowned mine in the vanilla goodness and devoured every bite. I thought about eating the rest of the creamy sauce with my spoon, but I managed to resist. Though in our defense, we've been taking the stairs instead of elevators, so I'm sure we're working off all this lard (hah).



After dinner, we went to 7-aft to whale watch. Saw a sea lion or seal (he was only viewable with binoculars) playing in a floating kelp bed.

And very briefly, we saw our first WHALE! He was fairly close, and we could see him spraying water at the surface. Suuuuper cool. Hoping to see more this week. We hung out in a hot tub after that - there are four tubs to choose from in various outdoor locations. We stayed until it started to sprinkle on us. All the hot tubs and pools are heated, of course, but that doesn't make getting out any easier. Ouch, my friends. Ouch.

We're up really early tomorrow for our first port day in Ketchikan. I'm exhaustified and very glad we gain an hour as we pass into the Alaska time zone tonight!

Alaska..first day

As aformentioned, here is the start of our trip. Kate is the author of this, so you are reading her writing. Just easier that way.

Without much ado, here is the first of many trip chronicles.....

THE ALASKA ADVENTURE

September 6, 2008

5:31 a.m. Eastern Time

The year-long anticipation is over! We're on our way to Alaska... Just ate a Clif bar, and the world is a lovelier place :) For the record, 3:10 a.m. is an ungodly hour to wake up. But it's worth it to be well on our way!! Okay, not many coherent sentences in my head, even with 1.5 cups of coffee under my belt. Just wanted to say VACATION HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED!! WOOHOO!!

12:01 p.m. Vancouver Time

After many hours on airplanes, we're finally getting ready to land in Vancouver. Had a rude awakening about how far we're really going. After a 2 hour and 22 minute flight to Houston in a plane scarcely larger than my Honda Fit, I was like, "Ah, now for the vacation part after our brief flight to Vancouver." Looked at the itinerary... "brief" was actually about 4.5 hours. The flight has gone by surprisingly fast, though. Probably a combo of my confused-woke-up-at-3-a.m. brain, the constant goodies/water/drinks from our flight attendant, the considerably roomier plane and... all the cool sights we saw! Flew over Yellowstone NP; Grand Junction, CO; the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Ranier and what's left of Mt. Saint Helens. Can't wait to deplane and head for ze boat!

3:35 p.m. - Vancouver

Things I think I'm going to do a lot of for the next 2 weeks:

* Pee my pants with excitement/awe
* Pick stuff up when old people drop it

Off to dinner!

7:35 p.m. - Northwest of Vancouver @ Sea

I'm so at a loss for words when it comes to describing how incredibly amazed I'm feeling. It's our first time on a cruise ship, and anybody who has cruised understands that sense of awe when you first realize how ridiculously HUGE the ship actually is... how strange it feels to glance out a window (and they're everywhere) and see water flying by. Add that shock to the gorgeous Pacific Northwest.





I'm currently sitting on our balcony (yeah, SO worth the splurge) watching the sun set over the mountains. Like, real mountains, not just overlarge rolling hills like we get in the Midwest. We're talking some craggy peaks. Justin is next to me, reading info about our floating city, a.k.a. the Sapphire Princess.





After finding our room, we headed to our "muster stations," or where we'll assemble if there's a ship emergency. I won't make any jokes about hitting icebergs because um... yeah... too close to home (literally). After our muster exercise wherein we learned to correctly don life jackets, Justin and I hung out on the windy top deck for awhile to witness our departure from port.

I have something to admit, friends. I, like most people my age (which would be about 5 on this boat, Justin and myself included)- did have the urge the urge to reenact a number of Titanic scenes when the top deck breeze ruffled my hair (i.e. gales that blew so strongly they almost blew the straw out of my soda). However, you'll be glad to know that I stifled said urge in the name of dignity (Justin's).

Anyway, it's an incredible day to set sail. 80 degrees Fahrenheit (that's 25 degrees Celsius! I learned how to do that today -- subtract 30, then half that number). Sunny outside and just gorgeous. After watching the port disappear, we wandered around the boat for a bit, discovering cool stuff like the heated pools and jacuzzis outside, the tennis court, a big chess board and shuffleboard.



We eventually made our way back to the room and changed for dinner. Dress code on most nights is apparently "smart casual" ... so I guess I'll be wearing the one skirt every night, as jeans aren't permitted in dining rooms. Oops. Missed that memo. Glad we're not doing the "traditional dining" option where you sit with the same people nightly.

We went to Pacific Moon for dinner tonight. There are four main "anytime dining" restaurants that serve the same menu. The dining rooms do offer one specialty item unique to each place. We got a lobster, crab and scallop appetizer that looked like Fancy Fish Spam. A little weird, but not bad. We also got a spring roll appetizer, which was pretty tasty. Came with an odd sweet and sourish mustard sauce. Justin ordered the "Cajun crockpot with spicy shrimp." Kind of a pot pie filled with shrimp, mussels and crab in a cajun tomato-based sauce. Looked awesome and he said he enjoyed it muchly. I ordered salmon ("lemon scented") that came with carrots, a hunk of zucchini, a boiled potato and what seemed to be a boiled tomato (which was actually SO GOOD). All garnished with a grilled lemon. Very light and tasty. I do love me some fish.

I was feeling pretty good about our eating so far. We haven't been guzzling booze or consuming every non-toxic item in sight... but then I thought about it and laughed at myself. We've been on the boat for less than one day. Four hours in fact. I'm sure things will change.

And they did! The dessert menu came out. Justin got an apple strudel with hazelnuts, raisins and a vanilla sauce. Muy yummage. I got "The Love Boat" - an incredible dark chocolate mousse with bittersweet Swiss chocolate and a little chocolate cruiseline logo. Also awesome were the chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us in our room when we arrived (thank you, Cruise Holidays of West Chester!).



Yeah. We've been eating realllly healthy. Hey, the strawberries count as fruit...

After dinner, we came back up to the room for a bit. I think we're planning on going to a comedy show at 9:30. It's currently 8:06. I'd be perfectly content to go to bed now and sleep until the sun rises in whatever time zone we happen to be sailing through. But we're on VACATION! I won't let the fact that being awake / alert / remotely focused is a monumental task keep me from experiencing every second of this trip. I want to see stars tonight. I want to watch for Northern Lights. I want to enjoy every ounce of this surreal adventure. Maybe I'll splurge on espresso before the show. Off to watch the rest of the sunset!

Alaska

Well, I'm home from Alaska. So much to write about. I plan to write in pieces so you wont get a huge story all at once...so standby within the next couple of days.