Alaska!

As many of you know, I had my reservation about going on another cruise. This time, we were on a different cruise line so the ship's environment wasn't gaudy and huge like the previous cruise I went on in 1997. It was like being in a nice hotel. The first couple of days were difficult because we didn't stop at all until Monday and were away from the shore for most of Sunday. But, the beauty of Alaska made up for it. This region is so green and lush. So much of it is untouched and appears pristine. I know that these cruise ships and tourists definitely have an impact on the area, but I think it makes people appreciate what is here and they will fight to keep it the way that it is with the deforestation and oil drilling. Yes, I am a bit of an idealist.
This makes me sad.

Anyway, I wish many of you were here to see just how gorgeous it is here. I cannot describe how it makes one feel. The water, rain, trees, fog - it all works together perfectly and is absolutely breathtaking. It's like living National Geographic if that makes any sense. So here's what I did on my trip:

Saturday, September 6th

Jenn, Duncan and I met Kate at Mae's for a yummy brunch. We go back to my house and Kate takes J&D to the ship. I stay and finish cleaning and packing. Tony comes over to pick me up and then we go pick up Teresa. He drops us off at the ship around 2 or so. We check in and head to the ship. On our way up, we see Dad, Carolyn, Jenn & Duncan waving at us from D&C's balcony. We meet up with them and then I think Teresa and I took a nap. Jenn comes and gets us when we start to leave Seattle.

We pretty much just hung out until dinner. I think we slept some more. Both T & I got little sleep the night prior. We met up for dinner with everyone (Dad, Carolyn, cousin Becky, cousin Anne, Jenn & Duncan) at 8pm and gorged ourselves. After dinner, we went to the show that night. It was an illusionist; he did some pretty cool tricks, but wasn't too funny.

Sunday, September 7th

This was our first full day on the ship and it was all travel with no port stops. We were going pretty fast and the boat was quite rocky. Lots of people experienced seasickness on the ship, but only Anne did in our group. Teresa and I got room service for breakfast. We lolled around for most of the day and ate a lot. We did go to this nature slide show that bored me to sleep. After eating too much again at dinner T&I went back to our cabin and watched a bad movie on the T.V.

Monday, September 8th

We docked early in Juneau; I think many were happy that the boat was no longer moving. Jenn, Duncan, Teresa and I decided to forgo any of the overpriced cruise tours and took a shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier Park. Unfortunately, we didn't do any hiking. Most of the trails were closed due to the rain and some didn't want to hike in the rain. We did get some good views of the glacier, but much was hidden with fog. It was still beautiful. We stayed for about an hour before heading back to town. The four of us had some coffee and went our own ways. Teresa and I did a bit of shipping - she got a moose and I got a backpack. After getting bored with the touristy shopping, we decided to tour the local bars. This town had many, but we only went to two. They made the drinks cheap and strong in Juneau. Apparently, they are also not used to getting tipped. The person working at both places tried to give us the tip back like they were confused. It was strange. After enjoying the dive bars, we head back for the ship for a quick nap and shower before dinner. After dinner, Dad, Jenn, Duncan, Teresa and I went to the little movie theater and watched A Mighty Wind.

Tuesday, September 9th

Today was another onboard day, but we were sailing through Glacier Bay Park. This was by far the best day of the cruise. Teresa and I got up around 9 and had breakfast. We met up with the rest of the crew in Becky and Anne's suite. They were in the large one with a huge deck. We stayed there for most of the morning and early afternoon. When we were in front of the Margerie Glacier, T&I went up to the top deck to take pictures. This large hunk of ice is just too huge and beautiful - I do not feel I can adequately describe it. While we were up there, a huge chunk fell off into the bay. It was very exciting! We went back to B&A's suite and while we were there, another huge chunk fell off! Dad laughed at my excitement :-) Around 2 or so, Teresa and I went up to the lounge at the top of the forward of the ship to wait for the aquatic mammals. Around 3, we went outside to the observation deck. At first, we didn't see too many. I think the first thing we saw was a sea otter. A very cute sea otter of course! And then the whales came. We saw several humpback whales and I got to see at least 15 killer whales! It was so exciting and everything I hoped for. At one point, I was running from one side of the ship to the other to see all of the whales and then I realized that there was no one else on the deck. It had started to rain really hard so most had gone inside. I couldn't let the rain and wind stop me from seeing the whales! We also saw lots and lots of porpoises. Oh, it was a great day. After we got out of the main area with the aquatic mammals, Teresa and I went back up to the lounge to warm up and continue to look out for more whales. We had to leave to shower before dinner and again ate too much. Well, I didn't. My dinner wasn't so good that night. We did play some Simpson's Bowling afterwards :-)

Wednesday, September 10th

This was our second day in a port - Sitka, Alaska. It's a smaller town than Juneau. Jenn, Teresa and I went ashore mid-morning to walk around town. It was very crowded since there were 4 ships in the port. The shops were touristy, be we did find a good coffee shop. We didn't spend too much time in town before heading back to the ship. I regretted not doing any hiking because it seemed a good area to do so. When we got back to the ship, we ate lunch and went our separate ways. I went and worked out for a while and relaxed for the rest of the day before dinner. At dinner that night, we noticed our server wasn't his usual chipper self. We found out that his brother had just died and they wouldn't let him leave the ship early to go home. So, so sad.

Thursday, September 11th

We arrive in Ketchikan, Alaska early in the morning. Jenn & I decided we were going to hike around, so we took a little nature walk and did some exploring. Not only did we get to walk through some old growth forest, but we also saw thousands and thousands of salmon. We were only at the port until 1pm. We tooled around on the ship for a while. T&I decided that tonight was going to be Sintastic. After dinner, we went to the casino where Teresa proceeded to win $176 on quarter slots. It took about 10 minutes :-) We chose not to press our luck and went up to the Crow's Nest to have drinks. Jenn & Duncan hung in there until around midnight. Towards the end of the night Teresa and I were dancing to 80's booty rap music. Aw, jeah!

Friday, September 12th

We docked in Victoria, BC in the late afternoon. Jenn, Duncan, Teresa and I went to town for dinner. We didn't do too much exploring since we only had a few hours and it was cold and dark. We did eat some really yummy food at a British Pub. I think we watched another bad movie that night.

Well, there's not much more to tell. We got back to Seattle very early on Saturday. J,D,T & I were the last group to get off the ship. We took Teresa home, went back and picked up Duncan and had lunch at Saigon Pearl on Cappy Hill. And the rest is no longer Alaska history :-)