We came home from our trip to Alaska and as we normally do, we placed our potted plants where they can get watered, in our planting beds.
All that TLC helped my blueberry plant.
It is hard to see, but click on the image and you will see that my bush is full of blueberries.
I am impressed with it and can't wait to eat a few of them.
A plant that keeps on giving.
If I remember, it does even better if you add coffee grounds to the dirt, once in a while.
To change the PH to a bit more acidic.
This is Ketchikan.
Remember I mentioned that I would show you the photo taken looking backwards from Whale Park and the totem pole?
This is what I saw.
A ship totally dominating the tiny town of Ketchikan.
I don't even want to think about the tiny town, when 2 or 3 ships drop anchor and let all their passengers out.
My Husband and I are truly happy that we cruised at the very beginning of the season.
We had the town all to ourselves. No overly crowded areas and no overwhelmed shopkeepers.
It must be tough for them.
It seems that accidents are getting more and more frequent, here in LA.
I spent the weekend at home, partially because there was a major gas spill, on the 14 Freeway. 3,800 gallons of the gas ended up on the roadway. Personally, I was glad it was 10 miles away from me.
The next day, Monday, it was a tanker carrying a huge amount of Hydrogen Peroxide on the I-5, north of where we live.
I had wanted to go to the Valley and visit my Husband's Family at the cemetery, but each day I decided the roads were probably too backed up, from both these incidents to travel.
Oh well, home we stayed, cutting the pine trees and bushes.
By the way, the photo is of an accident we passed in our van recently.
I saw and took photos of many Totem Poles, starting in Ketchikan and going all the way to Victoria, Canada.
This was our first one, just a block or two from where the ship was berthed. It is named the Chief Kyan Totem and it sits in Whale Park. You will see the reverse of this photo, later on in the week.
I have memories of seeing a park in Victoria that has a group of Totem Poles, but unfortunately, we passed it via bus and did not get to go out and take photos of them.
I enjoyed the many I did see in Alaska.
Each totem pole is different and many are over 100 years old. The paint is all natural and made from soil and plants.
This one was done in 1993, in case you care.
My Water Post For Today.
I have shown you the Harbour at Victoria before, but this is the side that shows off the Inner Harbour and the Downtown area.
What makes this shot more interesting, is the fact that a helicopter is taking off and it made little waves in the water.
If you were not looking for it, you would probably miss it.
Cool, none the less.
I hope you enjoy.
I have been to 48 out of 50 States.
I have a very demanding career, that gives me small vacations and I never use all the days off that I have, so how did this happen?
It all started when I was a child. My parents loved the Civil war and took us down to the South, many times. By the time I was 18, I had visited many of the battlefields of the Civil War. It gave me an appreciation of the fact that we do not EVER want this to happen again. (Try to find common ground people.)
We visited my Mother’s sister many times and she lived in Florida. That meant that we drove down on I-95 (many times before it was even finished). When you hit a stretch of road that was incomplete, they sent you on the backroads of that area. It seemed that the state of Georgia was the last one to finish, so we passed many run down houses on back roads with trucks driving on them, too. It always made me sad to see the conditions these people lived in. All these trips meant that I had visited the entire Eastern Seaboard, minus New England (above Connecticut). From all those trips, I had a deep appreciation for South of the Border, Howard Johnson’s, Stuckey’s Restaurant and 10 States.
When I was 19, my family decided to take 6 weeks off and visit the United States. I was their oldest child and would soon be leaving home and they wanted us to experience this vast Country of ours. We did the upper and middle going West and then returned via the South. This added 17 more states to my tally. 5 years later, my friend and I decided to move West, to make our fortune. Once again, we drove the Southern route, though a few states were added at that time. Such as Tennessee and Arkansas.
I started my career and one of the things we had to deal with, was attending conferences. Most were in Virginia, but occasionally a Mid America State was the destination. That is how I added Colorado and Missouri to my list. On several occasions, since I had settled and married in California, we would drive up to Canada. That added Oregon and Washington to my ever expanding list. None of these decisions were made with the purpose of getting to all 50 States, until we visited my family in the Boston area. We decided to do New England at that time and thus added Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to the list. Beautiful States and worth a visit, btw.
The big change, as we got older and the 9/11 TSA air checkpoints got worse and worse to deal with, was the decision to start riding the Amtrak trains, to get places.
The first trip we took was one I would hear called as I waited on the Metrolink Train Platform, at LA Union Station. Every evening they would call the station stops and after years of this, I finally asked my Husband if we could ride this train (The Southwest Chief), so I could see some of these places. We did this trip in 2010 and added Kansas (in the middle of the night) to the list. Note, I woke up when we were in Topeka, so I have a great memory of their Capitol building, all lit up.
The next year we did an interesting trip from NY Penn Station to Pittsburgh on The Pennsylvanian (spent a few days there) and then rode the Capitol Limited to Washington, DC. That brought us through West Virginia, a new State for us. The Appalachian Mountains are just stunning and you follow the Potomac River, almost from its source, to DC. Again, a highly recommended trip.
2012 brought us to a trip I have wanted to take for quite a bit, The Empire Builder. We started in Oregon and I went through four new States, along the way to Chicago. A wonderful station was in Glacier Park in Montana. Maybe someday we will return and stay a few days. That was definitely God’s Country and so easy to get to, via Amtrak.
2013, I decided to go back to college almost 3,000 miles from home. On our way to the school, we shipped our car out and took the train. The Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle were our routes and my Husband added Arkansas to his list.
2014 and Graduation from College came along. On our way home we took the Lakeshore Limited and then the California Zephyr. We had some trouble along the way and they detoured us through Wyoming, which was a new State for my Husband. He and I added Nebraska to our growing lists.
2015 We had a wedding in Boston and so on our way home, we took the Crescent to New Orleans and spent a day there and then The Sunset Limited back to LA. My Husband added new States and I did not. The time spent in New Orleans was worth it, though. I hope to travel back to that lovely City again.
2017 I planned a trip to New York and on the way back home, we landed in Oklahoma City and spent two days there, looking around, visiting the OKC Bombing Site (much better than the 9/11 Site we had visited a few days earlier). This took another State off our lists.
2019 we booked a cruise to Alaska for my Husband’s 76th Birthday. He wanted to revisit old places he had been to over 40 years earlier and it worked out well for me, because I have added a new State to my list. Two States to go.
Hawaii will be a trip in the near term (probably on a cruise ship) and a visit to my family in North Carolina will get us close to Kentucky (for both of us) and Tennessee (for my Husband). That leaves South Dakota for my Husband and we close this thing out.
I have so many great memories of places I have visited, over the years and I thank my work place for sending me places I would never go and Amtrak for bringing me to America. Oh and also my Parents, who started this whole thing, all those years ago. Thanks for giving me an appreciation for History and a love for this vast Country of ours.
As I mentioned a few days ago, my cat has been quite clingy, since we came home from our 12 day adventure.
She rubs us, she sleeps on the ottoman, once again and she seems so sad, when I have to go off to work.
I feel bad about the work thing...but I only have 7 more months to go, so she won't have to wait for years to get me home again.
It is nice having all this attention, though I am sure it won't last forever.
Then it is back to being ignored all the time. :-)
Way back when...in 2011, my station left PBS.
One of the things they forced me to do, is take home anything connected to PBS and our 40 year history with them.
This poster was one of those things.
I swore I would bring it back, someday.
This week, I finally did it.
I don't have walls to hang it on, but I did the next best thing...it sits by by desk.
Reminding us all that loving and nurturing children, is one of our main jobs.
Welcome back, Sesame Street Poster, you have been missed.
I admit this.
I wore my Alaska shirt 2 times last week.
Minus my Alpaca Hat, it is the only real souvenir I bought on our trip.
I like the minimalist design on the front of the shirt...though the back has a larger wolf image with Princess mentioned.
The sale was 2 for $20, and so my Husband and I both bought one. His says Skagway, btw.
For the price, it can't be beat.
We came home from our trip to Canada and lamented the fact that there were no roses at Butchart Gardens.
Well, I went out to my backyard the other day and there they were.
My roses were blooming all over the backyard.
Here are just a few of the roses, that congregate around the kitchen area of my yard.
They are (left to right)
Ketchup and Mustard
Iceberg
Olympiad
Julia Child
Wild Blue Yonder
I love my roses and thank you very much, my Husband, for cutting them back in the winter so they bloom so profusely in the spring.
I don't usually highlight programs that my station produces, but this one, Broken Bread, made both my Husband and I stand up and applaud.
Roy Choi, who brought the food truck idea to LA, with his Kogi BBQ trucks, is the host of this show.
In the first episode, he goes out to talk with several people, including Homeboy Industries creator Greg Boyle.
He also profiles a young girl who came from the Pacoima Projects and is managing to not only run a successful pizza business, but save drug addicted young adults, at the same time.
She had a dream of setting up a second Dough Girl pizza parlor right outside those very projects she grew up in.
I was so impressed with this young adult and hope that getting her some exposure, gives her the wider audience that can help her realize her dream.
Oh, on KCET, it got a .5 rating, which is pretty substantial for a minor PTV station. :-)
If you have the time, please click the link and watch it.
My Water Post For Today.
I really got into this island that we passed in Glacier Bay.
I am not sure about this, but I think it might be Russell Island.
No matter what, I loved the colors of the rocks and the fact that something so "colorful" was in Glacier Bay.
This was the area where we went into an inlet with John Hopkin's Glacier in it. The Island was there, where we turned around.
The water, is so clear in this inlet, compared to the ice in the main channel.
Serenity and beauty and rain and cold.
I hope you enjoy.
My Nephew and his wonderful wife have had the enviable (or not) task of taking care of a newborn, which I mentioned in THIS post.
So much of what I see in their first photos, brings back many memories of our own experience 28 years ago.
The lack of sleep showing in the faces of the new parents.
The baby looking at the faces of her parents.
The baby holding hands in the air all the time and, of course, the lack of sleep of the parents...
It is all there in the photos and videos.
They have allowed us to see photos on a private site and even offline, the photos were trying to get to me. One of my most precious memories, of the 12 day cruise, were those photos.
She seems to be growing, so predictably and I am so happy for them all.
We just planned to have a quiet dinner with our Magic "Son" on Friday.
Instead, I realized that it was his birthday week and so we decided to make it a good one.
I went over to the hospital and got a card for him and found a present, too.
It's a tiny zen garden. Probably Japanese, but it has a Buddha in it, so I thought it was close to appropriate.
Our two waitresses brought over 3 pieces of pie and so we sang Happy Birthday to him and he blew out the candles and ate the pie, too.
Well, we helped him.
He is very busy right now, with some Netflix stuff and (of all things) getting sound recorded correctly from Fender Guitars.
Pretty sure some of them are Strats.
Happy Birthday my other "Son". We love you.
My Son moved while we were boarding the Ship a few weeks ago.
This was our first chance to see the new digs.
Seriously, it looks a bit bare. :-)
The dining room table came from a friend. He helped move her to her house, a few weeks ago.
The table has no chairs, which is a problem.
Otherwise, wires all around...it looks like his room used to look, back in the day.
Oh, he has his snow tires over in the far left corner.
A few weeks more and he will be coming here to visit and then bring his girlfriend over to Michigan.
He just seems to be vamping, til they get things going as a team.
I have no idea how I ended up taking this photo.
Sometimes my camera just takes control of things and next thing I know, I have a photo done in a totally different way.
I decided to make this my wallpaper on my computer at work.
When things get tense, this photo brings me peace.
Oh and that is, once again, Margerie Glacier. The one that calved for us.
In case you wonder why the glacier looks blue, it is because "glacial ice appears blue as a result of the absorption of red, orange, yellow and green wavelengths of light and, consequently, pools of meltwater on top of the glacier will appear bright blue."
The sound you hear when it calves is that "as a glacier calves it makes sounds similar to gunshots from the cracking of the ice and the release of trapped air, then a roaring boom as the ice tumbles down into the sea."
By the way, I was so sorry to hear about the recent collision of two sea planes in the Ketchikan area. The passengers were from the Royal Princess cruise ship.
Several months ago, My Boss at work got me a Poncho to wear on my cruise.
So there was no way I was going on this trip without it.
I only wore it a couple of times at dinner, but I appreciated her thinking of me.
I already showed off my alpaca hat, but you get a better view of it from my Husband's photo. :-)
Minus my Alaska tee shirt, these are the only 2 new things I wore on the cruise.
Oh and by the way, this is the painting we would have loved to own.
Too bad for us. $1,700 is just too much for a painting.
I never thought I would get to visit Alaska, so this one is so very important to me.
I would love to return to visit Anchorage, Alaska...but that will just have to wait.
Kentucky is left on my list and so is Hawaii.
Hubby's list includes South Dakota, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
I have a new Great Niece and since she lives in North Carolina, I think we will somehow manage to knock off the other two Southern States, at the same time we go visit her.
Hawaii, may end up being a 15 day cruise, since I did put a deposit down on another Princess Cruise.
South Dakota, for Hubby is a hard one. No trains go near it, so we would have to fly or drive or both to make that one happen.
So that is our near future plans. Hopefully, in the next 2 years.
My Water Post For Today.
Mt. Baker is visible from Vancouver Island and so as we were leaving Puget Sound, we could see it off in the distance.
From what I understand, it is the second most active volcano, after Mt. St. Helens.
The water of Puget Sound was pretty calm that day, not like some of the water we traversed through.
I hope you enjoy.
First up: Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers...especially my Niece-In-Law and Meghan (The Duchess Of Sussex) who are both new to this status.
Finishing out the cruise, I thought I would show you our room.
Me, of course, in my favorite position...laying on the bed.
If you look close, you can see there is almost no room between the bed and the left wall. Mitch had a real hard time getting into bed at night.
My side had an end table with two lamps bolted onto it and it is positioned sideways. Just about a totally useless end table.
The repaired fridge, is on the bottom right of the photo.
Otherwise, the room worked for us.
I mentioned in my post about Born to Dance, that we were allowed to roam around back stage, after the talk.
They had brought up 4 members of the team who were talking to us, via a Mini car on the elevator on stage.
I definitely wanted a closer look at that and so I went over.
A member of the crew took pity on me, I guess, cause he took my photo.
If you look very close at the floor, you can see the rectangle that becomes a gaping hole in the stage.
They mentioned that before the elevator is put in motion, they have a performer give a sign that the area is clear.
Safety comes first.
The crew really pulled out all the stops on our final evening at sea.
They knew that we all would be disembarking and they wanted to leave us with a good impression.
Lots of mentioning of the fact that they want us to give them a "Very Satisfied" 10 for the entire cruise. Not going to happen...but they did try.
Our final dinner had Baked Alaska for dessert and they did parade them around the dining room. It was quite impressive.
We left our dinner companions, to go see the final big event of the cruise.
David James Guidice did an excellent show, that started with the open to "Angry Young Man" (a song I adore). I was sorry he could not play the entire thing, but I took what I could get. He also did a very fast version of "Root Beer Rag" (another oldie that I love). He asked if anyone know the song and I yelled "Root Beer Rag" and he was shocked that anyone knew it. :-)
Minus "Uptown Girl", I was pretty happy with the selection of songs he played. For "Still Rock and Roll To Me" he substituted some newer events, to bring the song up to date. It was very funny.
He did four songs from The Stranger ("Only the Good Die Young", "Italian Restaurant", "I Love You Just The Way You Are", and "Movin' Out")
"New York State of Mind" "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "The Longest Time", also made an appearance. I was a very happy Billy Joel fan.
All during this evening, we had to pack and place our luggage outside our room. We showered before bed and got the last piece of luggage out at 10PM. We double checked that they picked it up, when we retired at 11PM and it was indeed, gone.
Morning breakfast at 7AM and then we sat on the Plaza level, to stay out of the way of people. We went upstairs half an hour early and found out that our group had been called. Great news, we connected with our limo driver by about 9:15AM and were back home by 11AM.
To say the least, the cat was happy to have us back.
Would I do a long cruise again? I am not sure at this time, but yeah, I might.
The bottom photo is our one and only drink on the cruise, just before we retired.
That small drink cost us $27 and I didn't even get a buzz.
Wednesday May 8, 2019
Day 12 At Sea
Well, we missed the fashion show on Tuesday. I ran over at 4PM and it was over. Oh, well.
We had our normal dinner, which was Lobster. Yum Yum. We ran from the dining room to make the show "Born to Dance". Created by Stephen Schwartz and others, it is a tribute to dancers who perform, not only on Broadway, but everywhere. Very well performed and done. The singers and dancers, who do all these shows are excellent and work very hard, every day.
The balloon event was at 10:30PM. Lots of people dancing in the Piazza. We hung out and waited for the balloons to drop. You will have to imagine what that looks like, since I have exactly 22 minutes left of my Internet and I would like to get this post in, with a few minutes to spare. Update, photos added.
Bed was at normal time, which will soon begin to give me trouble, because I normally go to bed at 10:15PM at home.
I woke up at 5AM to the fact that the bathroom toilet would not flush again. The system was clogged on deck 5. That took several hours and a mess somewhere, to get fixed. I still don’t trust ours and am using the public ones. Glad we are leaving the ship tomorrow.
Had a quick run to do laundry and went to breakfast, between wash and dry cycles. The clothes were not done and so we had to use a second coin to dry the clothes. For the most part, we have the same clean clothes, we came in.
We then headed off to The Culinary Show. Lots of jokes and cooking, a bit of singing and then a tour through the Capri Kitchen. A fun time was had by all.
A quick lunch at the International Kitchen, so that we could watch the final performance of Alex Ramon. He did an outstanding job, even escaped from a straight jacket. I went up and introduced myself and told him of watching Teller escape 4 times, back in 1985.
Tonight, we will hopefully attend a performance of Billy Joel songs and a final performance of the singers and dancers at the Piazza.
Mostly need to pack the rest of the way and then get ready to leave the ship. Wow, it has been good and bad and everything in between.
Oh, in case I didn’t mention it, we gave a deposit on another cruise. We have to take it in the next 2 years, so we have plenty of time to figure things out, as my work career ends.
Tomorrow, the real world beckons.
Tuesday May 7, 2019
Day 11 At Sea (Great…Not)
Woke Up at the usual time and went to breakfast at the usual place. They had some grits and red gravy, note I was not impressed and I love grits.
We spent a bit of time up on deck 14, to give our room steward, Arjuna, time to clean and restock it for us. The weather was excellent out, what a change from Alaska.
Then it was time for Backstage at the Princess Theater.
There was nothing said that was really a surprise, but it was interesting. They even let us go to the dressing room area, out back and where they put the sets, for the shows.
The stage crew has been on for the past 17 months and are about ready to leave this very month. Their contracts are up. Things we learned from a video they showed us, is that they learn the routines in Santa Clarita. We thought that was pretty interesting.
Tonight we have dress up night and we are going to the highlight of the cruise, Born to Dance. A play written by Stephen Schwartz, using some of the best dance numbers in Broadway Plays.
We also have a fashion show with the ships crew. There are balloons in the rafters, so I don’t know if they are for the fashion show, or another event. More to come.
Day 10 Victoria, Canada
We got up our usual time, and ate breakfast in the dining room. I wanted to see Bohemian Rhapsody at 10AM on our cable in room channel. Unfortunately, we had to leave for our shore excursion early, so I only saw half of it. I did not have a great opinion at that time, but when we got back to our room, there was the movie again and we connected before we had left it, so in two pieces, we saw the entire thing. I liked it, all in all. I just have problems with how some of it was shot, but that’s just personal opinion.
On to our visit to Victoria. There was a major fire at 5AM in the downtown area and it took out an historic building. Even in our brand new air conditioned bus, we could smell the smoke and started coughing. This made me glad we spent the afternoon at Butchart Gardens, instead.
Unfortunately, the ride over and back took quite a bit of time, so we only had about 45 minutes on either side of the High Tea we were booked for. We managed a few photos at the Sunken Gardens, The Italian Garden and the new Dragon Fountain. Then it was off to High Tea.
High Tea had way too much food. We did what we could and had to leave the rest. Though we took a few snacks back with us for our evening back at the ship.
A quick go round through the Japanese Garden and then over to the Totom Poles and Carousel and we were out of there. No time for a look see in the gift shop.
We got back to port at 5:15PM, which was just over an hour before we were going to set sail. We were happy to be there on time. Otherwise, we and our passports were going to have to fly back to LA and meet our luggage.
We watched the Ship leave the dock and the views of Puget Sound were outstanding. We even got the early sunset. Our last views of land for the remainder of the cruise.
Onward to Sea Days tomorrow and Wednesday.
A note about this post, it has been increasingly terrible getting Internet coverage, so you get the photo from a few days ago. It has water and it is beautiful, so deal.
My Water Post For Today.
Sunday May 5, 2019
The end of Day 7 and Day 8 At Sea
After our afternoon in the cabin (whale watching is exhausting), we went to Alex Ramon’s 2nd show of the cruise. This time it was close up magic in the back theater, right above the engines. A noisy room, but he was great.
We had to run out just when he ended his performance, since we had a dinner date with a friend (I used to work with) Father.
We get to the appointed place and had no problem finding each other.
I worked with his daughter, Catherine, about 8 years previous. Before we left Sunset and moved to Burbank. She is in a committed relationship with our Chief Engineer. That is how her father found out about us. I had to pass a message through to him and he wanted to thank us for getting it to him.
He is around the same age as Mitch, and that gave the two of them touching off points. He served in the Army just prior to when Mitch served and did not go to Vietnam.
As it ends up, his daughter (Mother of 2 sets of Twins) is around 10 years younger than I am. I was pretty sure she was younger, but I got confirmation from her Dad.
He and his wife cruise all the time. He has been on 41 cruises and she has been on 36. That, to me, is amazing. They booked onto this cruise at the very last minute. He mentioned his Princess representative (Jeanie Watkins) and it sounds like she might be worth looking up, whenever I want to go on a cruise again.
Day 8: It begins with Coffee with the Captain. What a fun hour of my life, listening to what it is like to be a ships Captain and what he does, when on land.
He told us that he works 3 months on and 3 months off. He lives in Carlsbad, CA and drives a Vespa. He drives it like a maniac and has a license plate on the back CPTBYBY (Captain Bye Bye).
To say the least, we all got a real laugh out of that, since he ends all communications to us with “Bye Bye”.
Then on to an interview with the Doctor from the original Love Boat show: Bernie Kopell. It was a fascinating talk, taking us through some of his rolls through the years and some of his time on The Love Boat. He told us that he had his 2 sons late in life (he was 64 and 70 when they were born). More power to him, it seems to keep him young.
We then set out for some lunch and then over to our room for the afternoon nap and rest time.
Dinner at 6PM and a quick run to the Princess Theater, for Showtime with Brian Cheatham. He was a semi finalist on America’s Got Talent and a Las Vegas entertainer. His show was good, but similar songs that we had heard the evening before, for the Motown Show. The band had less to learn, I bet. :-)
Off to the room for our evening and preparation for Victoria, Canada tomorrow.
Day 8 Glacier Bay
OK, I am totally impressed. Glacier Bay is just an incredible experience. We woke up as usual and went to breakfast. There is nothing like seeing a glacier out the window, as you finish your food. It makes you really want to just up and run. But I figured we had hours to view things and I was right about that.
We get up onto the 15th floor, which is outside and though it is not really too cold, it is drizzling, so you have to be careful of your camera (cell phone). Some people are using the beach towels to protect them.
We photographed Margerie Glacier (pictured) and got to watch it calf a piece of ice. About 10 seconds later you hear a loud BOOM! Awesome, seriously. There was another boom later on, but we were on the other side of the ship, at the time. So now I can say I saw a glacier calfing.
The water by the glacier had lots of floating ice, whereas the remainder of glacier bay, does not. They then take us to the John’s Hopkins Glacier and make an incredible turn in the inlet. Seriously, the ship just barely makes it. They say that later in the year, they can’t make this maneuver, so we are lucky.
We decide to break for lunch and eat at the buffet, while watching the scenery pass us by. Note, I had reindeer chili with my lunch. It was OK. I would have loved the coffee with Kahlua, but it was $8 a cup. Way too much. We had straight coffee, instead.
We adjourn back to our room and after a nap, I check out the window. There are whales that are coming to the surface. We were told they hang out toward the opening of the Glacier Bay area. Supposedly we passed them around 7AM, but I was not going to check them out at that hour. Glad I saw something, on the return trip.
We have a dinner date with a friend from work’s parents tonight. We will see how that goes.
Friday May 3, 2019
Day 7 Skagway, Alaska
We got up early and had showered the night before, because our train leaves the dock at 8:50AM. We manage to have breakfast before we go and so all is as ready as it can be for our train ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route.
The train track actually is right at our dock, so it is only a five minute walk in howling winds, to the train. We will find those howling winds are still sticking around our ship, when we return around 2PM.
Safely on a car mid train, we travel about 100 feet to the station in town. We pick up other people, at that time…and then we are off.
The railway is narrow gauge and there must be somewhere around 10 or 15 cars attached to the engine. Very creaky and it reminds me of the rail road train at Disney. That same late 1800’s style.
We are lucky that spring is coming to the area. The trees are budding out and the snow is melting all over the place, so there are many streams coming down the mountains. It is truly beautiful.
On our way up, I am on the side away from the mountain, thus beautiful views and on the way back, my side hugs the mountains. Different, but beautiful views.
We pass some engineering feats along the way. Places where the workers blast through tremendous granite boulders. Some places where where workers died, trying to do this. There are 2 tunnels along the route and a few bridges. All very impressive.
When we got to Canada, there is an obelisk marking the border of the US and Canada and then a Royal Canadian Mounted Police shack. The actual customs building is along the road, where there is room to build something big enough to deal with Border things. We saw it on the way up.
When we got to the top of the pass, they have just built a circle, so that they do not have to have us stop the train to turn the engines around. As a matter of fact, workers are still dealing with it and we came through slow and waved to them.
We then go back the way we came and after 3 hours, we are back in downtown Skagway and it is time to look around a little.
Being it is noon, we quickly find a pizza place for lunch. It was quite good and we are happy with our purchase. Unfortunately, we then had no room for a dough treat similar to Indian Fry Bread in Arizona. Darn!
Looked around a bit more and then braved the cold and returned to the ship.
It is wash day, so we spent the afternoon washing all our clothes. Hopefully, that will get us through this journey.
A Motown Revue after an Italian Dinner and then off to our room for the evening.
Photo is of "The View". We are looking back toward Skagway, from half way up the pass.
We made it to Juneau, Alaska on Thursday morning.
Once again, we had no firm plans and so on a cloudy day, we began walking toward town.
We passed several places that we decided to visit on our way back, but we had 2 things to do while in Juneau. One was find a nail file for my nails. Neither one of us thought to bring one. Number 2 was to visit KTOO, my sister PBS Station in Juneau. We could see it from the boat, so it was easy for us to visit.
We did stop in a few places, including an Alpaca shop. Very cute stuffed animals in the shop, but extremely expensive clothing. We passed on it.
As we reached downtown, we saw Juneau Drug. Yay, they will have exactly what I needed and yes they did.
Next we walked to KTOO, which was just down the block. Took some photos outside and stepped inside for a moment, which got us a photo of their TV Studio. I didn't want to bother anyone, so we did not go to the second floor and announce ourselves. It was almost lunch time, so I am sure we would have been less than wanted.
Mission accomplished, we then decide to find somewhere to eat and get warm.
Heritage Coffee and Bakery gets the nod and was a wonderful place to sit and enjoy watching the comings and goings in the Downtown area.
Their coffee was good and I got a grilled cheese sandwich and Mitch got the Roast Beef Dip. Both were quite good.
On our way back we stopped at the Juneau Library (on the 5th floor of a parking structure) and connected up to the Internet.
Then we hit a second Alpaca Store and I broke down and got a rust colored cap. Note, it was not cheap, but it was cheaper then the first store.
It flattens my bangs, so once I put it on, it is on.
We then hit the fudge store and then headed back to the Ship. It was drizzling pretty heavy now, so it was no problem for us, cutting our afternoon short.
Total time out, about 6 hours.
We rested and read for the afternoon and then had a leisurely dinner of seafood.
Tomorrow brings Skagway and our first excursion of the trip. The Skagway to White Horse Railway. Wish us luck with that. It should be pretty exciting.
I finally made it to Alaska!
Ketchikan is the first city in Alaska and it is also known as the salmon capital of the world.
"Salmon from Alaska pure and tender as can be, the taste that made Alaska proud Salmon from the sea."
Sorry, where was I?
It is a very tiny town and we walked about a mile through the main streets of the area. When it was time to visit the Totem Heritage Museum, we hopped a free shuttle. We took some photos and the bus was still there, so we hopped back on and saw the remainder of Downtown...there was a Safeway with a Starbucks. That was about the highlight.
We got off the bus at the ship and did a bit of shopping. I bought a candy bar...it was exciting.
We decided we had had enough and boarded the ship, once again and had a free lunch.
Total spent in Ketchikan...$2.10. Yes we are big spenders.
Next up, Juneau in the morning. The Capital of Alaska.
April 27, 2019
Life on a cruise ship, at Sea Day’s 1 to 3.
Lot’s of people with time on their hands.
I am not sure what to do with myself, though there is lots of stuff on the schedule.
The no Internet, spotty Internet thing is quickly becoming an issue with me. I live to cruise the web.
Not sure about the boat movements yet. They told us the seas would be bad last night and they are there…but bad, not sure this is bad.
I did bring Dramamine, so I think I am covered.
April 28, 2019
The bed was VERY comfy and soft. Slept well, like 9 hours of well.
Dinner was good, but too much cheese on the fettuccini, which made it a bit salty. The garden salad was good and dessert was excellent, though I ate just about a third of it.
We got up early to eat, because it costs a fortune to get coffee and orange juice, at any other time of the day.
I ordered a bagel and lox and cream cheese. The cream cheese was super hard and I only got a small ball of it. Like what you would get for butter. It just didn’t work for mixing with the lox. I did what I could.
Ship is really rocking this morning. We got ready to go swim, but the pools are full of waves and unusable. I would have used the hot tub, but my husband chickened out of even that. So we came back to our room to hang out and shower. Of course, the room attendant was cleaning our cabin. So we sat outside the restaurant, by New Grounds. I broke down and bought a Earl Grey tea for $1.25. Best purchase I ever made.
Waves are getting even larger. We will see what that brings.
I fell asleep waiting for Mitch to shower. When I woke up, it was my turn. It is just the tiniest space. I had nowhere to put my large bottle of shampoo. I vamped and got it done. Glad I had a one item has all shampoo and conditioner. It saddens me that this is my last bottle of Herbal Essences all in one. I guess people didn’t like it.
Should I venture out, now that I am dressed…we will see.
It is still very rocky. The waves are higher than earlier. I am still not sick, yay me.
Lunch consisted of a slice of pepperoni pizza. It was quite nice. I had a piece of apricot bread with vanilla pudding on it and may I say it was an excellent choice. Mitch chose soft serve ice cream. To each his own, I guess.
Good thing I decided to check to see our coupons for free upgrade dinners. It was 5:28PM when I realized we had a dinner reservation for Sabatini’s at 5:30P. We quickly put on nicer shirts and tops and ran to dinner. All in all, I was not impressed with the food. Some was good and some was less good. I am Italian, I know Italian food. All in all, we got through it and it was free.
In bad news for us, we came back to our room to get our free photo coupon and found out that the entire area was without toilets. I gather this is an ongoing issue that we had been warned about. Sorry it happened on day 2 of our cruise.
We watched a martini demonstration for a bit, but they were totally not my thing. Mitch stayed through to the bitter end, I left.
Toilet still not fixed, so we called the front desk (or what serves as a front desk on a cruise ship). Fixed about 9:30PM.
Bed at 10P.
April 29, 2019
Middle of the night it got really, really, really choppy. Our window was wet, so that means the salt spray is hitting it. The ship flexes and so it makes all sorts of horrible noises. I thought it was someone snoring. It’s not, it’s the ship. The Captain told us later that they had to slow the Ship down, to try to help with the extreme bad waves. We also saw that they emptied the two pools at the top of the ship.
Nice group for breakfast this morning, who are all from the L.A. area. I get the impression that we Southland residents take this cruise, instead of flying to Seattle or Vancouver. You only add 2 cruise days, each way and no airports to deal with.
Breakfast was pancakes and bacon and it was definitely Yum. The fruit compote was medium. 3 small cups of coffee, thank you Lord, for coffee.
We took a turn around the Promenade Deck. Windy and nice in the back, but the deck was wet and dangerous on the other side (our side of the ship). We walked about a half mile on the deck.
There will be an art auction later on and we like a particular painting of San Francisco…but what the heck will we do with it? It is currently going for $1,680. Oh well.
Mitch is thinking of attending a Military Meet up at 11:45AM.
Dinner will be at 5PM and we have a reservation at The Crown Grill. We have to dress up for this evening, I have no evening wear, but I did bring a dress, so that is what I will do.
We got dressed for our early dinner and actually got there a few moments early. We ended up getting soup and steak. No dessert once again. The food was good, but we were stuffed and could not eat more than half the steak. I felt terrible about that.
Right outside the restaurant was a professional photographer taking lovely photos of the passengers who wanted to sit for a few moments. I made Mitch do it with me. We will see if anything worth spending some money comes from this.
They then did a toast with the Captain and we all toasted the crew and the cruise. The Captain is Italian, as are many in the crew. I got a kick out of that. He ends all communications to the ship with: Bye Bye and he did the same thing, after his talk. Next up, we went to a stage show called The British Invasion. It was quite wonderful, though no Moody Blues. :(
They did perform songs from The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who and Queen. It was well crafted and entertaining.
Over to the other end of the deck and we watched Comedian Scott Wyler’s routine. Several passengers saw him perform on our first evening, so we wanted to catch his show. He was entertaining and isn’t that what you want from a comedian.
It is getting toward 10PM and we are tired, but no rest for the weary. We go back to our room and the room smells of ammonia. What’s the deal with that? So we call the desk and get moved to deck 10 on an interior room. No more window, until the problem is fixed.
We will see what tomorrow will bring…on my next blog entry about the cruise. Not sure when that will be.
