Juneau!

Hey all,

Totally got behind again.  But oh well.  Last Thursday we docked in Juneau.  This was the only port where we had close to a full day, getting in around 9:00 am and leaving at 7:45 pm.  We had looked at our excursion possibilities and the weather (not great, unfortunately), and had been planning to do a combination beer tasting-cooking demonstration-Mendenhall Glacier option, but that was cancelled due to lack of interest.

What we ended up doing instead was pretty awesome, and at our own pace.  One of the cool highlights of the City, which is set in a valley with mountains on all sides, is a tram that will take you straight up 1800 feet of mountain, in approximately six minutes.

Once at the top, we perused the nature center and gift shop (as always, strategically located between you and wherever you want to go), and decided to hike some of the trails that start behind the nature center.  The next picture is the view from the nature center.  

Happily, the 1800 feet up gother us more or less above the rain line, so it was cool and dry.  We combined two trails, with the "end destination" being Father John's Cross.  All in all, I think it was around three miles over some fairly established trails.

Of course, as soon as we walked out of the nature center, which had advised us on what to do in the case of a bear encounter, Troy asked me what our plan was, should we see one.  I had apparently kind of glossed over proper bear protocol, but for future reference, you are supposed to: 1) make lots of noise, 2) identify yourself as a human, and 3) avoid eye contact.  So, no existential crises allowed when dealing with the bears (which we did not see).

But we did take more pictures.  

And we made it to the cross!

After hiking back, we stopped to visit Lady Baltimore, a bald eagle who had lost an eye due to a hunter's shot.  Because she only has one eye, her depth peception is totally off, and she can't fly.  Instead, she's an ambassador for the nature center.

We headed back down to Juneau (bearing witness to a wildly awkward scene, wherein tourist lady asked our tram operator "why his people weren't living on a reservation") and walked around town for a while.

We were able to pick up some new art for our guest room (cat-free, come visit!) and a few other souvenirs here and there.  Troy tried and liked one of the Alaskan beers, and I got my Alaska magnet.

More posts soon!  Ketchikan next!

Hubbard Glacier

Hubbard is a mostly visual experience, so this post is mostly pictures.  The glacier is locate approximately 7 miles up a straight, which apparently takes some effort on the part of the captain to navigate successfully.  Especially because it was super foggy for the first few miles.  We actually passed another ship that was in the process of turning back.  Captain Michael, however, persevered.  We were able to get within a mile of the glacier, which was more than close enough to see several chunks break off into the water (a process known as caving).  The on-board naturalist was very excited about this.

Despite significant cold and wet, we braved the elements, armed only with kahlua-spiked hot chocolate and inappropriate footwear, to see our approach (below).

By the time we actually got to the glacier, the visibility was significantly improved.  Also, the camera on my new phone is really much better than the one on my previous phone.

Other activities for the day included another watercolor class (as it turns out, I have done watercolor before... Thanks, mom!), an ice carving demonstration, trivia (which Troy won while I was painting... life changing prize was a pen), and we were selected to play Family Fued against some of the ship's officers.  Team Guests shut out the officers, and took home super exciting tee shirts (they change size and color in the wash).  I also finally finished my book, which I ended up really liking, despite the fact that one of the three-ish (of like 30 main characters) whose name I could pronounce was killed in the end.  Luckily, there are 10 other books in the series.  But, on to "You Should Have Known."  Watercolor number 3 is below.

Juneau tomorrow!

  

Icy Straight Point

In my continuing effort to play catch-up, this post is for Tuesday, which was our first port since leaving Vancouver.  Icy Straight Point is fairly new on cruise itineraries, and we didn't dock until a little before 3:00 pm.

In the morning, we did trivia (still not lighting the world on fire), watercolor, morning stretch, and did some reading on the deck.  I have yet to finish my first book of the cruise (which was also what I read on the many hours of flight)... but soon.

This is my watercolor for day one.

This is my watercolor for day two.  I feel like they could be worse.  And maybe they're even getting better.

Our excursion in Icy Straight Point was a kayak trip.  It went super well, and we both really enjoyed it.  The weather was great (except for the driving wind that we fought against the whole way back), and we got to see several adult and juvenile bald eagles.  Our guide also pulled up a crab pot, so that we could see what seemed to be just massive crabs.  I opted to leave my cell phone on dry land (I got nervous when I had to sign a waiver seven times, and also when we went through the evacuate-your-kayak-from-underwater talk... that didn't happen).

Our guide had always lived in Alaska, and gave us an overview of the local economy  (previously timber, but now fishing and tourism), and the mixed bag that cruises tend to bring.  Some weeks, cruises come through five or six days, which is a lot for what can reasonably be described as a fishing village.

When we got back, I asked about the distance that we paddled.  Our guide said that it was about 2.5 miles, but it was probably more like 18.  For real.  The wind, man.  But, all in all, we had a great day.

Tomorrow, we sail to the Hubbard Glacier... so, lots of pictures tomorrow :)

Day at Sea (1)

Hi everyone,

Today was our first day at sea!  We did quite a few on-board activities, including:

·        

Morning Stretch (me).  It’s a great way to start the day.  Especially if you’re still sore from a ridiculous amount of flight time.  Takes a bit of extra thought to work through the “stretching while on a moving boat” thing, but so far, I have not gone careening into another cruiser.

Watercolor (me).  This was surprisingly awesome.  The “artist in residence” (Enda) is from Vancouver, by way of Estonia.  We’re doing a series of Alaskan scenes (I’d upload a picture of my painting, but pictures are taking ages to upload, and again… $.79 per minute, man).  I’ve never tried watercolors before, and I really liked it (and appreciate anything that can be reasonably completed in 30 minutes.

  Trivia (we).  There were three trivia sessions during our first day of sea, and the theme of trivia so far (spoiler alert) is: WE MISS MIKE AND IVY!  We did not do especially well (no life changing prizes for us), but we had a good time.

Broadway on the High Seas.  A compilation of Broadway numbers, including a Les Mis-Miss Saigon mashup (weird), a newbie dancer dropping a less newbie dancer (whoops), aerialists (who totally stole the show), and a Hairspray Finale ( <3>

We also booked our excursion for Icy Straight Point, which is a fairly new port for Alaskan cruises.  We opted for a kayak tour.  We get into Icy Straight Point at 3:00 pm, and we’re there until 9:30 pm.

And, because this was something that we (Troy) had spent a lot of time working through contingency plans for, we watched game 6 of the Stanley Cup.  It was playing in the staterooms, and also (maybe?) in the casino bar.  We went to the casino bar, but there wasn’t any audio, so we watched in the stateroom, and punctuated the periods with snacks and excessively large margaritas.  Again, I’d post a picture, because it really was very large.  Obviously, at this point it’s not a spoiler, but the Blackhawks won, 2-0, I teared up a little bit when they were passing around the Cup, and the revels continued far into the night (especially in Chicago).

A very good day in Alaska J

Catherine

P.S. I will go back and add pictures to all of these.  When the internet isn’t $.79 per minute, man.

Departing Vancouver

Alright guys, I will totally acknowledge that I have been slacking in the blog department for the last few days.  Fear not, however, I have excellent excuses: 1) Vacation is buuuuusy, 2) the scenic Alaskan vistas are far nicer than the background on my desktop, and 3) $.79 per minute for internet, man.  There we go.  Excuses dispensed, and I will assume that I am forgiven.

On Sunday, we got up and read by the pool at our hotel for a few hours, since we couldn’t board the ship until 11:30.  We had no problems navigating public transportation to get us to the Waterfront, where, after a single “whoops, this is totally the delivery entrance to the cruise ship terminal,” we were able to enter the shuffle-stand-wait-move line to check in and board the ship.  At one point, we got to skip a whole bunch, because we had American passports, and it was like getting TSA pre-check.  The line was actually not bad at all (you did move a bunch), and you drop off your luggage at the beginning, so it’s not like you’re dragging stuff with you.  We probably completed the whole thing in 30-45 minutes.

Once on board, we found lunch, reacquainted ourselves with the mass of humanity found only at the cruise ship buffet, and snagged some lounge chairs on the deck.  The weather was sunny and around 70, so we didn’t even move when they announced that all of the staterooms were ready.  When we finally made it down to the room, we were surprised at how much larger the room seems with a window (I mean, it may also just be larger than the one we had on our last cruise, but this seems positively spacious).

We cast off at 4:00, and had a “Sizzle Party” on deck (live music, dancers from the shows, general entertainment).  One visit to the thalassotherapy pool later, we were back on deck and watching the scenery change.  The Pacific Northwest is just beautiful.

We weren’t able to get flexible seating for this cruise, so we’ve been paired with another couple, from the UK (and two empty seats… haven’t met them yet).  There was a fair bit of silence the first night, but the meals have gotten progressively more pleasant.  They’re just coming off a two-week train ride around Canada.

Tomorrow is our first day at sea.  We’re looking forward to trivia, eating all the food, and the part that I’m super excited about is that this cruise does art lessons.  There’s a watercolor artist on board, who teaches classes (hopefully) every day.  I’ve never done much with painting, but I’m really looking forward to it.  Also, let’s be real, Troy’s been thinking about hockey ~60% of his waking time.  So, Go Hawks!

More later!

Catherine

Vancouver, Day One

Life is good.  Particularly in the Pacific Northwest.  My initial reactions to Vancouver are:

• It's very quiet.  Despite what I would consider to be a pretty late night, we hit the Sky Train to go into the City by 9:00 AM.  Public transportation is very quiet, there weren't many people around for the first 2-3 hours, and even in the busiest parts of the day, just very peaceful seeming.  Maybe it was the parts of the City we were in, but lots more walking and biking going on than driving.  The only notable exception was that when we were in the Chinese Garden, there was an elementary level soccer tournament going on across the street, and there was a very enthusiastic announcer.  Troy kept telling me that it was the Women's World Cup.  It wasn't.
• Vancouver is a pretty clean city (but we also encountered a lot of homeless people).  Also, SUPER easy to navigate using public transportation.  We had considered doing a hop on/off thing, to get a sense of the City, and it ended up being both more direct and wildly cheaper to just use public transportation to get where we were going.
• I'm loving the backdrop of the mountains, plus all the water.  Very picturesque.  Coupled with the quiet and the clean, I feel like Vancouver feels smaller than maybe it is (pop. 603,500).
• Have I mentioned the climate?  The temperature maxed out in the low 70s, low humidity, and minimal clouds for the whole day.
• I'm still pretty on board with our hotel decision.  Here's the view from the room.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. 

Today we went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.  This was the first "scholars" garden created outside of China (using 100% authentic materials imported from China), and it's designed to mirror what gardens would have looked like in the Ming Dynasty.  52 Chinese Master craftsmen completed the garden in less than a year, using highly precise joinery, and no nails, screws, or glue.  Our tour guide was very engaging, and we both enjoyed both the history of how the garden would have been used and the circumstances under which it would have been created, as well as the description of the Yin and Yang elements found within the garden.

After finishing our tour, we walked a few blocks to Gas Town, where we had lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  It's pretty clear to me that the diet for this trip will be ...What diet?  Lunch was good (I think Troy and I would both give it a B+), and afterwards we walked to see the Steam Clock.  We didn't really know anything about it, except that it showed up on several tourist maps.  A steam clock is a clock that runs fully or partially by steam engine.  Apparently they're pretty rare - so says Wikipedia.  The mechanism did seem cool, but maybe a bit underwhelming.  We took a picture anyway.

Last on our list today was to check out Olympic Village.  Everything we did was walkable, and it was very pleasant to hang out by the water.  Troy hung out with a giant sparrow.

And now we're watching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup.  This vacation is really working for me. Tomorrow we connect with the cruise ship, and make our way to Alaska :)  

GO HAWKS!

Made it to Vancouver!

Hey all,

Just wanted to do a quick update.  Roughly 13 hours after Douglas was kind enough to drop us off at the Charlotte airport, we have safely arrived in our Vancouver hotel room.

There were many life lessons learned during  the travel, including:

> The name change process kinda sucks.  If you've already bought your tickets under your maiden name, and then your passport expires before the rrip, expect to spend ~40 minutes trying to get your tickets changed to match your passport.  And that change can only be done day of travel.  And the resulting change negates your hard-earned airline status, because your new tickets don't match your US/American account.  As such, we could not walk on the super special boarding carpet.

>Cowboy Caio, in the award-winning terminal 4 of the Phoenix airport was surprisingly delicious.  Assuming I'm in the Phoenix airport, I would go back.

>Canadian customs?  Waaaaaaaay better than Belgian customs.

>I like our hotel (The Pacific Gateway).  It has one of my favorite mini shampoo brands, and was roughly 4 minutes from the airport.  Extremely important at 3:00 AM EST.

And now, exhaustion has set in, and I am out.  Lots more tomorrow, for sure.

Have a great weekend, everyone!