Alaska, Part 2
(If you're late to the party, see part 1 here.)
Friday, May 24
We arrive at the cruise ship terminal, which in reality was nothing but a large warehouse. We had to drop our large bags off outside the terminal, which seemed kind of unorganized, and we were certain we’d never see those bags again. The Royal Caribbean staff were very nice and helpful in directing us to the correct lines to check in. At check-in we simply had to show some paperwork and our passports, and then we had to go through security, which was a watered-down version of airport security. (Metal detectors, but we were allowed to keep our shoes on.) By 2:30 pm we were on the boat, and thankfully our room was already ready for us. Our balcony was overlooking the warehouse/terminal, and we read up on the activities and events for the evening and next day. We were surprised when our bags arrived only about 30 minutes later, which allowed us to unpack and get organized in the room. The room itself wasn’t huge, of course, but it was bigger than I thought it would be. And with the balcony it felt like there was enough room to walk around without getting into each other’s way. The bathroom, on the other hand, was tiny and smelly (I think the sewage smell emanates up from the bowels of the ship, and there didn’t seem to be anything we could do about it except keep the door to the bathroom shut), and the shower, of course, was smaller than most linen closets.
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| View of Port of Seward from our balcony. |
After organizing we walked around the boat and got our bearings, so to speak. There were lots of cool stuff on the boat, including a rock climbing wall, a mini golf course, a solarium, and plenty of bars and lounge areas. We stopped at the Windjammer Café to eat a quick snack of soup and sandwiches, and then went back to the room to watch everyone board, hoping to get a look at Mom, Lucy and Steve getting on board. Sure enough, we saw their train pulling into Seward and the threesome making their way up the gangway. Perhaps I was a bit obnoxious by yelling out their names, but since I was on vacation I figured it was my right. Around 6 pm I decided to head down to the Quill & Compass Pub, which was just one deck down from our room. It was here that I discovered my true purpose on the boat, which was to keep Rosario and Glen, the bartenders at the Quill & Compass, company. I also met the two waiters in the area, Bernadette and Romeo. This was also where I began to discover that the employees of the Radiance of the Seas were pretty amazing when it came to learning the passenger’s names. I introduced myself to everyone that first night and they never forgot it the rest of the trip.
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| Bartender Glen makes Sage a specialty drink. |
At 7:45 pm we had the mandatory mustering drill, at which we ran into Steve who was mustering in the same location. Mustering was nothing more than a story of dread and doom, but thankfully it only lasted about 15 minutes and we were on our way to dinner. We met up with Lucy and Mom at the Cascades Dining Room, the main dining room of the ship, and shared stories of our trip to Alaska. None were more interesting then Steve’s trip, which involved several delays out of Baltimore until that flight was cancelled; a bus to Dulles; more delays before finally arriving in Seattle late at night; a night’s sleep in the airport; until finally getting his flight to Anchorage the morning of the cruise, in which he made the train to Seward with about 90 minutes to spare. (And Steve says he hates traveling – I can’t imagine why.) The ship left right on time at 8 pm as we ate, but it got pretty foggy on the water soon after departing, so there wasn’t much to see. After dinner everyone was pretty tired, but I had enough energy to hit the casino before heading back to the room. We were both in bed by 11 pm.
Saturday, May 25
We were up at 6:30-ish and one look outside showed us very cloudy skies and rough seas, according to Sage. (She was much more in-tune to the movement of the boat then I ever was.) After breakfast at the Windjammer (not great), we futzed around the boat some more. Days at sea, like this day, we found quite boring, especially if there weren’t cruise activities that seemed interesting. Thankfully the ship had a Trivia game at 10 am that we joined for. Before trivia we hit one of the lounges where there were pool tables. The pool tables were high-end ones, that were on some sort of gyroscope that kept the tables level even as the boat was tilting back and forth on the high seas. We weren't sure if our table was working 100% correctly, but it did seem that the balls stayed where they were supposed to even though the boat was rocking.
On to trivia, there were 10 questions of varying difficulty and topics, and at the end we were in 2nd place! It was called “Progressive Trivia”, so they said there would be other times during the cruise to play again, and the teams with the total aggregate score at the end would win a prize. We thought we’d end up doing it every day, and while there were trivia contests almost every day, the progressive trivia only ended up being the 2 days we were at sea.
After trivia we met up with Lucy, Steve and Mom and futzed around some more (lots of futzing on cruise days) before having lunch around 12:30 pm. The Windjammer was packed, and the annoying amount of people along with the bad food was enough to make me want to jump overboard. But thankfully we were heading into Yakutat Bay on our way to Hubbard Glacier. We headed out to the bow of the ship to watch the ship head toward the glacier, and we spent hours outside watching the scenery and seeing how close we got to the glacier. Unfortunately we didn’t see any wildlife on the slow cruise in, but the glacier itself was VERY impressive. The toe must have been over 100 feet high, and we were lucky to see some calving of the glacier into the water. Seeing the calving was great, but HEARING it was almost better. We were both really surprised how close the big ship was able to get to the glacier, and the captain was able to pivot the huge boat around 360 degrees as well so that all sides of the boat could get good views of the glacier. This allowed us to head to our balcony to view the glacier, and made us very happy that we upgraded to a room with a balcony.
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| Hubbard Glacier from a distance |
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| Moving in closer to Hubbard Glacier |
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| Ice floes in front of Hubbard Glacier |
At 4 pm I headed back to the casino for a poker tournament. I had noticed on the Cruise Compass (the daily listing of events on the cruise) that the casino was hosting several preliminary poker tournaments during the cruise, with the finals of the tournament taking place the last day of the cruise. Loving poker the way I do, I definitely wanted to enter this tournament. This was the 2nd satellite of the day, and it was just about to start as I got down there. I paid my entry fee and made my way to the table. As I did, I asked the question as to what the tournament structure was. It was then that I found out that you had to finish either 1st or 2nd in the satellite to make it to the final table on the last day, but that depended on how many people entered each satellite. Also, the grand prize for the final table was a free cruise for 2 along with an entry into a $100,000 tournament on the boat. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to finish 1st at this point, but of course I was still going to play. I ended up finishing 2nd in my satellite, so I made it to the final table. Unfortunately, what I found out after the table was over was that my chip count for the final table would be what I ended up with at this satellite – which was a very small number of chips. Either way, I was having fun, and didn’t expect to win it all anyway.
After the tournament (which lasted only an hour or so) I stopped at the Quill and Compass again for a drink and to talk with Rosario. He told me that he had spent 20 years working on cruise ships, and absolutely loved it. He said he usually worked 6-7 months at a time (with no days off during that time – only time off during the cruises), and then he’d go home to India for 2 months or so. And then do it all over again. Not the life that I would like, but it seems to work for him. While at the bar I saw on ESPN that the Bruins had won, so that made me very happy.
After heading back to the room, the 2 of us headed over to Lucy and Mom’s room for champagne before heading to dinner. Since this dinner night was one of the Formal Nights on the cruise, we had decided to bypass dressing up and headed up to the Windjammer Café for dinner. Surprisingly (to me anyway) it wasn’t crowded at all, so I suppose most people on the boat liked dressing up for formal night. The food, as was the norm, was blah. After dinner we all headed down to the Quill and Compass for another trivia contest. This one was not part of the Progressive Trivia we did earlier in the day, but was called Movie Music Trivia. This format wasn’t as good, as the trivia host didn’t seem very organized or care too much if everyone knew what was going on. Also, each question was simply that he’d play a part of a song, and we’d have to guess what movie it was from. We did poorly, as it didn’t seem that music was our strong suit on the team. After the trivia the group split up, and I made my way back to the casino for some craps and blackjack. I did much better at the tables then I did at trivia, and wound up back in the room around 10 pm. I did some reading and organizing, and tried to get to sleep around 11. Unfortunately there was a lot of music coming from somewhere below us on the ship, and it sounded like a band was playing somewhere. I actually called the guest services desk to complain, and they were extremely nice but said it couldn’t be a band, it must be from another room. (I found out later that our room was directly above the big theater on the boat, and there was some sort of music show going on that night.) The show ended around midnight or so, and we went to bed hoping that this wouldn’t be a regular occurrence every night. (As it turned out, it wasn’t. Part of that might have been the fact that after this night we ended up staying up late almost every night, so maybe we just missed the shows, but nothing kept us up after that one problem night).
Sunday, May 26
We awoke around 7:15 am, and watched as the boat came into Juneau, AK, our port for the day. It looked to be another glorious, sunny day, and we had great views coming through the Inside Passage to the dock. After a quick breakfast at the Windjammer we got ready for our day off the boat, and got in line to disembark at 9 am, our scheduled time. There were some issues with the machines, but we finally got off around 9:15 am. (When getting off the boat each time you had to have your room keycard scanned, and then they scanned it again when you got on. This was to ensure that they didn’t leave anyone behind when you got off the boat in port.) Our plan for Juneau was to first go up to Mendenhall Glacier, just outside town, and do some hiking and exploring in that area. We found a shuttle bus that would take us up to Mendenhall (this wasn’t hard, as there were about a dozen different tour companies/groups that were selling tours, helicopter trips, whale watches, etc, right off the boat.) While waiting for the bus to take us up we asked a couple locals for lunch suggestions, and we got a good tip on a bar called The Hangar, that had good beer, nice views, and sloppy burgers. Right up our alley! We also heard one of guys working a booth that it was a slow day in Juneau, as there were only 2 boats in port that day. That made us happy, as it would cut down on crowds at the glacier. We also had time to check in at the Visitor’s Center, where they told us there was still a lot of snow on the trails up to Mt. Roberts, and at the top as well. This was good intel to have, as we weren’t sure whether we wanted to do the Mt. Roberts Tram (that was right next to the cruise ship terminal) or not when we got back from Mendenhall.
Our bus arrived to pick us up at 10 am with Thomas our driver. He was very funny and knowledgeable about Juneau and Alaska in general, and he made the 20 minute drive to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center very enjoyable. Along the drive he pointed out several bald eagles that were hanging around, and he mentioned that bald eagles were the “pigeons of Juneau” – meaning they were found all over. We arrived at the Visitor's Center around 10:30 am, and we decided to hike the East Glacier Trail. This was a 4 mile loop that gained 750 feet of elevation and went up the side of the valley above Nugget Falls. It was a nice trail, not very crowded at all, and had a few good views of the glacier and the falls. We finished the hike in about 1:45, and then walked along the shore to Nugget Falls itself. On the way to the falls there were all sorts of signs warning that there was a bear seen regularly in the area. We didn’t see a bear, but we did see a porcupine in a tree, which was a very cool sighting.
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| Mendenhall Glacier from the Visitor's Center |
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| Hiking up the East Glacier Trail |
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| Mendenhall Glacier from the East Glacier Trail |
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| Porcupine in a tree |
Nugget Falls is a GREAT waterfall, and the setting was amazing with its location right next to the glacier itself. The water at the falls was high and powerful, and the beach right next to it was a pretty amazing spot. There were some people there of course, but it wasn’t overly crowded, and it was a great atmosphere. After hanging out at the falls and watching some kayakers paddling around the glacier and the ice floes that broke off it, we headed back the way we came and took another trail that led the opposite direction down the beach. This trail led to some great views of the glacier and falls, albeit farther away, but there were zero people in this area. On the beach we were able to grab a small piece of the glacier ice that was floating nearby, and I had to eat it to see how good it was. I was surprised that it was fabulous – really fresh and crisp with not a hint of dirt or rocks. Someone should bottle that!
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| Nugget Falls with Mendenhall Glacier in the background |
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| Nugget Falls |
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| Kayaker paddling around the ice floes |
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| Gorgeous backdrop around Mendenhall Glacier |
We hiked back to the Visitor's Center and caught the 2 pm bus back to Juneau. Our driver this time was Miriam, and she was not nearly as engaging as Thomas, and spent about 10 minutes of the drive telling a long story which ended up actually being a set-up for a joke. Let me tell you, if you’re setting up a joke for 10 minutes, the payoff better be worth it. (This wasn’t.) The weather continued to be amazing, with not a cloud in the sky and temperatures reaching 70 degrees. (In fact we saw several people on the bus trip back to town, working shirtless in their yards! I guess 70 degrees in Juneau is like 90 degrees in Boston.) We got dropped off in town and went to The Hangar for lunch. The burgers and beer were both fabulous, and it was just what the podiatrist ordered for our tired feet. Even better was free Wi-Fi at the restaurant so that we could catch up on emails and surfing. (The boat charged a crazy amount of money for Wi-Fi access, and of course our cell phones had zero coverage whenever we were at sea.) And finally, The Hangar got its name because it was right on the water where sea planes were constantly taking off and landing. All in all, a fabulous place for lunch.
After eating and catching up on the world, we walked around town. Juneau is pretty small for a state capital, and obviously tourism is right behind government as far as industry in the town, but it didn’t take us very long to see it all. (Or at least to get a sense of it all.) Gift shops, bars, more gift shops, more bars, etc. During our walk we did come across the statue of Patsy Ann. Patsy Ann was a bull terrier who lived in Juneau in the 1940’s. Even though she was deaf, she always knew when a ship was coming in to port before any human could hear or see it. Amazingly enough, she also had an uncanny ability to know exactly which dock the boat would dock at, and would go to each one to meet the ship. You can read more about the amazing story of Patsy Ann here.
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| Statue of Patsy Ann |
Realizing that we just didn’t have the energy to head up Mt. Roberts (or the patience for a bunch of snow-covered trails), we decided to head back to the boat and went back on board around 5:30. After taking showers and cleaning up, we headed down to the Quill & Compass for drinks. Steve showed up not too long after (it became known pretty quickly that if anyone needed to find me on the boat, either head to the Q&C or the casino), letting us know that he was headed to the Cascades Dining room to have dinner with Mom and Lucy. We were still full from our late lunch, so we passed on joining them, and after our drinks walked around the boat some more. We wound up on the top deck and played some mini-golf on the course they have, which was actually pretty good (for a cruise ship mini-golf, anyway). Sage beat me, of course, and afterwards I almost killed a kid. (How is THAT for a segue?!?!) Here’s what happened: Right next to the golf course there’s a small pedestrian bridge that crosses over a basketball court on the deck below. As we were walking across the bridge I noticed a young-ish couple down there shooting hoops. I yelled, “hey, up here!” and the guy laughed and threw me the basketball. I decided to try a shot from up there on high (probably 10 feet higher than the basket, and 50 feet away), as it would be epic if I actually sank the shot from that far away. I released my shot and realized immediately that it was going to be short. The next 2-3 seconds seemed to happen in slow motion: Knowing the ball wasn’t going to reach the basket, I looked at the trajectory it was going…and saw for the first time that the couple had a small kid with them…and he was standing right underneath the basket…and the ball I had just thrown was headed right for him! I barely had time to yell a warning when the ball landed in front of the kid, but then on the bounce it came up and hit him gently on the side of the head. He did that thing that all little kids do (he was like 1-2 years old) where he’s stunned for a second or 2, and then immediately realizes that getting hit in the head with a ball probably isn’t normal, so he started to cry. I apologized profusely to the parents, but neither of them seemed too concerned at all, and were laughing at the whole thing, even as their kid was crying. Sage and I decided to hightail it out of there as fast as we could and headed off that deck just in case someone wanted to press charges.
After walking around the ship a bit more and hanging out at the Colony Club, another lounge that had great views out the back of the ship, we headed up to the Windjammer again for a quick bite around 9 pm. Afterwards we ran into Mom, Lucy and Steve, who were all sitting on a deck near the Café, so we sat down and caught up on how everyone’s day went. At around 10 pm Sage and I headed up to the Starquest Lounge, which was a lounge/club at the very top of the ship. This place was circular and had almost 360 degree views, so it was a great place to watch the scenery. It’s also a kind of disco, with a dance floor and a strobe light. This night they were going to have a 50’s/60’s dance party, which is right up Sage’s alley. It ended up just being a “deejay” simply playing old music. When the first song the “deejay” played for 50's/60's night was Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood”, which (according to Wikipedia) was released in 1940, then you know it's not going to be anything special. 50’s/60’s night, indeed! But some of the songs were good, and the views as we left Juneau were GREAT, especially as night began to descend over the water and mountains. After the “dance party”, I headed over to the casino while Sage went to bed. Tonight I had little luck, and was back in the room around midnight.
Monday, May 27
Happy Memorial Day! We woke up around 7:30, and were pretty tired from the day before. We had docked in Skagway before 7 am, so we missed coming in to this old town. After a quick breakfast we headed off the boat around 8:30 am and walked into town. Skagway had its heyday in the times of the gold rush, and has a Visitor’s Center for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (which is many miles outside of town). The dock was about a 10 minute walk from town, and on the way to town we saw 2 Hokies, which was about par for the course during our trip. The weather this day was more of the same – gorgeous blue skies and temps in the high 60’s. At the visitor’s center we got some recommendations for local hikes, and thankfully they all left right from town so we didn’t have to try to find a cab or shuttle to get us to the trailhead. The hike we decided on was the Dewey Lake/Icy Lake/Reid Falls trail. It ended up being a good hike, but not a great one. The trail went up about 500 feet almost immediately as it left town, and in about ½ mile we got to Dewey Lake. The lake was pretty boring and dirty looking, and it didn’t really have any good views. We left quickly to head to Icy Lake, and this lake was much nicer, and true to its name still had ice covering it over about half the lake. It was situated in a beautiful forest, and Sage decided to put her feet in the small stream that fed the lake. The pain in her face made it apparent that the water was ice cold, and she stated it felt like someone was putting a dagger into her feet it was so cold. After a short break we hiked on to Reid Falls. The trail became VERY hard to find, which I liked as it meant that not many people ever take the trail. Thankfully we didn’t get lost and finally made it to the falls after about 1:45 of hiking. The falls were nice and running quite fast, but nothing particularly special about them. On our way back to town we found a nice little overlook that looked over Skagway. We finally arrived back in town right around Noon. The total hike took about 3 hours, went 5.5 miles and went up about 850 feet in elevation.
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| Outhouse on the trail |
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| Icy Lake |
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| Reid Falls |
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| Skagway from the trail |
Arriving in town again we walked the streets, which were all very full with tourists. (I think there were 4 cruise ships total in Skagway this day.) We thought about getting pizza for lunch, but the one pizzeria in town also billed itself as a Mexican restaurant, so we thought better of that option. We ended up at Skagway Brewing Company, and while it was pretty crowded we were able to find 2 seats at the bar. I had an IPA and halibut sandwich, Sage had chicken tenders, and it was good, but not nearly as good as The Hangar in Juneau. After finishing lunch, we wandered around the streets a bit more, did some gift shopping, and without anything else on our plate we ended up back on the boat around 3 pm for hot showers and some time to rest our feet.
At 4 pm we headed up to the outdoor pool deck where they were showing The Wizard of Oz on the outdoor screen. This was a great idea, but poorly executed unfortunately, as the sun was shining right on the screen, making it pretty tough to see any detail. (Also, it was fun to watch this one woman in the pool, trying to do laps while all the other people were just splashing around.) After an hour of the movie we decided we had enough, and went back to the room to relax and get in some reading. I called up the family to see if they were interested in going to the one of the specialty restaurants on the boat. The ship had several of these specialty restaurants, which weren’t included in the cruise price, but you only had to pay a $20-25 surcharge per person. We set up the dinner for 7 pm at Chops Grill, a steakhouse, and then headed down to the Quill and Compass at 6 for drinks. Dinner at Chops was great – finally a good meal. And while having dinner we had a special guest stop by our table – the captain of the ship himself! He was there to have dinner with his wife and family (who must accompany him on the ship's travels), and he very graciously stopped by to ask how we were doing and if we were enjoying the cruise. (We also saw him go back into the kitchen and talk to the cooks, so either he was finding out how they were doing, or he’s very picky about how his steaks are cooked.) After dinner Sage and I headed back to Starquest for another dance party and to watch Alaska go by as the sun set. I don’t remember what the theme was for this night, but I do remember that the music was REALLY annoying. This night I decided to break out of the norm and went to the poker table in the casino instead of the craps table. Thankfully there were a lot of people there to play, and I had a great time playing cards until after midnight.
Tuesday, May 28
We were awoken before 7 am with lots of weird noises happening on the boat near our room. We realized that it was the tender boats being winched down to the water, as today we were tendered at Icy Strait Point, meaning we had to take small shuttle boats to get to land. Icy Strait Point is a very small fishing village near the town of Hoonah, and it’s mostly used as a quick cruise stop. Today we were only going to be tendered from 9 am to 4 pm, so our time would be short on land. We met up with Mom, Lucy and Steve for breakfast in the main dining room, and they sat us with another couple.
At this point I need to stop my travelogue and tell everyone the story of Nathan. (Nathan is not his real name, but I’ll get to that.) Our first day on the boat, Sage and I first saw Nathan when we were waiting for an elevator, the doors opened, and this kid who looked to be about 10-12 years old shot out of the doors and went running down the hallway. He had short hair, glasses, and looked like your regular, nerdy, annoying kid. Within the hour on that first day we saw him again, this time zipping around people in a hallway. Sage and I commented at the time, “I bet we’ll see him a million more times on the ship”. Sure enough, the next morning at breakfast him and his mom were at the table next to us, and I remember him having a long, strange discussion with the waiter. I don’t remember what they spoke about but I remember thinking, “This kid is nuts”. After that he kept popping up here and there, and we’d simply say, “There’s that kid again”. Then on the Monday night (the night previous to the morning I’m talking about now), we were sitting in a lounge and Steve went to go get coffee. When he came back he said “Some bratty kid tried to keep me off the elevator”. I said, “Short hair, glasses?” Yep, that was him. Steve said he tried to walk on to the elevator and Nathan had his arms spread out saying it was closed or something. Steve said he wanted to pour the hot coffee on him. Mom then piped up and said she had a similar elevator story with the same kid when he “ruled the elevator”. We all agreed that the kid was a menace.
Now, back to breakfast. During our meal, somehow our discussion of the kid came up, but I can’t remember how. The couple that was eating at our table looked at each other and commented on him. I said, “Are we talking about the same kid? Young, short hair, glasses?” They replied, “Oh, we know exactly who you mean. That’s Nathan. Well, his real name is Allen, but we call him Nathan.” They then told us their story. They were on a 6-day land excursion before the cruise, and Nathan and his parents were on the trip with them. They said he was the strangest, loudest, most annoying child they’ve ever met. The man said one time they were standing in a line, and Nathan was standing there just staring at him. Finally Nathan said to the man, “I might be vertically challenged, but I’m not intimidated by you.” The man chuckled as he said to us, “It’s your turn to deal with him now – good luck.” (The couple told us they called him Nathan after another annoying kid they know back home…this was their way to talk about him without letting the kid’s parents know who they were talking about.) We joked that now he was going to be on our whale watch that day (thankfully he wasn’t), but it was quite funny to hear that Nathan had a long legacy of annoying people on our ship.
After breakfast was finished we took the tender boat to Icy Strait Point. It was really low tide at the time, and Sage and I took a walk along the short beach, looking at plenty of starfish and squirting clams. We boarded our whale watch at 10:15 am (we had decided to do this shore excursion here, and Steve, Lucy and Mom all came along) and headed out into Icy Strait. Our whale watch included a local “cultural” guide, who was from Hoonah and a member of the local native Alaskan tribe from the area. In the first hour or so we saw a humpback whale from a distance, which was great, but pretty much was the back of the whale for 30 seconds, then a quick glimpse of his tail as he dove. Once he went under he’d be gone for 5-10 minutes, and then he’d pop back up somewhere else where we’d try to get a look at him before he did the same dive again. We also saw a couple more bald eagles before the captain turned the boat around and headed to another area of the strait where there were reports of more humpbacks being spotted. We found them after another hour or so, and we watched a couple of humpbacks doing their thing. The captain said we were just about at the end of our time, when all of a sudden the 2 humpbacks BREACHED twice right out of the water. That was an amazing sight, and our cultural guide went nuts, yelling, “THAT WAS AMAZING!” Then, as we were heading back to Icy Strait Point, one of the humpbacks laid on his back and kept waving his fins in the air, almost as if he was waving us goodbye. It was a great way to end the whale watch that both Sage and I would remember forever.
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| Icy Strait Point at low tide. |
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| View of our ship from Icy Strait Point |
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| First view of a humpback whale |
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| Humpback whale diving |
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| Right after the whale breached...I was a bit slow with the camera |
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| Humpback whale waving goodbye to us |
Back at Icy Strait Point we had a mediocre lunch of Halibut and Burgers, and then walked around the little village. We found a little hut that sold GREAT mini doughnuts, and Sage scarfed down half a dozen in no time. As we were sitting at one end of the beach we saw another humpback swimming in the strait, really close to the shore. We did a short walk through the forest on the island, and then headed back to the boat at 3:30 pm. Since we were leaving very soon, and the weather was ONCE AGAIN incredibly sunny and warm, Sage said she wanted to have a glass of wine while sitting on the balcony, leaving the strait. That sounded like a great idea to me, so I grabbed a bottle and a couple of glasses and we sat on the balcony watching the Alaskan shore.
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| Doug gets to know the local flavor |
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| Sage gets close to the locals |
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| Balcony...wine...great view...what more could you want? |
After the wine we headed down for Geography Trivia, which once again was kind of annoying. The trivia host was the same annoying guy from the music/movie trivia of the other night, and he was no better this time. (One of the questions was basically, "Where is St. Peter’s Basilica located?" He would NOT accept Vatican, only Vatican City. He was a stickler based on whatever the computer said the answers were.) But annoying or not, we came in 2nd place and won a cheap magnet photo frame. Nearby Lucy and Steve were playing Bingo, so we watched the end of that, then hung out in the Colony Club in the stern of the ship, watching the ship go through the inlet. A bit bored, I headed back to the casino where I played blackjack and won $500, which made Sage very happy. Of course I had to hit the Quill & Compass at least once per day, so I went there after where I watched the end of a Heat/Pacers game. (Bernadette, one of the waitresses in the bar, was a huge Heat fan, and was watching very nervously.) I think during the cruise I watched more NBA than I had in the previous 20 years of my life, but that was pretty much all the ship had for sports to watch. Sage said she was getting peckish, so we headed up to the Windjammer for dinner. Who do we run in to there? Mom, Lucy and Steve of course! After dinner we hung out, then headed back up to the Starquest Lounge for 80’s night. More bad music, of course, but this night seemed to be the most popular of the trip, as there were a lot of women on the dance floor (most in their 50’s or 60’s). On the way back to the room I noticed Steve in the casino playing the slots, so I showed him how the craps table worked before playing poker late into the night.
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| Sunset over the Inside Passage |
Wednesday, May 29
Today we were docking in Ketchikan, AK, known as the Salmon Capital of the world. We awoke around 7 and met the family in the main dining room around 8 for breakfast. Today our good weather streak broke, as it was overcast and cloudy. As it was the other day at breakfast, we were seated at a large table, and 2 older women were seated with us. They were both very nice and fun to talk to, but there were still 3 other seats open at the table. No more than 2 minutes later they were filled…by NATHAN AND HIS PARENTS. Everyone kind of looked at each other like, “Oh my god, it’s happening!” He was actually pretty quiet during breakfast, but at one point he did say, “My father has the axe that George Washington used to cut down the cherry tree. He has all of it but the head and the handle.” What a riot. Nathan’s mother seemed to have a comment and critique of everything, but the father was quiet the entire time, looking as if he’s just tired of it all – and has been for 10 years. It wasn’t a horrible breakfast experience, but not one that I’d want to repeat the rest of the trip. (And as it turned out, I think that was the last time we saw Nathan the rest of the trip as well.)
We got off the boat around 9:30 and walked through town to get to the Rainbird Trailhead, which was about 10 minutes outside of town. On the way to the trailhead we saw 2 deer, including one that walked right down the middle of the road like he owned the place. The trail was steep but really great as it went through a coastal-type rainforest. There weren’t many great views, but it was still a great hike. The Rainbird trail ended at the University of Alaska-Southeast, which had, I think about a total of 2 buildings.
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| Rainbird Trail |
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| View of Ketchikan from the Rainbird Trail |
We hiked back to town and then wandered around downtown Ketchikan, which was full of gift shops and restaurants, as well as a ton of tourists. (There were 5 ships in port this day.) I went into a lot of shops hoping to find a t-shirt that said, “Catch Me in Ketchikan”, but could not find even ONE! What a lost opportunity for those shops. We finally decided to grab some brews and snacks at a bar called The Asylum, which was a cool, local place. They didn’t have their own food there, but you could order from the Dairy King burger and shake place next door, and they would deliver it to you at the bar. We noticed a lot of cruise crew members at the bar too, so it seemed like the place to be for those not looking for the touristy type of place.
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| Told you it was the Salmon Capital of the World |
After catching up on some emails and surfing, we walked through town to a place called Creek Street, which had more shops and stores, but had a cool, funky vibe to it. I believe it used to be the red light district of town, and behind Creek Street was a trail called the Married Man Trail, which was the secret way married men would get to the brothels back in the day. There was also a fish ladder near the creek that is supposed to be packed with salmon in the late summer, but we were too early in the season to see any. After some shopping and exploring around town some more, we headed back to the boat around 4 pm. While back in the room, I was out on the balcony at one point, looking over the water, and the man in the room next to us came out on his balcony…wearing only a towel. You’d think he would have noticed me and immediately retreated back to his room for more clothes. Nope…he smiled at me, and then looked out over the water, just like me. Some people.
I know I sound like a broken record, but I was down back at the Quill & Compass at 6 pm for my nightly ritual. Romeo, one of the waiters, told me he saw me in town that day, as he was out in town too. Rosario the bartender was also in town that day, which seemed weird that so many crew members were, but then Rosario mentioned that today was payday, AND Ketchikan has good restaurants/things to do, so many get off there. Also while at the bar I was sitting next to 2 Chicago Blackhawks fans, both of whom were pretty much in agony over their drinks, waiting to hear updates on the Chicago/Detroit game that was going on. I don’t remember which game it was, but they were watching ESPN Sportscenter, and simply watching the scroll at the bottom of the screen for updates that came by every few minutes. Tough to be a hockey fan on a boat when the ship doesn’t get NBC Sports Network.
We all got together for dinner in the main dining room this night as it was lobster night. I was looking forward to this, but unfortunately lobster night consisted of a very small tail only. If you wanted a full lobster, you had to pay extra. Pretty weak, in my opinion. After dinner we talked the rest of the family to head back to the Quill & Compass for Pub Trivia night. We weren’t sure whether this would be annoying like the rest of the ones we’ve been to, but this one wasn’t so bad. There were definitely some more complaints being lobbed at the trivia host (for example, one question was Who Invented Dynamite?” The answer, of course, is Alfred Nobel. But if you simply put “Nobel”, he said no points. This guy was like the trivia Nazi!) Regardless, we got 9 out of the 15 questions correct…and came in First Place! For our big win we each got a Royal Caribbean hat. Who says you don’t get anything good for free on a cruise?
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| The winning team! |
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| Yep...he used my sneakers |
Sage had told me that after she left me at the casino she went back to the buffet at like 11:30, and the line was STILL huge. Nothing like a dessert bar to get everyone on the ship in a tizzy.
(Coming up in Part 3…the last day on the boat, and welcome to Vancouver.)
Labels: Alaska, National Parks, travel, wildlife sightings
posted by Eladio at
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