ICEBERG!

Woke up this morning and looked out the window to see icebergs floating out our window. We wer approaching Hubbard Glacier. A massive glacier (80 ft high and 6 miles wide where it ends) that is calving huge hunks of ice into the ocean. It was amazing to see and hear. Sounded like huge thunder bursts as it shifted and dropped ice into the ocean. After checking it out for an hour or so we headed back out to sea and on our way to Seward, AK.

We ate lunch in the sit down restaurant for the first time, which was nice. On our way back to our room we stopped by the casino to throw some quarters we had into some machines. We were at one machine and Jane said just one more...and she won 80 on that pull. She next decided to try her luck at roulette and turned $20 into over $200!! and she didnt even loose it all. It was a very impressive run.

Before dinner we went to see the commedian Jimmy Dunn again and had to pack our suitcases so they could be picked up at 11pm.

Dinner was Thai spring rolls, spinach pie, cold pumpkin soup, bacon wrapped fillet, and penne pasta with cheese sauce spinach, and sun dried tomatoes. About six servers sang "happy honeymoon to you" to us and presented us with a cake with candles to blow out. Jane turned very red.

Disembark at 9:20 tomorrow

Icy Strait Point

Today was tender service (ferried by lifeboat) to shore in the town of Hoonah. Since we had no excursions planned, we slept in a bit and grabbed breakfast on the ship before heading ashore. While sitting there we saw some killer whales through the window.

There wasn’t much once we got to shore. A couple of very nice nature trails with amazing views. We checked them out and sat by the water and saw some whales playing around. This pic is of a humpback (I think). This strange photo is of the longest zip line in the world…at least that is what we were told. We talked about going on it, but never did.

We then walked into the town of Hoonah. They wanted $8 for a shuttle ride to town…only one and a half miles away. The town wasn’t very impressive. Not much at all to see or do, but the walk was nice. We ended up taking the shuttle back, but at a reduced price.

Before tendering back to the ship I had a whole steamed Dungeness crab for lunch…very tasty. I just wish they served it with butter and not margarine…oh well.

We sailed at 4:00 or so. Jane laid out by the pool for a bit (it was forecast to be 85 degrees!) and later we took naps before dinner.

More chicken breast for Jane. She also had a salad of some interesting dried and fresh fruits. I had wild mushroom pastry with truffles and demi glaze and a cup of chicken corn chowder. For my entrée I had Tournedos Rossini. When I ordered it our waiter Anwar said, “You no like lobster?” I took that as a challenge and got the lobster entrée as well. Both were pretty good. Baked Alaska and assorted petit fours for dessert. They did a big show and parade through the dining room with the Baked Alaskas. Very nice show.

Pretty much off to bed after that.

Skagway

What an unbelievable day.
We woke this morning after sleeping in a bit and grabbed some breakfast. Just out side our state room we could see helicopters taking off and landing and it was a warm (75 degrees) and sunny day. Things looked good for our tour.

We were interested in seeing Jimmy Dunn at 7:00 before dinner so we switched our tour from 4:30 to 12:45. We then walked into the town of Skagway. This is definitely the best place we have been yet. Great scenery, tons of history, and lots of local interesting shops and restaurants. We shopped and explored a bit and headed back to the ship to get ready for our helicopter ride.

No problems with this tour. We took off and flew for about 15 minutes over some of the most awe inspiring scenery either of us have ever seen. It was amazing flying over the ridge line of some mountain and then just watching it fall away on the other side. Mountains and waterfalls, and glaciers, and snow, and sun and many different colors in all of them.

We spent about 30 minutes on the glacier walking around looking at crevaces and holes in the ice and drinking literally glacier fresh water. It was about 20 degrees colder on the glacier and very windy. Our tour guide up there was a native Skagwayan and shared lots on how glaciers are formed and how they move….then another amazing ride back to the heliport.

We ended up saving a couple hundred dollars by having our tour changed like it was and had a much clearer day for flying. It worked out jut fine.

After a quick lunch on the ship we headed to the Yukon Gold Rush National Historic Park and went with a NPS guide on a walking tour of the city. This park actually has two locations with the other one being in Seattle. Ryan Doster and I visited that a few years ago. I remember thinking at that time that it would be quite a trip to Skagway to see the other part of the park…it sure has been.

Before dinner we went to see Jimmy Dunn. I didn’t have super high expectations, but he was awesome! I have never seen Jane laugh so hard. Both of had tears because we were laughing so hard.

Dinner was Fried Feta cheese with watermelons and grapefruit, a nice salad, seafood consommé, grilled chicken, and because I asked our waiter about them I got two entrees. Homemade meatballs with fresh mozzarella cheese over pasta and braised short ribs. I am full!
Oh yeah, killer whales swimming next to the ship were our dinner entertainment.

Tried to find a Whiskey tasting that was supposedly going on, but never did.

Icy Strait Point tomorrow.

Second Try

After a quick unfulfilling lunch on the ship (I planned to go to a crab shack that we found in the morning but they ran out of crab!) we headed out to get on our tour. The very unhelpful woman from the tour company informed us that it had been canceled as well. NG. Long story short, we booked a trip to a sled dog summer camp and booked a helicopter glacier tour for tomorrow out of Skagway.

We were both a bit bummed that we wouldn’t be able to ride a sled on snow, but were happy to be going to see the dogs. The camp is located at the top of this old scary one lane mining road. Our bus driver (short bus) was a bit nuts, but got us there safely.

The camp was very cool. About 160 dogs spend the summer there and train with their owner/mushers for the1, 000 mile plus Iditarod and Yukon Quest races as well as shorter ones. We learned how they train them, got pulled for a couple of miles by them in basically a large unmotorized golf cart and got to check out lots of the equipment used for racing and camping on the trail. We then got to hold the puppies born on July 4. Jane wanted to keep one of them, but the mama dog got mad. After a nail-biting ride down the mountain, we boarded the ship in time for dinner…Oysters Rockefeller, French Onion Soup, Chicken pate with pistachios, osso bucco, pasta with grilled steak and a really tasty coconut crème brulee.

Earlier in the day we were walking on the ship and a guy said “Sox fan, hey sox fan” (I was wearing my sox cap). He asked where we were from and told us where he was from. He then asked us if we had seen those commercials with the guy in the cab for Olympia sports. It was him…Jimmy Dunn who is also the voice for Sox Appeal. He is the comedian on board tomorrow night. We may check that out.

Monkey Wrench

Got up in the morning and had breakfast before getting all geared up for our glacier adventure. When we went to check in at 9:30 am, we were told that our tour had been canceled due to the foggy weather…uh oh. We were fortunately able to book another tour for 5:15 in the afternoon.

After going back to the ship to shed some layers, we set out to explore Juneau. We hit a few tourist trap shops and proceeded to an info booth to look for things to do. After a long conversation with Bob, who was wearing two name tags, about what to do we decided to head out to the Alaskan Brewing company and then to go to the fish hatchery. Then something strange happened…Bob left with us and we realized that he didn’t work in the info booth at all, he just liked beer and was recommending that we drink some.

We chose to same some money and take the city bus to the brewery. (saved about $15 on that leg of the trip). The brewery was great! All very good beers. We sampled seven different ones in all, about 6 oz or so of each…all free! Very helpful and informative staff. My favorites were the Alaskan Amber and the Oatmeal Stout. The smoked lager was unlike any beer I had ever tasted, but was also excellent.

After the brewery we were waiting for the bus and a woman came and sat next to Jane and asked where we were from. We had a nice conversation with her for a couple of minutes until the bus came. Just before it got there she said “I’m in jail right now… at the half way house” as she pointed at some trees…we hurried on the bus.

The fish hatchery was very interesting. The water outside the entrance to the salmon ladder was teeming with fish. It seemed as if you could walk over the water while only stepping on full grown salmon. We watched briefly as they clubbed the fish before removing the eggs and sperm to make babies (they were about to die anyways as their journey back up river was over).

On our way back to get ready for the glacier we split a cab with a woman and her four kids…which she had no control over.

Juneau isn’t really that nice. It was pretty dirty and kind of strange. Wonderful scenery around. About 30000 people live here. It is the smallest state capital by far. Did I mention that there are literally no roads that go here...you have to come by boat or plane.

Ketchikan, Alaska and Crabs

Woke up this morning docked in Ketchikan, which is in the extreme south east of Alaska. This first pic is what we saw when we woke up. Now we are four hours behind the east coast.

After breakfast, we headed out into town and walked around a bit and picked up a bunch of free shwag. This tiny little town was very cute and is the fourth largest in Alaska!

Around 10:00 we boarded the Aleutian Ballad, from the first season of the Deadliest Catch in the Discovery channel. This is the boat that that huge rogue wave hit in the footage they always show.

What an amazing experience! Truly awe inspiring! A beautiful sunny day with great scenery, stories, and wildlife. We saw a bunch of bald eagles soaring majestically and eating herring we threw in the water. We also saw a humpback whale blowing water all over the place and some seals.

While on the boat, we pulled up line or pots that had a ratfish, a bunch of king crab, ophelio crab, and box crabs, a huge wolf eel, and a giant Pacific octopus. Very cool to see and hold. Super interesting and engaging crew with lots of great stories who really make it fun.

After boarding the Millennium again, we shipped off to Juneau. Jane went for her facial and I took an hour and half nap. It’s hot today too...Jane actually wore her bikini by the pool…in Alaska!

Went to a magic show before dinner. Not terrible, but pretty corny humor and effects. They did have light sabers though!

Dinner was cod fritters, veal consommé, sirloin steak for Jane and a small antipasto, corn soup with chorizo, and roasted Alaskan Halibut with a tarragon cream sauce…very nice. We split some banana walnut cake thing that wasn’t very good and a chocolate truffle torte with fuitine that was good.

Helicopter and dogsleds tomorrow!

Bingo!

Bingo!

Oops. I forgot. Here is the picture of the picture of us arriving on board

Not too long after that last post (once the pedicure was over), we went to bingo. I won the first game! It was pretty cool, although they made me do a dance in front of everyone. Jane said I had some pretty sweet moves. We won $164.

We went through the narrowest part of the inside passage after bingo and it was amazing. It seemed as if the trees covering the mountains right next to the ship were falling into the ocean.
Dinner was nice last night. I wore my rented tux, but without cummerbund and bow tie. I was able to wear my brand new hiking boots with it though, so that was nice. Some of the items we had at dinner were chateaubriand, buffalo frog legs, beef Carpaccio, and roasted rack of lamb…good times!

After dinner we wandered the ship a bit and watched some of the dancing show in the theatre and eventually went to the casino and played roulette for a bit. We watched craps for quite a while, but still can’t figure out how it works!

I’m sitting here eating great sushi overlooking the mountains as I write this…life is good!

Bon Voyage!

Well, we made it on the ship very quickly. We arrived at the port right around noon and made it through customs, check-in, and security, boarding, and were in our state room in less than 45 minutes.

Safety drills went well…Jane put on a little fashion show, as you can see in the pics I post today. I also took a picture of the picture they took of us when we boarded…this is a lot cheaper than paying $20 for it.

Wow, what a beautiful ship and a beautiful day to leave on. We had a great clear skies and took lots of pics on our way from Vancouver. Still pretty warm, 65 or so (that’s farenheight if you were wondering)

Yesterday afternoon we went to a raffle in the spa and Jane won a coupon for 30 percent off some sort of seaweed facial..but those are really a bargain at any price..That is booked for tomorrow. Did I mention how nice her toes look after the pedicure this morning?

Awesome stars last night. All we could see at one point was the stars and two other cruise ships off in the distance.

Today the motion of the ocean got to us a bit in the morning, but we dealt with it and things soon calmed down a bit. At 10:00 we went to some shore shopping thing where they promised free-bees, it was pretty bad so we left before it ended. After that went to the special reception they had for honeymoon or anniversary couples. There were four each celebrating their honeymoons and their 50th anniversaries. Fun…free champagne and wedding cake.
By the way, you should see the scenery we are passing while this is being written…amazing!

So far we have only lost about $30 on video poker and slots. I had to rent a tux so we can have the nice dinner tonight and on some other night…they wouldn’t just rent me a sport jacket.

Bingo tonight then maybe watching the dark knight in the cinema, we will see. Tomorrow we head to our first port and do our first excursion. It is the one where we go on the ship that used to be on the deadliest catch. Back on the ship at 3:00 to sail on north.

Maybe we will have cell phone service once we get to Alaska. Miss you all. M&J

Day Two- 20 degrees

This is the view from our room yesterday morning....that is a sea plane landing. Pretty cool.

When we got to our hotel room it was a bit warm, so I wanted to turn on the AC. After getting it on, I adjusted the temperature....the highest it went was like 30 degrees! Uh oh, we are in metric land. I set it at 20 degrees and we got ready to go out. We checked the weather and guess what...it was going to be 20 degrees that day. (we still had no idea what that means and felt like stupid Americans if we asked). We went on with our day, which was comfortable with a cool sea breeze. (I think I figured out the formula for the conversion now). Oh yeah, it is going to rain like 17 cm somewhere in Canadia sometime soon...how about that!

Ok, enough about feeling stupid. We had a great day yesterday. Spent the morning on Granville Island at the public market checking out and eating lots of interesting stuff, and browsing shops in the other areas of the island. We took a water ferry off the island and had a nice walk accross Vancouver back to the hotel.

We then headed off to Stanley Park, named after the Stanley Cup which the Canuks want to win (not really, but they are named after the same guy) It is a beautiful 1000 acre park with a world class aquarium and totem poles and lots of other stuff. We rode around on one of those tourist busses that you could get on and off of.

For dinner wen walked to Gastown bought some Olympic souveniers and ate at http://www.socialatlemagasin.com/

We board the ship sometime after noon this morming and sail at 5:30. Dont know how much internet access we will have or what it will cost...we will see. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, its going to be in the mid 70's most of the time we are in Alaska...we definately over packed!

Day One

Wow, that was a long day! In total we were in transit for just over 14 hours, but we are safely here in Vancouver now. We had a little glitch when we got "lost" on the way to the Logan express and missed the shuttle we had hoped to take, but after that everything went well.

Once in Vancouver, we "hired a sedan" to take us directly to our hotel. That was recomended because of the 300,000 people that were coming to town last night to see the fireworks display. Aparently it is a competition between Canada, South Africa, Great Britain, and some other country for the best fireworks display in the world. Of course we attended, but it was late. It didn't even get mostly dark here until after 10 PM (1AM east coast time) when the fireworks began. Wow, what a show!

Our hotel is beautiful and right near down town. Today we are planning on heading over to Granby Island to check out the public market and all the cool foodstuffs they have there. There are also lots of shops and restaurants. In the afternoon, we may head over to Stanley Park for a horse drawn tour.

I am attempting to add a video shot yesterday at DFW to figure out how to do it.

Two days to go!

Not much packing got done today, but we did buy a new suitcase and Jane bought herself a new Red Sox windbreaker to "represent" while on the west coast.

On a side note...got the bathroom mostly demolished. Lets see if I can post a pic of it...

Big packing day tomorrow!

First post

This is our first blog experience, wish us luck

Three days and counting until we leave....still lots to do.
We need to demolition both of our bathrooms so they can get worked on while we are gone.
We don't really know what to pack for the variety of weather between Los Angeles and the Arctic Circle. Apparently, no stores around here sell mittens or gloves this time of year.