Our Alaskan Adventure - Broken Foot and all June 20th - July 7th

[olemissreb]

AU and TAMU are both great schools, so I'm sure he'll have a great experience no matter where he goes! As far as I can tell, any engineering degree is a good bet these days. They are in demand!

 

I purposely scheduled my follow-up appointment for the day after we get back so the orthopedist can't tell me that I need to stay off it more! I figure if there was ever time to overdo it and risk it taking longer to heal, this is it.... :D

 

My son had his follow-up the Tuesday after we got back. He's out of the cast, but since the foot wasn't totally healed, Doc put him in a boot for 3 weeks. But at least now he can swim, but baseball camp was nixed! Oh well. A week from Tuesday we'll find out if he's over done it again - every once in a while he takes the boot off and tries to walk around on his foot, plus he walks (with the boot) up to the neighborhood pool to go swimming. It's still very stiff, so I can't blame him for trying to loosen it up.

[olemissreb]

Sorry folks - got caught up in life instead of reliving my incredible journey!

 

We woke up this morning to a nice sunny day. I figured that was good so we could get close to the glacier. Mom & the guys went up to the Oceanview Cafe for breakfast while I took my sweet time getting dressed. By the time they returned, I was ready to go. The teens disappeared to the teen club while the adults went up to Cafe Al Baccio. I needed my chai latte!

 

Weeeelllll - I sort of got a chai latte. Instead of adding steamed milk to a premade chai tea, they steam the milk and then add a chai tea bag to steep in the milk. So not what I was used to. Oh well, I made due for this morning.

 

After our stop at Cafe Al Baccio, DH had run to the cabin for our invitation to our Connections Party. I thought it was for 10:30, but couldn't remember where. OOPS!!! It started at 10am so we hightailed it to Cosmos Lounge to meet the wonderful group from our Roll Call. After that, mom & I went shopping in the ship stores. I really needed a watch (since I left all of mine at home with dead batteries! DUH:o) and I found a cute one for only $50. Not too shabby.

 

After dropping off our purchases, we grabbed a little bit of lunch and then started to make our way out to the top deck and the front of the ship as we had already entered Yakutat Bay and were heading toward Disenchantment Bat. We started seeing ice floating in the water and knew we were getting closer. It was a little chilly out on deck, but not as cold as I expected.

 

As we approached, there was a small fog bank that we had to sail through. (Thumbnail 1). The naturalist on board was a little concerned initially that the fog might get thicker rather than burn off, but it was our lucky day. By the time we reached the fog bank, most of it had burned off. We were just creeping along at this point because of all the ice in the water. The naturalist seemed to run out of things to say because it seemed he was just repeating things he'd already said.

 

Mom & I decided to get a Baileys Hot Chocolate even though we weren't cold, but just seemed like a good memory to make of our time at Hubbard Glacier. The deck was sooooooooooo crowded. Somehow DH got on the helipad to get the pictures while Mom and I were way up on the uppermost deck. People were standing on the stairs and it was really hard to go up or down them as no one really wanted to move to let anyone through. I couldn't really hear/understand the naturalist and my bladder started to talk to me. So I left mom and went back to the cabin - I didn't want to have to fight my way through the crowd more than once!

 

Once my bladder was happy again, I grabbed my book and just sat out on our balcony sipping my hot chocolate and listening to the naturalist - which I could hear sooooooooo much better. Eventually mom joined me - she was getting tired of the crowds too.

 

It was really nice though - as we glided by some of the ice bergs, you could hear the "snap, crackle, pop" of the ice. IT WAS SO COOL!!! About 7.5 miles from the glacier, we had to start the journey back. It took so long just to transit that far because of the ice, we were at risk of running behind schedule if we continued any further. The captain started to turn the ship around and there she was.... Hubbard Glacier (thumbnails 2 & 3). It looked so big and we were still so far away! Being so far away, we didn't get to hear or see any calving. Oh well, next time!

 

Thumbnail 4 is a picture of the ice field in front of the glacier. Thumbnail 5 is one of the many ice bergs we passed.

 

On the way out of Disenchantment Bay, we saw a seal swimming right along with us! The boys soon arrived back at the cabin and it was time to get ready for formal night. (thumbnail 6 - Nana & her boys). Thumbnail 7 is DS2 goofing around - notice the hole in his cast already? It would only get worse as the week went on!

 

We had Select dining on this cruise. We didn't want to have to hurry back from excursions for early seating or risk falling asleep and missing the late seating. We did this on our RCCL cruise and it worked out perfectly. This time not so much. We showed up for dinner about 6:30 and there was a line that stretched for forever (well at least back to the elevators). When we finally got to the front of the line, we were told it would be a 30 minutes wait. OK no big deal. So we went into Cellar Masters to wait, listen to the string quartet and have a glass of wine. After about 30 minutes, the family that was immediately in front of us in line was seated and so we figured we'd be next. NOPE! DH wasn't all too pleased so he went back to the MDR and was told it would be 30 minutes. When he asked if that was 30 minutes on top of the 30 we had already waited, the maitre d' suddenly flew into action. Somehow our "reservation" had gotten deleted from the system before we had been seated. Once that was straightened out, it was about another 10 minutes before we were seated.

 

NOTE to everyone with Select Dining - make a reservation for Formal night and you will avoid what we went through. Seems every passenger wanted to dine in the MDR that night and the Select Dining portion was over loaded.

 

Which brings me to my one and only complaint for the whole cruise. Every night (save 1) we had to wait a long time to even be presented menus. Our first night, I recognized our waiter from our Connie cruise 8 years ago. I knew he was good - not so much this time around. The level of service was decidedly lacking. Too many tables, too close together and not enough wait staff. Most nights, we would go through the entire bread basket before we even got menus! The sommolier was spread so thin, it's a wonder we got any service at all. Same with the bar attendant. Normally, the assistant waiter would clear all place settings that weren't being used - we were a party of 5 sitting at a 6 or 8 top every night. Only once were the extra place settings removed. We never really saw the bar attendant on the first night, but subsequent nights, he was there and brought us a few bottles of Evian rather than the ship water - it was part of our beverage packages he said, so we may as well take advantage of it.

 

The food was wonderful and after dinner, we went to the Martini Bar to wait for the photographers to come back to their posts for pictures. The first photographer went through the typical posed stuff and seemed to be doing it just because it was his job. The second photographer (gosh I wish I could remember her name) was FABULOUS! She was right down the stairs in the grand foyer from the first guy. While we did have some of the typical posed stuff, we also had fun and took some more "candid" shots (like one of 4 of us holding up NemoPhish horizontally across us). She was having as much fun joking around with us as we had with her.

 

After pictures, we went back to the cabin and the boys quickly changed back into their casual clothes and went out to the X Club. DH grabbed his camera and caught some sunset pictures (thumbnail 8). Mom and I got in our jammies and read our books for a while. I was coming down with a cold (durn it). Thanks goodness tomorrow is Juneau - I can find a drug store and get some Nyquil & Dayquil.

[olemissreb]

Woke up to clear sunny skies. Of course, today would be the day that my cold decided to hit full force - runny nose, coughing, sinus headache, YUK! We didn't have any formal excursions planned. We originally thought we'd take the Blue Bus out to Mendenhall Glacier and walk around. But with NemoPhish on crutches, me with a cold and DH saying he was about "glaciered-out", we decided to just walk around town, do a little shopping and then take the Mt. Roberts Tram.

 

Since we were in no rush, we took our time getting ready, getting breakfast (for those that ate) and coffee at Cafe Al Baccio. Me? Decaf Vanilla Latte please! We got our coffee and made our way to the gangway. Found out we couldn't take our coffee off the ship even in the cup - oh well. Stepped out of line, finished our coffee and got back in line. Getting off in port was a little different. I'm so used to actually getting off the ship and having the photographer at the end of the gangway with some sort of character, but not this time. There was someone dressed as a whale (or maybe an eagle - can't remember which) that would stand next to people in line. I can't decide if that was more efficient or more of a pain. No matter - didn't faze us.

 

Once we crossed the street, we started shopping for souvenirs. We all wanted something uniquely Alaska, made in Alaska and hopefully by a Native Alaskan. There were some beautiful glass pieces, not as expensive as I had anticipated, but they were made in Russia. I know Alaska has a rich Russian heritage, but not quite what we wanted. There were many things we liked, but not a whole lot that jumped out and said "buy me". NemoPhish and I broke off from the group to go find the Juneau Drug Co. - I really needed to get a DayQuil in me to give me a little relief.

 

That done, we met up with the rest of the gang and tried to decide where to eat. I mentioned that there is a restaurant at the top of Mt. Roberts and since it was a gorgeous sunny day, we decided to eat up there. We went over to the tramway to purchase our tickets. Thankfully, I remembered to bring my 2 TourSaver books. Mom took one and I had the other - buy one get one free!! 5 people $93 to get to the top. Not sure what the age range is, but 13yo's are considered adults for pricing purposes.

 

While the food up at the top wasn't anything spectacular, it was good and filling and not as expensive as I thought it would be - $107 for the 5 of us - the view was just beautiful! (Thumbnail 1 & 2). While we were eating, we also saw this: (thumbail 3) flying right outside the window. At times, there were 4 eagles floating on the currents - so majestic.

 

After lunch, mom & I shopped a little while DH and the boys went to go check out the raptor center. They never made it over there, but they did see Lady Baltimore (thumbnail 4). She's an injured eagle, blind in one eye and a wing that doesn't work, so she can't be released back into the wild. This is where Mom and I found the boys waiting for us. DH went to walk down one of the paths that leads from the gift center. He saw some really weird trees (thumbnail 5), snow (thumbnail 7) and a beautiful view (thumbnail 6).

 

The boys were starting to complain, so we made our way back down the mountain and back to the ship. DH did take another detour to the Taku Seafood company. He wanted to get some smoked salmon for us to take back home. I decided to take a nap when we got back. All the running around, plus the cold finally wore me out. Mom took a nap and the boys took off for the X Club and their friends.

 

Since we had such a wait yesterday to get seated for dinner, we had made a standing reservation for 6:30 each night as we left yesterday. Tonight there were no problems at dinner. Dani (I think that was her name) remembered us from last night - we joked around with her that it was because DH was such a PITA from the night before. She was able to get us seated right away. Again, service was slow, but the food was good.

 

After dinner, mom & I went up to the cabins and changed into our jammies. We both read for a little while and watched sail away from our balcony. It wasn't long after, that I was in bed. Tomorrow, we're in Skagway and we have an early excursion - White Pass & Yukon Railroad! Have to catch the train at 7:30AM!

 

DH did get another spectacular sunset though (thumbnail 8).

[olemissreb]

UGH! I just realized that none of my pictures in the last 2 posts appeared - at least that I can see. Will try to repost later.

[sue402001]

UGH! I just realized that none of my pictures in the last 2 posts appeared - at least that I can see. Will try to repost later.

 

I wondered what happened to them, lol.

[olemissreb]

OK going to try and post the pictures from our day at Hubbard Glacier. Hope they come out this time!

 

Reminder of what they are:

 

1 - fog bank as we came up to Hubbard Glacier

2 - Hubbard Glacier from 7.5 miles away

3 - different view of Hubbard Glacier

4 - ice field in front of Hubbard

5 - ice berg in Disenchantment Bay

6 - Nana & her grandsons on formal night

7 - DS2 acting "cool" notice the hole in the heel of his cast already?

8 - Sunset

[olemissreb]

OK looks like the Hubbard pic uploaded so now trying with the Juneau pictures.

 

Reminder of what they are:

 

1 - The Celebrity Millennium from up on top of Mt. Roberts

2 - View of the inlet from on top of Mt. Roberts

3 - Eagle flying outside the window while we had lunch on Mt. Roberts

4 - Lady Baltimore

5 - Weird trees on the path from the gift shop

6 - View from the path

7 - Snow along the path

8 - Sunset

[olemissreb]

Today we woke up to very cloudy grey skies. I'd read that it was better to take the train when it was sunny, but it doesn't look like we'll get to experience that today. I booked with Chilkoot Charters - train up, bus back. Yeah, it meant that we had to get off the ship early as opposed to sleeping late and taking the bus up which left an hour later. Oh well.

 

We caught a cart that took all 5 of us to the security gate which is where we met the Chilkoot rep - James I think was his name. Great Irish chap that had moved to Alaska. He took us over to Stanley who would be our guide for the bus ride back. She (yep you read that right) was picking up other guests from the HAL Amsterdam that would be joining us for the day. She then took us over to our train car. On the way, we passed the snow blower and one of the engines (thumbnail 1 & 2).

 

We got in the Chilkoot car and DS2 immediately found one of his buddies (thumbnail 3). They had a different bus driver than we did, so they made it to the train prior to us. I think they may have been on a different tour that Chilkoot offered going only to Fraser and then returning to Skagway.

 

Once we were loaded up and they went through the safety speech, we were off. Since we were the next to last car on the train, we were able to get this shot in one of the "S" curves (thumbnail 4). DH spent most of the trip out on the back deck of our car to get pictures. It had started raining shortly after leaving Skagway. At first it was fairly light, but it did get heavier before stopping about 1/2 way up the mountain. We did make a couple of stops along the way to drop people off who were going hiking. I felt sorry for them hiking in the rain, but they seemed prepared for anything!

 

There is a guide that narrates along the way to Fraser. We saw Class VI rapids (thumbnail 5) - yes, that is out the left side of the train going up and it is straight down (well almost) and very steep. If you have a fear of heights, sit on the right side going up and you get a view of the granite (I think) cliffs that go straight up!

 

Thumbnail 6 is a sign painted in tribute to a man, George Buchanan, who used to take a youth groups on adventure trips from Detroit to Alaska every summer starting in 1923. His goal was to help young people learn the art of earning and saving money. The youth had to earn 1/3 of the cost of the journey, the parents paid 1/3 and Buchanan paid 1/3.

 

We also saw Bridal Veil falls - twice! The second time from the road which wasn't nearly as spectacular as from the train (thumbnail 7).

 

The train doesn't go very fast which is why the buses can leave later and still be waiting on the train when it arrives in Fraser. With trestles like this (thumbnail 8) you have to wonder if it will even hold the train! Rest assured it does (thumbnail 9). If I remember right, this wood trestle was built to replace this (thumbnail 10) and to lessen some of the curve of the track. The White Pass & Yukon Route is a International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, a designation shared with the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Panama Canal!

[olemissreb]

The rain had stopped by the time we got to Fraser. We had to sit on the train for a little bit while Canadian customs came through and checked passports. It's not a big deal, you have to remove your hats and sunglasses and hold your passport up to your face as they come through. Once they are given the all clear, you can disembark. We had to wait a few minutes for Stanley to get to our side of the train and drop off her riders. The small delay gave us a chance to watch them move the engine from the front of the train to the back and watch them hook it up. Pretty cool! There are actually 2 engines hooked back to back that pull the train - this way when they arrive at their destination, when they move the engines it always looks like the engine is facing forward. (Does that make sense?)

 

Anyway, so we loaded up the bus and made our way up to the Yukon (thumbnail 1) and to Carcross Desert (thumbnail 2). We also stopped at Emerald Lake (thumbnail 3). The green of the lake was just extraordinary! The picture really doesn't capture the beauty and all the varying shades of green. After this, we made our way back to Caribou Crossing which is really more of a tourist stop with a museum, dog cart rides, puppy visits and a small gift shop. This is where we stopped for lunch - bbq chicken, cole slaw, bread, baked potato, water or tea to drink. It was really a delicious lunch and quite filling. After lunch we did have some time to walk through the museum and to enjoy petting some sled dogs and their puppies.

 

We got back on the bus and headed for the town of Carcross. It is a one road town. It is a First Nation town that has many of the same problems that you read about in regards to the Native American tribes in the US. They are trying to change that by making Carcross more of a tourist destination. Right now all they really have to offer is one General Store that has a little bit of everything. It is located right on Lake Bennett and offers a spectacular view! (Thumbnail 4). From here we started our descent back down to Skagway where we saw this view (thumbnail 5) of Bridal Veil falls. We were lucky to get that view as it had gotten pretty foggy when we started back through Fraser and down the mountain.

 

Stanley dropped off everyone else but us in town to do some shopping. We decided against it because it had started raining again and we were tired from the long day. So she took us back to the security gate at the ship where we gave her a hug and hopped in a cart again to get back to the gangway.

 

Now I know you are wondering how Stanley got her name. Guess you'll just have to take a Chilkoot Charters tour and ask to be put in Stanley's group to find out!:p Naw - I'll tell you! Stanley reminded us of a 60's hippie, no roots anywhere and living life as a free spirit. Many years ago, she decided she wanted to work on a Tall Ship. After she was hired, she was told that the crew would have to give her a nickname since there was already someone with her name on the boat. Since Stanley looked like she was a naive waif that would get her feelings easily hurt, the crew decided to "bait" her and nickname her Stanley thinking that would offend her enough she'd quit before she ever got started. WRONG! When told of her nickname, she just looked at them and said "Cool! I've never had a nickname before!" and she boarded the boat and proceeded to erase every preconception they had about her.

 

Despite the lousy weather all day, we had an awesome time with Stanley & Chilkoot Charters. It is a long day, but there are restrooms on the train and the bus drivers do make some stops on the way up to Carcross & Emerald Lake. WARNING - one of those stops on the way up was at a lake and the only facility was an outhouse that hadn't been serviced in a loooooooooooooooooooooong time! Unless your bladder is busting, I'd find a way to hold it until you get to a better stop (or make sure you have kleenex or your own toilet paper and TONS of sanitizer!):eek:

[olemissreb]

I promise I didn't forget about finishing my review. It's been a little hectic around here with friends coming to visit, orthodontist & orthopedist appointments, board meetings, senior portraits and getting ready for the start of school. Monday my oldest starts his senior year and 2 weeks from today, the youngest starts his "senior" year of middle school. I hope after Monday, things will quiet down a little!:)

[olemissreb]

OK so I'm getting back to this a lot later than I had planned. I have a few hours now to get a couple more installments in this novel done between loads of laundry anyway!

 

I wanted to do a whale watching trip sometime during our journey and since we decided that Juneau would be an "easy" day, that left Icy Strait as our choice. There didn't seem to be too many options out of this port, but I did find Glacier Wind Charters on TripAdvisor. Teresa & Sean McConnell are the owners/operators. I emailed for more information and Teresa responded right away and I was able to book our trip. We arrived to cloudy skies, but it wasn't raining. (Thumbnail 1)

 

We had an 11am departure and had to meet Teresa at 10:45, so we didn't hurry off the ship. Being in a suite, we had priority tender tickets, but tendering was so smooth we didn't have to use the "priority" status. We just missed one of the tenders when we got downstairs, but there was another one waiting for his chance to unload & reload. The ride was maybe 5 minutes to the dock. The dock does have a steep ramp. If I remember right, there were skid treads, but you still need to be careful especially if you are using a wheelchair, crutches or anything similar.

 

We walked around the museum and gift shops (thumbnail 2) a little to waste some time. Since I had caught a cold, I needed some cough drops and luckily I found some. Of course they were astronomically expensive, but I couldn't just keep coughing like I was either. At about 10:30ish we started to make our way to the pick-up spot. It would probably be a 5 minute walk under normal circumstances, but with NemoPhish, we gave ourselves a little extra time.

 

Teresa was right on time and we drove into Hoonah to meet the Kohola, which is Hawaiian for humpback whale. On the drive to the dock, you pass through this one area where a tunnel used to block the road. The tunnel was only wide enough for a person to pass through so the workers at the cannery could only get to work via boat. Eventually someone decided to blast through the rock and a road was built from the town to the cannery allowing better access to what was then the primary source of employment and revenue.

 

We got to the dock and Teresa maneuvered her Suburban onto a bridge and down a steep ramp to the dock. It was pretty cool yet kind of scary at the same time! Sean was just bring a group back from their very successful outing. Good news for us! Sean ran through some safety issues with us while Teresa cleaned up the cabin a little and restocked the drinks and food (chips, her smoked salmon dip and crackers). Then we boarded the boat and off we went toward Pt. Adolphus.

 

We got out to Pt. Adolphus and we weren't the only ones there. Sean was able to look at his radar and see a line of krill and thought maybe we'd get to see some bubble net feeding. Alas, that didn't happen. We did get to see some tails, spouts and the splash from one breaching! (Thumbnails 3-5) These whales weren't as active as they had been with the first group Sean took out and eventually they dove down and didn't come back up for a while. Guess they were too tired from their earlier exploits.

 

We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see a lot of whale activity at our first stop, but Sean assured us that we would get some action. He made his way to another stop further away from Pt. Adolphus that the cruise excursions don't go to. Turns out it was just inside the outside boundary of Glacier Bay National Park! We were the only ones there which was even better because we were rewarded with a baby humpback playing! Thumbnails 6-10 show the first of 3 breaches that DH caught on camera! For those of you wondering how he did that, he had the camera on Sport Mode and it would snap about 5 pictures each time he depressed the button. The baby had been breaching for a while and DH would miss it every time. Eventually we learned to watch for the baby's nose coming out of the water and DH would start snapping.

[olemissreb]

Thumbnails 1-5 are of the second breach DH caught on camera. This little (ok compared to an adult whale he was little) guy was having so much fun. Thumbnail 6 is his tail as he was practicing his tail slaps. We got some pictures of him practicing his fin flaps, but I can't find any of those pics. Thumbnails 7-9 is the third breach DH caught! Eventually his momma called him and he swam off. It was getting late and we had to head back to the dock. On the way we saw several more whale spouts, but no breaches or tails - nothing nearly as exciting as "our" baby.

 

On the way back, we spotted an otter (thumbnail 10) so NemoPhish was excited. I don't know why I didn't think we'd see any otters where we were, but am so glad we did. They really are cute just floating on their backs.

 

All during this trip, we were munching on Teresa's smoked salmon dip. Well let me rephrase that...everyone else had sampled her dip, I devoured it! It was so good. The boys munched on the bags of chips. There was just enough food to keep us from hearing "mom I'm hungry", but not too much to ruin lunch.

 

We got back to the dock and Teresa was there waiting for us. They had another group going out in the afternoon from the Celebrity Century which was coming into the harbor as we were heading back to the dock. Talk about feeling like a minnow as we passed by Century! Really makes you realize the difference between a ship and a boat! :):D

 

Teresa took us back to the pickup point and we walked back toward the dock to catch the tender. DH wandered off to get a few more pictures before meeting up with us. He found this totem (thumbnail 11) and what looked like it might be a burial site.

 

Back on board the Millie, the boys took off to meet their friends and the adults went to have some lunch. We really didn't do much the rest of the day. I think mom and I ended up taking naps and then skipping dinner. The guys had a "guys night" dinner while mom and I just hung out at the cabin. I was really feeling the effects of my cold and just wanted to veg. Our butler came by and was surprised I was still in the room. When I explained, he offered to get me a special tea to help. He came back a little while later with a chamomile and mint tea. OMG! It worked and kept my coughing at bay for the night! I'm going to have to stock up on chamomile & mint teas so I have it on hand for my next cold.

 

No sunset pictures today. Tomorrow Ketchikan and flight seeing in the Misty Fjords National Monument! This was the other excursion on our trip I was the most excited about.

[wsb225]

I have enjoyed reading your post and the detail that you have provided. Thanks

[Chrislynn55]

I've been following your review and hoping that you'd be back to post the rest....

[olemissreb]

I've been following your review and hoping that you'd be back to post the rest....

 

Sorry! I've been wanting to get back and finish this. School started for the kids and things have gotten chaotic! Will try to finish this weekend or next weekend.

[Chrislynn55]

Sorry! I've been wanting to get back and finish this. School started for the kids and things have gotten chaotic! Will try to finish this weekend or next weekend.

 

Yayyyy:) I've really been enjoying your writing style as well as the information and photos you posted. DH and I will be on our first Alaskan cruise next June, so I'm living vicariously through reviews until then, lol!

 

Thanks for coming back.....

 

Kathy

[cactusflower]

Thanks for your review. I know how time consuming they are and wanted to give you some encouragement to keep going! That is neat that you were able to get some photos of the whale breaching. On our whale watching trip, we saw a whale breach and saw several instances of bubble net feeding, but I was never able to get pictures of it. Everything happens so fast and I didn't want to miss anything fiddling with my camera.

[olemissreb]

Woke up this morning in time to see us docking in Ketchikan. For some reason, I thought Creek Street was right by the dock, so I was looking for it. It was only when I asked our butler that I discovered that it's 2-3 blocks away. Not a bad walk and since we had plenty of time before we had to meet up with Island Wings we figured we'd give it a whirl. While standing on the balcony, Mom & I spotted this: (thumbnail 1) Donald Duck in Ketchikan! (Well more like a walking advertisement for the Duck tours.)

 

Mom, DH & the boys went off for breakfast while I took my sweet time getting ready. By the time everyone got back from breakfast, I was ready to go. For some reason, Mom & I left before DH and the kids wanted nothing to do with walking around Ketchikan, so they stayed on the ship.

 

Mom & I walked through some of the stores in the little "mall" right there by the ship (where Donald is walking in thumbnail 1). If you are looking for Christmas ornaments, there is a Christmas shoppe here. I was able to get a beautiful hand painted ornament to put on out tree this year. I needed to get some cash out for the rest of our trip, so I hit the ATM inside. Mom and I walked to a IGA grocery store so I could get some things I was running low on. There was a woman in line in front of us that was buying groceries - her gallon of milk was $8!!!! OMG! If I had to pay that for milk, I wouldn't be able to go on vacation anywhere!

 

That being done, Mom & I walked up to Creek Street (thumbnail 2), where we ran into DH who started at the opposite end of Creek Street (near the Married Mans Trail). I was able to buy a small totem pole for my youngest son's 4th grade teacher. She does a "Native American Museum" every year where the students study different Native American tribes and then they become a living museum. Since the Tlingit's are one of the tribes they study, I thought an authentic Tlingit totem would be a welcomed addition to her Native American collection of artifacts. (BTW - she LOVED it!). I also bought a clay sculpture of an otter floating in the seaweed for my youngest as a Christmas present. I wish I could have found something for my oldest, but nothing jumped out at me.

 

After walking up Creek Street, Mom and I made our way back to the ship for some lunch before we had to meet up with Island Wings at this statue (thumbnail 3 & 4). We got the boys and headed out and the Island Wings rep was right there waiting for us. We loaded up into a van with one other gentleman from the HAL ship and off we went. When we arrived, Michelle was just coming back from a tour. While we waited, we watched a seaplane abort a takeoff because a bird had flown into the propeller. Interesting to say the least - nothing scary though since they hadn't started to lift off yet. Just after that, Michelle taxied to the dock (thumbnail 5).

 

We got a short safety briefing before Michelle loaded us on to the plane. DH was able to be "co-pilot" on the way out, the oldest was put in the very back, the youngest and the gentleman from HAL were put in the middle seats and Mom & I were right behind the pilot/co-pilot seats. On the way back, DH sat where the HAL gentleman sat, HAL sat where our oldest sat and the oldest, yes the pilot wannabe, sat in the co-pilot seat! Let me just say, there are no words to describe the beauty of the Misty Fjords National Monument (which is about the size of Connecticut). Michelle had a "soundtrack" playing in our headphones that fit so perfectly with the beauty of the area, it brought tears to my eyes. Take off was soooooooooooo cool - not anywhere near what it's like taking off on land in a commercial plane. So smooth - but loud! Landing? Like you were falling into a feather bed! I was nervous about being in such a small plane, but there was nothing to worry about. Michelle is an excellent pilot.

 

Next post - pictures from Misty Fjords National Monument.

[olemissreb]

No words...

[olemissreb]

from Misty Fjords...

 

We returned to the dock and the van brought us back to our meeting point. We still had about an hour before we had to be back on board, but we went straight onto the ship anyway. This excursion was the highlight of our trip! If you can only splurge on one excursion, my thoughts would be this is the one to splurge on! I know the Northern Lights and/or Toursaver books do have some buy one get one coupons. Use them to save some money. You don't have to go with Island Wings like we did, but do try and see Misty Fjords. And book EARLY! The pilots are only allowed per FAA regulations to fly a certain number of hours per day. Michelle was able to take 3 flights the day we were there (we were the last flight), but some days she can only take 2 because of flight times for her different excursions. This is by far the best excursion I have ever been on!

[olemissreb]

We dressed up again for formal night. This was by far the WORST service we had in the MDR. It took close to 30 minutes for us to get menus and bread on the table. I ordered the beef wellington and while it was good, it was very bland. DH & Mom ordered lobster and they were each about 2 bites from finishing it when the waiter returned with the drawn butter. Not good! If this had been a restaurant on land, we would have tipped the wait staff all of a few pennies - yes it was that bad!

 

After dinner we decided to go see a show. Mom and I hadn't gone to see a show the whole cruise. I know part of my reason was my cold - I really didn't want anyone else catching it, but don't know why Mom didn't go with my DH. Anyway the show was Broadway Musicals and it was very well done. Afterwards we went for a couple of drinks and then went to bed.

 

Independence Day! I think this is the first time in probably 45 years that I have missed a fireworks display on July 4th. Oh well! Mom & I got manicures for our last day at sea. Even though I had read that there is a push to sell products, Mom & I didn't experience that. Maybe because it was the last day? Who knows.

 

Anyway, today we were sailing the inside passage and for some reason, I was too busy on the ship to note the scenery! Guess I'll just have to go on another Alaska cruise so I can pay attention this time! Mom and I went to the photo area and purchased our pictures - between us it was probably close to $700!!!:eek: Totally worth it for the memories though!

 

This night we went to Qsine and OMG it was sooooooooo much fun! Our butler told us to order the "suitcase", but of course I forgot and we all ended up ordering about a dozen different things. We finally had to tell our waiter to forget the last 4 or 5 things because we were getting too full and wanted dessert. While the tables are fairly close together, everyone is having so much fun laughing and eating that it just added to an almost party atmosphere. The waiters aren't shy and they will joke around with you. This was by far the best, most filling, most delicious, best attended meal we had the entire week. Reluctantly, we finished our meal and waddled back to our cabins to pack up our suitcases and get them in the hall.

 

I didn't finish until almost 11pm packing things up and went to stand on the balcony. It was dark out - no midnight sun anymore. As I stood on the balcony, I saw a couple of tugs go by and as I watched, I finished my cruise like I always do with tears rolling down my face. I didn't want the pampering to end and I wanted to spend more time with my family without the daily disruptions of cell phones, laptops and tvs. I still had a couple more days before we had to head back to Atlanta, but it wouldn't be as "cutoff" as a cruise.

[TomAmes]

Great TR! I went on the Misty Fiords flight with Michelle in early July while DW and DS went ziplining instead. They enjoyed their first zipline experience and got to see a black bear, so we were all satisfied with our choices. One of the zipline instructors took a kick in the groin from DW so he probably wishes they'd gone flightseeing with me instead :)

 

It's amazing how much some of your photos look like the ones I took. It doesn't seem as if the crutches slowed your son down too much.

 

Hotty toddy!

[olemissreb]

Great TR! I went on the Misty Fiords flight with Michelle in early July while DW and DS went ziplining instead. They enjoyed their first zipline experience and got to see a black bear, so we were all satisfied with our choices. One of the zipline instructors took a kick in the groin from DW so he probably wishes they'd gone flightseeing with me instead :)

 

It's amazing how much some of your photos look like the ones I took. It doesn't seem as if the crutches slowed your son down too much.

 

Hotty toddy!

 

 

I shouldn't laugh about your wife giving the instructor a kick to the groin, but it is funny! Next time we head to Ketchikan, I want to do the zipline. Which one did your DW and DS go on? I looked at a couple and can't remember which ones they were.

 

The crutches didn't slow him down at all! He actually had a hole in the heal of his cast by the end of the trip! Playing too much ping pong I guess - he took 3rd place! Luckily, it didn't affect his foot any and he got the cast off after we got back and was put back in an ortho boot for 3 weeks, which killed off the Ole Miss baseball camp. Oh well!

 

Hotty Toddy! That was some game on Thursday night huh? Great start to the season though.

[TomAmes]

I shouldn't laugh about your wife giving the instructor a kick to the groin, but it is funny! Next time we head to Ketchikan, I want to do the zipline. Which one did your DW and DS go on? I looked at a couple and can't remember which ones they were.

 

The crutches didn't slow him down at all! He actually had a hole in the heal of his cast by the end of the trip! Playing too much ping pong I guess - he took 3rd place! Luckily, it didn't affect his foot any and he got the cast off after we got back and was put back in an ortho boot for 3 weeks, which killed off the Ole Miss baseball camp. Oh well!

 

Hotty Toddy! That was some game on Thursday night huh? Great start to the season though.

 

Good to hear your son made it through all that without complications.

 

The name of the company doing the zipline they took was Shore Excursions Group (Info@Shoreex.com). IIRC, there were two different zipline courses. I signed them up for the "advanced" course even though they had never ziplined before :D. They were both a bit alarmed after I informed them of that, but after it was over, they thanked me profusely. When researching ziplines, there was one at another port (Skagway, IIRC) that was more highly recommended, but Ketchikan was the only port that fit their schedule as they weren't thrilled about the Misty Fiords flight that I was completely sold on. DW said the "kid" took the kick in good stride, but I doubt it has given him as many chuckles as it has given us.

 

It was indeed a great game. I watched the replay of it last night--can't remember the last game I did that. I felt kind of bad for Vandy though. Kind of. I remember when a victory over Vandy wasn't such a big deal. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season for the first time in several years!

[olemissreb]

Because we were in a suite, we were supposed to be in the Olympic (or whatever the specialty restaurant name was, I never could remember) restaurant to wait for our group to be called to disembark. My mom and the boys were supposed to go to Michael's Club. We stopped by there first and since it was so crowded, we decided we'd all wait at the Olympic. Good thing because we were able to get seats and have a little something to drink and eat. Nothing spectacular. Once our group was called, we reluctantly made our way to the gangplank and scanned our cards to leave the ship one last time. I really tried to get the crew to let me stay on the ship, but they were having none of it!

 

Disembarkation was a breeze! We got our luggage quickly and went through customs and made our way towards the luggage check and that's when everything came to a standstill. The signage was horrible. When we found where we were supposed to be, DH got in line only to find out the line was for those checking their luggage and then going on a cruise tour. Not for us since we were going on the HOHO bus. We were directed around all the lines directly to the luggage check in. We weren't the only ones exasperated by the disorganization. The people that checked in our luggage were totally exasperated too! If you didn't know that there was a place to store your luggage in Canada Place, you would have walked right by assuming that it was all for cruise passengers going on a cruise sponsored excursion. We finally got our luggage stored and paid for and we made our way through Canada Place and outside to find the HOHO kiosk.

 

It was a bit of a walk and Hopalong was a little worn out from crutching it. According to the Groupon that I purchased, you were supposed to check in somewhere else and then catch the bus. The check-in location was about 6 or 7 blocks (IIRC) from where we were. DH explained things at the kiosk and we were allowed to board right there and start our tour. We did have to purchase 1 ticket, but we were able to do that right at the kiosk.

 

We had to wait in line for a little while, but shortly there was a bus that came along and we were able to board with no problems. I would have liked to get off in Stanley Park and Granville Island, but Hopalong wasn't up to crutching it anymore! We did get off in Gastown though to get our Groupon validated and to have some lunch.

 

We ate at the Flying Pig and the food was very good. While we hadn't done a whole lot of walking, Mom was starting to get a blister on her foot and when she asked one of the managers if they had a band-aid, they were so accommodating and got a couple of them for her. After lunch, we walked back to the steam clock hoping to time it so that we could hear the complete chime, but we missed it. We did get to see/hear it at the 45 minute past the hour mark, but didn't want to wait another 15 minutes for the one hour mark.

 

We went back to the official starting point of the tour and got on a bus to take us back to Canada Place so we could retrieve our luggage and head to the train station. We got 2 cabs because we couldn't all fit into one with all of our luggage. No big deal. We got to the train station and had about 4 hours to waste until the train left for Seattle. In hindsight, I probably should have looked for a hotel that would give us a room just to crash for a couple of hours or maybe at least allow us to hang out at a pool or bar/restaurant/lobby for a few hours before heading to the train station. There is NOTHING interesting to do in or around the train station.

 

Finally at about 5pm they started the boarding process. I had booked business class seats so we had assigned seats and priority boarding. We had to go through a customs type thing and get our luggage scanned prior to making our way out to the train. Once out there, we handed our luggage over to the porters who loaded it in the luggage car and we made our way to the first car. It seemed like we had a little trouble with the engine before we ever got started, but they seemed to get it fixed and we took off just a few minutes late. Unfortunately, there had been a derailment earlier in the day and it resulted in a detour onto unfamiliar tracks to get around the situation - totally bypassing one stop. The people on the train were notified in plenty of time that they would have to get off one stop early and then be bused to their stop. Being on the unfamiliar track though, we had to stop briefly to pick up a conductor that was more familiar with the track and we went slower than usual which resulted in us getting to Seattle a little more than an hour late.

 

The train ride was very relaxing though and the scenery was just beautiful! When we crossed back into the US. US customs agents boarded the train and checked passports. Just like in Skagway entering Canada, you held up your passport and they simply walked through and scanned it making sure you and your passport photo matched.

 

When we got to Seattle, we claimed our luggage and because our group and all our luggage was so large, we had a choice to wait for a van or to take 2 vehicles. We were tired so we opted for 2 cabs and I'm glad we did! We got to the Red Lion hotel and after a lengthy wait finally got checked in and up to our rooms only to discover that my makeup bag was left at the train station. DH hopped back in a cab and got to the station to find it all locked up. When DH got to the train station, there was a couple who had been on the cruise and train with us still waiting for their transportation to their hotel. They had to get a vehicle that was equipped to handle a wheelchair for their daughter. This is about 12:30-12:45AM! A full hour to 90 minutes AFTER we had all claimed our luggage. I have no idea what time they finally got their cab and got to their hotel.

 

Tomorrow? Pike Place Market, Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens and EMP.