Our Alaskan Adventure 2008

July 28, 2008

2008-08-03T11:42:00.004-05:00

Last day of our vacation, and we started it out with a defective train. LOL! Good thing this is not the train out TO Seattle, or we'd miss the ship!

In addition to being 2 1/2 hours late when we woke up this morning, and the fact that we have no observation car, we now also have no lounge/club car....and then soon we lost refrigeration in the dining car, apparently...which they fixed at some point in St. Paul.
Meanwhile....had breakfast with a lady from Seattle who was on her way to Pittsburgh for an. international motorcycle ralley. Good thing we ate breakfast when we did, because they started running out of food! We were stuck in St. Paul for quite a while, which added to the delay in our schedule, but what can a body do?

Lunch was with a lady from Evansville, Indiana...and now we're in LaCrosse...slowly moving our way to Milwaukee....we're NOT holding our breath! I guess they don't call this particular Amtrak train "Late Eight" for no reason... Continued our ride back to Milwaukee via Amtrak…we ended up about 3 hours late, but we made it! When we passed Fox Brook Park in Brookfield, we were mooned by two young men in the swimming area….heheh…I thought that kind of thing only happened on the Colorado River!
Anyway, we got back in to the station, all of our luggage was present and accounted for, we caught a cab to mom’s house, where I picked up my car and Gary and I headed home.

We’re unpacked…laundry is going…and we’re exhausted….but we had the best time of our lives! Can’t wait to get back to Alaska again!

July 27, 2008

2008-08-03T11:27:00.005-05:00

Can't believe only two more days and we're home from this wonderful vacation....

A few surprises on the train this morning, none of which really affected us, but....seems that the observation car had a problem with the wheels, so we didn't pick that car up in Spokane as planned...so there is no place for coach ticket holders to go and get snacks, or to hang out and watch the scenery.

Also, apparently as a result of not starting out in Seattle, it seems that food provisions are not what they normally are, so the dining car is restricted to only sleeper car passengers (whew!!)....

In Montana now...Glacier Park to be exact....what beautiful scenery. For the second time on this trip, we had nobody sharing our table in the diner...for breakfast, anyway. Ah, tradition again...During lunch, we were joined by a woman from North Carolina, who is a tax professional for H&R Block. At dinner, we were joined by a lady from Sturgis, SD. She had also been on a cruise, but she was with Holland America. We talked a lot about our different experiences on our respective tours. Also talked a lot about the upcoming Sturgis Stampede.We're in Minot, ND right now. Pretty soon, it'll be time to hit the sheets. Tomorrow morning, we should be somewhere around the Twin Cities, if the timetable holds. So far, they're doing a fairly good job keeping us on schedule.

Only problem so far is that I seem to be coming down with a cold of some sort...mom has it too. Oh well....a small price to pay for such a wonderful vacation!

July 26, 2008

2008-08-03T11:00:00.006-05:00

Good morning, Seattle!Well, today we got off the ship. Hated to do it, but all good things must come to an end, I guess. Pretty slick operation getting off the ship, very efficient, as was everything else concerning the ship. Didn't take us long to get on shore at all. Had to show our passports, but we weren't held up by customs at all, which was a good thing.
Took a cab to King Street station, where we found out that there is some track repair being done between here and Everett, so we are ending up being bussed to Everett, where we will board the train. No biggie....meanwhile, we have about 5 hours now before the bus gets here (the same time as the train would have left, so we're not getting off schedule at all.)

Gary's liking this train stuff...
Mom and I found a sandwich shop a couple of blocks away from King Street Station so that we wouldn't starve while waitng for the train (as if we hadn't had enough food in the last two weeks to last a lifetime...) (Things are NOT cheap in Seattle! A couple of sandwiches, two bags of rye chips, a couple of cookies and two sodas...$27!!!)

Finally the busses for Everett started loading around 4:15. The driver of our bus was some dumb blonde, who actually started moving the bus before she closed the luggage bins...wouldn't THAT have been fun, careening around corners on the interstate, losing our luggage as we go.....

Well, she finally did get us to Everett, and safely, which was a surprise to all of us....boarded the train on time, left about 15 minutes late (they don't call this train Late 8 for no reason!!), we've had dinner in the diner...heheheh...first time that we didn't have someone else join us at our table, so in keeping with tradition, here is a picture of our dinner guest.... Usually every seat is taken, but apparently they didn't have any singles looking for a seat at the same time we were dining..and now we're ready for a quiet evening in our compartment.

We even got a couple of bottles of champagne from the porter when we got on the train!
Also talked to Mary this evening, and she and Missy appear to be getting on very well.....this is a good thing....

...sure do miss that critter!!!

July 25, 2008

2008-08-03T10:38:00.005-05:00

Woke up to gray skies again, which apparently isn't all that unusual around this part of the world. At any rate, we spent a lot of time, even with the cold weather, out on our balcony, watching for whales.

Here's Gary looking like "The Old Man And The Sea"!!!

Here, this is much better....

Sometime after breakfast, we returned to our balcony and shortly thereafter we saw quite a few whales. I was able to get a couple of photos, but I don't, at this point, know how they will look once downloaded onto my computer. If one of them turns out favorably, I'll post it to this blog. Okay, here's one....at least you can see PART of him! Or her...
We were due to sail in to Victoria this evening, around 7:00. Unfortunately, although the sea didn't look all that rough, apparently the inlet where we were to dock was experiencing high winds, and the captain of our ship made the decision to NOT dock at Victoria this evening. I'm sure it was a tough decision for him to make, but he had to put safety first.
So, we are anchored out near shore, but not at shore, and here we will stay until midnight, when we will again set sail to Seattle. All shore excursions were, of course, canceled and the money will be refunded to everyone.
I consoled myself by making one more shopping run and buying myself an adorable stuffed polar bear....which I will have to keep away from Missy once I get home.

July 24, 2008

2008-08-03T09:48:00.008-05:00

...and the cold snap continues! Wow, what a difference from what we left in Wisconsin. Still about 50 degrees here on the ocean, with promises of 60 later today in Ketchikan. We pulled in to port at Ketchikan around 6 this morning. Our first shore excursion started at 7:45, so we had a quick breakfast and then got going. We had about 45 minutes of shopping time before the tour bus would leave, so we made the best of it. Got our free charms for our bracelets, of course, at Diamonds International. I think about the only other thing I picked up in Ketchikan was a magnet and some postcards.

Our first tour was the totem pole tour, which was very interesting. Hard to imagine carving those things out of one solid piece of wood! Interesting history behind the totems, how they all tell a storry, but that some of the stories have been lost as the originators died off. Lovely walk through the park!
Here's Gary with one of the totems..Our next stop was for the lumberjack show. No time for shopping in between, so we scooted off the bus and headed in. On our way into the lumberjack show, we saw an accident between a city bus and one of those "duck" vehicles....

What a neat show! Kind of like watching the lumberjack shows on TV. Only in person! Had a great time, then had to quickly get back to the ship, as there was NO in between time there this time! Oh well, we got a lot of shopping time in Juneau and Skagway, so we were okay.

They had a sign up at the show saying that photos taken could be submitted to their website for a photo contest, they were looking for some good "action" shots taken during the show. I took quite a few and I think some of them might be okay for the contest -- whaddya think?Kinda wished that we had had more time in Ketchikan. I liked that place the best so far. Neat little town, and I would have liked to explore it more. We set sail around 12:30, and the seas got a little rough later in the afternoon. Apparently another gale that we were coming into. Did a little roaming around on the ship, but then went back to our stateroom and watched a movie.

Tomorrow we sail all day and then we have the Pub Tour in Victoria. Sure do miss our Missy girl....

July 23, 2008

2008-08-02T18:36:00.006-05:00

Today is cruising all day and all night - no shore excursions today, which is kinda nice. A day to relax. The last couple of days were a little hectic with having two shore excursions on each day. But then again, there was a chance to walk off some of this food we've been eating.
The ship made deck blankets available to all of us so that we could bundle up on our balconies to do some whale spotting and glacier watching. Nice, warm wool blankets! Good thing, as it's rather chilly out there today....I don't think we'll even see 50 degrees today!

Check out the shots of these glaciers!!
After breakfast, I found out about coffee cards - similar to the Coke cards we bought. I think there are 18 punches on that card, so I can have up to 18 specialty coffees in the next few days! Woo-HOO! A little late, but I intend to get my money's worth out of my purchase....I have three more days...heh...
Did a lot of sitting out on the balcony today...we did see some whale activity, but not enough to get any photos. Saw a tail or two coming out of the water, but just barely. We'll keep watching and see if we can get lucky.

The ice in this water is just gorgeous....the closer we got to the glaciers, the more ice was floating in the water. Very neat!
Other than that, not much to report today. The glaciers were beautiful. Got some great photos of those....along with the seal that was on one of them! Hard to imagine that is all ice...hard to imagine that it's the end of July and barely 50 degrees out here!! And since we kept watching for whales, we did manage to see a few more, and I did get a couple of photos of their hinders! Will enlarge them and see what they look like once we get home.

One more trip to the casino, lost another $80, and said that's it for the casino!!

Sure do love these sea sunsets....

July 22, 2008

2008-08-02T17:13:00.006-05:00

Surprise, surprise! This morning, not only did our name tag finally appear outside of our stateroom door, but three gold balloons as well, in honor of my upcoming birthday! How neat is that??

Started out the day with breakfast at the buffet....earlier than expected, since - my bad - I neglected to turn our alarm clock back an hour when we got into Alaska...so instead of getting up at 6:00, we got up at 5:00. Oh well.... And here we are in Skagway!

Had breakfast and then it was time to head out for our first excursion, the Skagway by Street Car tour. Had our photo taken with the bear and moose on our way out the gangway, so that should be one of the two photos we have to purchase to get the "free" scrapbook. Hopefully they'll take another photo so we can do that. If not, we'll just buy the scrapbook.

Here's our tour guide, Nikki, hamming it up in the prospector's cemetery.The street car tour was excellent! Nikki, our guide, was a lot of fun. Fabulous sense of humor and very informative. We got quite a history of Skagway. Saw many of the orignal buildings, including the Red Onion Saloon and the Arctic Brotherhood bulding, which was covered entirely in old driftwood. Also visited the graveyard where a lot of the old gold rushers were buried, along with their wives and children. Many graves were marked "unknown". How sad is that?? Saw the grave of Jefferson Smith, aka Soapy Smith, who apparently was quite a scoundrel! He was gunned down in the streets of Skagway and nobody attended the funeral except for a lady dressed in black.
Very cool. After the tour, Mom, Gary and I did some shopping - even found a cross stitch store, Changing Threads, for me - managed to find a chart or two - and a train store for Gary. Lots of trains to see in Skagway! Also found what I had most been looking to find in this trip, a real nice pair of gold earrings. Mission accomplished!

Had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon. After lunch, we headed back to the shop to drop off our purchases before our next shore excursion, which was the Ghosts and Good Time Girls Walking Tour, sponsored by the "good time girls" from the Red Onion Saloon. I asked the above lady if I could take a picture of her with my husband, and she consented, and as I took the picture, she whispered into Gary's ear "Say alimony!!"

Nice walking tour....got quite a history of the profession of "street walking" and brothels in Skagway. Then, my clumsy self tripped and fell on the street...no serious damage, but I do have some nasty bruises appearing. Mother refers to the incident as when I "flung myself onto the ground"!

Taking a break now before dinner. The shops aren't open until after we leave port, so after dinner I'll collect the bracelets and necklace I ordered, and will check out the photo gallery to see if any of our photos are ready.

Okay, I've collected my necklace, bracelets, and our photos, along with the accompanying scrapbook and photo portfolio. Also got my brother set up in the internet cafe, and then came back to our stateroom to sit out on our balcony, but it was way too cold....but oh so beautiful...sunsets from the sea are gorgeous...

July 21, 2008

2008-07-30T21:35:00.006-05:00

Woke up this morning at my usual 5:00, which was really 4:00 Alaskan time. Finally the fog is lifting and we're seeing some land. Very cool this morning, around 50 degrees. But check out this scenery!!

Had breakfast at our usual haunt, the buffet, then headed off to the photo gallery to see if our portraits from last night were done, and some of them were, so we bought a few, as well as some stock photos and an album to put them into.

Then we had a look at the gold jewelry that they sell by the inch, and I ended up buying lengths for 3 bracelets, and a necklace. Also found 3 pendants that I couldn't live without.

We are approaching Juneau- in about an hour or so I would estimate. So now we're outside, taking photos.
Actually arrived in Juneau a little early....got in line and waited to leave the ship. We had about an hour and a half before our excursion to do some shopping, so we took care of some "necessary" shopping. Since it was so cold and rainy, we picked up some hooded sweatshirts at Alaska Shirt Company, along with a couple of t-shirts and some trinkets for souvenirs.

Got back to the pier in time to catch the bus to our gold panning outing. What fun! We each got some gold for our efforts - not enough to make us rich, of course, but enough to say "hey I got some gold!!" Our tour guide looked like an old prospector - his name was "Crabby" - and was sure a lot of fun.

Here's a pic of Mom and Kelly in between panning episodes...

And here's Crabby, explaining to us what we're supposed to do!After our excursion, we stopped at the Red Dog Saloon for lunch. Quaint place! Wyatt Earp's gun is on display there - the one he had to turn in because nobody could carry a gun in Juneau, and he forgot to pick it up when he left town.
Wish I'd gotten a better picture of Earp's gun, but this was all I was able to accomplish...From there, Gary and I went back to the ship to drop off everyone's purchases, and we made it to the bus at the pier for our next excursion.
Ever see so many salmon in one place??Kind of hard to tell, but that thing on top of this building is indeed a bald eagle!We went to a salmon hatchery...quite interesting. Never saw so many salmon in one place at a time. Also saw numerous bald eagles on our way there and back. After the hatchery, we were off to the Mendenhall Glacier. What a beautiful sight!! I could never describe such beauty! Sure was cold there, too!!!
And then from there we went to a Salmon bake...they had salmon, of course, along with chicken and ribs, side dishes and toasted marshmallows.
Back to the ship, where we all collapsed. Long day! But a lot of fun.

July 20, 2008

2008-07-30T19:05:00.005-05:00

Very gray and foggy and windy today. According to Gary, there was a gale that followed us up from Seattle and caught up with us. Waves were fairly good sized all day long, around 9 feet or so.
Gary, Kelly and I, after breakfast, explored the top of the ship..there's a track up there for jogging and/or walking - ten times around equals a mile. We walked a half mile in the cold and wind. Up in the very front of the ship, on the deck below us, the wind was so strong we actually had to hang on to the hand railings or be blown over. Awesome...it was so awesome. Here's a pic of Kelly and Gary out in the wind!
Later in the morning, Gary, Mom and I attended the shopping seminar. Seemed to be all jewelry oriented, but it was fun. Got our coupon books for shopping in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, as well as what we needed for the free charms for our free bracelet. Amazing how most of the trade up here apparently is jewelry! If the seminar is any indication, anyway. I did hear mention of some other shops - including Alaska Perfume Company and Alaska Shirt Company, that I definitely have to see if I can find when at port.

After lunch, the three of us went to the Princess Lounge to play Jeopardy, followed by Bingo. Had a great time, though we didn't win anything.

Came back to the rooms and got ready for "formal" evening and went to Donatella's for dinner. On the way there, had some photos taken of us, and we also had them take our photos at the dinner table. Very nice dinner...kept seeing likenesses of celebrities on the wait staff...someone who looked like Peter Lorre and someone who looked like Jimmy Smits...and there was another passenger who bore a striking resemblance to Bill Shatner.

Here's mom...

...and Jeff and Kelly......and our chef!
Back in our rooms now for the evening. Need a nice long rest...tomorrow is Juneau. A few more shots from our balcony as the night creeps in...
Absolutely gorgeous out here...I could get used to this..

July 19, 2008

2008-07-30T18:53:00.004-05:00

Had a very nice rest overnight... got up and packed to get ready for the cruise....went downstairs and registered with the Princess people. Now we don't have to check in at the pier, which is a very nice feature.

Had breakfast in the hotel..they had a little coffee shop near the lobby...surprisingly not really over-priced... and waited for the cruise lines to board us onto a bus to take us down to the pier. Here's a shot of the front end of our ship.

Interesting hotel....very pricey, but apparently not too much out of line for Seattle. Very convenient for those taking the Princess cruises, as they take care of the luggage, transportation and everything.

However...they charge for local phone calls.....PLUS TAX!

Very slick setup with Princess and the hotel. We didn't have to spend time checking in at the ship. The hotel and Princess work together. At the hotel, they scanned our passports, checked us in, and they took our luggage from our rooms...loaded us onto busses and took us right to security checkpoint at the pier. A quick walk through the metal detector, and we were walking onboard. Is this ship huge or what??? Our stateroom was on the top level, with a balcony.
Went to the buffet for lunch and did a little bit of nosing around on the upper deck. Came back to our room and threw a load of wash into the laundromat, and our ship has pulled away from the dock and we're on our way!
Spent the afternoon wandering around the ship, exploring the boutique shops, etc. Sat out on our balconies for a good part of the afternoon and early evening, taking pictures of the shore, the ocean, and other ships.
...well....not ALL of the interesting sites were ON THE WATER...this shot was taken from my balcony, looking down to the balcony below.....say BEEFCAKE!!!
Explored the possibility of internet access....the PDA will work, but I need an access code and password from Princess, even for wireless. I can understand charging for use of their computers in their internet cafe, but charging a wireless passenger I thought was a little much, since we're not using their computers, but....be that as it may, we thought Westin's rate of $5.95 for 15 minutes was high - Princess' charge for wireless internet usage is FIFTY CENTS PER MINUTE! Or if I use one of their computers, it's 75 cents per minute. Not gonna happen...no email is that important....so am truly traveling incognito....

Went into the casino tonight...once we were out of Puget Sound, the casino opened. Mom, Gary and I played the slots a little bit, and Jeff played roulette....none of us won anything, but we had fun playing anyway.

Turning in for the night....tomorrow will be "at sea" all day.

July 18, 2008

2008-07-30T18:41:00.008-05:00

Started out early this morning...still on the train. Somewhere in Montana now I think. I had a little trouble figuring out the shower again...but that's just me. No problem with the shower, it was just a problem with the operator. You've never lived until you've showered on a moving train! What an experience! One good thing is that if the train lurches (which it does!!), you don't have far to fall!!
Breakfast with a lady from Evansville, Indiana, who is on her way to visit her brother in law in Everett, Washington. Had the scrambled eggs this morning, as did Mom, and Gary had the French Toast again.

Going through the Cascade Tunnel right now...which is 7.79 miles long.
Interesting experience...there's a lot of dark out there in that tunnel!!
Arrived in Seattle only about 10 minutes late, which was a vast improvement over the 2 hours behind schedule that we were. Got our baggage with no issues, and waited for a cab to take us to the Westin. We can see the Space Needle from our room!

Checked in and relaxed for a couple of hours, after exploring Pike Place for a little bit and having lunch there at a place called Lowell's. Had BLT and avocado sandwiches! Nice little restaurant, and Pike Place is somewhere I'd love to spend more time when I have more time to spend!

Interesting internet at the Westin...they have free internet if your computer PLUGS IN in your room, but if you are wireless, you have to go down to the lobby...then you need a password...which did not work in my PDA...their "internet cafe" charges $5 for 15 minutes. We opted to NOT partake....

Kelly and Jeff arrived around 6 or so and we went out to dinner at Assagio's...Italian and very good...even had dessert - tiramisu of course.....felt bloated. This eating nonsense has to stop!!

Spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room....talked with Mary and things seem to be going smoothly with her and Missy.

July 17, 2008

2008-07-29T21:43:00.003-05:00

Obviously, spent all day on the train. Mavelous what one can see from the window of a train that you certainly would miss on an airplane....you'd miss most of this even in a car, because you're too busy watching where you're going, and besides, most of the train tracks are in areas far away from roads, so trains tend to see more than autos would anyway, going into areas that aren't visible from highways.

We shared our breakfast with a man who lived in Los Angeles and had been visting in Chicago.

Lunch was shared with a man who now lives in Seattle, but was born and raised in Paris, France...he came to the states in 1946.

Dinner was with a rail fan from Cincinnati, who was on his way to Wenatchee, Washington, where he was going to attend a convention for Great Northern Railway fans.

Breakfast this morning was the Continental for me, which was oatmeal, banana, yogurt and a biscuuit...Gary had French Toast and bacon, Mom had the Greek omelet.

Lunch....I had meatballs with rice, Gary had a build your own burger and mom had the chicken ceasar salad.

Dinner...Gary had the flat iron steak, Mom had vegetarian lasagna, and I had the roasted game hen. (Do you get the idea that, other than taking pictures and stitching - for those of us who partake in that hobby - there's not much to do but EAT on a train???)
We started the day in North Dakota, went through North Dakota and Montana. On average we have been about 2 hours behind schedule - good thing we're not in a hurry and we left ourselves plenty of breathing room before we get on the ship.

The dining car steward looks a lot like Rowan Atkinson...and all I can think of when I look at him is Mr. Bean.
Was an enjoyable, relaxing day. Nice way to travel, this sleeping compartment thing...nice having a potty and a shower that we don't have to share with 50 other people!

Mom's sleeping car attendant, Isaac, pictured below, was very helpful...took good care of her!! We were in the next car, so it was nice knowing that someone thoughtful was keeping an eye out for her!

And with the above picture, Day 2 of our vacation came to a close.

July 16, 2008

2008-07-29T19:36:00.002-05:00

...And we're off!! We started our marvelous vacation today! Gary and I worked like crazy last night to get everything packed. There was a time when I didn't think that we would get everything into our two suitcases and carry-ons. Somehow, we made it work! Not much room left over for gifts and/or souvenirs, but if nothing else, we can always purchase another suitcase or duffel bag to carry home with us!

Poor Missy, she was so bewildered yesterday. She knew something was up, but she wasn't quite sure what it was. I had all of our clothes piled on top of the bed in the guest room, in preparation of packing, and Missy kept sleeping on top of the clothes, as if to say that to get the clothes, we would have to take her too! I feel comfortable leaving her at home, though, while we're gone...Mary will be house sitting, and taking care of Missy, so at least she won't be alone. Thought about having someone come in and feed her, but I figured this would be better...and leaving her at a kennel was NOT an option...

As you can see by the below photo, Gary was ALL excited about getting this vacation going!

We headed off to Mom's around noon, and then we took a cab down to the Amtrak station around 2:00. As it turns out, the train was late in getting to Milwaukee, and we didn't actually leave the station until 4:45 instead of 3:55, but that wasn't too bad. As we were leaving, we had a bad thunderstorm, but it didn't slow the train down at all.

Got into our sleepers and relaxed a bit there before heading off to the dining car at 6:45. I had the flat iron steak for dinner, which was very good...Gary had the salmon, of course, and mom had flat iron steak as well.

An older gentleman (pictured above) was seated with us, and as it turns out, he's a bit of a train buff as Gary is, so they had a lot to talk about. He gave us his card. He lives in St. Paul, apparently, and he has a part-time income by driving new vehicles to their destination and taking the train back home. Many times, he gets to take his wife along with him, but when he can't, she always calls him to make sure he doesn't sleep through dinner hour!

Passed through the Reeseville area, which had been closed to train travel for weeks after the flooding of early June. Here, pictured below, is what's left of the water there. The water HAD been 48 inches deep over and above the railroad tracks!

We're back in our sleeper compartment now, and I have taken several pictures...will settle back for the rest of the evening and do some stitching.

Off to an enjoyable start! This is much more relaxing than sitting in coach with all those other people! This is a great way to travel...the evening came to a close with the below photo.