A Canadian Drive By

July 12, 2014July 12, 2014 ~ JodiLea

Day 7 : Victoria
(sort of…)

The Golden Princess began having engine trouble after leaving Ketchikan, and the Captain had to slow our speed way down. We docked in Canada to do required International paperwork, then we sailed out of port within the hour. We needed to reach Seattle in time for passengers to catch their flights home. Once again, passengers were not allowed off the ship. All shore excursions were canceled and refunded, along with an extra $25 credit on our final bill. A nice gesture by the Captain, but it hardly made a dent in the scheme of things! Hubby and his bro went ‘exploring’ (a.k.a. to get ice-cream) while I propped my feet up and wrote, tried to beat Level 40 in Candy Crush, and knitted a row or two on my latest project. Yawn.

The Disembarkation process was excellent. They had it down to an organized science. Probably because they were sick of us by now, or we were in the 3rd grouping to leave. Either reason worked for us, just that it was. Organized I mean.

My poor feet began to swell up any time they were not propped up. It hurt to walk or move around. Because of The Rule of Gates, it was Hell at the airport. For those who are not familiar with the rule, it simply states that – “The gate farthest away is the gate you must go to.” The amendment to this rule is: “When your departing gate changes, it will be to the farthest one from the original.”

I suspect you already knew that rule, didn’t you?

The bus from the pier to airport was a 45-minute ride. In a near-vegetative state, dozing with my eyes open, then jerked awake by sharp corners or squealing brakes, I looked forward to getting home and getting some rest. Like I was looking forward to a vacation.

Something is very wrong about that.

Note: We arrived home safe AND uneventfully. 🙂

Jewelry Salmon Capital Of The World

July 11, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Day 6: Thursday, July 3rd, Ketchikan

We were cheated on this port of call – we docked at 7:30am and all aboard was at 11:30am. I thought it was a typo, but they really meant four hours, then we set sail for Victoria, British Columbia. Truth be told, I was relieved. My legs and feet were talking about mutiny at this point.

The Gang did not have any excursions booked, so we wandered among the souvenir shops, in Grandma & Grandpa mode, looking for gifts for our grand-kids.

And just like anytime I go shopping, I cannot find what I want to buy, so I have to debate with myself a while, then make a compromise. I hate shopping. I may have mentioned this before.

As much as I adore my granddaughters, I just wanted to stay on board ship with my feet up. It was raining, and the lumberjack show was sold out. It must have been passengers from one of those DAM ships beat us to it. To clarify, Holland America Cruise lines always had one of three ships at the same port we were at. The ships, named “Amsterdam“, “Westerdam” “Zuiderdam” were twice the size of our Golden Princess. We called them the DAM Ships to crack ourselves up. Holland America is a DAM fine cruise line, BTW. Our trip, years ago, on the Statendam was fabulous.

The town shops are unique and attractive. There were streets (not just the main drag) packed with them, the majority being – wait for it – jewelry stores. If it wasn’t a jewelry store, you could buy salmon there. Fish and jewelry don’t mix I guess. I picked out some warm long-sleeved T-shirts for my granddaughters, as well as a couple of ‘fun’ things, and that’s all I wanted to shop. My feet, legs and back were still hurting from hiking all over Alaska’s shops in Juneau and Skagway. [It wasn’t until I got back home that I discovered the girls shirts did not even say “Alaska” on them. DAM!]

I managed to sweet talk hubby into abandoning shore to find a comfy, quiet place to read (him) and write (me). We found the library and internet cafe on deck 5. No one else was there! A first since we set sail in Seattle. We enjoyed a peaceful hour just sitting together, not doing anything. Hubby, at one point, fell asleep. I continued re-writing chapter nine and let him sleep. Why not? There were no witnesses to embarrass him.

We met the ‘gang’ in our dining room at high-noon for lunch. It amazed us how hungry we would be four or five hours after a huge breakfast. I blame all the shopping.

Our waiters, Enrique and Ashok, attended to our every need & desire (food and beverage desires that is). All I know is that we are thoroughly spoiled and 10 pounds heavier. Speaking for myself only here. I secretly hoped my sis-in-law who is a size 0 (yep, a size zero), has to buy a size 1 now. Am I bad? I love the woman very much, but come on! A size zero? LastFormalNight

Our second (and last) formal night was fabulous! It was lobster and Baked Alaska night. Hubby ordered Beef Wellington – go figure. The menfolk were reminded about their promise to dance with us on the next formal night, and lead to a lounge with good music (lots of slow songs), and we danced together for almost an hour. Sweet! LoveBirdsDancing

Although they claimed to have ‘forgotten’ all about their promise, they were good sports. They even seemed to enjoy themselves.

Mmmm… Don’t you just love a man in a Tux? 😉

TTFN,
JodiLea

FYI: All Photographs published in this blog-series were taken by the author (me), except for the couple that I stole from ‘Sis Zero’s’ Facebook. 🙂

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

July 10, 2014 ~ JodiLea

Day 5 – July 2nd, Wednesday: Glacier Bay

You would think that glaciers were made of ice it was so cold out on deck. 🙂 The skies were once again many shades of gray. Probably not fifty shades, but a bunch of them. Fog hovered around the coastline until the sun peaked out and banished it in the afternoon. BTW – Sun does not mean warm in Alaska.

Blue Colored Ice (see cave and teardrop), show a deeper-frozen ice. Apparently frozen has varying degrees.

Passengers had to stay on the ship and gawk at the immense mountains and slow moving ice. At the entrance of the National Glacier Bay Park, some park rangers boarded to sail with us into the bay, talk about the glacier, answer questions, etc.

Hubby and I hung out on deck 8, where our cabin is. It’s a smaller, away from all the chaos, deck. There were many folks hanging out there because it is a sheltered part of the ship and less windy.

We met up with Hubby’s Bro & wife – they were walking around the entire ship, to catch every view they could, I think. The view from deck 8, port-side, was fabulous, but freezing. So we moved inside to a lounge with a view.

Among the icy sea, we saw the occasional otter and sea-lion floating on the islands of ice in the bay, called floaters. It took me a while to get used to the term ‘floaters’ in regards to ice. I watch a lot of CSI and Criminal Minds, where ‘floaters’ do not refer to ice.

It was a bummer that we could not get closer to the ice. Cruise ships have to stay a good distance away. Chunks of ice, foreshadowed by loud cracking, would break off and fall into the ocean. Why did people cheer when this happened? Don’t ask me. It was so cool to watch, but I believed all the cruise ships, day in and day out, were destroying things. One would think that the park rangers would protest against this, but I suspect that their job is to prevent abuse.

The photos I took were dismal and you could not see the glaciers unless you were in the bay. Or up in a helicopter. Yeah. Right.

Mouth of the Glacier — Leading Edge of the Glacier

On the left side of the ice, where it is flat now, used to be a jagged hunk of glacier that cracked and slid into the bay. Note the blue color.

It took me a while to realize why I felt disappointment when I got the photos downloaded and into my photo gallery. Aside from gray and cobalt blue, the photos had no color. Ahh, wait just a minute!

The sun was not shinning. All the photos on advertisements for Alaska had large bright sunny mountain-scapes. No wonder it did not look familiar.

How am I supposed to compete with this?:

Advertisement for Alaskan travel — Advertisement Photo (obviously colorized)

TTFN,

Jodi Lea

photo credit: jjjj56cp via photopin cc