Wednesday 06/25 - Thursday 06/26

Wednesday 06/25/06 – Skagway

Today we had anticipated a “once in a lifetime” experience: we had booked the “Dog Sledding & Glacier Flight Seeing via Helicopter” excursion, which had the following description: ”Meet professional mushers and their dogs on a unique Alaska excursion. After a thrilling flight over spectacular glaciers, land at a dog camp on the Denver Glacier. Experienced guides introduce you to “mushing”, the art of dog sledding. Drive the sled or sit back and relax while enjoying the breathtaking scenery”. Alison was so looking forward to seeing the huskies and see how they are trained and to “drive” the sled. We had to bring appropriate clothing for the dog camp, which meant very warm layers of clothing (that had taken up precious space in the suitcases) and we got into our gear and departed the ship for our 9:35 AM dockside meeting. When we got there, we were informed that the cloud cover was too low to get to the camp, but we could be rescheduled for 3:00 PM when the cloud cover would probably be higher, so we agreed to this, rather than try to do any other of the many available excursions offered in Skagway, the best of which we were already too late for anyway. We returned to the ship, took off all the warm gear and I can’t particularly remember how we passed the time, but of course we had lunch. Around 2:40 PM, we got back into “snow gear” and sweated our way to the exit and departed the ship once again. Unfortunately our tour operator informed us that the cloud cover was still too low and that our excursion had to be cancelled. Obviously, this was a safety issue and only the weather was to be blamed, but we were both extremely disappointed and Alison was emotionally upset, but there was nothing we could do. We decided to walk into the town of Skagway – right there at the end of the docks, where the main street is basically unchanged from the late 1890s. We saw the train that takes people to “White Pass” up in the Yukon “Gold Rush” territory (a train we could have taken had we chosen that particular excursion). We went into the “Red Onion Saloon”, which used to house the fanciest brothel on the upper floors in 1898, and where the waitresses wear the costume dress of that period. As I said, the main street is within 100 yards of the docks, and when you look back down the street, it looks as though our ship is trying to sail down the street – Alison got a great photograph of that.
We returned to the ship to shower and get ready for a “birthday dinner” with Bernard and Arline (whose birthday it was), and we had a booking for 6:00 PM in the “Summer Palace” main dining room. After dinner we watched one of the lounge bands and at 9:00, we had left the dock at Skagway and started on our route to Glacier Bay. Then we went with Arline to the ship’s Stardust Theater and saw “The Nylons”, a Cappella quartet from Canada, and we all enjoyed their performance.

Thursday 06/26/06 – Glacier Bay

We were told that we would see our first glacier at about 9:30 AM and Bob was at the gym at 7.30 so that he could get his workout in before the glacier viewing began. However, while he was on a treadmill which faced the side of the ship with huge windows, all of a sudden he saw a glacier straight in front of him, which we would later work out from the map, was the Reid Glacier. This obviously was not considered worthy of a stop, but it looked pretty impressive when we sailed by it. Bob rushed back to the cabin (900 ft away at the back of the boat), to tell Alison, but she had already seen it from the balcony, but not in time to get a good shot of it. Basically, the geography of Glacier Bay is, as the name suggests, a very large bay, but is has many inlets off the main bay, and if you sail up an inlet, you will ultimately meet “face to face” and towering above the water, the glacier that made the inlet,. By 9:30 PM, we had arrived at the Tarr Inlet at the far end of the bay and at the end of that inlet is the Margerie Glacier which is one of the biggest and the best in the Bay. We went to Deck 15 at the front of the ship and found a good spot to photograph and video. There was a National Parks Ranger on board who had been commentating already for an hour about the Glacier Bay National Park and the formation of the glaciers and other interesting facts and figures, but now he said he was going outside to view the glacier himself. The ship stopped and we began to take our pictures. There are actually two glaciers at this point, the Margerie to the left and the Grand Pacific Glacier in front of you that is the end of the inlet. However, the Margerie is still right there at the waters edge, while the Grand Pacific has receded and just left behind rocks and silt that ends the inlet (which also marks the border of Alaska and Canada, so the active front of that glacier is a mile or two back in Canada.
The Margerie Glacier moves forward about 8ft a day, but of course, that 8ft drops off and just adds fresh glacier water to the inlet. This “collapsing” of the ice into the water, which I’m sure you have all seen on film, is called “calving”, and as the ranger said, no one has any idea as to when a glacier will “calve:, but it usually happens when you have gone to the toilet, or to get a cup of coffee, or while you are changing your film or batteries in your camera! Anyway, the Margerie glacier was pretty impressive; it is a mile wide and 250ft high and goes back mile and miles to the ice fields. Unfortunately, when you are there on the ship, because the glacier face is so high, you cannot see how far it goes back and it was only later when we saw postcards taken from the air that we were able to see the glacier squeezing its way down the valley.
Bob was taking video and Alison stills and of course we were waiting for a “calving” and we had a number of small ones. Because we were at the end of the inlet, the ship had to turn around and the captain began a very slow 180 “on the spot” clockwise turn which of course swung the bow of the ship away from the glacier and the stern of the ship towards the glacier. Bob put the video away and as the stern of the ship completely faced the front of the glacier, there was a mighty crack and a huge chunk of ice fell from the glacier into the water. It was so huge, it created a wave that rocked the boat. Alison still had her camera at the ready, and successfully photographed the occurrence from an angle that also showed the ship’s deck because we were watching from the front as the ship was turning. We later learned that Bernard was out on his balcony at the aft end of the ship, as was Jennifer, and they saw the whole thing much closer up, and had we been in our cabin and on the balcony, so would we. But we still saw it, and the ranger announced afterwards that the ice that fell was the equivalent size of a 16 storey building, and that neither he, nor the other ranger on board, who’d been doing the Margerie Glacier watching from cruise ships for over 4 years, had ever before seen such a huge calving, or a wave big enough to make the ship rock. So this was some compensation for our disappointment of the day before. After Margerie we sailed a short way back down the bay and into Johns Hopkins Inlet (named by a glaciologist, Dr. Reid, who had attended Johns Hopkins University). As the ship goes around a headland in the inlet known as “Jaw Drop Point”, the vista of the Johns Hopkins Glacier comes into full view and is quite magnificent. Because seals are having “pups” at this time, and use the ice from the calving of the glacier to wean the pups on, the ship is restricted in how close it can get to the glacier and we were five miles away, but it is so enormous that it looked closer than a mile. Because we were at such a distance from the glacier, we were able to see it curving back up the valley until it disappeared around a bend. It was quite breathtaking and was easy to see why the headland got the name of “Jaw Drop Point”. On the way out of the inlet we also stopped at Lamplugh Gacier. The viewing of the glaciers from the ship today was definitely the highlight of the trip. By late afternoon we were heading out of Glacier Bay and into “Icy Straight” on our way to arrive in Ketchikan at 6:00 AM Friday 27th—our last port of call in Alaska. This evening we went with Jennifer & Ed, and Colleen & Mike to the "Spinnaker Lounge" see the ship’s comedian put on his show for "adults only".

Monday 06/23- Tuesday 06/24

Monday 06/23/08 – A Day at Sea

Monday was a day at sea, which we used to prepare the blog post for Saturday & Sunday. Bob was at the gym at 7:15 AM, because someone persistently knocked on our door at 7:00, despite strict instructions that he wanted to sleep as long as possible and not to wake him. The responsible person will remain nameless (but she did used to work at LYNX!). Actually, Bob has been to the gym three days out of four, but still has to admit that he is consuming more calories than he is burning. After the gym, it was breakfast, then lunch, then a snooze and then dinner (with a little bit of drinking thrown in). There are two main dining rooms on the ship – one is called “The Summer Palace” and the second one, amazingly, is called “INDIGO”, where we ate on Monday evening. We still have to have one of our party take a picture of us at the entrance to the restaurant.

Tuesday 06/24/08 – Juneau

On Tuesday morning we found out a bit more about the use of the ship’s internet and found that we could borrow a cable to connect in the cabin (connection cable is rented free!). However, when I tried to upload pictures to the blog, Google would not accept them. Another trip back to the internet café, where the manager (a very nice helpful gentleman from Canada) informed me that Google had stopped accepting photos from the ship’s satellite connection two or three days ago and he assumed it was because it was too slow and tied up the Google servers for too long – so there will be no pictures for a few days while we are on the ship.
We were due to dock in Juneau at 2:00 PM and we were in plenty of time but the Norwegian Star was in our spot and we had to wait for it to leave. By the time we tied up and got off the ship, it was already 2:45. Our shuttle driver was there and we were off for our whale watching excursion (six of our party of eight). It was quite cold and windy but the boat had a nice cabin so our journey out into the “Inner Passage” was okay. The captain(Capt. Jack!) was in touch via radio with other local skippers so he knew where to find the whales and in a short while we were seeing “blows” and tails tipping up and the whales diving under and not coming up for 6-7 minutes when they needed to breathe again. Unfortunately, that was all we were seeing and Alison & I were thinking that our whale watching at De Hoop in South Africa last year was a lot more eventful. However, just as we were ready to give up, a mother and calf started to show some activity and all of a sudden the calf started breaching and was clearing the water in a straight up leap. He kept doing it again and again, sometimes only getting halfway out of the water and sometimes completely clearing the water and falling sideways with a mighty splash. It was quite spectacular. Of course, during this time we were now on the top deck of a very rocky boat and the task of getting a photograph at the exact moment that the whale was clear of the water was very difficult. Nevertheless, Alison has some good shots which will ultimately appear on the blog. On our way back from the whale watch to the dock, we stopped at a view site for the Mendenhall Glacier and took photographs. It is very impressive to see and makes you realize the geological marvel of all the glaciers. Of course, the glacier is receding and different people have different ideas about that!
Back at the Juneau dock, we did not re-board the cruise ship as we (and cousin Bernard & Arline) were booked to go to the ”Gold Creek Salmon Bake” and a few minutes later we were picked up and taken to the event, which is quite unique. We had wild Alaskan salmon cooked on the grill to perfection – many thanks to Vic & Carol Wolff who recommended it after their trip to Alaska in Sept. of 2006. After returning to the ship we listened to a music group playing pop music, and just after 10:00 PM, while it was still light, we left the dock at Juneau and started to make our way further north to arrive at Skagway early next morning.

Saturday 6/21- Sunday 6/22

Saturday 06/21/08 – Fox Island back to Seattle and Pike Place Market

This morning we packed up to leave the Armentrouts’ home and took a few photos before Carolyn and Mark drove us to “The Harvester”, a favorite breakfast haunt of Mark’s, where we enjoyed a huge “full-on” mid-morning breakfast, and then on back to Seattle and the Mediterranean Inn (our hotel for the night), where we met up with our friends Jennifer and Ed Widener, who had flown into Seattle via Houston, after a very early start from their home in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Jennifer worked with Bob at Lynx Services in Ft. Myers, Florida, when we lived there, and she also knows Carolyn Armentrout well, due to Carolyn also working for the sales arm of Lynx Services. We have cruised about 3 times previously with the Wideners, and it’s just great that they have been able to join us on this cruise. The six of us all went to Seattle’s renowned Pike Place Market, Bob and Mark walking there, and Carolyn driving the Wideners and me. We met up at the entrance and wandered around until we found a restaurant where Jennifer could eat some Dungeness crab that she was craving, and Bob and I could sample yet another local “brew”, outside on the deck overlooking the harbor. After sitting chatting at our table for a while, it was time for the Armentrouts to return home to Fox Island. Jennifer and I bade our farewells to Carolyn & Mark, and walked round the Market some more, taking in all the sights and sounds, before walking back to our hotel; and C&M drove Bob and Ed back to the hotel, so they could officially check in and get our bags to our rooms. We rested in our rooms awhile, then Jennifer walked with Bob and me to a nearby Irish pub/restaurant “T.S. McHugh’s”, where we had a light dinner and then returned to the hotel and met up with Ed again. We had planned to have a nightcap drink on the hotel rooftop sitting area, but it was too windy and cold when we got there, so we just had a quick look at the view of the city by night, and all its bright lights, and then descended to the lobby for our nightcap! Off to bed and another night with no trouble sleeping. At this point we must say a big Thank You to the Armentrouts for their wonderful hospitality since they met us at the airport on Thursday. We hope we can reciprocate in Myrtle Beach before too long.

Sunday 06/22/08 – Norwegian Pearl Sailing Day

Bags packed again, and breakfast in the Starbucks adjoining the hotel. (Seattle being the “home” of Starbucks coffee houses, there seems to be one about every second block all over the city.) We then all piled into a taxi, and somehow the luggage of all 4 of us got into the trunk, and we were off to the Pier 66 Cruise Terminal to begin the embarkation process onto Norwegian Pearl. This went off very smoothly, despite the huge numbers of passengers in line, and we were aboard soon after midday. Cousin Bernard and Arline (who had booked us on this cruise with them back in April ’07, when they were on the Pearl’s maiden voyage from Miami down to and through the Panama Canal, and up the Pacific coast to Los Angeles), had arrived from Myrtle Beach yesterday and stayed overnight at a hotel booked for them by the cruise line. They had boarded the ship not long before us, and we met up with them in a pre-arranged poolside area, where we waited for the 2:00 PM time when we could take occupation of our cabins. Now we were a party of 6, and as we were going to our cabins, we met the remaining couple in our party, who had just boarded, Colleen and Mike. Colleen is still a Lynx employee in Fort Myers, and she too has been on a couple of previous cruises with us. So all 8 of us had got together and found our respective cabins (all very close to each other) in good time for a little rest before the mandatory life boat drill for all 2300 (approx.) passengers at 3:30 PM. We departed the dock on time at 4:00, and stood on our balcony at the aft end of the ship, watching the wake and Seattle disappearing into the distance. For those of you who are interested in facts and figures, the Norwegian Pearl was built in 2006, weighs 93,000 tons, is 965 feet long and is 105 feet in the beam. It can accommodate 2380 passengers and has a crew of 1154. There are 12 restaurants and 11 bars and lounges, plus a casino and all the usual other cruise ship amenities people have come to expect, like a rock-climbing wall, bowling alley, spa, fitness room, library, internet café and more (Internet connection is $.75 per minute or 100 minutes for $55 or 250 minutes for $100 – we will need to post quickly!).
We walked around and familiarized ourselves with the various amenities and then all eight of us had dinner at “Cagney’s”, which is one of the “specialty” restaurants where there is an additional cover charge for the menu (in this case $20 per person). It was worth it for our first meal of our cruise! After dinner we spent an hour or two in the “Spinnaker Lounge”, listening to 1970’s music before retiring for the night. A great start to the cruise.

The journey begins

Tuesday 06/17/08 - Goodbye Myrtle Beach.

This morning we finished packing everything we thought we needed for the next 6 ½ weeks, and by 10:15 we were on the road to Falls Church, VA. When we drive the 430 miles to M&D’s we keep going, only stopping at the rest stops to use the restrooms, change drivers and have a quick bite from our picnic lunch that we take with us. It is 80 miles from Myrtle Beach to Interstate 95 and once we are on the Interstate, we don’t leave it again for 345 miles, only a couple of miles from M&D’s home. We made it this time in about 7 ½ hours.
Melanie was still at work and David was in New York on a business trip, but Indigo Wen was there to greet us, being looked after by her nanny. When Melanie got home, she was going to cancel her knitting class, but we told her to go and enjoy it, and Indigo was quite happy to have Granny and Granddad look after her and Granny bathed her, read her a story and put her to bed and she was already sound asleep when Melanie got home. We chatted about the upcoming adventures and then retired for an early night.

Wednesday 06/18/08 – The Barn, the Park, the lost camera!
Today, as has become the norm, Melanie’s friend and fellow adoptive mother, Ellen, came over with her little girl Sarah. Sarah came to America at the same time as Indigo and is her best friend. They are such good friends that they have to dress the same as you will see from the photographs! We all piled into Ellen’s Expedition and drove to the Merry-Go-Round stables (http://www.merry-go-roundfarm.com/) where Melanie keeps her beloved horse Dan. No one rides Dan anymore but the alternatives to continue paying the fees for his board and lodging every month are not acceptable and we understand why. Melanie brushed him, and both little girls were waiting to sit on his back. Eventually he was ready and Sarah was the first to be lifted up onto Dan’s back (he is a tall horse). Sarah held the reins and was quite happy to be led around at a walking pace and was reluctant to get off. Despite seeing Sarah ride so enthusiastically, when it came to Indigo’s turn, she just didn’t want to get on the horse. Melanie suggested (jokingly of course) that David must have been saying something to Indigo to discourage her from horse riding so she wont get into such an expensive (and forever) hobby – we shall see. While we were at the stables we had a very nice picnic lunch that Ellen had brought with her.
From the stables we went to a children’s park called Clemyjontri: (http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/clemyjontri/) which is the most amazing municipal park we have ever seen. The central attraction is an old fashioned carousel which the children can ride free from Monday to Friday. Meanwhile, there are all sorts of other apparatus for kids to climb, slide, swing on, etc.., all with a theme such as a fire truck, airplane, etc., all beautifully designed and made. There are also educational aspects to the park with boards and signs that explain where different animals live (continents) and also, the whole park’s ground surface is a hard wearing “spongy” rubber so that the children won’t hurt themselves if they fall. There is a bike track that winds in around the park for kids on their bikes to ride. A very nice place and, as it is school holidays, there were many, many, moms there with children having a good time. Indigo and Sarah rode the Carousel (with Granddad and Ellen standing next to Indigo and Sarah to ensure their safety) and then they climbed and slid down tubes, etc. Melanie took lots of photos (at the barn as well) and everyone enjoyed themselves.
We left the park about 2:00 because Ellen has to be on the way home before the DC rush hour traffic! As we were sitting around at home later in the afternoon, Melanie said “I can’t find my camera”. After calling Ellen and have her search the car and searching around the house, it became apparent that Melanie must have put her camera down at some point, possibly to pick up Indigo, and left it somewhere, although she had no recollection of doing so. Melanie called the municipal phone number for the park and, although the office was closed, she left a message to say she had lost a camera at the park. Meanwhile, Granddad went shopping and bought some lamb chops and “go withs” (beer!) and we had a lovely braai. David was on his way back from New York (by train) and had hoped to be home by 7 PM. We waited until 7:30 before starting without him (lest the chops be overcooked!) and he arrived as we were still at the table talking. Alison and I made sure all our cases were fully packed and ready to go downstairs, and that the clothes we were going to wear next morning were in the bedroom, laid out ready for us to jump into. We had a taxi arriving at 5:30 AM! We said our farewells to Indigo and later, Melanie & David and, after setting both cell phone alarms for 5:00, “hit the sack”.

Thursday 06/19/08 – DC to Seattle.
At 5:00 AM, a fire alarm went off in the house – at least that was how it sounded like to me! Both alarms went off at once (surprise!) and as my phone was charging on a shelf across the room, and Alison, having never used her cell phone alarm, had no clue as to how to turn it off, the noise seemed to go on and on and we were sure we had woken the whole house. Sheepishly, I listened for Indigo, but fortunately, all was quiet. We dressed and carried our toiletries downstairs and put them in the lids of the suitcase and were outside and waiting at 5:30 when the taxi arrived on time. Melanie informed us later that day that they hadn’t heard the alarms, nor had they heard us leave – for all they knew, we were still in bed! We got to National Airport earlier than we needed, but that’s better than being late. We were on a regional jet to Philadelphia and we took off on time and arrived on time. By 9:00 we were boarding our flight to Seattle – a very nice Airbus and we were in an exit row that only had two seats in it – very private and lots of leg room. It is a six hour flight but it seemed to go by rather quickly. Our friends Carolyn & Mark Armentrout were there to meet us outside baggage claim and off we went to a restaurant called “Sports” in walking distance of the Space Needle. After a nice lunch (Seattle on the Pacific Coast is 3 hrs behind the Atlantic Coast in time) and my first taste of a local draught IPA, we made our way to the Space Needle and waited in line to buy tickets to go up.

After we had bought the tickets, we waited in line to get in the elevator and 60 minutes later, we were on our way up.
The most daunting sight awaits you when you alight from the elevator 520 ft up – the line for the elevator to go down again! Nevertheless, the 360 view from the top is magnificent, and as it is a once in a lifetime experience (for me anyway), it is worth the wait.
After the Space Needle, we went to an area of Seattle called Pioneer Square, where you can go on an “Underground” tour. (http://www.undergroundtour.com/). This historic area is where the town was originally built, but because it was always flooded (at the bottom of the hills that slope down to Puget Sound, they “raised” the roads and pavements to a new level. It was very interesting. After that, it was time for us to make our way south to Tacoma and then across the Tacoma “Narrows” on the bridge that replaced “Galloping Gertie”, the suspension bridge that collapsed into the Narrows in 1940 (http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html ). This bridge takes you onto a peninsular in Puget Sound and the old fishing port town named Gig Harbor, and this is where we had dinner at a restaurant called “Tides”. We sat out on the deck overlooking the Sound and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. After dinner, we had one more “bridge to cross” and this time it was the bridge that takes you south from Gig Harbor and onto Fox Island, which is where Carolyn and Mark have their lovely home. By the time we got to bed, it was 11 PM Pacific time, which meant we had been up for 21 hours!

Friday 06/20/08 – Round and About Fox Island and Gig Harbor


We had a great sleep and awoke to a bright morning. On opening our bedroom blinds we witnessed a sight we’d never seen before: out on the water was a boat chugging slowly along towing a bundle of very long logs. A great photo from the bedroom window was taken! After breakfast we went for a walk on Fox Island, that Mark & Carolyn do regularly, after which we sat in their lovely garden and chatted endlessly. Mark and I then went to the local gym and we had a good workout. We had a nice lunch, once again sitting out in the garden, after which we went to the newer part of Gig Harbor to do a bit of shopping, ending up at a brand new Costco! On the way we stopped at the bridge that joins Fox Island to Gig Harbor, from where, depending on the weather, there is a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier on the skyline with the water of Puget Sound in the foreground. I think Alison got a pretty good shot of it. At this point in the afternoon, we got a call from Melanie. We had spoken to Melanie on Thursday evening to tell her we had arrived safely, but she hadn’t mentioned the camera so we knew there was no good news. She now told us that the County Parks office had called her on Thursday and told her that no one had handed in a camera. However, on Friday, while at work, she got an automatic email telling her that someone had called her home phone and left a message giving her the number of the caller (Melanie has Vonage). Melanie recognized the number as the County Parks number and gave them a call. The lady told Melanie that she had seen that someone had posted on “Craig’s List” that they had found a camera at Clemyjontri, and gave Melanie the number. Melanie called and the lady asked her to identify what pictures were in the camera which of course Melanie was able to do. The end result was that Melanie recovered her camera and all of the pictures. We are waiting for Melanie to send us the pictures she took at Clemyjontri and then we will add them to the blog. Pretty amazing isn’t it!
After shopping we returned to the old harbor part of Gig Harbor and walked to the “monuments” that describe the discovery of the harbor and the first settlers. We then visited the local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal before returning to C&M’s home for apple crisp and whipped cream for dessert! We had no trouble sleeping!