Last week, GA and I enjoyed a week-long
cruise to Alaska.
We decided a couple of months ago it had been too long since we had done a cruise, so she sat down and did the research, and we booked that puppy for the last Alaskan cruise of the summer for the Rhapsody of the Seas on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.
Did you ever have one of those times when God is with you for the entire event? This one was like that. As we pulled out of the driveway, and the garage door glided slowly down, we did our usual prayer for the house to be watched over, and for the trip to be free of mechanical problems and difficulties that might spoil the fun. Then, on impulse, I added a ps: I asked God if he could, as a bonus, get us through airport security without getting groped. I mean, it can't hurt to ask.
Believe it or not, we hit the security line, and as we were removing our shoes and belts, GA noticed that the Nude-O-Scope™ was turned off and everybody in our line was going through the metal detector! I was pretty sure that this was going to be a great vacation, because that was like God's initials in the corner.
We flew to Seattle to spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express using GA's points, and the next morning we got up bright and early to catch the Seattle Express, which GA had arranged. We handed over our keys to the clerk, and GA noticed that there was a Seattle Express just outside the door, ten minutes early. She leaves me with the baggage to go check. They were pulling away, but she banged on their door, they stopped, and it turned out that they had called out our name and somebody else with a similar name (but no reservation) had answered, and had their luggage aboard in our place. We were just in time. I bet they start checking those papers a little more closely now.
So we get to the port, and go through the line, and eventually board the ship.
The previous week there had been an outbreak of noro-virus on the ship, and so they were going overboard (so to speak) with the cleanliness. Every room had been sanitized. Everywhere we went, if anybody touched anything, they sprayed it with disinfectant and wiped it down immediately. There were constant reminders to wash our hands after using the restroom (duh) and before eating anything (also duh). We also knew to cough in our elbows, not in our hands as we used to be taught in school. Keep your hands clean, and your chances of getting sick go way down. We also know one other important thing: when leaving the rest rooms, never ever touch that door handle. If it swings out, use your elbow. If it swings in, save the paper towel you used when washing your hands, and use it to open the door. It's a virtual certainty that that handle has been repeatedly touched by people who didn't bother to wash their hands, and therefore will be crawling with e coli bacteria. It's never a good idea to ingest e coli.
So the first port of call is in Juneau. Now, our good friend Lois happens to be in Juneau, visiting her daughter who lives there. So we got a private tour of the sights, including Mendenhall Glacier, our first ever. It was incredibly beautiful.
Then they took us to a stream where we saw salmon running up stream,
and when we were a little ways away, we got to see two adult bald eagles and a juvenile, feeding on fresh caught salmon. There were two others perched out on some kind of boating thingy.
At that point, it was already a magic level vacation. Thank you again, Kelli and Lois, and thank you again, God, for providing a beautiful sunny day!
Then we did a little caching in an area where the Treadwell gold mine used to be, but which is now being reclaimed by the forest. If you look closely at the photo, you can see a ghost:
We didn't find the cache... can't win 'em all. Kelli got us back to the ship right on time, and so we claimed the cache hidden mere feet away from the security area.
Next stop was Skagway. We weren't entirely sure what we might see there, but we had two excursions booked (independently of the cruise line). The bus to the high elevation tundra area was interesting and beautiful, but the one we really wanted to do, the one that was the highlight of the trip, was the rafting adventure up the fjord to see more bald eagles, harbor seals, and close up views of waterfalls. We made our way to the excursion meeting/waiting area.
We were early, but the minutes ticked by, and the time to meet came and went, and nobody came to find us from the tour company. The time to leave on the tour came and went, and we called to see what was up, and all we got was a recording.
We waited a little longer, just in case, but nothing. So we whipped out our handy Garmin Oregon 450 GPS unit and started the hike to Skagway to look for caches. I was disappointed, GA was very disappointed, but I figured there had to be a reason - I was pretty sure that God was on the trip with us.
So we found this virtual at a building whose front was made with drift wood. We wrote down the answers for the later email, and then got behind the building to get out of the wind, and GA's phone rang. It was the tour company. They had made a mistake, and entered our names on one list, but not on the list for the tour itself. Could we meet them for the 3:00 tour, because if we could they'd let us take the tour at half price. We grabbed a bus and got to the meeting place again. Profuse apologies, and then we were on our way to get suited up. Thank God for cell phones.
Now, you might be thinking that this was a big FAIL because we didn't get on the tour we wanted. But we got on a better tour. This one had only four passengers, including us, so we got all that extra attention. And by that time, the seas were a bit rougher, so we got a more exciting ride - bumps and jumps and all kinds of fun. And we saw not only more bald eagles, we saw a dozen harbor seals sunning on the rocks as we drifted quietly by, so close we could have conversations with the seals. It was the best time EVER!
I highly highly recommend contacting Ocean Raft Alaska if you ever plan to cruise to Alaska and visit Skagway. It's something you won't forget!
Next day was "at-sea," but it was a special kind of at-sea. Captain Speaking ("This is your Captain Speaking") drove the ship up another fjord to let us take a look at Sawyer Glacier - it reminded us both of the Titanic, because we were slowly making our way between the ice bergs, as the water was mirror smooth, and even looked cold, as opposed to just being cold.You know, Titanic cold. If you've never seen a glacier in person, you need to add it to your bucket list. There is a cold shade of blue that you can't really see anywhere else or in a photo (it just isn't the same), and between us and the glacier were hundreds of little icebergs, many with harbor seals lounging on them. It's incredibly beautiful. Captain Speaking rotated the ship so everybody could get a good view no matter where they were standing (or sitting, if they happened to be on their balconies). (Note that the link above is to a video I had nothing to do with, but which I think is awesomely cool - but the following photo was taken by GA, and is also cool.)
The food on the ship was as good as ever, except that they no longer have escargot - but then, I think there is a snail shortage going on, so they substituted scallops in garlic and butter, prepared the same way as escargot, and - honestly - it tastes the same, which is to say you taste the garlic and butter and something scallop-like in there somewhere. There was also lobster night. And the desserts are to die for.
The shows on this cruise were - how can I put this? - relatively lame. On past cruises, they were just short of Off-Broadway quality, at least as good as a Broadway touring cast. This stuff was actually within the lower range of Community theater productions. MCT for example, would have been ashamed to be seen doing what these shows turned out to be. There was a tribute to country music that I suspect was directed by somebody who hates country music. But that's OK... because on deck 6, every evening, we could be a part of the Adult Day Care at Night program, also called the Five Minute Party, with Derek Lewis. Imagine a perfect blend of kamikaze karaoke (meaning you don't pick your song, it's random), stand up comedy, attentive waiters to bring you adult beverages, and a parade of song parodies courtesy of Derek and his electric guitar. I tell you, that was the most fun I have ever had on board a ship. Nothing else in the way of cruise entertainment comes close.
The last port of call was Victoria, in Canada. We grabbed a cache or two, and were trying to find one called "Little Brown Lamp Post," when a policeman in a spiffy uniform calls out "keep looking!" He wouldn't tell us where it was, but he did tell us we had almost touched it before, which was all we needed to know, and made the grab. He then offered to escort us to another, nearby cache, in the rose garden by the Parliament building. We got that one as soon as the local TV babe finished her interview with some profoundly important figure in Canadian politics, then went into the building to see what there was to see. In that building is a stained glass window commemorating the Queen's Jubilee year. Not the one for QE II, though there was one for her as well - no I mean the one for Queen Victoria! You know, the lady the city was named after.
We both hated to see the cruise end, but they always do, because there's always somebody else who wants to come aboard and use your cabin when you're done with it.
So a big thank you to Lois and Kelli, and to whoever broke the Nude-O-Scope™ at the airport, and especially to YHWH, the best God ever.
