Travels in Alaska

Eagles. Glaciers. Whales.
Scrabble. Cribbage. Chess.
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner.

That about sums up the cruising experience. Days at sea are filled with relaxing strolls on deck, games of skill or chance (depending on one's tolerance for losing money), and lots of opportunites to eat. A cruise to Alaska means that those strolls are on a chilly deck and that the menu almost always includes salmon. A cruise with your extended family means more wonderful memories than one belated blog post can begin to capture, but I will attempt to hit the highlights.

Everyone arrived to glorious weather in Seattle and the promise of a mist free cruise. My parents, who arrived a day early, spent the next week raving about the duck cruise they took with Captain Funtastic and shared much of the history they learned about the city. We had a belated celebration of Dad's birthday when we arrived on Friday, then prepared ourselves for a week at sea (mostly by getting in our last Internet and cell phone use :) The grandkids and their grandparents rode in a limo to the port, which was an exciting highlight for them I know, and embarkation was a breeze (which is essential when one passenger - who could that be? - is particularly loathe to wait)

Mom's birthday was wonderful. Her cabin was decorated festively, her luck was unstoppable (she hit 18 on Roulette on her first - and only - spin!, led a team of strangers to victory in "Friendly Feud" and a team of her family to victory on Name that Tune - Broadway style, and was sung a round of "Happy Birthday" in both the Stardust lounge and the Gatsby bar for her efforts), and her day capped off with a lovely dinner in La Cucina, the ship's Italian specialty restaurant, where even Aunt Diana got into the act by sending a bottle of birthday wine to be enjoyed. She loves her new Kindle and started reading John Muir's Travels in Alaska right away.

It was great that Mom's birthday fell on a day at sea, as the next four days were chock full of ports and activities. In Ketchikan, the group stayed together and hit the Discovery Center, a little museum which was just delightful. Daniel and Sophia took their Scavenger Hunt quite seriously, so if you ever want to know about the mining history of Alaska or the life cycle of salmon... you know who to ask :)

Juneau saw us go our separate ways for a day of glacier viewing - Mom and Dad took a raft to the Mendenhahl glacier and surrounding forests, Clay's family toured the same glacier by land - as it is apparently the only glacier that can be reached that way, and we took a boat tour that got closer to the Sawyer Glacier the NCL Star would eventually visit later that day.

People go to Alaska for the glaciers, of course, and we were no exception. The first couple of days, Clay kept saying that it seemed strange to walk out on the balcony and not see icebergs. His vision of what Alaska was "supposed" to look like was more than fulfilled the day we spent in Juneau, then cruised the Inside Passage towards Skagway.

On our little boat, we got to follow a pod of three humpback whales, who we saw dive several times, exposing their magnificent flukes for our eager cameras. When the captain of our boat said we would watch the glacier for about an hour, as you never know what a glacier is going to do, I was skeptical at first. However, once we saw the glacier "calve" (the word used when ice falls spectacularly from the glacier's side) not once, not twice, but three times, we understood what he meant (and why seeing these glaciers is an item on the bucket list better crossed off sooner than later - these magnificent glaciers likely won't be with us just 20 years from now).

In Skagway, we all reunited again for a historic trip on a train that has been making this journey up the mountain since the early 1800's. The kids found standing on the outside platform as the train travelled through pitch dark tunnels at dizzyingly high elevations to be far more exciting than Disney's Thunder Mountain Rollercoaster, though they did acquire an appreciation for where that ride got its inspiration.

The last port day was a visit to Canada's Prince Rupert. This was by far the most disappointing of the ports, but none of us had planned any excursion and we were all ready to relax at sea. This was particularly good for Daniel, who came down with a "bug" that night. He was quite sick for several hours, leading me to take him to a midnight visit with the onboard doctor I will not so affectionately call Miss Trunchbull (Matilda fans will understand the reference). Luckily, the "injection" she gave him knocked him out for a solid 12 hours, at which point he woke up in good spirits, ready to drink Gatorade and eat cheerios, and he and I played a lovely game of Scrabble on our balcony, while more whales swam in the distance.

Our family trip culminated last night with dinner in Seattle at 94 Stewart, a restaurant you simply must visit if you are ever in Seattle. We had a perfect table, a great waiter (who resembled Mr. Schuester and who I kept expecting to burst into song), delicious food (though we all had to adjust to the non-crusing notion that not every meal is automatically followed by dessert :), and lots and lots of hugs. As I catch up on the blog this morning, Mom and Dad are on the Clipper to Victoria, British Colombia, where they will spend the day before returning tonight for a final evening in Seattle before heading home to Vermont and - more important by the day to Dad - Molly! :)

Yesterday, Courtney gave the Gallup family a private tour of her Seattle, and we got to see some spectacular and unusual sites. We got to see how the rich live in Magnolia and Queen Anne (in a nutshell - with jaw dropping views of the Space Needle and Mount Rainier), got to run around Gas Works Park, where the paint ball scene from 10 Things I Hate about You was filmed, and the kids (and Courtney :) even got to climb on the neighborhood troll that lives under a bridge not far from the University of Washington, which we also got to visit. When Courntey arrives in Ft. Lauderdale (where she will attend graduate school) a few weeks from now, we owe her one heck of a tour!

In just an hour or so, we will head out to join the Clifton clan for the much ballyhooed Duck Tour around Seattle. Though Captain Funtastic is off today, much to First Mate Doug's chagrin, the tour operator assured us we would have an equally engaging guide.

Tonight, we head to Port Angeles and the start of our tour of the Olympic Peninsula. Subsequent blog entries will be more regular and much shorter, I promise. It's difficult to sum up seven spectacular days after the fact, but I hope this gave you a glimpse into our week on the Star. The photos, I'm sure, will make up for the thousand words I don't write.