Alaska Adventure Day 4 Juneau

We were still sailing toward Juneau when we got up Monday morning. We got our coffee delivered and decided to try the Cosmopolitan Restaurant for breakfast---eggs benedict!

Since we weren’t scheduled into Juneau until noon, we went to the 10:00 “Emilio Robba Flower Demonstration”, then stopped to watch the “Sushi Demonstration”. Once again, they offered samples at the end—and I was surprised to find that sushi isn’t half bad.

Once we docked in Juneau, we gave our cell phones a try and got through to John and E.D. Then, it was off to explore Juneau- in the rain. Tied with Fairbanks as Alaska’s second largest “city”, Juneau is the largest city in Southeast Alaska.

A Bit of History:
Juneau got its start about 20 years before the Klondike gold rush. In 1880, a German entrepreneur in Sitka, George Pilz, hired two men to investigate the glittering rock samples brought to him from the Gastineau Channel. For $4/day and the rights to two of every three stakes they made, these two “inveterate drunkards”- Dick Harris and Joe Juneau- set out with Auk Indian guides. They holed up in an Auk village for three weeks of carousing- discovering “hooch”- liquor distilled from ferns by the Indians. In one month, they had used up their three months of supplies, lost their boat and were forced to head back to Sitka. Needless to say, Pilz was infuriated and sent them back. On this trip they found gold streaks running through the rocks and little lumps the size of peas. They staked several claims- Harris gave his name to the first township built around the site. But, after some shady land dealings, the name was changed to Juneau, after his partner Joe. Both Joe and Dick drank away their fortune and died penniless. The mountains around Juneau were rich in low grade gold ore, and for years the Juneau and Treadwell Mines were at the core of the city.

Juneau Today:
Today the population is about 31,000. The primary employers are government, tourism, mining, fishing and fish processing. Strangely enough, Juneau is the capital city. With its’ inaccessible location (it’s the only state capitol that can’t be reached by road from anywhere else in the state), there have been multiple-unsuccessful attempts to move it. Today the debate is about “The Road”—a road connecting Juneau to Skagway.

The cruise ship industry has made a major impact on this port city. With the capacity for 5 huge cruise ships a day, the population can increase by 10,000 tourists/day walking through downtown.

With 60 miles of paved highway, a BJ’s for shopping and a small shopping area near the port (the St Thomas of the Inside Passage), it didn’t take us long to explore the heart of the town. We asked one of the store owners about the local economy and learned that most of the stores near the ports are owned by the cruise lines. In fact, 50% of the stores in Juneau are owned by the cruise lines. In Ketchikan, it’s 75% and in Skagway a whopping 90%! At that point, we decided to try to patronize locally owned stores.

Climate:
The rain we were experiencing wasn’t unusual. Annual precipitation is 57 inches and 98 inches of snowfall.

Exploring Juneau:
We were glad to have our long sleeved shirts and jackets with us. With limited time (docking at noon, with whale watching scheduled for 3:00), we decided to skip the Mendenhall Glacier trip (we got views of it on the way to our whale watching tour) and just spend the time in town .

We stopped for a glass of wine at the local bar, the “Red Dog Saloon”. We got a seat at the bar and met a nice woman from our cruise (we kept running into her at every port- sitting at a local bar with a beer). The floor was thick with sawdust, animal heads were on every wall and they had a great honky-tonk piano player providing entertainment.

With rain still coming down, we made our way to “Captain Larry’s Orca Enterprises” for our 3:30 whale watching tour. We had to take a bus (which was their newest acquisition- an old Prevost bus- that couldn’t seem to go past 30 mph) to Auke Bay. There we boarded Captain Larry’s purple jet boat. The boat was huge- we got a front row seat- and with the rain and cold, stayed inside the heated cabin the entire time! We spent 2 ½ hours on the water (the channel was 2000’ deep) and saw orcas and hump-backed whales. The naturalist on board gave us some info on the wildlife.

We were lucky to see 5 orcas and we saw a group of humpback whales creating a bubble net – then lunging up in unison to feed.

Interesting facts:
Orcas:
* So called “killer whales”, they are actually part of the dolphin family.
* They move in extended family groups, called pods. These pods are matrilineal – the mother and all of her children staying together until the mother dies.
* They can swim up to 29 mph and hunt salmon, seals, sea lions and even juvenile whales.
* The males can be up to 30 feet long and their dorsal fins can be as long as 6 feet. The males live up to 30 years. The females can live up to 50 years.

Humpback Whales:
* One quarter of the worlds’ whale population (8,000-10,000) feed in Alaska in the summer
* They spend their summers in Alaska feeding then swim to Mexico or Hawaii for the winter- where they give birth to their young.
* They have a 12 month gestation period and give birth to a single calf, 12-15 feet in length, weighing about 1 ton.
* A full grown whale weighs up to 40 tons and averages 45 feet long.
* They weave nets of bubbles beneath schools of fish to create a concentrated cloud, then lunge upward through the fish, mouths wide open, eating them in a single swoop.
* Their lungs are the size of a VW Beetle and they weigh about 9000 pounds!

It was time to head back to the ship. We were greeted with hot chocolate—did that ever taste good! Since we missed our main dinner seating, we tried dinner at the Waterfall Grill. While the pizza was disappointing, we made up for it at the dessert bar. We got a slice of some decadent chocolate dessert—and topped it off with a scoop of ice cream!

Back at the room, we had a message light on our phone. It turned out that Mom had won a drawing from one of the local stores- and was the proud winner of an Ammolite Pendant. Mike, the shopping guy, dropped it off at our room, claiming that it was worth $250! Having never heard of Ammolite before, we discovered that it’s only commercially mined in Alberta, Canada and the supply may be exhausted in 15-20 years.

That little surprise gave us our second wind---it was nearing 10:30 PM – but we decided to take in the 10:30 show, Jeff Nease, a comedian. We dragged into the theater, but left with sides hurting from laughing so hard.

Alaska Adventure Day 3 The Inside Passage

Our Itinerary:

With the gentle rocking of the ship, we both slept like logs. We got up and realized that we hadn’t put out our request slip for coffee. So, we called Room Service and within minutes, we had a full pot of hot coffee delivered to our room. I decided that I could get used to this!

We decided to try the Waterfall Café for a more casual dining experience. They had a made to order omelet bar and we had a huge cheese, mushroom omelet and a huge bowl of fresh berries- blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Mom added the cheese blintz. We were definitely not dieting on this cruise!

After breakfast, we got our seats for the 10:30 Culinary Demonstration. We got there in time for the “Name That Tune” trivia contest. We opted not to play, but provide support for the team in front of us. With a crowd of mostly over 50 year olds, the host of the contest had picked songs that would test even a 30 year old’s knowledge. Amazingly, our team won- and we got our prize- “Celebrity” luggage tags.

The Culinary Demonstration showed us how to prepare “Filet Mignon Celebrity”. After making a brown veal stock (veal glace), which I would NEVER do, they prepared the filets with black olives, green peppercorns, cognac and shallots. Mmmmm – they even gave us samples. Following the Filet demo, they did a martini demo- making apple martinis and something called a “flirtini” (again, with a sample). Finally, the Pastry Chef prepared a cheesecake with marzipan. It was interesting to find that everything is made on the ship—even all the breads, pastries, sorbets, ice creams

At noon, we headed to the Celebrity Theater for the “Shopping Talk”. The theater was packed with women- and the host, the very Irish Mike, was taping the show for the in-room Celebrity TV. Throwing t-shirts and glow-in-the-dark plastic rings to rows of screaming women, we were entertained with a shop by shop description of tomorrow’s port, Juneau. It was like the Caribbean/St Thomas jewelry experience brought to Alaska. It turns out that these stores do come up from the Caribbean every summer for the season in Alaska! There was Diamonds International, Princess World Jewelers, Genoa Jewelers, Venetian Gemstone Showroom, Tanzanite International. Mike gave us the scoop on the bargains to be had in Tanzanite, Ammolite, Diamonds, Northern Lights Topaz, and Alexandrite. The “one time only” opportunity to buy a book filled with shopping freebies and discounts – for a mere $20 – was scooped up by the bargain frenzied women. Once again, we held back – but did manage to snag a t-shirt that turns color when exposed to the sun.

It was already 1:00 – and we decided to do a light lunch at the Aqua Spa Café. We had read about their salmon filets and cashew chicken salad. Once was enough—it was just a little too bland –but the blueberry tarte was quite tasty.

We got to catch the end of the “Enrichment Series” on “Alaska, The Great Land”, presented by Howard Gray, the ships’ naturalist. We rounded out the afternoon with a quick email to John at the ship’s computer center and then off to our room to take in the views of the Inside Passage.

The Inside Passage, 1000 miles, is a maze of deep channels, quiet bays and forested islands. It stretches from the Puget Sound in Washington State, north up the west coast of British Columbia along the narrow Alaska Panhandle, ending in Glacier Bay. The southeast Alaska communities here are joined by water. Only a few- Hyder, Haines, and Skagway – are accessible by road. Towns like Sitka are on islands. The views from our balcony were gorgeous.
With our first formal evening approaching, we got dressed and decided to do a Martini Tasting before dinner. The waiter brought us 6 glasses EACH with different flavored martinis- original, limon (our favorite), espressotini, caribbean sunset, appletini, flirtini….Just the thing to do before dinner- start with a little buzz. We went from the Martini Bar to dinner and started with our wine from the night before.

Dinner tonight started with Warm Montrachet Cheese and Potato Gratin, a Cream Caroline soup, a Sliced Tomato, Red Onion, Basil and Heart of Lettuce Salad, Tournedos Forestiere (tenderloin of beef in a juniper berry sauce) and a Warm Apple Tart with Calvados Sauce (Mom was convinced to try the Cherries Jubilee)

At 8:45, the Captain (Panagiotis Skylogiannis – the ships’ officers were all Greek) did his toast in the Celebrity Theater (providing us with champagne/wine glasses for our room for the rest of the cruise). The theater was packed – ready for the show by the Celebrity Singers and Dancers, “Thoroughly Broadway”. We were amazed—the production quality and acting was Broadway quality. They did a medley of Broadway show tunes- with the most elaborate stage sets and costumes. They covered the years from “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “The Producers” to “Wicked” and “The Lion King” – each more spectacular then the last.

Alaska Adventure Day 2 Boarding the Summit

We had a great breakfast at the hotel—huge muffins, yogurt, fresh fruit and granola. The hotel had a very international clientele—mostly Brits and Germans. After checking out and storing our luggage, we walked to the pickup point for the Vancouver Trolley Company. It was a great way to see the city—our driver, Larry, was very funny and we got a good overview of the downtown area.

We drove through their beautiful downtown park, Stanley Park. It is 1000 acres with rose gardens, totem poles and miles of hiking trails. We drove the full length of Robson Street, Granville Island, Chinatown (one of the largest in North America) and Canada Place (where some of the cruise ships dock). We got off in Gastown, a little Victorian area of the city, begun in 1867 when a guy named “”Gassy” Jack Deighton built a saloon to serve the area’s loggers and trappers. Today, it’s a tourist area, with cobblestone streets, gaslights, a steam-powered clock – and lots of tourist shops. We stopped to see the “Luv Bug”- a VW Beetle competed covered- inside and out- with all sorts of bric-a-brac.
After our tour, it was time to head back to the hotel, collect our luggage and head to the ship. We managed to make a stop at the state liquor store—buying two more bottles of wine for our trip (Note- wine is expensive here! – Small bottles cost more than the 1.5 litre bottles do at home).

We headed to Ballantyne Pier to board the ship. It was wonderful—the taxi driver transferred our bags directly to the Celebrity bag-handlers and we started the process of boarding the ship. With friendly Celebrity greeters at every turn, we got through a brief bag check and got “checked-in” with room keys and info packet. Then, it was time for U.S. Customs. After our breeze through customs in Canada, we held our breath hoping that Mom’s I.D’s would be O.K. It turns out that I was the problem. We had to deal with Mr. Cranky U.S. Customs guy- who took one look at my passport and instantly branded me as a terrorist. It was Israel all over again. He saw Lebanon and Jordan and started with the questions. Why did you go, what did you see…Then he saw Syria and I thought he would choke. Thank God he missed the Iranian visa. I probably would have been strip searched! He finally decided to stop tormenting us and let us go on.

Breathing a sigh of relief, we continued our journey to the ship. After a photo at the entry, we were given a glass of champagne and an escort to our room. Ahhh, our new home. What a welcome sight. It was wonderful! I was amazed at how well designed this small space was. We had lucked into one of the “secret” rooms – with an oversized balcony. The entire outside wall was a sliding glass door leading onto our private balcony- with two lounge chairs and a table. Inside, we had twin beds, our own end tables, a small sofa and coffee table, a small desk, a corner TV cabinet, and a large closet and small, but comfortable bathroom. One of the walls was all mirrors- so it made the small space feel more spacious.

Our bags started to arrive and we were thrilled to see that our wine (wrapped securely in bubble wrap) had made it through. We had heard varying reports on bringing your own wine on board. We quickly un-wrapped it and put a few bottles in our mini-refrigerator. Once all the bags arrived, we decided to postpone the unpacking and explore the ship. Our room was on the 7th deck and we stopped at the library, “Words” on the 8th floor. We both found books to pick up/exchange. They had a full library full of guide books and current best-sellers and it took all our will-power not to start checking out books. We realized that, as tempting as it was to read the latest Jodi Picoult book, we probably wouldn’t have time.

On the 10th floor, we discovered the Waterfall Café, the buffet style lunch service, which was serving lunch. No time to waste when it comes to eating massive quantities of food- we saw huge people mounding huge amounts of food- pizza, pasta, desserts, ice cream- onto their plates. We did stop and had a salad (it was, after all 2:30 and we had our first dinner at 6:00 that night) and splurged on a scoop of ice cream. The woman next to me at the ice cream bar was ordering 2 huge scoops of ice cream with sprinkles. She told me “not to miss the dessert bar”. She definitely should have missed the dessert bar.

We took a tour of the “Aqua Spa”. What an amazing number of treatments all designed to make you look and feel better. This is a sampling of their treatments:

* Ionithermie Algae Super Detox – Created by a French surgeon, the only treatment available to detoxify your body. Guaranteed to lose 1-8 inches after just one session. A bargain at $160.
* Microdermabrasion Facial – Resurface your skin - 75 Minutes for $169
* La therapie Hydralift Facial – using computerized technology to penetrating into the deepest layers of the skin – 50 Minutes for $120
* Pro Collagen Marine Facial – Holistic skin therapy – using Japanese silk protein compresses – and a face, scalp and arm massage – 75 Minutes for $143
* Exotic Lime and Ginger Sat Glow- Warm oil is dripped all over your body before the Lime and Ginger Salt Glow is applied. Your skin is cleansed and polished. With full body massage – 85 minutes for $196
* Aroma Spa Ocean Float Massage – A warm seaweed mask is applied to your body before you are cocooned in a comforting wrap, floating completely weightless, relaxing while the active ingredients work to detoxify, stimulate and ease away aches and pains, stress, poor circulation – With Full Body Massage for $257
* Hot Stones Massage – Heated Volcanic stones used with Swedish massage
* Gentle Touch Teeth Whitening – 50 minutes $199

Then, just in case you needed more, there were fitness seminars including:

* Detox for Weight Loss
* Burn Fat Fast
* Secrets to a Flatter Stomach
* Or Polar Body Age Revitalization Program– as seen on Oprah – a test to assess your body’s age. Two sessions for $99

Resisting temptation at the Spa, we had to get to our rooms, grab our life preservers and join everyone on the ship for the Emergency Drill. Walking down the stairs with our orange life preservers on was a bit awkward, but we got to our muster stations and listened to the drill. By the time we got back to the room, we had time for just one glass of wine before our first dinner.

We arrived on time, Table 442, the only ones at our table of 6. The Cosmopolitan Restaurant was lovely. We had a table close to the window – so we had a view outside as the ship left Vancouver. We started to peruse our menu options when we heard a loud voice from behind us. It was our new table mates, Naomi and Ginny. Naomi was an 82 year old woman from Cape Hatteras. She walked with a cane and was only about 5 feet tall, but her voice and presence were much larger. (Note- later on the trip, we heard people talking about this remarkable “86” year old woman—it appears her age increased as the trip went on…) Ginny, her niece, was taking her on this holiday. Our other couple arrived, Harold and Ann, (Harold from Missouri, Ann from Napa, CA). It turns out that the cruise had arranged both of their flights- and had flown them into Seattle and bussed them to Vancouver! There was no food provided and the bus driver got lost, so they had all just arrived on the ship. Needless to say, none of them were too happy. Naomi’s first priority was getting a bottle of wine. It didn’t take much for us to cave and order our first bottle of over-priced white wine from the wine steward. We ordered an inexpensive (comparatively inexpensive-coming in at only $26 plus 15% gratuity) South African wine which was quite good.

We spent the dinner getting to know our travel companions. Harold had just had surgery for throat cancer and had difficulty talking- as well as not being able to taste much of anything past the first few bites. What a shame to have such a range of wonderful food- and not be able to taste it. Ann, his wife, was the beneficiary, as she got not only her own food, but his as well. Naomi was a spirited 82 year old- well traveled, had been through 3 husbands (not sure whether they died or divorced…). Ginny’s mother (Naomi’s sister) had just died and Naomi had become Ginny’s surrogate mother.

We met our waiters, Socorro and Michael, both from India, and the assistant Maitre’D, Yusef, from Istanbul, Turkey. Our meal was wonderful. We started with a “Feuillete with Mushroom and Cream Herb Sauce”, followed by a Roasted Tomato Bisque, a Caesar Salad, Veal Picatta and Crème Brulee. A few cups of coffee and we were ready to tackle the unpacking job back in the room and watch the ship start its’ journey to the Inside Passage.

Alaska Adventure Day 1 Vancouver

As John lugged my bulging bags out of the motorhome, he asked me what in God’s name I was taking on this two week trip. While I could blame the large bottle of wine for part of the heft, most of it was clothes, clothes and more clothes. We got an early start to the airport and as John dropped me off, we both realized that this was the longest stretch of time that we have been apart –ever!

I used curb-side check-in, wanting to avoid the lines at the main counter. The couple in front of me was very well dressed, and she had obviously expensive jewelry on. They were lugging 4 HUGE bags—all 4 of them larger than my over-stuffed duffel bag. They mentioned going on a cruise-so we started talking. It turns out that they were on our cruise. They were stunned that I only had one large bag. They had packed one entire bag with turtlenecks, jackets and warm clothes. I wasn’t sure whether to feel superior for my packing skills or worried about my lack of winter clothing.

The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful. It was such a jolt to be traveling by air again. Even more so with the aging aircraft, the aging flight attendants and the complete lack of any amenities. No blankets, no pillows, no snacks (unless you want to buy them). “NorthWorst’s” planes didn’t even have video monitors for their safety presentations. It was back to the old flight attendant in the aisle with their props demonstrating how to buckle the seat belt and use the oxygen masks.

I got to MSP before Mom, so I headed to our gate to wait. By the time she made it to our gate, it had changed and we made our way to the new gate- in time for a sandwich and a Starbucks latte. Another uneventful flight- and we landed in Vancouver. Canadian Customs was a breeze—no problems at all with Mom’s Birth Certificate and supporting documentation. We grabbed a taxi and drove to our hotel. It was a charming little boutique hotel- very friendly staff and a small, but adequate room (although, it was a bit of an obstacle course with our huge bags).

We dropped our bags and decided to walk to Robson Street, the main shopping street of Vancouver. With Starbucks on nearly every corner, it felt a bit like Seattle. (Turns out that there are 91 Starbucks in Vancouver – On Robson Street, there are two on one corner!) Walking the streets of the city, the first thing we noticed was the large number of Asians and Muslims. In fact, we were definitely in the minority. We found a Malaysian-Thai restaurant with tables on the second floor overlooking the street. So, while enjoying dinner (Beef rending and Green Curry), we had a front row seat to some great people watching. We did get a bit concerned when a large, strange looking guy stopped in front of the restaurant, taking off his shirt and doing some kind of washing then started to unpack some suitcases. He did it very methodically- and thoughts of crazed suicide bomber came to mind. Fortunately, we were done with dinner- so we got our check and made a hasty retreat.

Rewind...back to SLC

A drive to the factory, just in time for our 6 am appointment on Monday to turn over the Essex to Ken’s team. Then, we were off to O’Hare to catch our flight to SLC to meet Alice. We had forgotten how unpleasant flying is…they’ve managed to make it even more awful than the cattlecar experience that we remembered from our corporate days.

We got into SLC, got our car, and arrived at the hotel just in time for our dinner with Claudia and Richard.

We had quite a schedule- touring the city, all the Eleanor sites, the Mormon history, and dinner with Matt and Jay, Robin and Bear. Alice got quite a bit of material for her book. Time flew…..

Before we knew it, we were back in Nappanee with a completed coach and off to Cleveland.

Nauvoo Pageant

Unbelievably, we decided to do a few more days of Mormon/family history--visiting such exciting places as Mt Pisgah, Iowa and Nauvoo, Illinois.

We met Mary and Alice in Nauvoo. We wanted to show the girls the family history in Nauvoo and Carthage. We gave them the "works", taking the tour of the jail in Carthage where Joseph Smith was killed, the gravesites of Joseph and Emma Smith, and walked through the old building of Nauvoo.

Then, on Friday night, we were with all our new Mormon friends under the stars watching a “fascinating” performance of the Joseph Smith Story.

Summer in "The Cities"

Back in St Paul/MSP…driving into the campground in Woodbury was like coming home. We’ve become regulars. We got a front row spot and had our daily happy hour outside, feeding the birds and talking to the staff.

E.D. had surgery on Friday at the VA so I met Mom for the day. He did great, but did need to spend the night. So, we took Mom out for a Afghan dinner. By the next morning, they were back home and out for dinner!

Mom did get her chain gang labor crew working on the 4th of July weekend. We had 10 bags of mulch to put out, light bulbs to change, etc. We did get a chance to relax- taking the pontoon out and enjoying that great Wisconsin lake life-- it was a good weekend.

I spent an afternoon with my high school friends, Kathy and Jane. We had a great time--it's amazing how the years melt away and it's like being 15 again. Even though their lives have been so different from mine--there's still that common history. (Although, I did keep thinking of this Dixie Chicks song about her high school girlfriends marrying their high school boy friends and living in houses in the same zip code as their parents...and being the one that didn't follow that path) Since the last time I saw Jane, she's gone platinum blonde and bought a red convertible T-bird. Kathy’s youngest just graduated high school- so she's facing life as an empty nester...and enjoying her new role as Grandmother! So hard to believe! Jane tried to convince us to join her for a week at their time share in Maui, Hawaii next February. A girl's week in Maui??!!