Wanna-be Alaskan

Getting up early wouldn’t have been any easier with a good night’s sleep, but 6 a.m. came soon enough, just in time for me to finish watching the 500th discussion on Brett Favre retiring for good on ESPN. (Tonight, I’m getting the big bed).

We were in the small town of Ketchikan bright and early. After disembarking, we got a chance to take a small boat out to the inlets and catch crabs! The guy who led us out to get our crabs was probably in his twenties, worked at the George Inlet Lodge in Ketchikan, AK in the summer, and living in California, surfing and working in the winter. What a life! He was very knowledgeable and we got to get up close and dirty with the crabs! We pulled two, overly-full bins with crabs and he told us everything we needed to know about a crab. I got to pull up one of the bins; it was kind of hard actually! After we caught our crabs, we went back to the lodge and ate them! Crabs for breakfast at 9 a.m. was a little unusual, but they were delicious!

We only had about a half hour to visit the city of Ketchikan, and I took that time to find a drug store and spend $10 on throat lozenges-just what I wanted to spend my money on in Alaska.

The visit to Ketchikan was short lived, but the day was gorgeous, so after completing two laps of the 13-lap 5K Susan G. Komen “On the Deck for the Cure,” I got my swimsuit on and relaxed by the pool all afternoon. When the wind started to make us cold, we moved inside to watch the karaoke show. There were a lot of great performers and thanks to one of the guys,Sweet Caroline will officially be stuck in my head for the next week.

Dinner was fabulous.  We had lobster & filet minion tonight. After dinner, we saw the musical show.  For some reason, it was pretty lame tonight. When the show was over, we went to the “Black & White Officers Ball.” I convinced Brendan to hang out with me at the dance instead of his friends, so I would have a dancing partner, but I ended up not needing him too much. All of the officers, from age 20 to probably 65, had a numbered envelope and inside each envelope was a prize. They asked the ladies to dance and a number was picked for the dancer to win the prize. First I danced with the cruise director, but Pam ended up winning the prize! It was a very pretty Swarovski Crystal necklace. The ball was fun and was a great way to end our last formal night on the ship.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it yet or not, but every day the rugs in the elevator say what day of the week it is. I, being the blonde I am, didn’t realize that and on Saturday I asked, “Why does it say Saturday on the floor in the elevator? Yesterday it said Friday”…duh! So every since Saturday, I’ve been taking a picture of the rug in the morning so when I look through my pictures, I can tell which were from what day. (Genius, I know).

Tuesday we were in the Russian town of Sitka! Since my great great grandparents came directly from Russia, it was really exciting for my Grandpa Bladdick and our family to see the heritage his grandparents brought to America.

The famous St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral is in the center of town and my third cousin used to be the priest there awhile ago. We got a tour of the church and had a chance to look at the Russian stores where I bought a necklace. The necklace is a pendant with the Orthodox Cross on it. Even though I am Lutheran, I really liked what the Orthodox stood for. Of course, the cross stands for Jesus dying to save our sins, but there are two horizontal bars in above and below the normal horizontal lines that a Catholic or Lutheran church would show. The three bars symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit trinity, but also the scene and meaning of Jesus’ death also. The top one shows the sign that Pontious Pilot nailed above his head that says “Jesus, King of the Jews.” The top bar is slanted upwards towards the right hand side of Jesus symbolizing the thieve that asked Jesus for forgiveness before he died. The first necklace I picked up was a whopping $150, so I bought the $12 one instead.

Not only did we get to see the town of Sitka, but we saw whales! We took a catamaran out around the islands of Sitka and saw two humpback whales! We also saw sea otters and eagles. It was a great wilderness day.

Tuesday night involved a great dinner, a hilarious magician/comedian and a dessert extravaganza! Being the nice sister that I am, I let Brendan sleep in the big bed and I got the stupid pull-out. I slept horribly and woke up with a bad sore throat and stomach ache. I watched about four straight hours of ESPN, National Treasure and Along Came Polly. Like I said, I didn’t sleep. 

What a site to see! I think I’ve used the words gorgeous, beautiful and magnificent quite a bit in this blog, but I cannot describe this place any other way! This morning we woke up to clear green skies and glaciers surrounding us. We went through Glacier Bay and as I type, I am looking at the huge Mendenhall Glacier and some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. The details and snow that cover the mountains take my breath away. I could sit out here all day and view God’s great creation.

After a full morning of glacier viewing, I went upstairs to the pool deck and sat under the warm sun and read my book. Talk about relaxing. Monday was a pretty relaxing day all around. I got a chance to take some really great pictures and eat a lot of unnecessary food. I tried to run on the treadmill in the fitness center, but I was looking at the water outside and my pace couldn’t keep up with the ships. Hence, more motion sickness. They say the average person gains between 8-14 pounds on a week-long cruise, geez! At this point, I’ll be there in no time. 

After dinner, we went to the Mondrian Lounge to watch the Craig Richards, a 20-something-year-old saxophone player. He was great! Not only did he play the saxophone, he played the piano and sang too. After he performed, we listened to a comedian.  He was pretty funny without being vulgar. It was a nice change from the comedians you see on TV today. He made a lot of jokes about how there are a lot of old people on our cruise (which is absolutely true, I feel like I’m at a nursing home). 

We arrived in Juneau at noon and crossed the gangway to the city. The city was a quaint, cute little town with a lot of shops and mountains in the background. It is so secluded, that there are no roads leading to or from Juneau. Apparently, the only ways to get there is by plane or boat. We went up this huge tramway to the top of a mountain and got some great pictures.Then we got ready for our shore excursion; Taku Lodge Float Plane Adventure.

WOW! We boarded the float plane and Brendan got to be the co-pilot. The 20 minute plane ride was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The whole time I was thinking; “How can people not believe in God, this is the most amazing site to see.” We went over the Taku Glaciers and the Taku River. We landed in the water and glided towards a few guys waiting to take us up to their lodge. We loaded up on bug spray, but Pam stilldonated to the Alaskan Giant Mosquito Foundation after a walk in the forest. We watched one of the guys cook our delicious, fresh, King Salmon (which was caught earier that morning). He grilled it outside on an open grill.  They told us that after we eat, many times, you can see bears near the lodge because they come and lick the grill grates from where the salmon was.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately for the people who didn’t want to see a bear), we didn’t have any luck of seeing one.

We went inside the original cabin from the 1920’s and ate the best salmon any of us had every eaten.  We got the chance to learn about the history of the lodge. The cool thing about this little lodge, is that nine college-aged kids live at Taku Lodge from March until November. They sleep there, eat there and only go back to Juneau about once a month for supplies. What a life! Across the water is the huge Taku glacier and the lodge is surrounded by tall, snow-topped mountains. They don’t have electricity, so they cannot refrigerate any of their food. They get all of their ice from the glaciers! They go out on a small boat and pick the darkest ice chunk, then clean it off with a hose and keep it in a big container. We drank lemonade with glacier ice! After dinner, Wes, one of the guys who work there, took us for a little hike before we had to head back. We looked for bears, but found fresh blueberries instead! He said that some mornings, they’ll go out and pick a lot of fresh blueberries and make blueberry pancakes and muffins. Yummy!

I used to think that I had to have technology and modern amenities to live a happy life, but after spending a few hours at the Taku Lounge and taking in all of the wonderful nature that surrounds the quaint place, I think I could handle living there. We had to board our float plane and took a different route back to Juneau, giving us a totally different view of the glaciers and mountains. When we got back to Juneau, we shopped for a few hours! I bought my self an Alaska sweatshirt, my mom a present and my dad two presents. I also bought Kevin a little something as well. Then we got on the ms Zaandam and got some food. Go figure.

Yesterday was choppy and hard to stand the seasickness. I took some Dramamine, took a nap and dealt with it. Pam and I got up early, ate breakfast and enjoyed our hot stone massages and milk wrap. I felt like corn on the cob lying there with tin foil wrapped all around my body and face, only showing my nose so I could breath. The guy giving Pam her massage said to me, “Ma’am, you look like a burrito!”

Later, Brendan, Pam and I enjoyed smoothies by the pool and hot tub. Then, we showered and got ready for our first formal dinner. Dinner was great! Everyone ordered “Land and Sea” (filet minion and giant shrimp), except for Brendan, he ordered “Giant Alaskan King Crab.” Yummy! We were so lucky to have one seat open at our table and one of the women who worked onboard the ship got to eat dinner with us. Roberta is from Brazil and has been a part of the Holland America Cruise line for a few months. It was a pleasure talking to her about all the secrets of living on the sea.

After dinner, we enjoyed the show that the “’Dam Crew” put on. We got ‘dancin’ fever’ from the entertainers and went to the bars to go dance. Before we went dancing, grandpa and I played a few hands of black jack. Grandpa lost right away, but I held my own for awhile. Soon enough, our gambling money was gone. After the casino, we went to the “Crow’s Nest” at the very top of the boat to dance. A live band was playing and Grandma taught Brendan how to dance. He was very good! Then, DJ Matt came and he played some great dancing music. Brendan picked up a 60-year-old woman and danced the night away with her. (It was hilarious; let me tell ya).

Around 2 a.m., we all went to bed and woke up looking at calm seas (finally!) and gorgeous mountains. Pam saw a whale this morning! The view I see from my room window right now is so gorgeous; words cannot describe. I took some pictures, but they do not do justice. 

I feel completely out of touch when I am away from cell phone service and internet access. Sure, our ship has internet access, if you want to pay 75 cents per minute! The first two days at sea were terribly choppy. We were trying to walk down the hallway and we looked wasted because we were wobbling from side-to-side. I took my ear patch off because the doc was right; my mouth was so dry I couldn’t stand it any longer. I took Dramamine before dinner and fell asleep at the table! I skipped dessert and went to bed early, only to have woken up a few times in the middle of the night due to the rough seas; not fun.

Brendan and Grandma got hot stone massages on Friday while Pam, Grandpa and I wandered the ship (and got lost). Grandpa found his new love; acupuncture. He is finally sleeping through the night and says he feels so much better. While everyone else was getting pampered in the spa, Pam and I enjoyed a margarita by the pool outside, listening to the live band and looking at the open ocean. Beautiful.