Alaska Cruise: Day 4, Glacier Bay National Park

Day 4: We arrived in Glacier Bay around 7:00 am. 50 degrees, overcast. This was our coolest day of the cruise. Two hundred years ago, Glacier Bay was visited by Captain George Vancouver who observed it to be a large open bay, blocked at its northern end by a giant wall of ice. Since then, the ice in Glacier Bay has slowly receded, uncovering a new waterway 65 miles long containing fjords and inlets. We had the privilege of witnessing the ‘calving’ of this massive glacier. As the sun came out, the scenery was fantastic. We got to see many different glaciers during the day through the bay. U.S. Park Service Rangers (female) were on board to narrate our passage through Glacier Bay. We forgot to pack our binoculars so we missed seeing a lot of the wildlife along the shore and mountains. We were in the bay from 7:00 am to around 5:00 pm. Sitka our next stop was about 14 hours away.

Alaska Cruise: Day 3, Juneau and Mendenhall Glacier

Day 3: We arrived in Juneau, Alaska's capital city, around 11:30 Sunday Morning. Although slightly overcast and a temperature of about 55 degrees, it did not feel too cold. We decided to take a bus tour of the city and the Mendenhall Glacier. Juneau is situated at the foot of the Juneau Ice field, home to 38 other glaciers.

Juneau has served as Alaska's seat of government since 1906. Long before the gold rush that resulted in the town you see today, Juneau was home to the Tlinget, the indigenous people of the area. Each summer, they would travel from their village in nearby Auke Bay to a fishing camp at the mouth of a stream now called Gold Creek. It is believed that Tlinget Chief Kowee led two prospectors, Joseph Juneau & Richard Harris, to gold in the nearby mountains. The find was the first major Alaskan gold discovery in 1880. By 1944, the local mines were largely out of production, and the city’s main focus became – and remains today – state and federal government, tourism and commercial fishing.

After our bus tour we returned to Juneau. We took a walk around the older part of the city and went to the Red Dog Saloon, one of the oldest buildings in the city. It’s an old bar with sawdust floors, piano player and sing along. We both enjoyed the Alaskan ale that we had tried on the ship. Not sure if it is a reflection on us or Juneau, but, the Red Dog Saloon was probably the feature attraction in Juneau.
The Mendenhall Glacier was worth the trip. While there, we did see a mother bear with two cubs. We had just left the path and was looking out from the observation deck when the bears came scurrying across the path trying to get away from shouting humans. Unfortunately, we did not have the camera ready, so we missed the shot. Mendenhall Glacier is part of the National Parks and Monuments and Claude has a lifetime senior pass. We visited the museum at the glacier and enjoyed learning about glacier formations and the problems with the melting of the glaciers caused by global warming.

We went back to the ship and had dinner in the Rotterdam dining room. As usual the food was great and our dinner partners, Pat & Mary, told of their experiences in Juneau. I guess the best part of the trip is the people that you meet. Everyone we met on the cruise was very friendly. We departed for Glacier Bay National park at 10:00 PM

Day 2: at Sea

Day 2: Saturday we were at Sea traveling 492 nautical miles in a more northerly course, sailing along the West coast of Vancouver Island, named after the famous British explorer George Vancouver, an officer of the Royal Navy. At Triangle Island (mile 350) we pass to the west of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

We had plenty of time to tour the ship, watch movies at night, attend the first performance in the Mondriaan Lounge and basically just to relax and enjoy ourselves Claude did spend a little time in the casino during the sea portions of the cruise. He won enough to buy me a very pretty jade necklace. He should have kept playing--there were many other pieces of jewelry and clothing that I could have bought.

We attended a briefing called "Discover Alaska-Juneau & Sitka". Claude also attended Alaskan Best Brews Ale Sampling. He had draft Alaskan ale during the sail away party, liked it very much, and decided to taste all the ales made by the Alaska Brewing Company. All were good.

While Claude was tasting beer, I attended a Diamond and Gemstone seminar and saw some beautiful jewelry. We both had a "sparkle in our eyes". Mine was from the beautiful jewelry and I think Claude's was probably from all the samples of ale he had consumed--either way, we both had a good time

The food on the cruise was fantastic. You could schedule a dinner in the formal dining room, (the Rotterdam) go through the buffet or eat in one of the other smaller specialty restaurants. We chose the early dinner in the Rotterdam on the second level. The service was great and we had a good view of the ocean as well as the first level dining room. It’s always a lot of fun watching the people as they enter the dining room. The second level is reserved seating and the first level is open seating. For reserved seating they have early and late seating. You had to be there at your selected time (there was a few minutes leeway, but not much) or you could not be seated. We selected a table for four and were seated with two women from Fairborn, Ohio which is near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We really enjoyed their company and loved listening to what they did each day.

The buffet served 4 meals a day so you had plenty to eat. There was also a buffet and grill available near the swimming pool which was open all day. You could get anything to eat almost any time of the day. The midnight meal usually had an international theme.

We chose the early seating (5:30) for dinner in the Rotterdam. We had five smart casual dress nights and two formal nights. No jeans, t-shirts or sweats allowed although we saw this dress code broken many times. Gone are the days when one needs formals and tuxes for the formal evening but still nice evening wear is expected.

The movie for the night was The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Denis O'Hare. The movie was about an Alaskan family, but was not filmed in Alaska

In the Mandrian Lounge the show for the night was a saxophone player, Craig Richard. He put on a great show and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. After the show we went for late night (11 - 12) snacks in Lido restaurant, which featured American Food.


One of the nights was the Chocolate Extravaganza. The entire area around the swimming pool was set up with tables of different desserts made of chocolate. There were several chocolate carvings; chocolate fountain with fruit; numerous ice sculptures; and plenty of unusual drinks to enjoy while stuffing yourself with food that you should not eat.

Alaskan Cruise: Day 1, Arrival and Departure

Day 1: Friday morning we ate a leisure breakfast at the hotel and took a bus to the docks to board the ship. We got there a few minutes before they started boarding and didn't have to wait long to get on board. Our stateroom wasn't ready for us to drop off our carryons, but, we did have an opportunity to tour the ship. The process of getting everyone's luggage delivered to the staterooms takes a few hours. To entertain everyone there was food!!! A buffet was set up near the swimming pool as well as a buffet in the dining room. The weather was warm and the sun was shining. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. We took a few pictures of the ship, harbor and the Seattle skyline. Seattle looks like a great city and we want to go back to the Pacific coast to tour Washington and Oregon. I guess that will be a future trip to plan.


We had our mandatory life boat drill just before we set sail. I suppose it went well--at least we did not have to repeat it. After the drill we went back to our room to store the life vests and decided to tour some more of the ship before we set sail. So far the day and the cruise had gotten off on a good note and we were having fun.

The Cruise set sail at 3:52 PM and the cruise line had a sail away party as we were leaving Seattle. Good food, great beer and a live band what else can you ask for. Again the weather was great and we got to visit with some very friendly people. In the slide show, the individual I am talking to in the deck chair was a retired state trooper from Pennsylvania and had been in the military so we had a lot in common. Later, we discovered that he and his wife’s room was near our dinner partners who were from Fairborn, Ohio.

We attended the show on the first night of the cruise which was the Zaandam Singers and dancers. The show was titled "Let Us Entertain You" and they did a great job of entertaining us. We also attended a champagne reception and went to the Crow's Nest to listen to a live band called "Rachel and the HalCats

Alaska Cruise - Seattle

We are finally getting pictures of our cruise to Alaska on the blogspot. We have always wanted to take a trip to Alaska--just never made time to do it. We actually had an opportunity to be stationed at Elmendorf AFB Alaska when we left the Azores in 1976. However, the assignment to Torrejon AFB, Spain near Madrid was available and after discussing the pros and cons decided to take the assignment to Madrid Spain.

Unfortunately getting from Dayton to almost anywhere requires a layover. We departed Dayton International Airport early morning September 3 and flew to Minneapolis Minnesota for a stop. After a couple of hours on the ground, we flew to Seattle, Washington. We had a pleasant flight without too much turbulence. The weather was clear and we had a great view out the plane windows.

Once we arrived in Seattle, we took the hotel shuttle to our hotel. We decided to go on a tour of Seattle, but did not want to take a tour bus. We got there a little too late for the good tours. The clerk told us the city bus stopped outside the hotel and would take us to fisherman's wharf area. She also said that it was an express bus and would not take us too long to get there.

We caught the city bus and headed into Seattle. It was a sunny day and although the scenery wasn't too great on the bus route, it was a pleasant ride. We did a walking tour of the wharf area and downtown Seattle. We went by the original Starbucks, but, did not try to get in. We were told that the line is always long and there is a lengthy wait to get coffee. Starbucks is not our favorite coffee so we really didn't care.

We took a walk to the space needle and went to the top. You can get a 360 degree look at Seattle from the platform and it is well worth the trip. From there we went to Pike’s Fish Market. We saw a show on the travel channel of Pike’s Market where they were throwing the fish to each other as they were selling the fish. Unfortunately, no one was buying anything so we did not get to see this. The show made the market seem much larger than what it actually is.

We also went to the outside market. The flowers were beautiful and were a sight to see. It is also a vegetable market, flea market stuff and a few restaurants. We did not eat at any of the restaurants on the wharf. Instead we went to a small restaurant called Sonya, which served locally brewed beer, hamburgers, and fries. The beer and the burgers were great--we may have been so hungry from walking around that anything would have tasted great.

I had done this as one big blogspot, but, was having trouble posting so I decided to do it in sections like I did the Sedona trip. More to come.

Yard Stuff

I took these pictures several weeks ago. No longer are the lilies in bloom but have given way to surprise lilies aka naked ladies. The garden is much more over grown now, tomatoes everywhere, okra producing and the potatoes no longer blooming. The tomatilloes have bushed out and heavy with fruit have fallen over. The winter squash patch has come along, lots of butternut squash and acorn squash. The pretty orange lilies are from Kim's old yard in Michigan. I love the way they look upside down. The stargazer lilies were very pretty and fragrant this year. The pagoda is swallowed up by the clematis. We are waiting for the big bloom show. The English marigold across the front walk was very showy this year. They have become my favorite flower seed, so easy to grow. I lost my gazey ball to hurricane Ike last fall. I've replaced them with new ones that I don't think will break...bowling balls!! I especially like the orange flame one.

Visit up North

The end of June we took a trip up North to visit with Kim and family. We had a fun packed week. Sarah was finishing swim lessons and Nate was wrapping up fiddle camp. We had night soccer games watching both kiddos. We had lots of time to play with Natalie. Now the slideshows are not going to be in the order of days we were there but that doesn't matter. We had a mission this trip. We took the Barley twist bedroom furniture to Natalie. Natalie's birthday was the 26th and she's the ripe old age of 2, time to get rid of the crib. She was all excited and a big help to Nate and Papa putting the bed together. She is a big helper just about all the time. The famous phrase "I do it" was heard often. As you can see in the slides, she makes jam, empties the dishwasher, digs in the flower bed, a busy little girl.
Claude got to enjoy some views on the river with Captain Steve. Rum River winds through the housing area and Steve had been looking for some time for a boat to accommodate the family on an occasional outing. Looks like they will have some enjoyable days skimming along on the water.

Strawberries were ripe for picking the week we were there. Kim always makes strawberry jam, so one morning before Sarah's swim lessons, all the ladies headed to the strawberry field. We managed to pick about 25 pounds in 30 minutes and still get Sarah and her friend, Abby to swim lessons on time. We had three loaded flats. That's a lot of jam. As it turned out we only needed one flat for jam. Kim made two huge delicious strawberry pies and we still had berries to eat the rest of the week. Natalie sure enjoyed them. As I said before, Nate was finishing fiddle camp and on the last day there was a performance that we all got to go and enjoy.

On Saturday, we all headed to Valley Fair. It's an amusement park with rides for the meek and wild. We split up with the girls going to the milder side and the guys going for the stomach in the throat rides. Claude had a blast as he loves the coaster rides. He couldn't convince Nate to ride some and others they rode over and over. The Wild Thing must have been fun because they rode it 30 times!!!

On Natalie's birthday we went downtown Minneapolis for the day. Our first stop was the Farmer's Market. Since it was a Friday not all the vendors were set up but what was there had plenty of fresh vegetables and the flowers were beautiful. Next stop was the Sculpture Gardens. The gardens opened in 1988, covers 11 acres and houses more than 40 works. My favorite was the fountain-sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry. The spoon is 52 ft long and the cherry is a mighty 1200 pounds. After the gardens, we were all ready to eat and we went in search of a diner called The Weinry. We had seen it featured on a television show and said the next time we visited Minneapolis we'd look it up. After a lot of searching we found it and after a long wait we got to eat. It was a very small diner with one cook and one waitress, just like on tv. Since I'm not a connoisseur of hot dogs, I'd have to say the french fries were the better of the two.
We finished the day celebrating Natalie's birthday with delicious cake and ice cream.