7 days ago, I boarded a plane for Seattle to visit my friend in Port Orchard Wa outside of Seattle. My friend met me at the airport and we drove the 90 minutes to Port Orchard passing through the Olympic Mountains.  The weather was fabulous and I wanted to wrap it up and take it home with me.  My friend lived on the second floor of an apartment building.  She gave me her bedroom which had a balcony off the bedroom and I got some of the best sleep of my life!

Before I knew it, Sunday had come and we were on our way on the ferry to Seattle and the ship.  The ship went out of Pier 91, a brand new pier that opened up the middle of April.  The view from the second floor was awesome!

We boarded the ship, went to our cabin, l248 on deck 14, the lido deck on the other side from the buffet, pools and hot tubs, location, location, location!!

We had an inside accessible cabin which was huge.  The only problem was they could not fix the air conditioning or air flow in the cabin and it was hot and stuffy, should have brought my handy dandy desk fan, but did not  think I would need it.

After a   wonderful dinner of Alaskan Salmon and fresh asparagus, we explored the shops .

We have a naturalist on board   and when we sailed away from Seattle out to the straights of Juan de Fuca, she described all of the different mountain ranges we passed by

Monday

Our first day at sea

We slept in, had a wonderful lunch and then explored some more

At 3 pm we showed up for the wine tasting where you sampled 6 wines from different places ; from California to Australia while cleaning the palate with cheese and grapes.  We each got a souvenir wine tumbler with a flower on it, very pretty.

After dinner, we went to our first show, cinimafantastic; a review of songs from movies!  The dancers are fantastic and the singers have very professional voices.

Three songs shone out.

Two guys came out on bicycles while the cast sang “Raindrops Keep falling on your head, shades of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”

The second song was “Windmills of your Mind, done in a very sexy arrangement, with scarves hanging from the ceiling with the ladies climbing up in gymnastic moves and the guys helping them down.  Then there was hulu hoops midway up and the guys held the ladies up and put them through the hulu hoops, very cool!

The last song that stood out was FAME, with the girls in hot pink halter tops and the guys in hot pink shirts.  They turned out the lights and they glowed in the dark!  Quite a production!

Tuesday

Today is our first day in Port, Ketchikan Alaska.  IT is an Island, with staired streets.  On some streets, you have to walk up a hundred steps to get to your front door.

Everything is shipped in.

They do have a wal mart and a McDonalds.

When I was here 4 summers ago, I did the totem pole park, the rain forest and the salmon hatcheries.  It was July and it was hot.  It is now May and it is cold!

This time, I did the duck boat tour, where yur bus turns into a boat and goes into the harbor.  You climb up nine steps to get into the vehicle.  When it goes into the water, they play Mission Impossible and Gilian’s Island.  We drove around two islands and saw bald eagles and eagle’s nests.  We also saw sea planes, and fishing boats.

Then we went back on the streets and back to the ship.

That night there was a Motown show.

Wednesday

Our second day in Port.

When I was here the first time I did salmon bake, a glorified bar be que with a lady sitting up on a stool singing John Denver Songs.

This time we did the rain forest gardens tour.  Imagine my surprise when the bus left us off at the base of a 600 foot mountain.  The gardens, trees and forests and water falls and streams are up this mountain and you go up It with golf carts.  There are gorgeous flowers planted in the holes of uprooted trees.     There are gorgeous ferns and hemlock trees and the view is spetacular!  They leave you off at 500 feet and you walkup a board walk with rails on each side to 600 feet where the look out is and you can see all over Juno!  That was a real leap of faith for me!!

After going back down the mountain in the golf cart, we warmed up with coffee and got back on the bus.

We did shopping and went back tour ship exhauster but having a wonderful time!

We sat with a lovely couple from the Isle of Man and swapped stories about the difference between where they lived and where we lived.

It was a lot of fun!

Joseph is our head waiter.  He is from Hungary, married with a 6 year old son named Adam.  We have become fast friends.  He takes care of me, making sure I get nothing I am allergic to and going down to the bakery to get me a sugar free dessert I can eat.  He told us that this sailing, he has 11 tables with some kind of food allergy, more than usual.

Tuesday night after Ketchikan, we did the specialty restaurant Sabatinnis, a 3 hour experience and wonderful Italian food; it wasn’t bad with a charge of $20 a person.  The sea scallops were so fresh, they could have walked and my friend’s lobster tail was the same way.

Last night we had another wonderful show with songs of destinations!

There was too much ice so we could not sail through Tracey Arms to   see the glacier

Thursday

Skagway

Today we were in Skagway, to go on street car trolley tour, the oldest one in Alaska.

However no one told me we would have to walk 2 miles just to get through security and another half a mile to reach our yellow bus.

Our driver and guide, Courtney is from Louisiana and spends her winters in Louisiana where It is a little more warm.  Her boyfriend and she own a charter fishing Boat Company.  They can take 6 people out for 4 hours to fish and catch fish.

Skagway being the most northern city has a train and highway system out of the island

This time of year they get rock slides and a huge boulder blew down and landed in front of the train’s White Pass to the tour so it was cancelled.  We had five ships in port with us today.  So the 800 population was increased by 9,000 tourists their industries are mining, they have just started this up again, fishing and tourism

We went by mountains and local stores which have been refurbished.  Every time a house or business is refurbished, they lift up the house off it’s foundation, take out any artifacts they find and then do the rehab.  Each house takes 1 million dollars to rehab.

They have one blockbuster, 1 grocery store and the city is one mile long

The nearest wal mart and movie theatre is 113 miles

The weather is quite nice in spring and fall but in winter time may go down to -70 below zero.

It can take up to three weeks before you can go out of your house.  As much as 10 feet of snow can fall.  They have a plough that is enormous and can slide through 12 feet of snow at a time.  Quite impressive! 

They get shipments of foods and clothing once a week on Tuesdays.

They have a new clinic but no doctor or dentist. They will pay great money if you know of anyone.  They are advertising. Their newspaper comes out 2 times a month.

They have one school, with 96 children.  When they go below 100, they lose their state funding and one family moved away this year and cost them $ 250.000 and they had to cut their art and music department.

They have 2 b and bs and people like robin Williams and Harrison Ford have stayed there they also have 1 gas station.  They do have a star bucks however!

A man by the last name of Itchem who was 5 feet, 2 and a german with a thick accent and a handle bar   moustache was told that in 1923 Warren G. Harding was coming to town and expected a tour.  So he brought out his bus, painted it   yellow with circus stripes and brought It tdown to the dock.  The president and his flock jumped on and the business was born!  Mae West came down to Skagway to publisize her movie Clondike Annie.  Mr. ITchem followed her down to Hollywood, passing out flyers about   Skagway and his yellow tour bus.  He put the bus on a ferry, and drove it down to Hollywood from Washington.  When he got there, he had a three week fling with Mae and then went back to Skagway and his wife!

 In 1898 a man by the name of Soappie Smith, a con man, came to Skagway with a shill game.  He would sell stones for $5 a stone.  There would be money wrapped around the stones.  The first couple of stones had $50 to $100 around it.  Then when the rest of the people saw, this five dollar bills were flying like snow on the table.  When they got their stones, of course no money was there and they had all fled.  One day, a businessman names Frank Reed decided to form vigilantes group to get rid of Soappie Smith.  Frank lured him outside and they both went at each other.  Frank missed his best shot because his rifle jammed.  By the time he got a new round into the rifle, Soappie had his out and they both fired at each other.  Soappie was shot in the heart and quite dead!  Frank on the other hand, was shot in the groin and spent 12 agonizing days in the hospital they had then until he died.  They buried Soappie   in a grave 3 miles outside of the cemetery’s boundaries.  Only three people attended his funeral, the under taker, the minister and a mysterious lady

Frank was buried in the cemetery with a headstone that read.  He gave his life for the honor of his town Little did they know that he had stolen someone else's identity and was wanted on a murder charge in another state!  Two ladies reenacted the fight and it was a lot of fun.

Then we drove to a look out where you could see all over Skagway to our ship.  We took some great pictures, hope they turn out.

Last but not least, we drove into town and went into the Artic Brothers and sisters club where we saw a twenty minute movie about the gold rush and the founding fathers and mothers of the town.

The gold rush did not start from Skagway but from a town called Dawson Creek.  In order to get there from Skagway, you had to get to another town, now a ghost town called Didrie.  From there you dead ended to a place called the Klondike.  People had to put packs on their backs and mush 600 miles to then go  down stream another 500 miles to get to where the gold was  only to find out the best gold stakes had already been taken.  Along this trail, you will find all kinds of artifacts, sewing machines, petti coats, binoculars to name a few.  There was a lady named Molly who brought her coffee machine wither and charged $5.00 for a cup of hot coffee but you could get free refills, shades of Starbucks!!!

Then there was Dolly, a madam at a house of negotiated affections.  The towns fold did not want them there.  Dolly would not move When they came to move her, she brought out her little black book with all the officials’ names I n them.  So they left her alone.  Several years later, the coast guard came;   they were not in her little black book so she agreed to close up but asked for another two weeks to do a going out of business sale.  They agreed!!

Dolly then moved to a retirement home  Before she died, she sent out notes to all of her patrons  The notes said, Hope to see you in the here after and continue our relationship  Quite a scandal for the town!!

After seeing the movie, we were given cards and inducted in the Artic Brothers and Sisters Club.

Back on the ship we vegged out and then dressed for dinner.  We had rack of lamb and gnocchi’s with portabella mushrooms and asparagus, out of this world!

Then we went to the crew show, quite good.  First we blew up balloons and had balloon wars for 20 minutes, letting out our inner child.  Lots of fun!

Then some crew members sang.  A young guy from the Philippines came out and played somewhere over the rain bow on his ukulele and singing along with it.  He said his 92 year old grandfather had taught him to play this instrument.  He said his grandfather had been told 2 months ago, he was terminal.  He told his grand son to get together 100 of his male friends for a party.  When they were full of drink and food, his grandfather got up, said he had some bad news, he was dying of aids.  His grand son said, why did you tell them you had aides?  His grand father said, after I am gone, I do not want anyone of them making a move on your grandma.

Friday

Second day at sea

This morning we slept in and then went into the dining room for a real sit down lunch.  I had the best artichoke and goat cheese tarts with asparagus.  We had a lovely couple join us from Atlanta.

After lunch, we walked around and then went to afternoon tea with a lovely jazz band playing.

They passed around scones, sweet and little cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches.

We went back to our cabin and slept for a couple of hours.  We got up dressed for our second formal night and had canapés delivered to   our cabin.  We then went down to the captain’s circle party for past guests where they served cocktails and appetizers.

After the party where t he person doing the most cruises was a couple doing 79 cruises with 798 days at sea, they must have been 2 when they started!

Tonight is lobster night, need I say anything more!  My head waiter Josep had them make me a sugar free vanilla Neapolitan, really yummy!

My friend and I got him a card and enclosed some money for him to spend on his son when he comes on for his 6^th birthday in August.  His name is Adam.  Then Josef thanked us, gave us hugs and took pictures with us.  He is from Hungary, 35 and a blonde hunk!

To close out our night, we went to the last show, another destination show with a bald Elvis and some really great songs and dancers!

Saturday

Today is the last day of our cruise, boo hoo.  It has gone by much too fast.

There was a culinary demonstration and a back stage of the galley, which for once was free!

We went to lunch up in the buffet, huge shrimp and great vegetable knishes.  It is really foggy out and the fog horn has been going all day.  We are getting into Victoria around 5 and leaving around midnight.  In order to get into Victoria, you have to walk two miles and then go through customs so we have decided to stay on the ship.

We sat out on lounge chairs and read and enjoyed people watching and listening.  We should have brought our swimming suits, they had covered and heated pools.  Ohwell, ext cruise.

We went to a classical concert, really bad, the acoustics were terrible!

We have our luggage out and are ready for tomorrow morning.  Tonight is my last meal, crab cakes, sea scallops and egg plant fritters

Macaroni and chicken burgers are going to seem so boring next week.

Tonight after dinner we see the Tom Cruise movie Valderie and then back to sleep we need to be up bright and early tomorrow morning to get off the ship and through customs.