Juneau

Day Four on our cruise brought us to Juneau, Alaska.

We took a shuttle bus to the Mendenhall Glacier which was an awesome color of blue. The visitor center was very nice and we learned that the glacier had retreated 1.75 miles since 1958. It's too far from the visitor center to see it calving. Chad found a hike that might get us a closer look so we hiked about three to four miles round trip through a beautiful part of the Tongass National Forest and did not get a really close look but we did get a closer view of the waterfalls on the right side of the glacier that just became exposed this year. How cool is that?

Clarence suggested we visit the Red Dog Saloon where Wyatt Earp's gun is displayed. We had reindeer sausage and cheese and a drink which was much needed after our hike. Then we headed back to the ship to get some rest and get ready for dinner.

It was a casual night, we were able to get a shower before dinner and I think this is the day we all went back to our room to rest before the show because we devoured our food quickly and then we fell asleep and didn't wake up til morning. Clarence saw the nightly entertainment and the rest of us were out cold. Must be something about that fresh Alaskan air.

Ketchikan

Day three we awoke in Ketchikan, AK. This town is known to see over 150 inches of rain a year, but luckily we stayed nice and dry.

We had a flightseeing tour planned with a local floatplane operator at 9:30am. It was a one and a half hour tour over the Misty Fjords with a lake landing where we were able to stand on the plane floats and experience the silence and beauty of a glacial lake. It was so amazing. I took lots of pictures as you can see.

When we were finished with our tour we walked around town, there were spawning salmon going through the city river and that was really cool to see. We also walked along Creek Street which is an original boardwalk set up during the gold rush which housed many cathouses during the time. They've been turned into tourist shops but Dolly's House is available for touring, so we did.

Our dinner time was at 6:00pm so we had time to get back to the ship have a little lunch with free time and get ready for the night.

This night was smart casual, we made it to the entertainment which was a singing impressionist. Shortly after our 9:00pm show, Le and Clarence went to bed and Chad and I went to the 70s Disco Dance Party. It was crazy, the whole ship seemed to be in the Centrum singing and dancing. The village people made a performance, at least their look-a-likes did and women were going crazy. We tried to go dancing afterwards but we were already starting to lose our ability to stay up late. The 70s Disco Dance Party was the most fun I saw everyone having the entire week. The cruise entertainment again really came through.

Cruise to Alaska Day Two

Day two of our trip was spent cruising from Vancouver to Ketchikan where we would not reach port until early morning of day three.

This time was used to take advantage of what our ship had to offer. I made it to the gym to work out and later Chad and I attended a yoga class. Chad and Clarence played dodge ball and Le and I attended a scrapbooking class. We also participated in trivia at the Schooner Bar. Our on ship entertainment group was awesome. They were a smaller group of about 4-5 but they remembered our names all week and made sure we always had a smile on our faces, they were wonderful.

Dinner that night would be our first formal night and also was our Captain's welcome. We dressed up and had a great night. The food was amazing and the captain spoke, he's Norwegian, and was hilarious.

Many of the ship's guests stayed in the Colony Club after the captain spoke where they held the 'Finish that Lyric' contest. I came in 2nd. Chad and I competed in the first Karaoke Superstar competition. Chad, of course, made it to finals but I did my best Madonna and became known for that around the ship for days to come.

We were becoming quite the popular couple. In fact, I only sang the first night, this night during karaoke and the lyric contest and was recognized off the ship a week later as part of the singing couple. That may be how it works when you are 40-50 years younger than many of the guests, we were probably also the 'young' ones.

They ship offered a show every night, this night was Piano Man where the Royal Caribbean singers, dancers and orchestra performed hits from Billy Joel, Elton John, Barry Manilow and another composer. This was probably the best show they performed all week.

Then it was also 80s night at the dance club so we made an appearance and danced until we couldn't dance anymore. I'm not sure how we were still going after such a full day.

Cruise to Alaska Day One

Our first day on the cruise ship was fun. None of us had ever been on one and we were having a great time touring the ship and visiting it's many amenities.

The first dinner was casual and afterwards we made our way to a spot we would frequent every night, the Schooner Bar where our waitress was from the Philippines and her mother's name was Litta too. What a strange coincidence.

We stayed up later than many of the other guests so we were able to practice our karaoke and make a name for ourselves early on as 'the singing couple'.

Pre-Cruise Vancouver

We landed in Vancouver, BC around 10:30 pm and took a taxi to our hotel. It was nice, cozy and quiet. It took us awhile to rest because we were just too excited about what we were doing the next day.

We woke up early, ate breakfast and walked around the neighborhood which included Gastown and Chinatown then we took a taxi to Granville Island which was really a cool place. It was a perfect morning waiting to board our ship to Alaska.