Family Weekend

My mom and Sandy made their annual fall visit earlier than normal this year. The weather was awesome, in the 80s the entire time. We spent the day in Chaska at the University of Minnesota Arboretum. We walked around the pathways viewing all the different plants, trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses. It was downright hot but a great day.

We began our evening with a wine tasting with cheese and chocolate pairings I tried to put together. For dinner Sandy brought the extra-large shrimp she had just caught in Alaska last month and made us an amazing dinner.

Saturday we visited my cousin Melissa at the 20,21 Restaurant in the Walker Art Center, as she is a pastry chef there. We tried the tasting menu and sampled her creative desserts. We were so proud and impressed. Later that night we had plans to go on a dinner cruise on the St Croix and what an awesome night. They had a bluesy rock band and the local liquor store provided us with samples of beer and rum and Jeremiah Weed and another vodka all night long. It was a blast.

It's always fun when my family visits and we were sad to see them leave Sunday morning.

Seward, Alaska

We spent the last two nights of our Alaskan vacation in Seward. I really like this town. It's quaint but has a lot to offer. We walked all along the harbor and visited the Sealife Center where they display all kinds of fish and birds but also take in Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters, Puffins, etc when they need some TLC. It's a really cool place to visit if you get the chance.

Our main goal was to get in a fishing trip before we left Alaska so we woke up early on Saturday morning, ate breakfast, found a place to make us a box lunch and set out to catch some Halibut. We were on our way by 7:30am. We took a 2 1/2 hour tour to our location, fished in a dud spot before we found our final destination. We each caught at least two fish but started throwing too many back by the time we realized we needed to be keeping them.

This time of year I guess maybe there are not as many big ones but we caught some decent Halibut and Chad and Clarence even caught a Ling Cod each. We headed back to Seward and made it back around 6pm. We brought our fish in for processing and then got cleaned up for what was maybe the best meal we'd eaten in Alaska at Chinooks in the Harbor. I ordered halibut and Chad had the Salmon, along with Le. It was truly phenomenal and now I need to learn how to make the fish that way.

It was a great and rewarding day. None of us were up for being entertained so we went back to our motel rooms and went to bed.

Final Cruising Day

Day seven started early. We arrived at the Hubbard Glacier around 6am. Chad and I were up to the top deck to view it closer to 7am but we still had an entire hour to enjoy it. It was awesome. We were able to get really close and we really had the best weather Alaska had to offer because even the week before they could not get close enough and it was really foggy. We had no obstructions and it calved the entire time.

There was a naturalist on board talking about the glacier and then the captain started talking over the loud speaker and encouraged us to all yell at the glacier at the same time causing it to pick up it's action. That was so cool. Speaking of cool, the temperature near the glacier is super-duper cold, that's why we all have our hats and gloves on for the first time all week. It was pretty awesome and I love glaciers, isn't this one beautiful?

Well, we ran out of time to look at the glacier and needed to head to Seward where the cruise ship would dump all of us 2000 and some passengers and pick up another 2000+ passengers all within eight hours time the next day.

We went to breakfast and did our own thing again. Chad had his Karaoke Superstar finals and we had some big BINGO prizes to play for. It was a casual dinner, actually calling for Alaskan attire, I had my puffy vest on and we even saw some sweatpants in the formal dining room. People were starting to wind down.

I didn't make it past dinner again, Chad tried to find some trouble but just about everyone else on the ship was in their rooms for the night too. Must have been the comfort food themed dinner that really sealed the deal for us.

The cruise was really a great experience. It was a lot of fun. I would go on a cruise again and I never even thought I'd want to do one. I had a blast, Alaska is so beautiful and it was great to share the experience with Chad's parents. We keep hearing that they may just do another one and that would be wonderful.

Icy Strait Point

We tendered to Icy Strait Point this day. It's a small port where we would need to get on a boat to get to shore and then take a bus to the town. We had a great view of the bay and watched people drop 3000 feet on a zip line in front of the boat. That was good enough for us, we stayed on the boat all day.

Our day six was pretty lazy and I don't think any of us feel bad about it. We woke up, Chad and I were enjoying the breakfast room service option in the mornings, we kind of did our own thing, met for a quick breakfast with Le and Clarence and then went our separate ways.

The boys hung out in the hot tub, they really liked it there, which you can't blame them, it was in the open Alaskan air. Le found a lovely lounge chair in the Arboretum which is nice and warm with windows to the surroundings, and I found an outside deck chair and lounged, I thought I was going to read just like Le but the fresh air and sun got the best of us and we both slept. I slept almost all day. Chad and Clarence did better and found some activities.

It was our last formal dining night so we were dressed for it, the theme was Chef's dinner and they really out did themselves this night and we were able to view a number of the kitchen staff on parade. It's amazing how many people work on these ships for us.

We attended another evening entertainment which featured our Royal Caribbean singers, dancers and orchestra. We had a battle of the sexes activity that evening and the men actually won. Then it was 50s and 60s Rock 'n Roll Prom night. That was so much fun because it was really a special night. Lots of people were dressed up and showed up to show off their dance moves. Then we all attended a special buffet in the casual dining room where our chefs prepared a fabulous mid-night buffet of chocolate, desserts galore, sandwiches, fruits and other wonderful things.

It was another wonderful day of cruise life.

Skagway

We arrived in Skagway day five. This is the starting point for many adverturers during the historic Gold Rush of 1898. It became our favorite port. At least for Chad and I because it was not nearly as commercialized as Ketchikan and Juneau.

The town is partially preserved by the National Park Service where they have an office and museum right in town and keep up and preserve a number of buildings around town. We took their hour long park ranger guided walking tour of downtown where we learned ALOT about the Klondike gold rush and found the whole ordeal these gold-rushers went through to have been tremendously difficult.

We took a bus tour to the White Pass. It was so beautiful. The road gets very high and the edge is very steep. Gotta love those mountain passes. The air grew very cool and the plants and lakes were beautiful. So few people actually live there that the land is practically untouched and remains in it's natural state it's been in for decades. My pictures should show how much I enjoyed it.

That night was the Mystery Dinner Theater performed by some of the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers. It was held at Portofino's, the ship's Italian restaurant. The dinner included a performance, wine and a five-course menu. It was a nice meal but the theater was pretty cheesy. We still had fun as we were able to meet some of our fellow cruisers and chat during dinner which we all enjoyed.