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As I expected, I did not feel like updating the blog while I was on the cruise...but I did take pictures and remember stuff to tell you! Since time is short right now...we're going to the bookstore to exchange a couple of books I bought for Ma to read last night and then we're going to the Victoria Clipper terminal for the trip across the pond to Seattle....I'll just post some photos and perhaps tell you some of the highlights of the cruise portion of the trip.

So, you're seeing the Island Princess as we saw it when our shuttle arrived in Whittier and a few shots I took when we arrived in Glacier Bay. A couple of them show the National Park Service Boat delivering Ranger Emily and Ranger Emma, who spent the day with us telling us about the glaciers and the wildlife we saw. I first saw the boat heading straight for the ship, looking like it was about to ram us, then it ducked around aft (that rhymes with ass and that's the back) and snuggled up close to the side of the boat. They crew opened a door on Deck 4 and let down a rope ladder for the Rangers to climb aboard. This procedure was followed when we took Pilots on board to guide us through narrow channels too.

You also see the view from our stateroom, specifically my bed! Since we were surrounded by glaciers and 39 degree water, I had on my wooly hat, gloves, fleece and parka most of the day...and sat it my bed under the covers the rest of the day. I'll upload more photos and more story later....Ma says to tell you that photos don't do justice to anything anyway. It's all so much more dramatic and impressive in person. So, you have whales, dolphins, glaciers, eagles, bears, waterfalls and other beautiful natural stuff coming in the next post.

Mom's favorite part of the cruise was having the balcony to hang out on and enjoy the view in peace and quiet. My favorite part was having people "do" for me; can't I be a Princess instead of just having the Hebrew name for one and cruising on their boats? No, really my favorite part was the stop in Ketchikan on the 4th of July.

More later, people!

Island Princess Bridge Cam

http://www.princess.com/bridgecams/ip/island_bridgecam.html

Copy/paste this into the address bar on your web browser and you can see where we are!

Oh, sorry about the upside down, sideways wild animal pictures....I was either too lazy to rotate them before I uploaded them...or I forgot to do that...or I was in fear of my life as I was shooting the animals....pick any one.

Wildlife!

Yup, we're living the wildlife here in Los Anchorage (as the Alaskans disparagingly call it). Today we lollygagged around the hotel room and took a little saunter up Ship Creek. It was much lower today and there were no fishermen on it...they must all have day jobs. However, I did photograph the wild animals we saw on the way back to our hotel room. As you can see, we're very brave to walk around unprotected. Maybe we should have entered the NRA "Free Gun Raffle" yesterday at the Saturday Market (on Sunday).

I also noticed a discrepancy in the boarding passes we held. Mom printed hers back in the Jurassic and it had our assigned stateroom on it E321, however mine had E209 on it....hmmm. I called the booking agency and asked them to look into it for me and they called back this morning and said we had received a free upgrade to a balcony stateroom just down the hall from the one we booked. Sweet! When I booked I was given an option to pay more for the possibility of being upgraded, but I declined (because I'm "thrifty") and we got it anyway. It must be because of the fact that I am clean living and all of my thoughts are pure.

Anyway we're being picked up in about an hour and being driven along what has been described as one of the most beautiful highways in the world from Anchorage to Whittier. We'll board late this afternoon and then cast aweigh at 9:30. Oh hey, I'll try to find the link to the Island Princess Live Webcam so you can see what we see...no extra charge.

About the bear...and the disappearing fish

That 7 foot bear pictured in the first post...he/she (didn't examine too closely) was poised in the lobby of our hotel...Mom didn't see him until she saw the blog photo.

Today we took a tour of Anchorage and I'm showing you some of the photos I snapped on my phone (I forgot to put the memory chip in the d@#n camera!). We didn't see any moose, but there were Polar Bear Farts on the menu of the bar I took Mom to late this afternoon, so that HAS to count for something! One of the photos shows a float plane landing just over the right wing of a parked float plane...that was really cool. In my next life I'm going to be a licenced pilot, a Blimp pilot and a downhill ski racer. (Got too much left to do in this life to have time for all that.) Our tour wasn't "optimal"; there were lots of people from India, China and Thailand on the tour and they would not SHUT UP...made it hard to hear the extremely bad jokes and puns the tour guide had memorized. (Ladies, the male-female ratio in Alaska is about 3 to 1...the odds are good but the goods are odd...BA DUMP BUMP.)

When Ma was napping I went to the Ship Creek Bridge Espresso Bar and got a cappuccino to sit while I watched the many seemingly luckless fishermen casting their lures into the shallow but clear Ship Creek. I felt sorry for them until I realized that getting out of the house and away from whoever remains in the house is usually the point anyway....or so I thought. See the photo of the guy with the 31 pound King Salmon...he caught that sucker right where I was photographing and was very happy to have me take his photo (which I emailed to him).

The mural on the high school cleverly includes the year it was painted, which the Principal explicitly forbade the mural painters from including. No prize will go to those who find the year in the design...just some glory due the geek who takes the time to actually find it...should be fun for you Sudoku fans.

We walked all over the Saturday market (yes, open on Sunday too!). I sampled and liked Reindeer and Caribou sausage...twice! Tested out and bought some locally made Fudge...and then consumed it almost all by myself...yummo! A guy had a booth with the theme "Alaska kicks Texas' Ass...because when it became the 50th state in 1959, Alaska became the largest state...2.3X larger than Texas. Now we know what all those Texans with large vehicles are compensating for....The Visitor Center volunteers suggested to Mom that she'd like the free movies in the Federal building...so when her knees gave out and I went souvenir shopping (I bought a t-shirt that says "I can see Russia from my house!") she watched EcoPorn...I mean movies that show all of the pretty nature stuff in Alaska. Then I watched the movie about the 1964 9.2 earthquake that destroyed several Alaska towns and caused tsunamis (Mom likes to say Sutommies) in Crescent City Calfiornia and other far-away places.

After all of that sitting down watching movies, I dragged Ma to the top of the Hilton to see the 300 degree view...I tried to make Denali visible, but apparently a high school science teacher isn't intimidating enough...we couldn't see it. After that. Ma's knees were tired, so I took her to a bar for medication. I had Moose Drool and she declined to have a Polar Bear Fart...she stuck with a Margarita.

Did you know that they make many "wonderful" souvenirs out of preserved poop of the various species of Alaskan wildlife? Well they doo...and if you've been nice enough to my Mom or me perhaps you'll be receiving some as a gift!

Tomorrow we travel to Whittier and board the Island Princess for our cruise. They charge for internet access (and I'm "thrifty") so I don't know when next I'll blog...if there are lots of encouraging comments I'll blog soon...if not, well, I'll just be at the buffet or afternoon tea, or yoga, or on deck viewing the scenery...or hunting down some good chocolate.

Arrival in Anchorage

Everything went as planned on our Burbank - Seattle - Anchorage day. It was sunny, and warm on our arrival. One of my favorite parts of riding from the airport to downtown Anchorage is going by the floatplane lake; we got to go by twice because the van driver went back to pick up some more people. Good thing too, because the second time we were stopped by "train coming" lights and a downdropping barrier...only this time we had to yield to a tiny airplane on a runway crossing the road...my car is bigger than was this plane. But you gotta love a town that stops for mechanical mosquitos!

After we checked into to our hotel, the Comfort Inn on Ship Creek, we hopped (in Mom's case climbed) onto the free shuttle offered by the Ulu Museum. (Ulu's are a variety of knives handmade by natives to this part of the world.) Then we immediately went looking for a restaurant to get an inexpensive salmon dinner. On the way, we passed by the quaint grass-roofed Visitors Center and got to stroll in the streets which were closed for the inaugural "Hero Games"...there were all kinds of rescue service personnel participating in various events. We happened by just as the Bucket Brigade Squad Car Push event was beginning. I just held out my camera in the general direction of the action and captured a few good men and women.

We stopped at Alaska Salmon Chowder House for dinner...very elegant with plastic outdoor chairs...but for Anchorage, reasonably priced. Mom opted for Clam Chowder and I snapped this photo of her calling Julie to brag about it. Our salmon filets were larger than the palms of our hands and good...but not amazing. We're not upset that we must continue the search for "most delicious salmon in Alaska". Then we walked back down the hill to our room and...were exhausted! Even though the sun never set, and sunny blue skies were in evidence on the other side of our blackout curtains....we nodded off in the early double digits and slept well until the sun, well, it didn't come up because it never went down...anyway we got up early.

I bet you can't guess what we're going to do today!