Cruising back toward reality

“Disappointments are to the soul what the thunder-storm is to the air”

-Friedrick von Schiller



Yesterday's Misty Fjords excurstion was a bust, thanks to the weather. The whole wishin' for a sunny day thing was just too much to ask. Actually, we saw a little blue sky, but the wind had the Pacific Ocean kicked up so much that it was too dangerous for us to go where they wanted to take us.

Too bad we couldn't have known that earlier, considering that we were on the Gangway before 6:30 am (Alaska time) to board another Allen family catamaran and have another wildlife adventure, and also that we rode for about an hour before the captain could no longer be optimistic about the weather conditions. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all about safety and comfort, so I wasn’t upset by the decision to turn back. I did spend most of the return trip, however, wishing I hadn’t gotten out of bed.

We did take one small detour up into one of the inlets near the town of Ketchikan, and saw several bald eagles flying. Like pelicans, the juveniles do not have distinct white heads until after they are at least a year old. I took some pictures, but they were REALLY far away, so they’ll just basically be memories, not additions to my portfolio.

Anyway, the captain docked the catamaran at their dock, not at our ship (where they had picked us up). This gave us a chance to walk through town a bit. Some of these cruisers go NUTS over shopping, but many of the places seemed a lot like our “Wings” type stores, with stuff made in China that then had “Alaska” stamped on it. The only major difference was, instead of sea life rafts and cheap lighthouse t-shirts, they had killer whale toys, Eskimo dolls, and cheap salmon swimming upstream t-shirts.

We did get to see some salmon swimming upstream – the pink salmon were migrating through the town while we were there, and the little shops we stopped in were built on pilings and docks winding back and forth beside and over the stream. I noticed way more dead salmon than live ones. Someone said that they had exhausted themselves so much going upstream to spawn that they just perished on the way down. Uck.

After walking back to the ship in the rain and unsuccessfully trying to find Aunt Rocky some cold medicine that would work for her (frown), we ate lunch in one of the sit-down restaurants. I was looking around, watching people, and was amazed that I hadn’t noticed (during the first couple of meals in the Summer Palace) just how incredibly gaudy the decorations were.

Like I mentioned before (or maybe not), the carpet in our stateroom is pink, magenta and orange wavy stripes, with a hint of aqua here and there. Anywhere else but on a cruise ship, where everything is larger-than-life, or at least “bolder” than everyday life, this décor would be really tacky. Here, it’s just wild and fun.

I spent part of the afternoon after the excursion warming up in the spa. I am really going to miss that when I get home! But there are so many reasons I can’t wait to get there. A two-week vacation with two people I love dearly has been wonderful, but I think we’ve all hit the wall and are ready for it to be over.

We had a great dinner at “Mambos”, the Tex-Mex restaurant. We tried a couple of new flavors of margaritas. After dinner, we went to see “Sea Legs”, the ship’s version of a showgirl revue. It was fun to watch, and the dancers were really talented. I had made up my mind that I REALLY wanted to stay up for the late night entertainment I felt like I had been missing since we collapse into bed between 8 and 9 each evening. About half-way through Sea Legs, I whispered to Aunt Rocky that the late-night activities were a no-go. Oh, well…we’ve all enjoyed almost every minute of every day that we’ve been here. We’ve played hard and crashed harder, so I guess it’s not worth worrying about what we might have missed.

This morning, we woke up later than usual. Aunt Rocky said we had a bad storm last night and the boat was rocking like crazy. I am so thankful I slept through that! Today Mom and Aunt Rocky went to the “disembarkation talk” while I stayed here in the cabin to blog.

It sounds like getting off the ship and getting a cab to the airport is going to be a ZOO. We fly out of Seattle about noon tomorrow and get into Norfolk somewhere around 12 hours later. I’m tired just writing about it!

Meanwhile, we have one more stop in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I’m excited because that’s another country that I haven’t visited yet. Aunt Rocky has been there before, and says it’s a beautiful little town. I’ll write more about that later (but probably not tomorrow)…