Alaska Report/Vacation Return II

Well it falls to me to update the blog. Carlys shirked her duty so out of frustration I am doing this endeavor. As most of you know we started this vacation by going to Imperial Beach with Carsen and Raelynn aboard. We stopped in Avondale to pickup Hayden to join us but alas and alack when he arrived with his dad he was sick, sick and while his desire to go was strong, his need to do the shooty flooperoopus with the loops was stronger and his dad cleaned him up and went off to the Grandparents Grossarth pending a return home, recovery and possible resumption on the trip later. The rest of us had In-N-Out burgers and were off to beach land, visiting various potty stops along the way, finally getting to San Diego in the early pm. We were met by Ryan, Michelle, Emily and the ever quiet Bella. After pizza dinner Bella and crew were off to Oxnard.

August 12th found us in church with the Imperial Beach Ward. Dinner was from KFC where Grumpaw was dissed by the clerk when she waited on another woman who came in after Grumpaw and was told in Spanish that she was next, as the old white guy could wait, (all in Spanish.) After she was done and left, the old white guy told the clerk that he understood what was going on and she was not too nice, but the old white guy could live with it. A camera would have been nice at that point to get the flapping jaw action.

Much fun was had starting on Monday with a box of donuts and cereal for breakfast. Emily and Carsen began wearing out the beach under the protective coat of sunscreen and Nana Carlys and Grumpaw's supervision. Rae went into the Jobba the Hut routine on the porch. Lunch and dinner were eaten out as the group leaders decided not to cook for the week. This continued till all went home or else where.

Richelle and Derek and Jake and Hayden arrived Wednesday, with the driver all excited about making it to the beach in one piece and zeroed in on the fun. Much beach combing and walking here and there and everywhere for wave hopping, shell gathering and ice cream buying and a trip to Subway etc. Randi arrived on Thursday night to complete the bed switching and car seat switching for the weak.

On Thursday morning Emily went home for birthday fun for Grumpaw and more ice cream at the DQ. (Emily had separation anxiety on the way home. No smiling.) Nana and Grumpaw went to a hotel to rest up for part B.

On Friday, they left OX for SFO and Uncle Erics', Grumpaw drove, Nana began reading 1776 to Grumpaw, a story that has not ended yet. I think there were too many potty stops and naps in the whole trip to get the book read.

Saturday Grumpaw got into bowl turning lessons, as did Aunt Mary Ellen, from Uncle Eric.

Sunday the 19th, Jeanne and Carlys went to SFO to get Jeanne's sister and niece from the ship so they could debrief her and her niece on their trip to Alaska. Eric, Grumpaw, Mary Ellen and Eric went to church and then home to load up for the Limo trip to Pier 35 and the Dawn Princess. We got on board in record time as we were among the last to check in. This seems to be the method to avoid lines and shoving folks who are afraid they might miss the Boat, if they aren't there first. Actually I think they are just in a hurry to get to the food and drink areas, not necessarily in that order.

Once on board and in our Staterooms (cabins) we prepared to go up forward on the bow to watch our departure from "The City". The day was sunny but the breeze was a little brisk, a great summer afternoon to sail away.

It amazes me that as we backed out of our berth there was a lot of horn blowing at some chowder headed sailboat captain who tried to pass astern of us, not allowing that the big ship doesn't stop on a dime, more like a mile or three. Finally we turned to the Golden Gate and began to pick up speed. Passing under the bridge caused more horn blowing and everyone on the bridge waving at the wavers on the ship. People with cameras shooting pictures everywhere and at everyone and everything. A moments digression here............., Thanks to all who gave up hard cash/time to get Dad the DVD Movie camera for the birthday. It is real special and Carlys really appreciates it and spent some of the time from OX to SFO learning to operate and driving Dad nuts with it, "smile for the camera".

When we went to dinner we learned that one woman’s" luggage was sent back to Chicago by the airline, she became Bathrobe Betty for several days. Another woman’s luggage was dumped into the Bay as it was being loaded on so now we have a "Soggy Sue".

At dinner we learned that our waiter was Manuel from Portugal and jr waiter was Agnieska(Agnes) from Poland. These two made the dinning effort fun and fattening for all. Let it suffice to say that Carlys, while getting to read the dessert menu never got to choose her dessert after the first night. Manuel just brought her one of each dessert, usually 5-6 of them. He also supplied us all with food and then extras for every course. This included cheese samples as a lead into appetizers and salads and soups (the cold ones were best) again one, two or three helping for some and more for others.

The two servers and our cabin steward, Reinhard from the Philippines, really made the trip special.

The food was nothing special. What can you say about breakfast but that was what it was and nothing special. Dinners were very nice but with the exception of a limited number of items nothing really remarkable. Lunch on the other hand can best be described as ridiculously horrible as well as unfit for more than hog slop. My appraisal, on leaving the ship, was to advise that in 40+ years of scouting I have had many 12 yr old scouts who could prepare and serve better food and lunches than they provided.

Well now having set the stage from Sunday night to Wednesday noon we sailed along, exploring the ship, napping, sleeping, eating, gagging and reading and when really pushed playing Yahtzee.

Wednesday Noon we arrived in Sitka. Grumpaw went salmon fishing, the others went to find Otters, wildlife and to see the country.

Fishing was great, Grumpaw caught the first, the last, the most and the biggest. Only sheer luck allowed this to happen. There were four guys and one lady (she had never been fishing before) in our group. Karen was a hoot and funny running around and cheering for all who hooked a fish. I finally threw her one to hold and she got her picture taken with it. Must of been magic in it. While she didn't land a fish on this trip, she caught 3 large silver (coho) salmon on her fishing expedition in Juneau the next day. It is her camera that provided proof of Grumpaws catch.

The other tours found Otters, whales, Eagles and other life forms. They will have to tell their own stories.

Thursday we arrived in Juneau in the early am and began tours together seeing the state museum, then off to the Mendenhall glacier. This is where Carlys went with Grumpaw to see the bears. She got bored and was about to leave when a momma black bear with 2 cubs went fishing and caught a salmon about 5 lbs and gave part of it to her cubs and then went off to finish it. Nana got some great movies of this and a poppa bear fishing for and eating salmon. The glacier was quite pretty and, except where there was a lot of dirt, was a sky blue color that would be hard to match. Nana will have to show all the pictures. From the glacier we went to a Northern Rain Forest garden and we saw lots of interesting plants. Again Nana has pictures to show.

Finally we went to a fish hatchery that specializes in raising salmon in a natural way and watched the process. We returned to the ship and then went souvenir shopping before the ship sailed.

From our ship in Juneau Eric W. and I watched eagles in the trees above the main road.

Thursday AM we got up in Skagway. We went for a train ride while the others went off on some water activity. The train ride followed the 1898 gold rush trail up White Pass to the Yukon/Canada. The Railroad uses restored rail cars and provides a scenic view for all. The tour people kept trying to get people to go to the front cars but most got in the last cars as they were closer to the ship, ie, no big walk involved here. Nana and Grumpaw went to the second car, not many people, so we got to sit next to the windows where all the good scenery could be seen. We could see the trail that the gold rushers of 1898 had to use to get to the Yukon Gold Fields. Very steep and narrow and a long way to haul 2000lbs of supplies per man to be allowed into Canada. On the way up we passed the new US Customs Station. It is built 10 miles inside the US Border. This is because the normal place for it on the border gets 40 feet of snow on average each winter and it would be buried all winter.

Skagway (Skaguay) is the only city on the inside passage you can drive to, the rest of these places you must fly into or come on a Coastal Ferry or ship. In Skagway near the Railroad tracks there is a small stream maybe 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep that was full of spawning salmon, so many you could probably walk across on the fish and not get wet.Skagway is a dirty old town left over from the gold rush days it is about 7 blocks wide and 3 blocks deep. There is also an old time cemetery with many of Alaska's notorious past citizens buried here.

Enough for this blog, I will bore you more starting with the Tracy Arms Glacier later.