30 June 2007 - Portland
We slept in. I woke up at about 8:30, which is extremely late for me. I shuffled to the lobby for coffee, and then played on the computer while everyone else kept sleeping. At about 9, is started roustin’ the young-ums. They wanted no part of it.
Eventually everyone got up. Steve led the boys in Hotel Room Physical Training (HRPT – because everything must have an acronym). They did burpees (don’t ask), sit-ups, push-ups and they also did a torture position where they laid on their backs and held their legs about 6” off the ground. This is why I hate pilates. The boys counted to 100 very…slowly… for Steve, then Nate did it for a count of 50 and again for about 30. It’s crazy, the kid has a little mini 6-pack on his tummy.
We were going to spend the next night at our friends’ house so we started getting cleaned up and packed up. Somehow we managed to miss the free continental breakfast, so we had bagels in the room then headed to Camas, WA, just north of Portland.
Steve went to CGA with Chris, so we’ve known him basically forever. He has a civilian big-wig job now. Beth and I hit it off right away when we met about 4 years ago, she’s like a friend I’ve had for a long time, but just didn’t get the chance to meet until a few years ago. Last time we saw them, we all lived in Connecticut and they hosted a big party for us as we were moving to Alaska. We all remember most of that night…
Anyway, Chris and Beth both very bright people and have super-duper jobs that keep them working very hard. As a result, they also have a beautiful home and are just about the only people I know who move more than we do.
We arrived at their house at about noon and since it was such a beautiful day, we hung out on their back deck for a while. Malley was confined to the back yard because they have 2 cats & we weren’t exactly sure how that would work. Drew & Steve played catch for a while.
We had talked about going to the zoo, but after about an hour of sitting on the deck and chatting, we decided to just keep doing what we were doing. Chris made it better by opening a bottle of pinot noir from an Oregon winery. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Good friends, good weather, good wine. This is the life.
Our quiet afternoon was interrupted by Nate screaming like I have never heard him scream before, and that is saying a lot. Nate is our screamer. All we heard was “Malley No!” “No Malley No!” followed by a blood curdling scream. Yes, Malley had followed Nate into the house and was making friends with Pumpkin and Snowball the cats. I got to the door in time to see Pumpkin, not a svelte kitty, flying through the air about 4 feet off the ground and 43 lbs. of Nate holding on for dear life to a leash attached to 41 lbs. of Malley. Nate was winning, but not for long.
We got Malley out of the house, convinced Beth that our dog had merely traumatized, not eaten, her kitties and carried on with our lovely afternoon.
When we started planning the trip, we knew we wanted to swing by Portland to visit our friends, and when I e-mailed Beth, she said they were free Friday night and during the day on Saturday, but they have tickets to a Norah Jones concert Saturday night. My response was that I was jealous since I like Norah Jones and it has been a long time since we have been to any concert. Think about it, when was the last time you saw “Anchorage, AK” on the back of a tour t-shirt?
In the meantime Steve and Chris had talked and they started hunting for concert tickets so we could join them. Of course the concert was sold out, but have no fear, this is Chris and Beth! They found some tickets for us and our seats were even a bit better than theirs. What about the kids, you ask? Well, again, this is Chris and Beth. They found a babysitter for us (Chris’s brother’s girlfriend’s sister – just in case you cared).
We had a wonderful dinner at Jake’s Grill in downtown Portland. The restaurant is beautiful and the food was even better. We started with a bottle of wine and an enormous chilled seafood platter. Baby shrimp, huge prawns, lump crabmeat, oysters, crawfish, lox with onions and capers, all served with a spicy cocktail sauce and red pepper aioli on a big tray in the middle of our table. Steve had the blue cheese crusted NY Strip. It was a great steak. I had Yukon River wild salmon stuffed with crab and brie. I’ve made crab stuffed salmon, but I never thought to add brie, and I’ve never seen it on a menu before. It was amazing! I also knew that this would be my last chance to have fresh wild salmon for a long time. Atlantic salmon really shouldn’t be called salmon, it is so different from what we have in Alaska.
A quick drive later, were we at the concert hall. It was a decent size theater with classic theater architecture. It was a nice place. We had a glass of wine in the lobby, then headed in to watch the last few songs of the opening act (can’t remember his name, but he was good). Our seats weren’t together, so we met up with Chris & Beth after the opening act for another glass of wine in the lobby (nothing but water allowed in the seats). The wine wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible either, but it was a pretty generous pour and we didn’t realize that there wouldn’t be much time between sets. We didn’t exactly chug, but we did have to drink it quickly. I was reminded that the last time Beth and I drank wine out of plastic cups it didn’t end well.
Norah Jones sounded great, her banter with the band and a few random audience members was good, but when she was singing, she didn’t really perform. She is really lost in her own world. It was interesting to watch. She wore a very pretty white print sundress. This was the last stop on the American leg of her tour and I wonder why no one has told her that the audience can see through her dress with the way the lighting is during the first song…nothing vulgar, but like that picture of Lady Di with the little kids when the paparzzi first started stalking her. It seemed odd to me.
Anyway, the concert was great. Steve didn’t especially enjoy the song “Election Day” about her disappointment in Nov. 2004. But, this is Portland and he was outnumbered.
We had a lovely evening.
Good friends, good wine, good food, good music. Life is good.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
There is no place like home. (click click click) (CLICK CLICK CLICK)
29 June 2007 - Bellingham-Seattle-Portland
The ferry docked at 0800 Seattle time, but since the ferry flies the Alaskan flag, it keeps Alaskan time. Alaskans are like that. Eight stars of gold and whatnot.
So it was really only 0700 Alaska Time, which meant that we got up at about 0600 – by far the earliest we’ve needed to be moving in a while. We made oatmeal in the room by heating water in the coffeepot, packed up our last minute stuff and headed to the barrier across the steps to the car deck.
But wait! Steve started to do something totally unexpected…he shaved! Yes, he shaved! Last time he shaved was June 12 for the Change of Command. Since then, I bet Troy has been shaving every day. Steve notsomuch. Now, I knew that Steve was going to stop into the Coast Guard station in Bellingham for a few hours to use their computers to finish up some work. I even commented the day before that I knew he would shave before walking into a CG building – in uniform or not, on leave or not - I just knew that LCDR Scruffy wouldn’t walk into that building. He said he didn’t really care when I asked him the day before. Well, as we were heading out the door he took one last glance at the mirror next to the door, stopped dead in his tracks and said…”IIIIIII can’t do it!” Poof! The beard was gone. I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture!
Funny thing on the way to the car deck, we ran into a woman who was totally lost. She had no idea how to get to the car deck. Now that isn’t all that unusual. If you don’t have a pet to take care of, you can go the whole trip without setting foot on the car deck. This lady was really freaking out that she couldn’t find the car deck. You know what was odd? SHE HAS A DOG! We saw her down there 3-4 times a day for the last 3 days. Weird.
So the ferry docked, and we made the made dash/obstacle course run to the car. As I mentioned before, they want us in our car IMMEDIATELY after docking so we can pull away. Problem is, they won’t let us into the car deck until the ship is docked. So the barrier drops and 40 or so car loads of people have to dash to their cars. It was crazy. And we didn’t even get to wake up Tinkerbell. (OK, you have to be a Disney World geek to get that one).
Here we are…Outside. That is how Alaskans refer to the lower-48 states. Hawaii, we just call Spring Break. Just about everyone goes to Hawaii in March. It keeps us from killing ourselves and/or each other.
I’ve probably spent more time in Bellingham, WA than any other place that I have not actually lived. Except maybe Disney World – I’d have to do the math on that one. When we were first married, Steve’s ship was in dry dock for 2-3 months. Since they couldn’t live on the ship, he had a hotel room, so I stayed with him in Bellingham for about a month. Ahh, young love. We’ve also spent a few days here during the comings and goings of each of our Alaska moves. We once camped about 50 feet from a train track in Bellingham. Of course, we couldn’t see the track and didn’t know it was there until about an hour after we went to bed (umm, sleeping bag). For a brief moment, we thought we were ON the tracks. So every hour a train came by, blowing its horn and shaking the ground. Not fun. This was during our first move together (Kodiak-San Diego). This was also the move when we spent a night in the car. At the Del Mar Polo Grounds. We decided if we were going to have to sleep in the car, we would do it in style. Anyway, after 14 years, we are getting better at this moving stuff. We’ve had practice.
So here we are in Bellingham. We found a giant gravel parking lot and let Malley run around for about 45 minutes. Then Steve headed to the CG station to do his work and the boys and I headed to Target. YAY! TARGET! I love Target. We don’t have them in Alaska yet (Coming Soon, Fall 2007). We popped in to Target in Orlando on the way to our last Disney Cruise in March 2006, that was the last time I was actually in a Target.
I had a shopping list, but I was also excited to just roam around. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I hate to shop. Something got mixed up in my chromosomes. Love football – hate shopping. I can’t explain it. Anyway, Yay Target!
So the boys and I shopped. New shorts for them. Drew only had 3 pairs of shorts, which is OK for an Alaskan kid. It is even OK for a week vacation in Hawaii since we had a washer and dryer in the condo. It is NOT OK for a cross country trip in June. I also bought Nate a few pairs, because for some reason all the shorts he owns are khaki. I ‘m not sure how that happened, but I thought I would bring some color into the boy’s life.
Yes, Dad, Kevin & Keith, I bought Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. In our family it is not a road trip without Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. That’s what Mom always packed.
The boys were actually good during this adventure, so I bought them a Squishie - OK a slushy, but anyone who has ever watched The Simpson’s can’t help but refer to it as a Squishie.
Then came the fun part – getting all of my Target purchases into our already jam packed car. I stood in the parking lot and took everything out of boxes and wrappers, then shoved it into a semi-logical bag. We’ll sort it out later.
I still had about an hour to kill before meeting Steve, so we went to a sporting goods store to look at bike racks since ours was currently held together with duct tape and pixie dust.
WOW! I love Outside prices! I found a trailer hitch-mounted 4–bike rack for $139. When we looked in Alaska, the cheapest we could find was $400. SOLD! It’s a bit more than we need for this trip, but now we can take all four bikes camping and such. You know, when we actually have a home and going on a trip is a novelty.
I sprung for the $15 installation fee, so the boys road their bikes around a quiet area of the parking lot for about 45 minutes while the rack was installed.
By now LCDR Baby-Face was done working so we picked him up and headed to our favorite Bellingham eatery for lunch. We ate at the Colophon Café, home of the Mug o’Mocha Moo. It is a cute little place attached to the Village Bookstore, a great (and big) independent book store. The café has a really interesting menu with lots of soups, salads, sandwiches, 3 quiches daily and 2 pot pies daily. Steve has never been one to pass up a Chicken Pot Pie, the boys each had bagels with peanut butter and I had African peanut soup with a baguette and cheese. Definitely our best meal so far. We love this place and go at least once every time we are in Bellingham.
So now it is about 1:30 and we realize we’ve made a big mistake. We are heading to Portland tonight and we are going to hit Seattle at about 3 pm, on a Friday. We figured the traffic wouldn’t be too bad until about 4, so maybe we could make it to the city before it got crazy. We were wrong….
Three o’clock, about 30 miles north of Seattle, the world came to a screeching halt. Welcome to our first traffic jam in years! Ugh! So we crept along at about 10 mph for the next three hours… Can we go home now? Oh yeah, and it was hot. When I mentioned that it was hot, Steve looked at the temperature gage on the dash and informed me that it was a whopping 76 degrees. Knowing what we are in for in our new town both weather and traffic-wise, I quickly began calculating a budget to see how we would fare if we turned around, Steve joined the Alaska State Trooper, and I got my old job back. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good. So, we kept heading south.
Once we were finally through the city, we all needed to run around a scream for a few minutes, so we pulled off at an exit with a sign for a park. We all got out, ran the dog around for a bit and discovered a new game: Puppy Catch! Malley is about 7 months old and an extremely smart dog (which can be good and bad!) She is learning a lot, but is still 7 months old! We would like to some day have her under voice control so she can hang out without a leash, but we aren’t there yet. We decided to give it a try in a very controlled way. Steve and I stood about 20 yards apart, I called the dog, and Steve let go of the leash. She came right to me! So I turned her around, Steve called her and I let go. This is fun for all! Nate was watching this all unfold and pointed out that it looked like we were playing catch with the dog & Puppy Catch was born!
By now it is getting late. It doesn’t look like we are going to get to Portland anytime soon. We were going to see our friends Chris & Beth tonight, but we had to call and bail out on them. We felt bad, but it was getting late and we were all grumpy. We wouldn’t have been very good company even though they are our good friends, and they have wine.
We arrived at the Super 8 near the Portland airport at about 9:30 & we were starving! So we checked Malley into the hotel and headed out for food. Now for our first real dining challenge: lots of fast-food and sit-down national chain options…but no. We headed down the street away from the highway and found a sports bar/restaurant called Sidelines. Ick, apparently people can still smoke in restaurants in Oregon. Oh well. We had potato skins and a big pizza. Healthy, I know. We didn’t even pretend to have a vegetable. Like I said, it was late and we were grumpy. Steve and I each had an Alaskan Amber while we could still get it.
We headed to the motel and crashed.
Can we go home yet??
The ferry docked at 0800 Seattle time, but since the ferry flies the Alaskan flag, it keeps Alaskan time. Alaskans are like that. Eight stars of gold and whatnot.
So it was really only 0700 Alaska Time, which meant that we got up at about 0600 – by far the earliest we’ve needed to be moving in a while. We made oatmeal in the room by heating water in the coffeepot, packed up our last minute stuff and headed to the barrier across the steps to the car deck.
But wait! Steve started to do something totally unexpected…he shaved! Yes, he shaved! Last time he shaved was June 12 for the Change of Command. Since then, I bet Troy has been shaving every day. Steve notsomuch. Now, I knew that Steve was going to stop into the Coast Guard station in Bellingham for a few hours to use their computers to finish up some work. I even commented the day before that I knew he would shave before walking into a CG building – in uniform or not, on leave or not - I just knew that LCDR Scruffy wouldn’t walk into that building. He said he didn’t really care when I asked him the day before. Well, as we were heading out the door he took one last glance at the mirror next to the door, stopped dead in his tracks and said…”IIIIIII can’t do it!” Poof! The beard was gone. I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture!
Funny thing on the way to the car deck, we ran into a woman who was totally lost. She had no idea how to get to the car deck. Now that isn’t all that unusual. If you don’t have a pet to take care of, you can go the whole trip without setting foot on the car deck. This lady was really freaking out that she couldn’t find the car deck. You know what was odd? SHE HAS A DOG! We saw her down there 3-4 times a day for the last 3 days. Weird.
So the ferry docked, and we made the made dash/obstacle course run to the car. As I mentioned before, they want us in our car IMMEDIATELY after docking so we can pull away. Problem is, they won’t let us into the car deck until the ship is docked. So the barrier drops and 40 or so car loads of people have to dash to their cars. It was crazy. And we didn’t even get to wake up Tinkerbell. (OK, you have to be a Disney World geek to get that one).
Here we are…Outside. That is how Alaskans refer to the lower-48 states. Hawaii, we just call Spring Break. Just about everyone goes to Hawaii in March. It keeps us from killing ourselves and/or each other.
I’ve probably spent more time in Bellingham, WA than any other place that I have not actually lived. Except maybe Disney World – I’d have to do the math on that one. When we were first married, Steve’s ship was in dry dock for 2-3 months. Since they couldn’t live on the ship, he had a hotel room, so I stayed with him in Bellingham for about a month. Ahh, young love. We’ve also spent a few days here during the comings and goings of each of our Alaska moves. We once camped about 50 feet from a train track in Bellingham. Of course, we couldn’t see the track and didn’t know it was there until about an hour after we went to bed (umm, sleeping bag). For a brief moment, we thought we were ON the tracks. So every hour a train came by, blowing its horn and shaking the ground. Not fun. This was during our first move together (Kodiak-San Diego). This was also the move when we spent a night in the car. At the Del Mar Polo Grounds. We decided if we were going to have to sleep in the car, we would do it in style. Anyway, after 14 years, we are getting better at this moving stuff. We’ve had practice.
So here we are in Bellingham. We found a giant gravel parking lot and let Malley run around for about 45 minutes. Then Steve headed to the CG station to do his work and the boys and I headed to Target. YAY! TARGET! I love Target. We don’t have them in Alaska yet (Coming Soon, Fall 2007). We popped in to Target in Orlando on the way to our last Disney Cruise in March 2006, that was the last time I was actually in a Target.
I had a shopping list, but I was also excited to just roam around. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I hate to shop. Something got mixed up in my chromosomes. Love football – hate shopping. I can’t explain it. Anyway, Yay Target!
So the boys and I shopped. New shorts for them. Drew only had 3 pairs of shorts, which is OK for an Alaskan kid. It is even OK for a week vacation in Hawaii since we had a washer and dryer in the condo. It is NOT OK for a cross country trip in June. I also bought Nate a few pairs, because for some reason all the shorts he owns are khaki. I ‘m not sure how that happened, but I thought I would bring some color into the boy’s life.
Yes, Dad, Kevin & Keith, I bought Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. In our family it is not a road trip without Fishy Crackers and M&M’s. That’s what Mom always packed.
The boys were actually good during this adventure, so I bought them a Squishie - OK a slushy, but anyone who has ever watched The Simpson’s can’t help but refer to it as a Squishie.
Then came the fun part – getting all of my Target purchases into our already jam packed car. I stood in the parking lot and took everything out of boxes and wrappers, then shoved it into a semi-logical bag. We’ll sort it out later.
I still had about an hour to kill before meeting Steve, so we went to a sporting goods store to look at bike racks since ours was currently held together with duct tape and pixie dust.
WOW! I love Outside prices! I found a trailer hitch-mounted 4–bike rack for $139. When we looked in Alaska, the cheapest we could find was $400. SOLD! It’s a bit more than we need for this trip, but now we can take all four bikes camping and such. You know, when we actually have a home and going on a trip is a novelty.
I sprung for the $15 installation fee, so the boys road their bikes around a quiet area of the parking lot for about 45 minutes while the rack was installed.
By now LCDR Baby-Face was done working so we picked him up and headed to our favorite Bellingham eatery for lunch. We ate at the Colophon Café, home of the Mug o’Mocha Moo. It is a cute little place attached to the Village Bookstore, a great (and big) independent book store. The café has a really interesting menu with lots of soups, salads, sandwiches, 3 quiches daily and 2 pot pies daily. Steve has never been one to pass up a Chicken Pot Pie, the boys each had bagels with peanut butter and I had African peanut soup with a baguette and cheese. Definitely our best meal so far. We love this place and go at least once every time we are in Bellingham.
So now it is about 1:30 and we realize we’ve made a big mistake. We are heading to Portland tonight and we are going to hit Seattle at about 3 pm, on a Friday. We figured the traffic wouldn’t be too bad until about 4, so maybe we could make it to the city before it got crazy. We were wrong….
Three o’clock, about 30 miles north of Seattle, the world came to a screeching halt. Welcome to our first traffic jam in years! Ugh! So we crept along at about 10 mph for the next three hours… Can we go home now? Oh yeah, and it was hot. When I mentioned that it was hot, Steve looked at the temperature gage on the dash and informed me that it was a whopping 76 degrees. Knowing what we are in for in our new town both weather and traffic-wise, I quickly began calculating a budget to see how we would fare if we turned around, Steve joined the Alaska State Trooper, and I got my old job back. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good. So, we kept heading south.
Once we were finally through the city, we all needed to run around a scream for a few minutes, so we pulled off at an exit with a sign for a park. We all got out, ran the dog around for a bit and discovered a new game: Puppy Catch! Malley is about 7 months old and an extremely smart dog (which can be good and bad!) She is learning a lot, but is still 7 months old! We would like to some day have her under voice control so she can hang out without a leash, but we aren’t there yet. We decided to give it a try in a very controlled way. Steve and I stood about 20 yards apart, I called the dog, and Steve let go of the leash. She came right to me! So I turned her around, Steve called her and I let go. This is fun for all! Nate was watching this all unfold and pointed out that it looked like we were playing catch with the dog & Puppy Catch was born!
By now it is getting late. It doesn’t look like we are going to get to Portland anytime soon. We were going to see our friends Chris & Beth tonight, but we had to call and bail out on them. We felt bad, but it was getting late and we were all grumpy. We wouldn’t have been very good company even though they are our good friends, and they have wine.
We arrived at the Super 8 near the Portland airport at about 9:30 & we were starving! So we checked Malley into the hotel and headed out for food. Now for our first real dining challenge: lots of fast-food and sit-down national chain options…but no. We headed down the street away from the highway and found a sports bar/restaurant called Sidelines. Ick, apparently people can still smoke in restaurants in Oregon. Oh well. We had potato skins and a big pizza. Healthy, I know. We didn’t even pretend to have a vegetable. Like I said, it was late and we were grumpy. Steve and I each had an Alaskan Amber while we could still get it.
We headed to the motel and crashed.
Can we go home yet??
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Groundhog Day at Sea
Groundhog Day at Sea
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
28 June 2007 – Ferry day 3
So by now you get it. Jog the dog, eat, sit in the lounge, read, sleep, play cards, sit on the deck, make up imaginary poker pals…
Day 3 on the ferry, more of the same.
Drew and I downloaded some of his photos for the first time and he discovered the wonders of cropping. It was fun and now every time he takes a picture, he tells me what he wants to do with it when we get it onto the computer.
The National Forest Service had a park ranger who rides on the ferry the entire trip and does 3 presentations a day about assorted wildlife and points of interest we will be passing. They also point out assorted wildlife. For those who haven’t been to a national park in a while, most of them have a Junior Ranger program. Kids get a booklet and have to do some exploring to answer questions. Once it is complete, the kids take it to a ranger who checks it, leads them in a Junior Ranger oath and gives them a patch or a pin (depending on the park). The boys did several on the last trip including the Yellowstone Junior Ranger which took 5-year-old Drew 3 days to complete. Since the ferry spends about 2 days in the Tongass National Forest which lines the Inside Passage, the kids can earn the Tongass Junior Ranger patch.
Unfortunately, the ranger was out of Junior Ranger booklets. So she gave the kids a few books about Alaskan plants and animals, they looked at them for a while and she gave them the Junior ranger patches.
Since people have been asking, here’s a bit about the ferry. Yes, we brought the car. All the cars are squished together about a foot apart front-to-back and about 3 feet apart side-to-side on the car deck. The car deck is closed during most of the trip except for 3-4 fifteen minute car deck calls during which all of us crazy dog owners walk our dogs and others can get things in and out of their cars. I didn’t take a picture of the car deck – it’s not much to see.
We had a 4-berth cabin with an attached bath:
Not everyone onboard has a cabin. Actually when the ferry is at capacity, only about 1/3 of the passengers have a cabin. There is a recliner lounge that is always kept pretty dark, so many people sleep there. They show movies in the recliner lounge. There is also a solarium at the top of the ship. It is open on the sides, but covered with a greenhouse-like roof, so it is warm. People pitch tents or just crash in sleeping bags in the solarium. There are public restrooms & showers for the folks who do not have a cabin.
We spent most of our time in the forward observation lounge:
For food, there is a snack bar ($7.50 for fast food cheeseburger) and a sit down restaurant at the back of the ship. The restaurant has the same menu of about 10 items for the entire trip. This ain’t no cruise. We had a few microwave meals (there is a micro in the snack bar) and lots of sandwiches during the trip.
The crowd on this trip was much different from last time. Three years ago, the ship was almost full and more than half of the passengers were either families on vacation or moving like we were. This time there were only a handful of kids onboard and not many people our age except 5-6 other military folks. The rest of the passengers were seniors. Lots and lots of older people on this trip. Also lots of old people with motorcycles.
It was a very different experience last time. The kids made friends with lots of other kids on the ferry and we hung out with the other military couples. We kept in touch with one family who moved to Anchorage at the same time we did. We hung out with Rich, Missy and their 4 – yes 4 kids, quite a bit during our first 2 years in Alaska. I loved introducing Rich, the Army-Major-JAG-lawyer, as my “ferry friend.”
We sprung for dinner at the sit-down restaurant tonight. It was OK, not great. Better than yet another sandwich in the room.
We all lugged stuff down to the car during the evening car deck call and dog jog. Debarking is interesting. The car deck is closed until the ferry pulls in to port, then they want you is your car immediately so people can begin driving off. That immediate part is difficult considering a few hundred people, all carrying stuff, are going down 2 narrow stairways and once you are on the car deck, you can’t pass any car is the owner has the door open to load it. It is a royal pain in the ummm deck.
I guess while I’m on that rant, I’ll mention that the staff was very rude this time. Except for Tony the bartender, we didn’t have a pleasant interaction with any crew member the entire trip. That surprised us, since it was very different last time. This time, they would just randomly change the car deck call times at 3 am, so when we drug ourselves out of bed to walk the dog. They only seated people at about half the restaurant tables because the wait staff didn’t want to serve more than 3 tables at a time (the mostly stood by the drink station and chatted. I won’t get into all of it, but the “customer service” was really bad this time around.
So, anyway, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing, the kids went to “bed” and we headed to the bar to hang with Tony for a while. Early rock’n’roll was playing in the bar, so we dealt Benny into the poker game. The best part of the bar (besides the $2.50 Alaksan Amber) is the décor. The ship was built in 1974 and the bar has to be original. Several thousand red, orange, and brown naugas gave their lives for this bar.
There is even a velvet Elvis and golf flocked wallpaper.
All this on the flagship of the last frontier.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
If you like fried clam strips, and gettin' caught in the rain . . .
27 June 2007 – Ferry Day 2
Today was Ketchikan day. We were going to be in port for about 6 hours so we could get out and explore. We docked about an hour late at 11 a.m., grabbed Malley and headed out. It was raining. This was not a shock. It is pretty much always raining in southeast Alaska.
Last time we were in Ketch, we took a cab into the center of town, had breakfast and walked around the shops. Of course, at that time, Alaska souvenirs were new and exciting. This time notsomuch. Also this time, we had a puppy to drag around with us so she could have as much time out of the box as possible. So we had our comfy shoes, some of us had our ponchos, and a 2.5 mile walk to town.
Who didn’t have a poncho, you ask? That would be Nate. We all have waterproof anorak jackets that zip into their own pouch. Actually we each have 2 – one for each car. Well, Nate’s wasn’t in either car when we were packing & he had no idea where they were. Yes, he’s seven. It was just misting as we walked towards town and he was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, so I made him tough it out. I’m not mother of the year, but it works for us.
Amongst other things, Ketchikan is a cruise ship port. Of course the cruise ships pull up right in town, not 2 ½ miles down the road. Three ships were in port that day, Princess, Norwegian and some Japanese line. We bopped into a few gift shops and I looked for a $1 stupid-tourist-poncho for Nate. At this point the more embarrassing the better. I finally found a slightly glorified white trash bag with a gift shop name printed all over the back, wrapped our youngest the plastic bag, and off we went. By now it was really raining and we were hungry. One (OK, one of the many) downsides of traveling with the pooch is the lack of dining options. Especially when it is raining.
We found a cute little diner called the Pioneer Café and the boys and I went in to order two seafood and chips combos to go while Steve stood under the awning with the dog. Steve scoped out an awning down the block, so we sat on the sidewalk in front of a closed business and had a picnic in the rain. Yup, we’re Alaskan. The cruise passengers enjoyed the show.
The food was really good. The platters were a combination of fried clams, shrimp, scallops, and cod with fries and garlic bread. We had cole slaw with one and macaroni salad with the other. Two platters were plenty for the four of us. It was a strange little picnic, but it was fun. Oh, and Malley liked the cod.
We continued our exploration of commercial Ketchikan; the guys formed a human totem pole
and we discovered a cute little shopping area called Creek Street.
I thought this was funny, and very Alaskan. The whole state seems to have a great sense of humor.
We stopped at an outdoor stand for mocha (hot chocolate for the boys) and began our 2.5 mile trek back to the ferry. Funny, it was much longer going this way.
Ketchikan is one of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” sites. The airport is on an island across from the town. Now, one of the criticisms of the whole situation coming from the lower 48 is “Why the heck did they build the airport on an island?” Well, it is the only place that is flat enough to actually put an airport. The mountains and cliffs basically come out of the sea. In fact most of the people in town live like this:
I’m sure there is some sort of inspection process, but I still don’t think I would want to live up this road.
Just in case you’ve been dying to know the lyrics of the Alaksa Flag Song:
Shout out to my pirate peeps:
We made it back to the ferry with about an hour to spare, hung out in the room for a while and headed to the observation lounge to hang out. The boys had a great time watching the float planes take off and land as we were pulling away from the dock.
At about 9, we got the boys ready for bed, left them in the cabin to “go to bed” (i.e. watch a movie). Steve and I went to the bar for a while. We found the best bargain of the trip! $2.50 pint Alaskan Amber. Yay! Tony the bartender hooked us up and we settled in with a deck of cards. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in the bar – I guess our fellow cruisers weren’t talented enough. The bar has several guitars and a piano in the corner for “people powered” music, as Tony put it. Basically, if you can play an instrument you are welcome to pick it up and entertain. On our last cruise, there was a guy who played piano every night, but not this time. I figured no one wanted to hear me play the high part of Heart and Soul, which is the only thing I can play on the piano.
We settled in and played cards for a while. Eventually Steve started dealing Texas Hold ‘Em. I actually did pretty well during the first few hands, much to both of our amazement. Steve pointed out that the game changes when you add more people, so the next hand he dealt in an invisible third player who he named Fred. Since Santana & other Latin selections had been playing in the bar for a while, I decided that his name should really be Jorge. It is sad, but Jorge actually did pretty well with just blind hands. And Jorge never folds.
We head back to the room at about 11:30 and stopped on the deck to wave goodbye to Alaska and catch our last glimpse of the midnight sun.
Today was Ketchikan day. We were going to be in port for about 6 hours so we could get out and explore. We docked about an hour late at 11 a.m., grabbed Malley and headed out. It was raining. This was not a shock. It is pretty much always raining in southeast Alaska.
Last time we were in Ketch, we took a cab into the center of town, had breakfast and walked around the shops. Of course, at that time, Alaska souvenirs were new and exciting. This time notsomuch. Also this time, we had a puppy to drag around with us so she could have as much time out of the box as possible. So we had our comfy shoes, some of us had our ponchos, and a 2.5 mile walk to town.
Who didn’t have a poncho, you ask? That would be Nate. We all have waterproof anorak jackets that zip into their own pouch. Actually we each have 2 – one for each car. Well, Nate’s wasn’t in either car when we were packing & he had no idea where they were. Yes, he’s seven. It was just misting as we walked towards town and he was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, so I made him tough it out. I’m not mother of the year, but it works for us.
Amongst other things, Ketchikan is a cruise ship port. Of course the cruise ships pull up right in town, not 2 ½ miles down the road. Three ships were in port that day, Princess, Norwegian and some Japanese line. We bopped into a few gift shops and I looked for a $1 stupid-tourist-poncho for Nate. At this point the more embarrassing the better. I finally found a slightly glorified white trash bag with a gift shop name printed all over the back, wrapped our youngest the plastic bag, and off we went. By now it was really raining and we were hungry. One (OK, one of the many) downsides of traveling with the pooch is the lack of dining options. Especially when it is raining.
We found a cute little diner called the Pioneer Café and the boys and I went in to order two seafood and chips combos to go while Steve stood under the awning with the dog. Steve scoped out an awning down the block, so we sat on the sidewalk in front of a closed business and had a picnic in the rain. Yup, we’re Alaskan. The cruise passengers enjoyed the show.
The food was really good. The platters were a combination of fried clams, shrimp, scallops, and cod with fries and garlic bread. We had cole slaw with one and macaroni salad with the other. Two platters were plenty for the four of us. It was a strange little picnic, but it was fun. Oh, and Malley liked the cod.
We continued our exploration of commercial Ketchikan; the guys formed a human totem pole
and we discovered a cute little shopping area called Creek Street.I thought this was funny, and very Alaskan. The whole state seems to have a great sense of humor.
We stopped at an outdoor stand for mocha (hot chocolate for the boys) and began our 2.5 mile trek back to the ferry. Funny, it was much longer going this way.
Ketchikan is one of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” sites. The airport is on an island across from the town. Now, one of the criticisms of the whole situation coming from the lower 48 is “Why the heck did they build the airport on an island?” Well, it is the only place that is flat enough to actually put an airport. The mountains and cliffs basically come out of the sea. In fact most of the people in town live like this:
I’m sure there is some sort of inspection process, but I still don’t think I would want to live up this road.Just in case you’ve been dying to know the lyrics of the Alaksa Flag Song:
Shout out to my pirate peeps:
We made it back to the ferry with about an hour to spare, hung out in the room for a while and headed to the observation lounge to hang out. The boys had a great time watching the float planes take off and land as we were pulling away from the dock.
At about 9, we got the boys ready for bed, left them in the cabin to “go to bed” (i.e. watch a movie). Steve and I went to the bar for a while. We found the best bargain of the trip! $2.50 pint Alaskan Amber. Yay! Tony the bartender hooked us up and we settled in with a deck of cards. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in the bar – I guess our fellow cruisers weren’t talented enough. The bar has several guitars and a piano in the corner for “people powered” music, as Tony put it. Basically, if you can play an instrument you are welcome to pick it up and entertain. On our last cruise, there was a guy who played piano every night, but not this time. I figured no one wanted to hear me play the high part of Heart and Soul, which is the only thing I can play on the piano.
We settled in and played cards for a while. Eventually Steve started dealing Texas Hold ‘Em. I actually did pretty well during the first few hands, much to both of our amazement. Steve pointed out that the game changes when you add more people, so the next hand he dealt in an invisible third player who he named Fred. Since Santana & other Latin selections had been playing in the bar for a while, I decided that his name should really be Jorge. It is sad, but Jorge actually did pretty well with just blind hands. And Jorge never folds.
We head back to the room at about 11:30 and stopped on the deck to wave goodbye to Alaska and catch our last glimpse of the midnight sun.
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