The Juneau excursion, the main event of which was whale watching with Harv and Marv (well, Marv in our case) was great fun!  Check out the photos posted on hagius.smugmug.com!

Trip Log – September 8, 2009 – Juneau

It’s about 7:15 am.  Woke up to calm seas (amazing the difference between calm and “moderate”) and forest-covered mountains (small mountains maybe, but certainly mountains to us) across the water.  A nice view as we sip our Community on the balcony to start the day.  We are now in the Alaskan time zone so it’s about 10:15 in Baton Rouge.

Today is Juneau.  We arrive there about 1:15 pm and should be able to dock about 2:00 (have to wait for a parking space).  Then we are off with Harv and Marv for a local small-boat whale-watching tour (thanks to our cruise consultant, daughter Christine), and then tooling around Juneau until 9-ish this evening.  We both hope to see more whales.  I hope to see Sarah Palin, too!

Yea, right Ken.  The air is brisk, about 49 degrees, smells fresh! Overcast; hopefully that will blow away with the breeze. There are a few small boats between us and land. We are entering Frederick Sound.  Still excited about the whales we saw yesterday.  If I was a salmon, I would come back here too for my final days J.

9:30 am:  Back from breakfast and in the meantime we have come into the area where we are seeing “first snow” and glaciers on the mountains.  We are about to review the buttons and switches on Sue’s big camera as it takes great pics – as long as everything is set right; and we have never spent the time to really get to know all of the “features.”  We will have the Canon along, too, as it is point and click for people like us.

Monday, September 7, 2009 After Noon

It’s about 2:20 pm now, just back from lunch.  Yes, it will be very difficult not to consume food in glorious excess on board.  It’s actually hard to avoid it.  Anyway, siesta time.

The seas have gone from “moderate” to “slight.”  What a difference.  The sun has not come out for any great length of time and it’s gray with low clouds.  We are in the Principe Channel now headed north and will be turning west as we near Ketchikan.  We will be stopping there (Ketchikan) on the return leg, but our first stop is Juneau.

FIRST WHALE SIGHTING!  We were sitting at dinner trying to decide what not to have for dessert, and Sue noticed some funny white plumes in the distance.  After a few more minutes and some neighboring discussion, we hightailed back to the room for binoculars and telescopic camera.  We were able to watch the whale community for about half an hour off our balcony.  Possibly humpbacks, but not sure about that.  We were west of Prince Rupert.  And tomorrow we are scheduled for our whale watching excursion…ain’t life grand!

Monday, September 7, 2009

It’s about 7:30 am.  The sun is up.  You can tell because the gray has gotten lighter.  We are about 1/3 of the way from Seattle to Juneau.  It is very cloudy, about 60 degrees.  Wind is across the ship with seas between 4 and 7 feet meaning that there is a lot of noticeable movement of the ship.  This isn’t giving Sue and me any problems, but it takes some getting used to, and I can see where some probably are having … issues.  Sort’a rocked you to sleep…

We made a nice pot of Community coffee in our room to start the day off.  Bringing that was a good idea.

After a restful night we are looking forward to exploring the ship today. We have on the land side of the ship as we travel north and will be on the water side on the return.  We will see what the land offers up using our binocs later today.  We should be passing Ketchikan in a bit.

Coming up on 11:30 now.  We had a nice breakfast at the Summer Palace, pretty conventional (eggs, bacon, toast) although more exotic fare was available.  The coffee on board could be worse.  Back to the room for a bit, and then down for a pretty brisk 1-mile walk around the deck, and a little boat exploring after.

The theater is impressive.  We ran across the casino and felt no temptation to join in the games at this point.  It was remarkable in a sense though.  The boat is very, very clean and smoking is outdoors, but as soon as you step into the casino it’s like being teleported to the floating bars called riverboat casinos in Baton Rouge.  The same colors, then same sounds, and *the exact same smell*.  Ugh.

A little more touring and then out to an open deck café (the sun is out a bit now) for some beverages and a light snack of fruit and a little smoked salmon and capers.  Back in the room now for some room time and computer time.  Sitting on our balcony is a pretty pleasant thing to do.  No aminaminals yet for Sue, but that will come.

Sunday, day 1 onboard.

            Check in was relatively painless; handed us champagne as we boarded; room ready at 2pm as promised.  Room on deck 11 aft (which means toward the back of the ship for us novices), last room with a balcony. Balcony equipped with 2 chairs and small table.  Nice desk area with small fridge; power strip provided since there are only 2 plugs. Small flat screen TV with some onboard stations.  Room has queen sized bed with adjoining seating area with the desk and a pull out sofa which can be separated from the rest of the room by a thick curtain if desired.  Bed has side tables and room has interesting little crooks and crannies for placement of our stuff.  The compartmentalized bathroom is much larger than expected; tub with shower, lavatory area, and the potty.  We are due for our emergency drill in a few.  The room seems like it will meet our needs more than adequately…we will make it our own once our luggage arrives!

Since Sue wrote the above all luggage has arrived and we are in for the duration.  The room is actually larger than we thought it would be, and we have plenty of storage space.  Being the cabin most aft, we have a slightly bigger balcony than most and a clear view behind us.  Now we are about to start cruising in earnest … as soon as I get our “posting” protocol worked out by posting this.

Sue will be checking her AOL email at suehagius@aol.com!  Look for pics on smugmug.

We had our first real meal of the trip a little while ago (we aren’t counting the BK burgers in the Dallas Airport).  It was at a sushi plance a block over from our hotel in downtown Seattle:  Genki Sushi.  They had the revolving belt that you could select items from as they passed, but we sat at a table and ordered.  We shared:

• Tempura Udon Soup
• Fried Eggplant Nigiri Sushi
• Tuna Nigiri Sushi
• Rainbow Roll
• Tempura Roll
• Miso-Glazed Seared Salmon

and  *real* green tea (iced) with a wedge of lime.

The price?  $16.20, for *both* of us.  Seattle Sushi looks like a winner.

Sue's Choice

Sue and I leave next week.  It’s an Alaskan Inside Passage cruise on the Norwegian Pearl.  I had found a cruise that had a terminal close to us and that cost a lot less, but Sue won out.

My initial suggestion

brynn-and-grant 

 Sue put together a short power point for/of Grant and Brynn from last weekend.  It is a pdf file.

Thanks Lauren for the granchil’rens posts (below).  Yes, that *is* a nice present!  The sisters have delivered, too!  Christine and Sue collaborated earlier in the week on a most excellent alfredo/carbonara/artichoke pasta in honors of FD.  And Rosemary sent me a gift that was truely unexpected, and that in addition to providing FD’s greetings also sent some money to a Worthy Cause (details available from Rosemary):

A few years ago a young Mississippi Kite appeared in the top of the cypress tree in our back yard.  It likes to perch there in the early morning and late afternoon.  It has been coming back for several years now, always around this time of year (June) and staying for a few weeks before it moves to … wherever it goes next.  We were pleased when we saw that the bird had returned for its annual visit this year.  This photo was taken about 7 pm on June 18, 2009 (when it was still 94 degrees in the shade, but that’s just normal Louisiana summer).