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.