Two Days Meshed Together

I had initially written this entry as "two days meshed together" because I couldn't remember what happened on which day.  And that was while I was on the cruise and living it live.  Imagine how difficult it is to piece this together after the fact!

Summer and I were on the balcony of my parents' suite, enjoying the scenery floating by, resting, napping, reading, and just generally lounging around and eavesdropping on the neighbors.  We were lamenting about how we wished that they'd be quiet and how their chattering was disturbing our zen time.  But then...we heard the voice of a little girl hollering, "Whale!"  Sure enough!  We looked out and there was a whale!  This was the first whale of the cruise and boy, did he put on a show!  Honestly!  He flapped his pectoral fins on the surface of the water, made big sprays out of his blowhole, and the passengers who were at the restaurant at the stern even saw him breech! 


Thar he slaps!


Close up!  Amazing!


After being done eavesdropping, my mom and I went for a stroll on the port side deck where we took up more eavesdropping...but this time we also copied the pictures these folks were taking.  A guy was with his family and they all had fancy cameras with long lenses.  He and another gal were "Oooing" and "Ahhing" about this little waterfall.  Of course, he had some sort of super mega zoom lens.  This picture is just from my iphone.  But, I guess it's a cute little waterfall.  (It turns out that they guy is from Cincinnati.  My mom chatted with him about Cincinnati, but I had had my eavesdropping fill and didn't pay attention to what they were saying.)

Real Chihuly?  I don't know.  But I love these types of pieces.  This ship only had this one.  It's outside of a restaurant called Qsine.

 

Qsine is a funky restaurant at the bow of the ship, accessible in a convoluted way and/or by walking on the uppermost deck.  Shawn was not digging the walking on the deck part.  So, we went back down, around, dead ended, went up stairs, walked through cabin hallways, took the wrong elevator, and eventually did the deck walk.  Once we got there, we initially went to the wrong door and then had to go into this little inner lobby.  In the hidden inner lobby were the elevators we usually used when we were on our cabin level floor, but didn't because we were at the frozen ice bar two floors down.  GRRRR.

 

Anyway, the restaurant is decorated with black, white, and orange.  It's like stepping into the Beetlejuice house!  The lamps are all mounted on the ceiling upside down on an upside down coffee table.  The stemless wine glasses were on the table set on an angle, we ordered via ipad, and ate amazing food presented in very clever layouts.  Dee-lish!

 

Another cool thing was a large white table with a rosette under the glass top, attached to a chain that was mounted to a black upside down chandelier.  The table and rosette were meant to look like the ceiling, hence the upside down chandelier.  At this table was a huge group of people.  Two of whom appeared to be a youngish chubby-ish couple.  I think the guy proposed to the girl!  But she NEVER looked happy!  We couldn't quite figure it out.  I guess I had used up my eavesdropping quota for the day.  Rats.

 

 

 

Selfie of Summer and me at Qsine.

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The next day was our first docking and shore excursion in Ketchikan! 

The day before, my mom and I sat through a "seminar" on shopping where we got all kinds of info about where to buy diamonds, topaz, "northern lights", and all kinds of fancy gems.  I wanted to go to the presentation because the advertisement said that all participants would get a free charm bracelet and a free charm.  So, I went and got the free stuff AND caught a couple of Del Sol rings AND got Summer a bottle of Del Sol "Alaskan Gold" fingernail polish that changes from silver to gold when it is exposed to the sunlight AND a huge book of coupons AND more flyers with more coupons!  Whew! But that was the day before...

On the day we arrived in Ketchikan...
We were unsure of what time to wake up since we had a boat ride scheduled for the Misty Fjords and this was our first off the ship excursion.  (It's kind of funny to get off a ship and then get back on another ship, but that's the best way to see the shore critters.)  Anyway, with the sunrise at 3 or 4, it makes it confusing on the internal alarm clock.  Therefore, when I woke up, I just got up...no matter the time.

So, when we got to Ketchikan, I was excited to run around the town to get all of my free stuff but we had some serious sightseeing to do too.  The following pictures are all of our journey into Ketchikan, pre-docking.  I did not ride the bike this day.  I just walked around the boat and explored as much as one can at 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning. 


That little boat ought to get out of the way.


The upper deck where the early risers hang out. (Um...that would be only me.)


The "Super Moon" had just happened and caused the tides to be super high.  That caused the water to pick up a lot of logs that would normally be just sitting on the shore, marking the "high water line".  However, now they were all floating around!


I guess this little guy wasn't going to be intimidated by 1000 feet of cruise ship.


Primo bear spotting ground, but no.


Ketchikan's freight docks.


Coast Guard Alaska...live!


"Small" boat marina.

After supervising the docking, I went to check in with my folks and the kids.



I found this on my parents' TV stand.  Apparently, they were also confused about what time to get up...like father like daughter.  Since I'm younger I guess I just get up, whereas he writes it down, plans it out, and follows the script.

During the 4.5 hour Misty Fjords boat excursion we saw tons of cool stuff.  I spent most of my time using the binoculars scanning the shore, tree line, and rocky cliffs for wildlife.  I wanted a bear, goat, sheep, lynx, Sasquatch, Yeti...ANY kind of large land mammal would do.  But, no.  However, I did see an eagle's nest with a mamma and a daddy eagle and their two little fuzzy baby eaglets!  OMG! 


I found the letter h in the shadow of the boat's upper deck railing.

 

And I took a very iconic photo of Eddystone Rock. (I looked up the name of the rock on Google and clicked around on the available images.  My picture - on my iphone - is amazing!)

 

We saw some other mountains and rocks.

Nicholas "striking a pose".


Then we did whirlwind shopping!  We had only about 45 minutes left in Ketchikan.  So, I used my handy dandy shopping seminar info, ripped out all of the freebie coupons, and mapped out a route through town to maximize our limited time and we set off like mad-women.  I sent Summer in as the free stuff getter and I stayed outside of the store.  That way Summer could run in, present the coupon, grab the goods and no sales pitch could be delivered to my mom or me.  Genius!  We canvased the town in 20 minutes and had a pocket filled up with a charm or two, a coin, a cabochon, a necklace, a gemstone, other loot and a rain poncho.  Score!

We were in line to board the ship with plenty of spare time!



Bye-bye Ketchikan.