Alaska. The last frontier.

I wanted to see Alaska before it melts away.  I heard of people going up and years later going to the same spot and seeing places receding by comparing pictures. So we pick July because the cruise only goes up May through September and the kids are on summer break.  (Note May and September usually have no school age kids. And typically, but not always, cooler weather)

Welcome to Alaska.

A View from the plane.

The cool thing about Alaska in the summertime is the sun sets very late. Oh and it also rises very early. So as we are flying into Alaska after midnight the sky is still light. The sun has set and the skyline is rich hues of teal and burnt orange. Kind of eerie, strange and beautiful all at once. We stay at a close hotel by the airport because our flight gets in at 12:45 a.m. and we just need to sleep a few hours. Not the nicest hotel so we try not to look around too much but just get our 40 winks.

Day 2/Anchorage. Motorcoach transfer to Whitter and Sailaway.

We wake up to rain and go eat breakfast at a local breakfast place and stop by a convenience store to get the 2 bottles of wine for our cruise.  We are at the store around 9:40 a.m. But they don't sell alcohol until 10:00  a.m. so we have to wait around for 20 minutes and start picking up snacks, water etc.  then a shuttle back to the airport for our scenic 2 hour motor coach drive to the Whittier pier past inlets of water and scenic mountains. In 1964 there was a 9.2 earthquake that lasted 3-5 minutes and was truly devastating.  We drove past Girdwood which took the brunt of it. You could still to this day see remnants of demolished houses and dead trees along the highway. The town itself supposedly moved 2 miles inland and sunk into Turnagain Arm where it now sits in an idyllic valley next to Alaska's premier ski area.  There is also a 2 mile tunnel right before you get to the pier and is one of the longest tunnels in North America. It is only big enough for cars to go one way so you have to wait for all traffic to go though before they let the next group go the opposite way. Not good for claustrophobic people. 

Following are pics from the Motorcoach.

Train tunnel to Whittier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ungxz8LiZOc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Still working on perfecting the video thing.  I used my camera phone for 9 seconds. But if you search Whittier train tunnel on YouTube you will find a lot of people have actually posted long videos of going through this tunnel.

Check in and Sailaway

Check in goes pretty smoothly and quickly so it doesn't take us long to find our room. 

We chose a balcony because I we had 2 days of Glacier viewing and knew it was going to be a scenic cruise. We are in the aft and on the Caribe deck where the balconies are a little larger than the other balconies. This is a desired deck because of the balconies,but as everyone knows, the rooms are a lot smaller than a hotel room. If you have 4 people then 2 beds will come down from the ceiling or from the sides so its kind of like bunk bed style. But hey,  who spends time in your room when you are on a cruise.  

First stop after registering the teens into the teens club we head to the "Horizon Court" for a light lunch at a buffet. Okay so it might have been light but was probably too much. Salad,fresh fruit, lightly breaded scallops, blueberry blintzes and lemon wedged iced tea.  Oh and then some cheesecake to top it all off. Okay next stop lets go check out the fitness center because I need to do some serious burning off of calories.  Well maybe tomorrow, but I can at least go look at where it is. 

We buy our "Ultimate soda card" , "specialty coffe card" and a couple "princess coffee thermal thingies" for our coffees.  

And off to our sail away. 

It's really windy at Sailaway!

Mega martini demonstration

After breakfast today my daughter and I decide to go to the gym to work off a few calories since I feel like I' m eating quite a bit more than usual. Ugh. I just can't help myself when there is food around every corner. 

We decide to also sign up for the steam and sauna package just so I can maybe sweat off a few calories too. Okay, not really, just hoping. My favorite things are relaxing and steaming so this is perfect. Sometimes the sauna just seems too dry and hot so we go over to the fog shower before we head into the aromatic steam room. The tiles are a little too hot so we put the towels down first and after 10 minutes of pure relaxation we shower one more time and walk over to the "Thermal tiles beds" which are shaped like a recliner but in a "s" shape.  

We put the towels where are heads lay just for a little softness under our head.  After total relaxation and we are totally dry we decide to head back to our cabin. 

They actually give you a jar to mix your own customized scrub before you go steaming but we decide to try it tomorrow so we could figure out today the best way we were going to utilize that scrub. 

Because we took too long working out and relaxing we missed the "fruit and vegetable carving demo" so we get ready to just explore the ship some more and check out "Mega Martini Demonstration" in the Piazza. The bartenders (now referred to nowadays as "mixologists") demonstrate their mixing capabilities while selecting volunteers to prove that white people really can't dance!  It was fun to watch never the less and watch their 10 glass martini pour. 

The sanctuary

 We have almost mastered the steam room and almost figured out how to not get lost. 

You get to choose an aromatic scrub when you sign up for the spa package. Heres my tip.  They say they will mix it for you and then bring it to you in the steam room. But if they get busy, guess what? You'll be a shriveled ol' prune by the time they find you.  So I left the steam room, stood back in line and patiently waited for the 3 people in front of me get help before she said she could  mix it for me. It makes no sense to have them maybe bring it to you if they're not busy.  It's better to have them mix it for you before you go in. Just a thought. 

Go to the aromatic or gentle steam room to open your pores and then scrub the mixture on you with the mini loofah sponge.  After you can either rinse it off or just lay on the thermal bed, relax or meditate (some people fall asleep) and let it moisturize your skin. It all depends on how much you use if you have to rinse it off.  

For lunch we try the "English pub lunch which is offered only a couple times through out the cruise. The fish is moist and a little greasy but I guess that's the way English way. The French fries are amazing and the  peas are actually good spicy and mashed. 

I always wanted to do "Afternoon tea" as me and my daughter are both tea lovers. 

White glove service and bite size sandwiches along with scones and cookies is heavenly to me. 

They have classes called "Creativity at Sea" so we decided to to try the "Paper Flowers" class. Su, a very cute Korean girl teaches us how to take 2 napkins, tear them apart and fold it into a fan, staple it over a straw and pull the pieces out to create a white looking carnation. 

I guess it's a fun way to spend 15 minutes even though I had flashbacks of grade school activities. 

It's formal night and being that clothes got wrinkled in packing we decided to have them pressed at the cleaners and didn't realize we wouldn't get them back in time so we decide to forego this one and go to Alfredo's pizzeria where they hand toss your pizzas in front of you and make an unbelievable thin crust Italian style pizza. The nice thing was everyone was at formal night, so we had the place to ourselves. 

After that we go to the entertainment for the night which is "Do You Want To Dance". Now I envy and admire dancers so I actually love these shows. I also love that they run around 30-45 minutes. They did everything from a 50's segment to my all time fave band  "The Gypsy Kings" song Bambalayo.  That's all I needed to hear! 

Then we headed to take the teens to the " teen club" but they were all headed out because the movie was starting. Oh well, we' ll try sending them over a little earlier the next night. 

I'm ready for bed. 

A view from the balcony.

Oh yeah.....the food.

Hubbard Glacier

Sailing to Hubbard Glacier across Yakutat Bay.  This is where we see fluorescent blu-tinged cliffs of Glaciers. This is one of North America's largest tidewater glaciers and as you can hear what sounds like thunder in the distance is actually  the giant glaciers calving into the bay.  I caught a few pictures of it but you really have to keep your eyes ready for any movement as it happens so quickly. It's truly beautiful and a one in a lifetime view.

 

Hubbard Glacier