Sunday, August 26, 2007

:)

August 26, 2007

I must admit, I can not believe I’m getting ready to start my 6th week on board! It has flown by and I’ve never had so much fun! This past week has been great – very busy, but fun.

My roommate/coworker, Kaitlin, got off the ship and we had 2 new staff get on. The new roommate is ok – nothing to “write home” about. Nikki and I have been getting along great and having TONS of fun together – but she leaves next week and I’m quite depressed about it! She’s awesome though and said she would be interested in a trip to Africa too! So we might start organizing something (so anyone interested, start saving!).

We had 45 crew disembark last week, which meant that 45-50 new crew got on. Of course, I want to get to know everyone so I have been staying up late and going out every night to meet new people and there are some awesome ones on board! You’ll see lots of pictures of me, Nikki, Egon (the super tall guy...like 7 feet!), and some cadets and other officers that joined us. We’ve been hanging out every night in the OB – them drinking and me with my water. (Ok...I had wine last night...but other than that, water!)

It was Indonesia Independence Day and we have been having tons of activities for it – crew tug-of-war, karaoke contests and a huge crew party on the mooring deck with Indonesian food, a live band, drinks and lots of fun! There are pictures from that on my website too.

This week, I got one excursion via the ship and that was to the Underground Gold mine where we visited the A.J. Mine – Gastinau Gold Mines in Juneau, Alaska. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the gold process and how it all worked. The coolest fact I learned was that the Railroad attendant started the first boy scout group here in Juneau! We got to pan for gold a bit and I got a small vial with the four flecks I found.

In Ketchikan I went out with Nikki to the Totem Heritage Center where there are totem poles dating back over 300 years. Very neat place to see these totems – but unfortunately too dark where I couldn’t take any pictures to show you all. There’s one or two – so you’ll get the general idea!

In Skagway I went and watched the show I wanted to see last year – The Days of ’98 show with Soapy Smith. Very cute show telling the story of the gold rush villains.

That’s pretty much it for now – still just taking everything day by day and enjoying my time with everyone!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Pennies from Heaven...

August 18, 2007

Happy Birthday Grandma! I miss you so much – nothing’s been the same since you left!

I love you!

YoHo!

August 17, 2007

All I can say right now is how lucky we’ve been! We have had the most incredible weather for the last two weeks! Nice, cool and breezy and not a drop of rain – which in Southeast Alaska is HIGHLY unusual! Even in Ketchikan today (which is known for at least 15 feet of rain a year) it didn’t rain a single drop! Kaitlin’s last day in a port in Alaska is today, so we went to the Lumberjack show which had two women and two men – it was fun to watch and I laughed the entire time. I have pictures to post of that and I’m going to attempt two videos that I took!

After that, we headed over to Dolly’s House (an old brothel house) on Creek Street (a former Red Light District) and took a tour of the house. She bought the house in 1919 for $800 and had it paid off in two weeks. The funny part is that Dolly charged $3.00 per trick…you do the math. They said she wouldn’t leave work for the day until she’s made at least $75.00-$100.00. You’ll have to look at the pictures, but it was great – a very old vibrator and some French condoms that Dolly knew wouldn’t work, so she made them into flowers. Dolly wasn’t even a pretty women and about 250 pounds! Cool story though!

We then went from Dolly’s house over to the Cape Fox hotel and took the tram to the top and had a great dinner (well…as great as a large salad can get J) and headed home! It’s nice to get fresh air, I must admit.

I must get going, tonight is Pirate night in Club Hal and I have to set up the supplies for a scavenger hunt. After Club Hal, we are heading over to the Crow’s Nest for Country night!!

Hope all is well with everyone and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss...

August 16, 2007

Today I am in Juneau! Things are going great – I actually just returned from an excursion called “Grand Tour of Juneau” which I did not request, but I went on anyways! The excursion included a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier, the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery and Glacier Gardens. I have added the pictures to the website! The Mendenhall Glacier was nice – the trail I wanted to walk down has been shut down due to bear activity over the last week. I wanted to see a bear anyways, but they wouldn’t let me go J The Salmon Hatchery was neat – saw how they raised the wild salmon and the process that they went through. There was also a touch tank inside where we could touch and hold starfish etc. I think of the three things we did today, the Gardens were the neatest – these things that the owner “created” were upside down trees. Because of an accident he had while excavating the property, he made these trees that are literally upside down all around and he planted beautiful flowers in all of them – the pictures don’t even do them justice! It was neat because they drove us in Limo’s (golf carts) up to the top of the property which was 600 feet above sea level so we could take pictures, then we came all the way back down again and into the Greenhouse where they had amazing flower displays. Ok, I’ll stop yapping now...the pictures are online!

Yesterday Kaitlin and I went to The Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska. It’s about $3.00 to get in and it’s a tiny “4 room” house. I have posted all the pictures from it. This guy actually was collecting hammers for over 30 years, then went to the lower 48 and collected more and created the only Museum specifically for hammers – everything from drink hammers (which are my favorite) to the Alaskan Husband Trainer/Tamer etc. You’ll have to look at all the pictures – I thought it was so cool! All of the “statues” in the pictures were actually donated from the Smithsonian – they were getting ready to throw them away, but the guy said no and had the statues taken apart and put back together.

The last week has been quite spectacular actually! On Sunday (the 12th) Kaitlin, Janis, Lammy and I went to the Pinnacle Restaurant, which is our nicer restaurant on board that serves Filet Mignon, spectacular appetizers (I had the Dungeness crab cakes) and desserts like Crème Brule and Chocolate Volcano cakes. We all enjoyed ourselves, but had to roll ourselves back to work because we were so full. That was a cheat night for the diet. Not necessarily that I’m trying to lose more (although, that would be nice), but I do not want to go back to where I started – so I need to maintain. All in all, spectacular evening. Also went to a show that night – had a fantastic comedian on board – made us laugh SO hard!

Funny Sidenote – Three minutes before Kaitlin came downstairs so we could go to dinner, I was trying to get the wrinkles out of my skirt by stretching it out and I split it completely up the front and through the crotch. We did some speed/ghetto sewing and safety pinning, I just had to walk real slow the rest of the night J Of course, the tailors aren’t open when I needed them!

The other night Kaitlin and I went up to the bridge to visit and James let me drive the ship..ok, so it was the backup/emergency steering wheel – but still! I have a picture and I look important, so that’s all that matters, right? It was quite interesting though, he showed us how all the GPS systems work and how they navigate the waterways. The Spirit of the Yorktown (the ship I used to work on) was on the radar when I got up there, thought that was ironic.

Last night the bridge paged us to let us know that the Northern Lights were out! We all ran out of the OB to take pictures. The NL were quite mellow, but a beautiful green. My camera didn’t do so well capturing the color, but James got some great ones – so I’ll post those as soon as I can retrieve them from his computer.

Went to the formal night/black and white dance in the Crow’s Nest the other evening and had a great night – we danced like crazy, drank wine and laughed the entire night!

They also asked me to teach an English class on board for an hourly pay each week to our Indonesian and Filipino crew members. It would basically be teaching them phrases and other bits of information that are necessary to get by on the ship. I’m waiting to hear more on it, but will let you know. I think it would be a cool opportunity.

Obviously, I am enjoying myself and having a blast. As of today, I’ve been on the ship 4 weeks and it has flown by!

I’m off for now, but I hope all is well with everyone! Please shoot me emails and send postcards, letters, and pictures – I’d love to hear from all of you!

Oh – I almost forgot…one of the designers from Trading Spaces was on board last week, her name was Christi and she was from Texas! Her kids were in Club Hal..fun tid bit :)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss...

Today I am in Juneau! Things are going great – I actually just returned from an excursion called “Grand Tour of Juneau” which I did not request, but I went on anyways! The excursion included a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier, the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery and Glacier Gardens. I have added the pictures to the website! The Mendenhall Glacier was nice – the trail I wanted to walk down has been shut down due to bear activity over the last week. I wanted to see a bear anyways, but they wouldn’t let me go J The Salmon Hatchery was neat – saw how they raised the wild salmon and the process that they went through. There was also a touch tank inside where we could touch and hold starfish etc. I think of the three things we did today, the Gardens were the neatest – these things that the owner “created” were upside down trees. Because of an accident he had while excavating the property, he made these trees that are literally upside down all around and he planted beautiful flowers in all of them – the pictures don’t even do them justice! It was neat because they drove us in Limo’s (golf carts) up to the top of the property which was 600 feet above sea level so we could take pictures, then we came all the way back down again and into the Greenhouse where they had amazing flower displays. Ok, I’ll stop yapping now...the pictures are online!

Yesterday Kaitlin and I went to The Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska. It’s about $3.00 to get in and it’s a tiny “4 room” house. I have posted all the pictures from it. This guy actually was collecting hammers for over 30 years, then went to the lower 48 and collected more and created the only Museum specifically for hammers – everything from drink hammers (which are my favorite) to the Alaskan Husband Trainer/Tamer etc. You’ll have to look at all the pictures – I thought it was so cool! All of the “statues” in the pictures were actually donated from the Smithsonian – they were getting ready to throw them away, but the guy said no and had the statues taken apart and put back together.

The last week has been quite spectacular actually! On Sunday (the 12th) Kaitlin, Janis, Lammy and I went to the Pinnacle Restaurant, which is our nicer restaurant on board that serves Filet Mignon, spectacular appetizers (I had the Dungeness crab cakes) and desserts like Crème Brule and Chocolate Volcano cakes. We all enjoyed ourselves, but had to roll ourselves back to work because we were so full. That was a cheat night for the diet. Not necessarily that I’m trying to lose more (although, that would be nice), but I do not want to go back to where I started – so I need to maintain. All in all, spectacular evening. Also went to a show that night – had a fantastic comedian on board – made us laugh SO hard!

Funny Sidenote – Three minutes before Kaitlin came downstairs so we could go to dinner, I was trying to get the wrinkles out of my skirt by stretching it out and I split it completely up the front and through the crotch. We did some speed/ghetto sewing and safety pinning, I just had to walk real slow the rest of the night.  Of course, the tailors aren’t open when I needed them!

The other night Kaitlin and I went up to the bridge to visit and James let me drive the ship..ok, so it was the backup/emergency steering wheel – but still! I have a picture and I look important, so that’s all that matters, right? It was quite interesting though, he showed us how all the GPS systems work and how they navigate the waterways. The Spirit of the Yorktown (the ship I used to work on) was on the radar when I got up there, thought that was ironic.

Last night the bridge paged us to let us know that the Northern Lights were out! We all ran out of the OB to take pictures. The NL were quite mellow, but a beautiful green. My camera didn’t do so well capturing the color, but James got some great ones – so I’ll post those as soon as I can retrieve them from his computer.

Went to the formal night/black and white dance in the Crow’s Nest the other evening and had a great night – we danced like crazy, drank wine and laughed the entire night!

They also asked me to teach an English class on board for an hourly pay each week to our Indonesian and Filipino crew members. It would basically be teaching them phrases and other bits of information that are necessary to get by on the ship. I’m waiting to hear more on it, but will let you know. I think it would be a cool opportunity.

Obviously, I am enjoying myself and having a blast. As of today, I’ve been on the ship 4 weeks and it has flown by!

I’m off for now, but I hope all is well with everyone! Please shoot me emails and send postcards, letters, and pictures – I’d love to hear from all of you!

Oh – I almost forgot…one of the designers from Trading Spaces was on board last week, her name was Christi and she was from Texas! Her kids were in Club Hal..fun tid bit :)

Sunday, August 12, 2007

I finally feel somewhat caught up! I've posted all my pictures - have them all labeled and finally got an email out!

Lori, one of the three youth staff left last week for her vacation and we never had the new person show up. So, they transferred the most useless girl EVER over to us - so we stuck her on teens since teens is the easiest to work with and takes the least amount of effort. Uh well - it's only until Wednesday. We get a new girl today that we will only have on board for 2 weeks, then two new girls come on Wednesday - all but me and one other will leave in the next 3 weeks because our kid counts go down quite low, so there is less need for youth staff.

I really am enjoying myself - I'm going to the Pinnacle Grill with Kaitlin (Youth Staff), Lammy (EC Manager/Librarian), and Janis (naturalist) tonight to celebrate Kaitlin's last week. The Pinnacle is our fantastic restauraunt on board - so that should be nice. This week I hope to go either Dog sledding or on a Whale Watching Excursion/Salmon Bake in Juneau because I have pretty much the entire day off there!

I guess that's all for now - nothing to exciting happening today! Hope all is well with everyone!

Actual Date for posting - August 5, 2007

So, we just ended another cruise and it was definitely one to “write home” about. I was on teens this week, Kaitlin on tweens and Lori on kids.

We don’t allow kids in diapers into the kids program and they must be potty trained. But of course, there is the one child that poops in her pants TWICE and it never even phases the kid! The way we notice that she’s had an accident was because every room reeked.

Anyways, there is a family of 9 kids on board and they are all a bit rebellious and snotty. One night we were playing Crainium and there is playdough in the game. He decides that it would be hilarious to make a penis out of it. So of course, everyone starts laughing and i’m trying not to laugh because of course it would be inappropriate, but it was definitely funny.

A few nights later, another one of the 9 kids decides to bring his pocket knife into the Playstation room (which is unsupervised) and pull it out to threaten kids with it saying that he could beat anyone at any game with his knife!

The other fun event of the week was the two boys that decided to fight over a playstation game – they were trying to get each other to crash in the game and it ended up in the hallway hitting each other. One boy hit the other with his hat covered in the souviner-type pins and hit the other boy in the eye.

Then, this morning I get called to the infirmary for a random drug test (mind you, I had one 3 weeks ago) and had to do an oral swap, urine test and then a room inspection. They tried to confiscate my Chi (hair straightner) and Kaitlin’s blowdryer until they could find out if they were acceptable items. I told them if the Chi goes, I go! Non negotiable! But, I did get it back so it was all good and all is now well in the world of Sydney!

Needless to say, it has been a very hectic week – but of course lots of fun :) I have posted pictures and will try and post those regularly as well and keep them labeled so we can all figure out what they are.