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 :)
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 :)
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