Author: Dackel Princess

Yesterday we cruised Tracy Arm. To say it was beautiful would be a real understatement of fact. It was beyond anything I could have imagined. At first it seemed pretty much like any inlet, then as we got further and further in small chunks of ice turned into larger ones until I could hear the theme from Titanic in my ears! LOL
Glacial Ice is incredibly blue and white. I couldn’t get enough of it! We toured this inlet 4 hours and it was all breath taking.
Last night we went for an all you could eat Alaskan King Crab dinner. OMG What a meal! I love Alaskan King Crab, but it’s expensive to order at home. This was just so delicious and so wonderful!

In Tracy Arm

With the Cruise Director

The glacier at the end of Tracy Arm

Quick Notes

Sunday night was formal night. We all got dressed up and went to dinner down at our favorite restaurant. Since we speak to all the wait staff and managers we got the best table in the place for our meal, and we got the best waitresses too! Adrianna and Mala. The meal was a bit more diverse. But they offered Ketchikan Sockeye Salmon and almost everyone had that.

After dinner we went to a musical show and it was fun. The singers were good, the songs all 70’s and pop familiar in type, and once we were done we headed off to bed.

I admit I do not change time zones easily!

We were up early today (again) and headed to breakfast. I could easily become accustom to living aboard ship, but I would weigh 700 pounds!

A now understand that a cruise is just an orgy of food. You talk about what time to meet for breakfast, ponder what you will eat and then say, oh and what time and where do you want to eat lunch. And of course dinner. If anyone starves on this ship it is entirely their own fault! I have never seen so much food offered anytime, day or night, and all for free!!

I do have a confession to make. Even with the patch for sea sickness on, yesterday when we hit rough seas and the ship began to rock and roll, I got distinctly green!! I tried napping. No luck. I ate small bits of crackers and drank ginger ale. But nothing worked. Finally about 3 AM we entered the inland passage, with quiet waters, and I felt so much better.

We went ashore to Juneau on Monday. We took the whole day taking two tours (The Mendenhall Glacier, and the Salmon Fish Hatchery) and then we walked around and did a little shopping and sight seeing on our own before reboarding the ship.

Aside from the green feeling of on Sunday/Monday, I am doing better. But I have to say, rough waters make me just plain sick!, I am having a wonderful time. And with the word Princess written boldly all over the ship, I feel very much at home!

But I miss everyone so much and look forward to getting back home too.

We have since toured Skagway and Tracy Arm. I haven’t written because it is so expensive to hook up my laptop and then pay for time $10.00 for 30 minutes! And as their satellite is VERY slow. It’s almost impossible to write as much as I’d hoped. So please forgive me and I promise to write more when I can.

Last night we spent a wonderful calm night just outside Seattle in a town called Monroe. This way we were able to get in to the cruise ship loading area without getting up early in the morning.
Of course, all four of us are on east coast time, and so we were up at the crack of dawn and we got to the docks about 10:30. Hubby and George dropped us girls off at the terminal with all the baggage. Then they went to return the car.
Carol and I zipped through out paperwork, and we were on board by 11:55. And checked out our rooms. They are lovely with fairly good views and then we went off to explore.
This ship is huge! And I am still not sure where everything is, or how to get there. I think more signs are needed or maybe a better ships guide. I figure I will know my way around by the end of the cruise.

Then, since we were hungry we stopped in at the buffet for lunch. There we met up our husbands and then Keith and Jill, more of our friends. We all ate our lunches, and then set off to unpack our cases back at our rooms.
Once that was done it was time for the fire drills, and then we set sail. What a pretty sight that was, as we pulled out of the docking area and sailed along the harbor in Seattle.
We had a Coast Guard escort all the way out of the Harbor, and then he waved and turned and was gone. We stayed out watching a while longer before hunger struck once again.
We explored the restaurants on board and decided to eat at the Savoy. We got a very nice table near a window. Our servers were Adriana from Mexico and then Mia from Thailand. They were young and seet and took incredibly good care of us!
We also had a wine stweard. He was hysterical. He was from Romania, and reminded me of Agadore in the movie, “The Bird Cage”. It was so funny! Still he was so nice and we enjoyed him a lot.
After we ate, we returned to our rooms and fell instantly asleep!

Me, George and Carole

Me as I was hiking a trail on Mount Rainier in Paradise.

This morning as dawn came across Mount Rainier at Sunrise!

Another picture at Sunrise.

We spent yesterday at Mount Rainier, and today we drove back via Wenatchee. Beautiful! Tomorrow we get on board the ship and head for Alaska! Too tired to write much tonight. The time change is catching up to me! Will post pictures and more information soon.

Have you ever watched people in airports? During our trip yesterday I did and I have some observations for you the next time you intend to travel.

Shoes.
Now I have never seen people wear the sorts of odd foot attire that I saw yesterday. Everything from the rather acceptable, (though impractical) flip-flops to the highest of heels for women to sandals to cowboy boots for the men.
Okay let’s start with the ladies.
Girls, I know you all love your flip flops, but they are just plain dangerous! One unsuspecting girl nearly lost a toe when a granny ran over her feet with a 400 pound carry-on wheelie!
There were also the high, high, heels, which, if these had been worn in Louisiana by rescue teams, no one would have gotten wet! The trouble with those is that one little bump and the woman in the shoes is on her proverbial butt!
Stick to comfortable, but practical shoes, please!
Boys, you didn’t escape my notice either. The sandals I could actually live with, had you washed your feet, but the number of men in shoes with no socks, was amazing! What’s with that?
And then, of course there were cowboy boots. I saw scores of them. Now where in Seattle do these guys think they’re going to find a Rodeo?

Cell Phones.
This is my next big thing. Everyone has a cell phone now. And it’s easy to see this in an airport, because, everyone is on the darn thing. Everyone except the little Nun I saw, and let’s face it, her conversations are of a more “divine” nature!
There was one girl who was extremely attractive. I noticed her right away. She looked a lot like Jennifer Aniston. Anyway she was walking towards our gate on her cell phone. Talking, talking, talking. She went up to the agent, passed her ticket to him, all the while talking. He passed her ticket and boarding pass back and she continued to talk. This continued right up, onto the plane, until the flight attendant asked her to please shut off her cell phone. No sooner had we touched down and the flight attendant welcomed us to Seattle and announced we could once again use our cell phone’s this young woman is back to talking. All the way to baggage claim and then the last I saw her she was still talking in the rental car line.
What is it with some people and cell phones?

Seattle is beautiful and today we head off to Mount Rainier for a day and night. I’ve been here once before, but I had forgotten just how nice it is up here in the Northwest!

We arrived in Seattle about noon, have settled in our hotel room, had an incredible Mexican lunch and now will crash for a while! Getting up at 2:20 is not for the faint of heart. Boy are we exhausted! Of course the first thing I did was hook up the laptop so I could post a note! LOL

1 Seattle
2 At Sea
3 Juneau
4 Skagway
5 Tracy Arm, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
6 Ketchikan
7 Victoria
8 Seattle

Since we leave at the unthinkable hour of 3 AM tomorrow from the house I wanted to let those that read me know that I won’t be actually posting to anyone’s Blog while I am away. However, I will be making updates on the trip here, and posting pictures as we travel north.
I am so excited, that I pace around the house, hoping that I have remembered everything. Hubby keeps looking at me and asking what’s wrong? Nothing is wrong, but what if I forget something?
At least my cousin, Janet came up and helped me decided what to pack. I was ready to just bring everything from my winter wardrobe!
My last project is to vacuum the house, and go over the list of dog related items with the house sitters. They are coming over today and we will show them all the things they need to know.
Can you tell I’m excited?