Secret Project

I've always wanted to say that.

I have a joint project with several of my writing friends in the works. It's not going to be a secret very long..we're letting the cat out of the bag (so to speak) on Oct 1st. I'll be blogging about it, so please stay tuned!!!

I'm excited. I know you are too. I can tell. ;)

Last Day of the Cruise

It's even sad to blog about the last day of our cruise! We had such a great time, it was hard to say good-bye to the Ms Ryndam. (Ross is already looking into future cruises we can do..yay)

The last day I hit the spa for a little pampering. It was quite nice, but next time we decided we'd buy passes to the Thermal Suite instead...hot tub, heated tiled chairs, different aromatherapy steam rooms..and only people who buy passes are allowed to use it. (little hint for anyone looking to go on a Holland America cruise!)

On the last day the held their "On the Deck for the Cure Walk," a 5k walk to raise money for breast cancer research. Holland America has the walk on every ship, every cruise and have raised over 2 million dollars. My mother-in-law and I both signed up to walk, while the husbands cheered us on. This is a FUN walk, not a race. Ross kept trying to give me race pep talks.."Get to the front of the pack".."you can take them!" Hee hee.





The last night also happened to be my father-in-law's birthday, so we went to the Rotterdam dining room for dinner. They were having their last night "performance" dinner (can't remember the official name) so it was quite entertaining. The wait staff sang, danced, juggled as they served each course. We also got a little birthday cake and song!!







We went to the last show of the cruise, then woke up early and got kicked off the boat! ;)

Sigh. So much fun. I hope you enjoyed these glimpses into our trip and if you get a chance to go on a cruise to Alaska, do it!! :)

Cruising Pictures Galore

This will officially be the most pictures I've ever blogged at once. I tried to narrow it down to the best ones, I really did! We just had such a great time in Ketchikan, and I have the pictures (and pictures and pictures) to prove it. First thing in the morning we docked and headed out for our crab boat fishing excursion. Ross and I are big fans of the Deadliest Catch, so when Ross' dad told us he was taking us on this excursion we were so excited! It did not disappoint! Not only did we get to go out on a crab fishing boat in Alaska, we were on a boat that was featured on the Deadliest Catch, (the Allutien Ballad) with a fantastic crew of experienced fisherman who did a fantastic job of telling us their stories, everything we ever wanted to know about fishing, crab, the Bering Straight and more.

I'll kick things off with a picture of me below the Captain in his wheelhouse.



This turned out to be so much more than a crab boat fishing excursion. They took us to see the seals (who were enjoying the sun just as much as we were) as well as some bald eagles. They threw fish in the water to bring the eagles down, I managed to get a picture of one swooping down.









The crew showed us how they fished for all kinds of fish, as well as the crab. We went to different areas and they pulled up various fish, crab and even an octupus for us to see!







We got to get up close and personal with some crab-YES-it is alive!!





Overall it was a fantastic excursion, one I highly recommend to anyone going to Ketchikan, Alaska!!



Once the crab boat excursion was over, we still had time in port. (those crab fishermen start early!!) So we did some shopping and headed for yet another hike. Our shopping time cut into our hiking time a little (awww) so we didn't get to reach any lookouts or summits, but it was still a great hike.





Just to add sprinkles to the ice cream sundae (what, I told you I hit the ice cream bar every day!) that night we had one of the most spectacular sunsets I think I've ever seen. An incredible ending to an amazing day.





Tomorrow, last post from the cruise!!

And still more cruising pics...

I am thoroughly enjoying reliving our cruise in blog form. Are you jealous yet? Just checking...
Our next day was a "cruising day" up to Tracy Arm. We woke to brisker temperatures and ice in the water! We threw on our warm clothes (for the first time) and went out on deck to check things out. The ship got as close to the glacier as possible, but being later in the year (we were the last cruise to Alaska for them) we didn't get too close. Still, the view was spectacular, the ice chunks were scary and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast on the deck (or was it second breakfast?) while taking in the sights.









It was hard to get good pictures because it was too sunny! Did I say too sunny? I mean, it was perfectly sunny, but not so great for photos.








And...what Alaska cruise would be complete, without a whale sighting?!! Did I say "a" whale? Well, let me tell you, once again, we were treated extra special on this cruise. Later while we were sailing back out of Tracy Arm, our ship was surrounded by whales!! They were out the back, off each side, from counting the blow spout spray, we must've seen dozens. Some were far enough we only saw the spray, several were quite close to the boat. I tried to get pics, but as soon as you got your camera out, down they'd go again. But trust me, there were whales! When the excitement calmed down and there were no more whale sightings happening, I went inside to get something to eat, and I heard yet more exclamations and people rushing to the window. I had to put down my plate and run back outside to see the porpoises that were jumping alongside the ship! Along with the seals we saw from the ship, my wildlife expectations were more than met!



The day got more beautiful as we headed back out, we enjoyed much relaxation..and of course, food. Here's me in the room after all the whale sightings...still hoping to see more!



You HAVE to tune in tomorrow for my report on Ketchikan where we went out on a CRAB FISHING BOAT!! One that was featured on The Deadliest Catch. See you then!

Yet More Cruising Pics

The next day on our Alaskan cruise we stopped in Sitka. There's no space or docks for the cruise ships, so we took the tender, which I quickly learned is our life boats, taking us from the cruise ship to land. Here's a shot I got of it before we got back on. It was kind of strange to sit inside it and look around, picturing what it would be like if we were all in there for an actual life boat emergency situation. *shivers*





We had planned on doing the Advanced Mountain Bike excursion, a 4 hour, 22 mile ride..but there wasn't enough interest in it, so we went with the same company, but did their bike and hike excursion instead. It was a pretty short bike ride (on touring style bikes-weird!) and then the hike, then a bike ride back to the beginning again. Somehow my husband still managed to look cool with his riding gear and bike. I look horrendously dorky.





The hike was gorgeous, thanks again to some spectacular weather.





We had extra time so we got to stop at Whale Beach on the way back. Didn't see any whales..then-but that's another story. ;)





We had time before we had to get back to the ship, so we wandered around Sitka. I, of course, had to go into the bookstore and found on the front table what I thought was one of the funniest titles I've ever seen for a book...and did you know that Random House is based in Sitka, Alaska? Neither did we! (kidding)







That night after indulging in cruise buffet (oh, the food!) we got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset.



Next update: Tracey Arm, Alaska!

More Cruising Pics

Our first port of call on the cruise was Juneau, Alaska. We'd checked things out ahead of time, and decided the plan would be to take the tram up Mount Roberts, then do some hiking once we were up there.

Notice I said, "the plan." We did take the tram, it was nice, but short compared to what I'm used to in BC. (shout out to my BC peeps!)



Once at the top, we visited the nature centre, (though I'm sure they called in the nature center) checked out the bald eagle they had rescued, and Ross narrowly escaped a bear attack...inside the building...



Since the bear told us to take a hike, we did. There was a "regular" loop that most people did, we did that, then continued higher.





We hiked back down the main area, and this is where the plan took a bit of a turn. We saw a sign for hiking all the way DOWN the mountain. Problem was, our time was running short and we had to be back on the ship soon. We asked a local working in the nature shop (where Ross was once again attacked by wildlife, so weird) how long it would take it to get down the mountain.



She told us since the weather was so great, it would be dry and a good hike, and it would take us about 1 1/2 hours to get down to the parking lot, plus another 20 minutes to get to the ship. We had two hours until our ship left. So, of course, we decided to go for it.

It was AWESOME! Since we had the pressure of missing the ship, we actually ran parts of the trail. Whenever it was a flat switchback part, we jogged it out, then walked again when it got steeper or too clogged with roots, stumps and rocks. We even started taking short cuts down through the switchbacks...skipping part of the trail and pretty much climbing straight down. I LOVED it!





I did love it, but my body had something else to say about it. My ankles kept twisting and at one point, (in a clearing, of course, where we'd slowed for a second) I rolled my ankle right over. It dropped me to my knees and I got up as fast as I could, told my husband I had to keep going right away before I could register the pain. It was really weak the rest of the way and I could feel it swelling, but I tried to ignore it. Luckily, we didn't have much farther to go. The entire hike down to the ship, that was supposed to take us almost two ours, took us less than an hour!

I did go see the medical officer on the ship the following day to get wrapped up for our next adventure...but that's, another story. ;)



That night we ate in the Italian restaurant on the ship, had a fantastic meal, I forget how many courses it was...6 maybe?!! Before dessert they even brought us a giant plate of cotton candy, which I just couldn't resist. Hey, I'd earned it!!



More in my "we had an awesome time cruising and I'm going to make you jealous" series coming soon!! ;)