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!! ;)
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!! ;)
Amazing, right? The cruise ship looks great, it has a full gym, aerobics studio, places to relax, nightly shows and the food..oh the food. I'm looking forward to that! They also have an Explorations cafe, sponsored by the New York Times, which apparently has an amazing library full of books based on recommendations from them! Just to make the trip ultimately awesome, I've booked myself a spa treatment for the day we cruise back. (oh yeah!) 
The reading I did was a blast! I had an hour time slot and only a short story to read, so..I improvised..and it was simply too much fun. While I was reading, one of the listeners did a sketch of me! She then colourized it and added the Evolve cover in the background. How cool 
