Dragon*Con 2008

"Get A Life!" - William Shatner

I'm visiting Buffy's sister and brother-in-law in Atlanta for Labor Day this year. Today we attended an annual event they hold in Atlanta. It is called Dragon*Con. Instead of a full blown Star Trek convention, it's a sci-fi/fantasy convention that covers all science fiction and fantasy... complete with a parade. The convention goes on all weekend long, but we went to see what it was all about today. Why and how they came up with the name Dragon*Con... I don't know.

We made it downtown in time for the parade. The parade is grouped by genres or shows/movies/comics etc. For example, they put all the super heros together, all the trekkies in a group, all the Star Wars fans in a group and so on. There are also some miscellaneous characters that show up such as the Blues Brothers and that old man from the Six Flags commercials. There are some noted celebraties attending this year's Dragon*Con including George Takei (Mr Sulu from the original Star Trek), Hayden ??? (the cheerleader from Heroes), Richard Hatch from the original Battlestar Galactica, and Adam West.

The parade was very entertaining, though I was surprised to see so few characters from Star Trek. Star Wars had the biggest representation of fanatics. Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis had pretty large amount of fanatics as well. After the parade, we headed to the Marriott, one of the 3 or 4 hotels hosting this convention. The place was packed. Supposedly, all these hotels were completely booked. We looked around and watched the people before heading to the Hilton to do the same. I even had the opportunity to have my picture taken with Darth Elvis!!

After stopping for lunch, Beth's parents and brother-in-law Bill headed back home. Pam, Beth and I headed to the Sheraton to see what was going on there. There was nothing going on, so we eventually went back to the Marriott. We took some seats in a lounge and watched the people. It was at this point when Buffy commented that she felt like the freak because she wasn't dressed in a costume. We did look a bit out of place.

Before heading back home, we decided to take one quick walk around. We found a few new things. The robot from Lost in Space was now available for photos. This was one of my favorite characters and shows when I was growing up in the 70's. We finally headed for home where Buffy was trying to come up with a costume for next year.

I can understand why these people do some of this stuff. Beth even stated that she could "easily get sucked into this." Even though it looked like Halloween in downtown Atlanta today, it is a day where someone can take a vacation from themselves and be someone else and do something exciting. It's just when these fanatics start loosing touch with reality and with who they really are. It becomes a problem when it starts consuming their daily lives. As Shatner said, "Get A Life!"

But our ventures today were very entertaining.

Alaska Pictures

If interested in seeing more photos from our Alaska trip, go to my Flickr site. Hopefully this link will work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11445677@N08/sets/72157606770285853/

You can set up a slide show to view all 85 of these pictures. The slideshow option is located on the upper right hand part of your computer screen. Just click where it says slideshow. Once the show starts running, you can set the options to display titles and descriptions of the pictures. You may want to also set it to show the pictures slower as some of the descriptions may take some time to read.

If this link doesn't work, you can use the search function to search for people on Flickr. Just set the search parameter for people and description "rlojr."

Now that these instructions are as clear as mud, good luck and enjoy!

Rocking Boats and Roasting Past Presidents

On Saturday, August 16, the Peoria Jaycees held its annual Rock The Boat event. This is a 2 hour excursion on board the Spirit of Peoria Riverboat with a party and band in full swing. The cost is $35 and covers all the food and beer. And again, Rachel's Hippo was the top bill. And again, they played very well. They did Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me, which I don't think I've seen them play before... maybe it's new for them.

Anyway, during the cruise, I was witness to a ruckus. A female ship worker (she was in some officer's suit, who knows, she could have been the captain) was trying to control another woman who was becoming physically irate. The ship officer was also assisted by two other guys who were undoubtedly Spirit of Peoria employees. The woman who was being restrained was noticeably intoxicated. They eventually got her into a stairwell where they talked with her and to calm her down. At this point, she stopped resisting and just broke down and started crying. With running mascara, she looked very similar to Ozzy Osborne.

At the end of the cruise, boat officials were escorting off a gentleman who was also very intoxicated and was probably on the verge of causing trouble. I don't know what the full story on this one was either. But once off the boat, we discovered that the woman and this guy were a couple of some sort. The Peoria police were waiting at the dock when the ship arrived. Upon reaching the squad cars, the police were forced to use pepper spray on this guy.

The Spirit of Peoria's crew handled these scuffles very well. The Rock the Boat event I thought was organized really good and at least most everyone had fun.

The boat docked around 10pm, which is still early. So a few of us decided to meet up at the Camel Club on Galena Rd. Buffy and I were first there before anyone else. At this time, we were kind of hungry, so we turned around and headed to McDonald's for a bite. I had the top down on the car as we headed through the drive thru. Waiting for our food, I looked up and noticed a very sizable spider in a web underneath the soffit. Looking at the color, size and shape of it, it appeared to be a black widow. If you recall, I had a black widow in my back yard that I wrote about on this blog a couple of summers ago. Since then, I have found another 6 black widows in my yard (just this summer alone). "How can you tell?" asked Buffy. I claimed it looks similar even though I couldn't see any markings yet. Once we had our food, I pulled the car up and stopped right underneath it. I saw what looked to be some red markings on it. Face it, Peoria has been invaded by the black widow.

We returned to the Camel Club, eat our dinner, had a drink or two, listened to an odd mix of music on the old 45 juke box and hung out with friends.

This past Friday night was the Jaycees annual Homecoming where we honor the immediate past president with a party and some type of roast. For the last few years, I've fried chicken for the event. I get a few good comments and many enjoy the dinner. We can thank Uncle Charlie for giving me my fried chicken prowess. I also stepped up to run the karaoke machine since Shane Hoadley was ill and couldn't make it that night. He could have at least let us use his bigger karaoke equipment instead of that small, 5 inch screen that no one could see. But another good time was had with the Jaycees.

Alaska - Day 11.5 & 12

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - During our final day of sailing, Dennis, Shari and Beth went to play bingo. Jack was still swimming. Meanwhile, Mom and I looked through the near 500 photos I took during the trip. It took a while to look at them using the slide show feature.

Our bingo players returned and we had one big winner. Beth won the Snowball Prize but had to share it. It pretty much paid for our bar bill for the week. After collecting the winnings and eating dinner, we returned to our cabin. The question came up... now what?

Buffy went for a walk. Later I got a call. "Come on up to the Ocean Bar," said Buffy, "the whole gang is up here." So I head on up for I guess would be one last drink with our favorite bartenders. It would turn out to be last several drinks.

We were to have our bags packed and ready to be picked up by 1am. And they were not kidding. I barely had enough time to get everything in my bag by that time. I would learn I should have left the bar sooner, for more reasons than this.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 - The Volendam was to dock in Vancouver at 7am and we were to disembark at 8am. Buffy woke up to take a shower and get cleaned up. I was hungover and slept in until about 7:30am. We finally left the ship and went through Customs with no problems. After picking up our bags, we were in our final bus line for a ride to the airport. I had to leave the line on a couple of occasions. What the hell was I thinking the night before when I had 2 buckets of Heineken?

Finally, Dennis gave up on the bus ride to the airport. He scoped out the taxi line, which was moving very rapidly. And a taxi would deliver us to the correct part of the airport. So we left the bus line for a taxi. That turned out to be a wise move... especially for me.

We were going to try to meet Matt Astel, but everyone was anxious to leave and Matt was at least 20 minutes away from the airport. So our get together was scrubbed and we were soon airborne bound for Peoria.

Once home, the remainder of the day was spent on the couch, then the bed, watching the Olympics.

This was definitely a trip worth taking. Beth and I highly enjoyed it. I really wasn't in too much of a hurry to return home. While my Mom enjoyed it, she was OK with higher temperatures and getting back home; all the travel was a little hard for her. Shari liked it except for all the cold. I doubt Dennis will be back on a cruise, though he wants to visit Prudoe Bay. And I think all Jack will remember is the pool.

And so ends the 2008 Alaska Travelogue Blog.

Photo Info:
Top: Myself, Dennis, Beth and Shari for our last call at the Ocean Bar
Bottom: Our bartenders at the Ocean Bar on the ms Volendam, from left to right, "Dan the Man," Edward and "Auggie."

Alaska - Day 10 & 11

Friday, August 8, 2008 - The first part of the day was sailing into the small town of Ketchikan. We were due to dock at 2pm. It was a scenic ride in the inlet and there were whale watching opportunities. We didn't see any. Jack swam all morning with his new friends. He started some secret club with them and he had lunch alone with one of his swim buddies. A few minutes before 2pm, we began the task of getting Jack out of the pool. This proves to be a challenge. He gets out and wines that he wants to stay with everyone and swim. But moments later, all the other kids are getting out of the pool because their parents want to disembark. Once Jack realizes this fact, things aren't so bad.

Buffy and Shari can't wait to shop. And there are plenty of stores to shop at in this town. I still don't understand the fascination. You wait in line after line, crowd and crowd. Each store you go into is the same crap for sale, though perhaps displayed differently. I just don't get it. Anyway, I did purchase a t-shirt (I'm looking for a sweatshirt without the hood... impossible to find). I then left the others to find a drug store to purchase needed toiletries. On my way I encountered Crazy Dave's Reptile Show. I didn't pay to go in, but out front were two gentlemen, one with a python and one with some black monitor from Africa that was on a leash. It was about the size of an alligator.

While Beth and Shari shopped, Dennis and Jack saw some other sites. They came across a bridge on Creek Street where various people were salmon fishing. You could look down and see schools of salmon trying to swim upstream. Mom shopped close to the ship at the Outlet Store. I went back to the ship to grab my computer and utilize the local Internet to get some business e-mails, if any, and to post the last couple of days on this blog. I was at an espresso shop when I saw Mom out the window. I waved at her and she came in and hung out while I did all my posting. This damn MacBook! I'm still trying to configure my e-mail program. I can receive messages fine... it sending them is the problem. The same with our cell phones on the ship... a common theme?

At 5pm, Mom, Dennis, Jack and I had tickets for the local lumberjack show. It was an entertaining show. It was set up as a competition between the Spruce Mill Camp (US) and the Dawson Creek Camp (Yukon Territory Canada). The audience was divided and we fell on the Dawson Creek Camp team. The hostess told us the story of how Ketchikan was once a logging capital. Over in the Yukon Territory was another logging community and every now and then, these lumberjacks would get together for drinks and such. Of course bragging would go on about what they could do so then they decided to have a competition, for fun I presume, to see who's better. This was the basis of lumberjack competitions today.

Among the competitions they used specially equipped chain saws that were pretty loud. The pole climbing was very impressive, especially when they would descend. I almost thought they screwed up and were going to fall. The lumberjacks used cottonwood trees to cut on because the wood is softer. Had they used a harder wood, the show would be going on much longer. Jack was able to take some cut wood home as a souvenir. He had already got a chip of wood from one of the lumberjacks when our team had scored.

I went with Dennis to see the salmon fishing after the show while Mom and Jack returned to the ship. Beth and Shari were still shopping. They did not get back to the ship until almost the last minute. They did stop at a couple of drinking establishments where they met a local who invited them back to his home. I don't know if he goes to the tourist traps and try to pick up women. They also stopped at Fat Stan's which was right outside the lumberjack show.

We didn't do much after dinner. Went to our room and then back to the Ocean Bar to see the regulars. At 10:30pm there was the Chocolate Extravaganza by the Lido pool on Deck 8. All this stuff looked really rich and fattening. Believe it or not, I didn' t have any. Buffy and Shari did get in the long line to get their share. Dennis and I went outside on Deck 9 to check out the fog. Out in the middle of nowhere, nothing but fog and cold wind... very erie. Every now and then, you could hear the ship's fog horn.

Now it's time for sleep.

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - I am now coming to you live from the Lido Pool on Deck 8, somewhere at sea. The sun is out and there is no sign of land anywhere. Today is a full day of sailing on the Pacific Ocean until we pull into Vancouver tomorrow morning at 7am. We have already crossed time zones and we are in the Pacific Time Zone. Beth and I have already cleaned up and had breakfast. Buffy is reading while I'm blogging. Not really a whole lot to do today. At 12:15pm right now, I haven't seen anyone else.

Tomorrow, we make our final disembarkation and begin to head home. My friend from high school, Matt Astel, is actually in Vancouver right now and I'm making efforts to visit for a couple of hours.

As our trip winds down, I will probably only have one more post. I don't know if anything exciting and entertaining will happen in the next 24 hours, but if it does, maybe and extra post. Dennis is stir crazy from the cruise; Buffy loves it. I don't really want to go back to the midwest for heat and humidity. But all things must come to an end sometime.

Alaska - Day 9

Thursday, August 7, 2008 - We docked in Juneau sometime last night or early this morning. Buffy and Shari were awaked sometime around 7:30am from some loud clanking noise outside our staterooms. I never heard a thing as I was asleep. Since Juneau is in a tempered rainforest, the weather was cloudy and rainy.

We did our normal routine of going to the Lido Restaurant on Deck 8 for breakfast. Jack slept in late this morning... somewhere around 10am. This caused Dennis and Jack to miss the most of breakfast. So Dennis, Mom and Jack stayed on the ship while Shari, Buffy and I ventured into town. They were happy to go into all these different shops Juneau had to offer. I'd wait outside. After about 45 minutes to an hour, I was getting extremely board. All of us with the exception of Buffy were signed up for a helicopter tour for 2 15-minute landings on a glacier leaving the ship at 12 noon. The van took us to the airport where we donned some kind of cletes to allow us to walk on glacier ice. I had walked on a glacier about 15 years ago when visiting Anchorage, Alaska. And I did it in sneakers. That was not safe as I would slide all around. I finally noticed a sink hole of sorts and then realized that if I fell right here, there would be nothing to hold on to and it would be all over for me.

We boarded the helicopter and got to wear the headphones to talk to one another. Jack especially like doing this. He would press the button and say "Awesome!" We were able to travel up the canal along Juneau for about 10 minutes and got a glimpse of the Mendenhall Glacier. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating with us. The pilot claimed that it was too unsafe for a glacier landing and we turned around for the airport. Once landed and inside the facility, the tour manager claimed we would get a full refund since they could not deliver what they offered. So we got a free helicopter ride... it wasn't a complete loss. This was to be Mom's birthday present from all of us.. a helicopter ride to a glacier. She was happy to get to go for a ride. And the walk on the glacier may have not worked out too well for her since she mistakenly put her cletes on the wrong feet. So I guess things just were not working in our favor today... especially for Dennis.

Meanwhile, Buffy signed up for a whale watching excursion. At least things were working out for her. She was able to see a school of whales, which the tour guide said is rare. The whales were also making some sort of mating calls, which was unusual as they mate south near Hawaii.

After returning to the ship from the ill-fated helicopter ride, Dennis, Shari and myself went to take a tram ride to the top of Mt. Roberts in Juneau. Mom and Jack headed back to the Volendam to, guess what... go swimming. The tram ride was alright. It is very similar to the tram at Jackson Hole. At the top is a restaurant, shop and hiking trails with a number of lookout points. On a clear day, you could probably see quite a bit. But we had low cloud cover today. You could see most of the city, but if you hiked up higher, about all you saw was clouds. Also at the top was a wounded bald eagle they named Lady Baltimore. She was shot in the beak and when she fell, damaged and lost a retina in her left eye. With only one eye, Lady Baltimore does not have any depth perception, which makes feeding and getting around very difficult. It would be unlikely she could survive in the wild.

Shari returned to the ship, but Dennis and I ventured upward where we even ran into some leftover snow from the winter months.

We all finally met up in the pool area where we took a hot tub. When we went our separate ways, Buffy and I dressed up as it was formal night. We weren't able to get into the Rottendam Restaurant until later. I ordered the Surf n Turf, which I think is the first time I've had lobster. I can't tell you if the lobster was any good as I have nothing to compare it too. It was still good though. My only complaint was it took me 4 times to ask for a Heineken until I finally got one.

After dinner, we adjourned to the Ocean Bar where we caught up with not only Dennis and Shari, but Tracy Lynn, the girl from Rhode Island, a fellow passenger Dave from the land tour and our favorite bartenders, Auggie, Marc and Dan. And "Dan the Man" is getting to know me all to well... he might have my entire biography. He told Buffy, "Rick drinks Diet Coke during the day, Heineken at night." Just imagine if I came up here during the winter when nighttime is about 18 hours a day.... a lot of Heineken drinking! All the wait staff are from the Phillipines. And they work on the ship 11 months out of the year, 11 hours a day, 7 days a week. And they still have a wife and kids back home. Shari told them they should quit and go home to their families. Dennis and Shari left for a short while to watch a comedian, but then came back within 20 minutes.

Several Heinekens, Bud Lights and wine later, Buffy and I retired for the evening while Dennis and Shari left to lose money in the casino.

Today's Alaska Fun Fact
In the late 1800's, a Tlingit Chief named Kowee led 2 drunken prospectors to a creek which emptied into the Gastineau Channel. The prospectors, Richard Harris and Joe Juneau, found gold. This changed the course of history and the face of Alaska itself. On October 4, 1880, Harris and Juneau laid claim to the area they called Gold Creek, one of the largest finds of the Alaska Gold Rush era. In 1900, the capital of Alaska was moved from Sitka to Juneau. (source: the Holland America Daily Program). According to Andy the bus driver taking us to the airport, the town was once undecided on a name. They went back and forth between Harrisburg and Juneau, both after the 2 prospectors. They eventually decided Juneau as the bus driver put it, "they felt there were plenty of Harrisburgs but not enough Juneaus."

Photo Info:

Top - Buffy & Shari shopping yet again

Bottom - Mom just before taking off in the helicopter

Alaska - Day 8

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 – We awoke this morning around 8:30am. This is considered sleeping in for this past week. I was extra tired this morning. Last night we made our way to the Crow's Nest for a late evening. The Crow's Nest is a lounge on Deck 9 on the forward part of the ship, with about a 180 degree view of the bow. Last night was Disco night at the Crow's Nest. So after dinner and hanging out in Mom and Jack's room watching Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D, Buffy and I adjourned to the Crow's Nest. Dennis and Shari followed while Grandma Hootie stayed with Jack.

And it was last night I opted to order the bucket of Heineken as they were more economical in cost. That decision may have not made sense this morning, but it made perfect sense last night.

Anyway, we awoke and found ourselves docked in Haines, AK. It was a bit strange to once again see buildings and civilization as we spent the last 2 days looking at water, glaciers, clouds, and miles of undeveloped coastline.

It is a quaint little town that lies on the banks of the Chikat Inlet off the Lynn Canal. A small range of snow covered, jagged-peaked mountains border the town which was very picturesque. Haines appears to be a very dog friendly town. About every other car we saw had a dog in it. We noticed several of the locals walking into shops and their jobs with their dogs. And all the dogs are very well behaved and friendly.

The weather was perfect. The sun came out and it was actually getting near hot if you were in the sun with no breeze. Dennis and Jack headed out early as they scheduled an excursion that took them out to drive Kowasoki Mules. Mom stayed close to the ship as the town was a bit to hilly for her to walk far.

Shari, Buffy and I disembarked from the Volendam and walked into town in search of a diner. On our way, we encountered a live, adult bald eagle perched high in a spruce tree. Seeing it somewhat up close and in the wild was very cool.

We stopped at the Bamboo Cafe. The blueberry hotcakes were very good. The biscuits and gravy were respectable, though it's doubtful you can beat Track Inn in Chillicothe for biscuits and gravy. The hospitality was excellent.

After breakfast, we walked around. Surprisingly, there were very few souvenir shops. Eventually, we made our way back to the ship where we caught up with Mom; then later Dennis and Jack. At this point, most of us went separate ways. Jack just wanted to get back into the pool. Dennis and Shari went to eat lunch. Buffy took a nap. I trekked up to the local library to use their reliable Internet connection. I was finally able to upload all my posts from the past few days. I also caught up on some business, e-mail and read some news. It was kind of nice to get away for a while.

I did meet up with Dennis, Shari and Buffy later in the afternoon in town. Dennis was interested in going on yet another excursion; the Eagle Preserve where you can see nesting eagles and you might see bears feasting on salmon fish. We all eventually got back together at the pool on the Lido Deck. Dennis and Mom signed up for the Eagle Preserve excursion which left at 5:30pm and wasn't due back until 8:30pm. The Volendam is scheduled to depart at 9pm. Nothing like cutting it close.

At around 5pm, we all went separate ways again; I went to the gym, Buffy went to see a movie, Mom and Dennis went to see bears hunt for salmon and poor Shari had to stay at the pool with Jack. At least Jack makes new friends at the pool every day. But the kid has to be shriveled up by now from all the hours he's been in that pool. The pool closes at 7pm. And Jack got out of it about 7:05pm.

After drying and getting dressed, Shari and Jack discovered that they were locked in their room. The door handle had malfunctioned and would not allow the door to open. To make matters worse, the phone in their room did not have any directory. Shari wound up calling the Spa for help. They gave her the number for the front desk, but by that time, our steward came by while making his rounds. He made sure everything got fixed.

Dinner tonight was pork spare ribs and they were very good. Buffy joined us late after her movie. Jack and Shari went back to their room to order room service/cheeseburger for Jack and watch cartoons; Buffy and I went the Explorations Cafe on Deck 5 to watch the ship take off and write today's blog post (I hope to upload it tomorrow). We hope Mom and Dennis return safely and on time from their excursion.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to be in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Buffy has scheduled a whale watching excursion while the rest of us are going on a helicopter ride to land on a glacier.

Photo info:

Top - Mom, Dennis, Shari & Jack get ready to board back onto the ms Volendam.

Bottom - Buffy and Shari walking through the town of Haines... maybe working the town of Haines

Alaska - Day 7

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 – We awoke very early today so we can get a good breakfast without having to wait in line. It was 6:30am and we found out that the “hot” breakfast is not served until 7am. So we got a table and watched for whales while the ship cruised towards Glacier Bay.

We for the most part finished eating when Shari came up to meet us. She claimed that Dennis' phone went off around 6am, which Dennis slept through and did not answer. Shari picked it up but was too late in answering it. It was Jeff Bilsland calling. Somehow, she had heard from her mom and that a huge storm came in and there was downed trees in their driveway (Shari's mom was staying at their place). I got my cell phone and turned it on and found there was a voice mail. It too was from Jeff so I called him back. Shari was having problems with her phone, but my was working fine.

Jeff said that the tree fell in the storm. “Yea, good one. I've got a bunch of trees, which one was it,” I said, thinking he was talking about my house. Then it occurred to me, it was the office. The remainder of that tree that fell last week had fallen in the storm last night... and this time it hit the office.

Fortunately, there was little damage. With help from Beth's parents, I got Jeff a key to the office and he pretty much took care of everything. Dennis and Shari's house was fine, with the exception of some downed trees and my house came out unscathed.

The cell service on the ship is bad. If someone calls us, we can hear them, but they can't hear us. We learned, but not for certain, that wireless calls from off the ship is $12/minute. Yikes!! This is not the time you want a call to chit chat.

Shari, Buffy and I walked laps around the ship and spotted some whales. We then pretty much took up residence at a table by the Lido Deck pool and stayed there most of the day. While Jack played in the pool with some other kids, we watched the various glaciers the ship maneuvered around. From time to time, some of us would leave the table to find a better vantage point. But someone would stay with the table at all times.

It was cool watching ice chunks fall into the ocean. We didn't see anything massive, but even small slides make a thunderous sound.

Right now it's a little after 5pm and Jack is still going strong in the pool. We'll probably hit dinner I'm guessing somewhere around 6:30 – 7pm. I'm not even hungry right now as we've been munching on food all day. They will have to roll us off this ship when we're done.

Tomorrow is a port of call in Haines, AK. On Thursday we stop in Juneau, where we are signed up for a helicopter tour that makes 2 landings on a glacier.

Photo info:
It's me with the Margarie Glacier in the background.

Alaska Day - 6

Monday, August 4, 2008 - The Internet connection on this ship sucks! I spent a good twenty minutes trying to upload my blog posts from Saturday and Sunday. The connection speed is like that of dial up. But I really blame Blogger for not allowing me to post anything. Since the ship charges by the minute, I decided to write my post and then copy and paste them, so my log on time would be minimal. But Blogger wouldn't let me paste anything in. Crap!! This is why you haven't seen any new posts for a while. I'll try again later.

Today was our first full day sailing on the cruise. Buffy, Shari and Dennis were awakened by an announcer on the PA pointing out glaciers and wildlife. Buffy got up quickly to go see. I slept right through it and didn't hear a thing. I did awaken shortly there after, showered and headed up for breakfast. The breakfast line was long at 8am. Note to future voyagers: avoid breakfast from about 8 – 10am. To make matters worse, I could not get a Diet Coke. None of the bars were open yet to buy one and the restaurant doesn't serve them. I was screwed! I can go longer without Heineken than I can without Diet Coke.

Buffy and I stopped by Mom's and Jack's cabin to see what they were doing. Buffy left to go back to our room for something. Jack continued to watch cartoons, having little interest in the ship or the scenery. Mom and I stepped out on her balcony when we saw what we first thought were dolphins. Another look as they changed the direction they were swimming, I noticed black and white areas on their skin. Could they have been killer whales? We're not sure what we saw, though there were numerous sightings of dolphins all day.

After lunch, I went to the ship's gym and worked out some. The gym is in the very front of the ship on one of the upper decks. It was cool being on a treadmill, looking out the front windows while the ship was moving. But it was at this time when we were leaving Prince William Sound and heading towards more of open ocean. The boat began to rock more. This became a little challenge keeping balance and feeling little waves of motion sickness.

I then joined Dennis, Shari and Jack by the pool and sat in the hot tub for a while followed by a brief swim. Jack must have spent a total of 3.5 – 4 hours of being in the pool. That's all he wants to do.

I later cleaned up a bit and then went on my own exploring the ship more while Buffy, Dennis and Mom went to play Bingo. This would lead to be the highlight of my day; maybe the whole trip. I found the front bow and walked around it a bit. It was very windy and chilly. Moments after I stepped off the front bow, a walked towards the port side of the ship. An announcement came over the PA regarding something on the starboard side. Since I was at the front of the ship, the starboard side was right around the corner. I sprinted over there and asked one of the deckhands what was going on. Whales!

I started up my camera and some others pointed me in the right direction. After messing with my camera, I looked up and saw a huge humpback whale at the apex of his leap in the air and then coming down crashing into the ocean. Unfortunately, I have no pictures or video. The whale never did jump back up again. However you could see the water blowing out of his blow hole as swam away.

We all had dinner in the Lido Restaurant and followed up with some beverages at the Ocean Bar. It was here where we met “Lynn” who is from Rhode Island, but works for the state of Alaska. She does environmental observations to make sure cruise lines stay in compliance. This is all she has been doing all summer; traveling on cruises. She claims it gets old after a while, eating all the same food, hearing the same entertainment, etc. And she has to travel by herself.

I had been drinking Alaskan Summer Ale so I signed up for a punch card to get into a drawing for an Alaska trip. I only need to drink 8 more Summer Ales to be eligible for the drawing. I purchased a Diet Coke for breakfast tomorrow and we retired for the day.

Tomorrow will be another day of full cruising around Glacier Bay.

Alaska - Day 5

Sunday, August 3, 2008 - There is really not a lot to report on today's activities. We basically rode a bus from Denali to Seward that took close to 8 hours. We did make a stop for lunch and a couple of other stops, but essentially, it was riding a bus today. Thankfully, it is the last bus for this trip, with the possible exception of catching a bus when we fly back home.

Our bus driver this time, Eric, is a school teacher here in Alaska. He is driving buses during the summer months. We drove through his home turf and he told us stories about local towns and his school district. He educated us on many interesting facts about Alaska during our ride. We were very entertained on most of it. Meanwhile, Jack slept through a big part of the ride, which worked out for us.

We finally arrived in Seward sometime before 5pm where the bus dropped us off right at the ship... the MS Volendam. We said our goodbyes to Josiah, our tour guide and friend through the land tour of our trip. Proceeding to check in for the cruise, there were not many people in line. I did the on-line check in which really helped to speed up the process. Eleven years ago when I went on the Carnival cruise, we had to wait in an extremely long line and seemed like forever to finally get on the ship. But this was not bad. I think we spent less than 10 minutes with check in. Sweet! Of course we had to go to the mandatory safety drill to prepare in the event the ship is going to sink. And that didn't really take as long.

Jack is all about the Lido Deck, where there is the swimming pool. I recently discovered The Loft where it is a lot of video games and such for teens. Jack will also like that. Mom says she could just sit on her balcony for the rest of the trip (her room is on the port side of the ship, so she had a good view of the glaciers). We started to set sail at 10pm. Tomorrow is basically just cruising as well as Tuesday. Our first port of call will be on Wednesday (I don't remember where).

I have a bit of some disappointing news for my blog fans. While the Volendam has wireless Internet access, it comes at a price. So in the interest of saving my dollars for much needed alcohol and freeing up time to vacation instead of blogging, I will only be logging onto the Internet intermittently.

Alaska Fun Fact #1
Eric the bus driver's school district is approximately the size of West Virginia. And in the state of Alaska, which is incredibly large in size, is divided in Burroughs instead of counties like most other states.

Alaska Fun Fact #2
There is an estimated 300,000 moose in Alaska. According to Eric, he has to get moose collision insurance on his car, which he has hit a moose in the past. And on the bus ride today, we got to see a moose feeding in a pond. So collectively, we have seen 1/100,000 of all the wild moose in Alaska on this trip thus far.

Alaska Fun Fact #3
According to many of the people in Alaska, this summer has been the coldest in the past 60+ years. There has only been a handful of days that the temperature has been over 65 F. Eric, the summertime bus driver and school teacher, talked a bit about the receding of glaciers and global warming. At the top of mountains where there are glaciers, are ice fields. These are bodies of water turned to ice from years of accumulated snowfall turned to ice that is unable to drain. Once full, the ice starts flowing over the top, just like pouring more water into an already full glass. Eric claims the recession of glaciers is twofold from his research. Glaciers are going to melt regardless since the Ice Age is over. And while rising temperatures can explain accelerated melting, Eric has noticed that less than enough precipitation is not allowing ice to overflow from the ice fields.

Photo Info:

All of us with Josiah disembarking off the bus and onto the ms Volendam.

Alaska - Day 4 (part 2)

We got really lucky today!! Continuing on the land tour of our trip, today we were to head out on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park. The tour was to last for about 8 hours, with boarding at 6:20am and ride in a converted school bus. Sounds brutal, but it turned out to be well worth it. Dennis, Shari, Jack and Mom bailed out, so it was only Buffy and myself that went on this excursion.

So our day began quite early. And all these early mornings, late nights and endless daylight must be taking its toll. I was very tired this morning, but I still managed to get to the bus. At least later in the morning, the skies opened and the sun began to shine.

There is only one road that takes you into the park. After 14 miles, no private vehicles are allowed unless they have a special permit. These special permits usually go to professional photographers, researchers, etc. Other than that, it is government/park owned vehicles that can enter this point. And they are only a limited number of them per day. This way, the majority of the park will not be impacted by the actions of mankind. We were instructed to eat on the bus and to leave all food, drinks, wrappers and such on the bus. This way, we protect the park and also do not become a target for animals looking for a better meal.

Our bus driver, Marsha was very informative and she talked almost for the entire tour. She knew all about the park, it's history, plants and the animals. The key word for the day was “migration,” so she called it the Marsha's Migration Tour.

Our first encounter with wildlife was not too far into the park; a snowshoe hare. It looked pretty much like a common rabbit to me. And like I said that we got lucky, it would be easier to mention what wildlife we didn't see. We also saw the Arctic ground squirrel, some raven, a lynx, dall sheep (rams), several caribou, plenty of willow ptarmigan (the state bird of Alaska) with look similar to chicken, a couple of grizzly bears with one young adult running in a field and in last 30 minutes of the tour, an adult bull moose with full antlers. The only animal we did not see was a wolf.

But the thing most exciting to see was Mt. McKinley. At 20,320 feet, it is the highest mountain in North America. So high that it can be seen on a clear day in Anchorage, 300 miles away. A large majority of the time, the mountain is not able to be seen in the park due to cloud cover. This mountain range is so large that it creates its own weather systems. We really got lucky with clear skies today.

Meanwhile, Mom, Dennis, Shari and Jack decided to take a shuttle to Denali National Park's Visitor Center. It is here where Shari probably made the quote of the day saying that she “felt that they are all prisoners on this trip,” since they have to wait in bus lines all the time and being told what activities to pursue. After looking around there for a while, they went for a ride to Savage River to look around.

Dennis wanted to start hiking around, but Mom wanted no part of that so she decided to ride the bus back to the Visitors Center and wait for them. Mom was in for the real adventure of the day. She mistakenly got off the bus a stop too early. She waited for a while for the next bus, but never really came on time. Noticing that the Visitors Center was short of 2 miles, she decided to trek out on her own. At least it was mostly downhill. It was about this time when our bus went by and Buffy and I saw Mom hiking down the road.

A short time into her hike, she came across a moose. So she just decided to turn around and go back the way she came. Later, Mom came across a couple of buses; one that was a blue campers' bus. She asked for a lift back, but they would not give it too her. Eventually, the shuttle bus going to the Visitors Center came by and she got on and made it back to the hotel.

After a nap, Mom, Buffy and I walked around the gift shops some and had pizza next door where the Princess Cruise Lines put up their passengers. While eating dinner, we ran into our tour director Josiah and one of his friends... off duty. There were no other tables available so we invited them to sit with us. We chit chatted around and learned more about how people come up for the summer and work these jobs in Alaska.

We never did find Dennis, Shari and Jack and wondered if they were still hiking somewhere. It wasn't like they were going to run out of daylight, but the shuttles quit running past 6pm.

Buffy and I later headed out to the Salmon Bake, a restaurant/bar/shops for a few drinks. Josiah was there so we hung out for a couple of drinks. We figured this was a place where the locals hang out. Heineken were $6 a bottle, so price wise it didn't seem like a place for locals. But everything else up here is a little pricier (unleaded gas is around $4.45 – 4.55 a gallon). We were here the night before after writing my previous post. One of the shots they serve is called a “duck fart.” It is Bailies, Kahlua and Crown Royal. Buffy really enjoyed it, but if I drank it, it would come up faster than it would go down. Instead, I was drinking a local brew called “Moose Drool Brown Ale.” It is a darker beer and it is very smooth, though it is a bit filling.

We ended the day getting things ready for tomorrow and, only fitting before getting on a cruise ship, watching Titanic on TBS.

So guess what we get to do tomorrow? You guessed it... another bus ride. This should be the last. We are to take a coach to Seward where we finally board the MS Volendam and begin our cruise. The ride is to be about 8 hours I hear, with a couple of stops. So I don't think a whole lot will happen tomorrow.

Alaska - Day 4

Travelogue Intermission - The Internet service suck big time on this ship.  This is my third attempt on a second try to get this post up!!!!  I will get back with everyone when I can find reliable Internet service.

Otherwise, we're having a good time! 

Alaska - Day 3

Today was another early start. Our original excursion called for a 4 hour scenic train ride from Fairbanks to Denali.  It was to be one of those glass dome cars. However, Alaska has had the highest amount of rainfall in 41 years. So, some of the tracks these trains need are flooded.  Instead, we had to take a bus to Fairbanks.  The part I don't understand was this; we were departing Fairbanks an hour earlier, but they claimed the bus ride would be faster than by train.  If that is so, why leave earlier?  Anyway, the weather by far cooperated with us as the day progressed.

Our first bus stop was in North Pole, AK.  That's right... the name of the town is North Pole and everything there has to do with Santa and Christmas.  All the street light poles are in the shape of candy canes.  Even the McDonald's sign is held up by a pole resembling a candy cane.  Coming into town, Andy the bus driver drove us completely through a roundabout in a complete circle before heading in the correct direction. He claimed he needed the practice.  The bus stopped at the Santa Claus House, a gift shop with everything tourist and Christmas.

Buffy was in bit of a panic.  She wanted several pictures of the place, but yet she wanted to shop. We only had 30 minutes.  I went and got the pictures and she shopped.  We did manage to get one photo of her with a giant Santa Claus statue next to the Santa Claus RV Park.  I am not making this up.  If fact later today, we met a family that stayed there!

We then had to head back to Fairbanks to pick up some folks at the train station (I think they got a late call while we were already in North Pole to pick these people up - good thing North Pole is only about 15 miles from Fairbanks).  Our next stop after about an hour or so was in a small town called Nenana.  There they have some large tripod pole they place on the Nenana River.  Each winter, the river freezes.  This tripod is connected to a clock and once the ice breaks free, it pushes free the tripod which then trips the clock and the exact time and day is recorded to when the ice finally breaks.  Wagers and bets are placed throughout the year on when this will happen.  The pot can get as high as $75,000.  And by the looks of this town, that's serious money.

We finally reached Denali shortly after 12 noon at the McKinley Chalets Resorts, where we'll be staying the next couple of nights.  It was nice that we didn't have to deal with our luggage.  The cruise people handle all that, though Mom's as well as Dennis & Shari's bags were late in being delivered.  We had lunch there at "the Chalets" at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.  This is a nice little bar with a great view of the river and canyon.  But poor Jack, it might just be too much excitement and too little sleep.  As he's bouncing around with energy, he accidently knocked over a glass of root beer and the glass broke.  He thought he was in trouble. 

After lunch and some light shopping and looking around, we were trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Dennis, Shari, possibly Jack and Mom were going to rent a Jeep and drive around the park.  But this would not happen until 5:45pm.  Buffy and I opted to take a shuttle over to Denali National Park and went for a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  On our way back waiting for our shuttle, we started talking to some people who was vacationing here. They mentioned that they were in North Pole and their kids got to meet Santa.  They also mentioned they were staying in an RV and then they stated that they stayed at the Santa Claus RV Park. "Yea, I know where that is," I said.

Tomorrow is going to be another early start.  We take our 8 hour Wilderness Tundra Tour or something like that in Denali National Park.  We hope for good weather, but the forecast calls for rain.  Sounds like Dennis is going to bail on this ride as he cannot handle being in a converted school bus with Jack for that long.  I'll let everyone know what happens tomorrow.

Photos:

Top - Buffy and I on the trail to Horseshoe Lake.

Bottom - All of us at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.