Jay’s Internet Log

I am currently waiting to hear a lecture by Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod dog sled race.  She’s onboard to give this lecture and Mom and Heather are very excited.  I’m not sure where to begin as today was just magnificent, so I’ll do what I always do and start with waking up.  This morning I slept in until 5:30AM.  Heather and I went to breakfast at 6:00AM just to learn that it didn’t start for another hour.  The Godmother of the ship, Lorraine, was sitting at the entrance to the dining room, and she was sitting by herself, so we sat with her for a while.  She’s a very positive person and tells some nice stories.  As we sat and watched the shoreline, we saw fish jumping out of the water, which was very cool.  I walked outside and photographed a few of them, but they were very far away so the photos aren’t the best.  I had the same breakfast I had a few days ago, which was again, awesome.  I then fought with the Internet for an hour before boarding a bus.  The Internet here is very unpredictable, especially when surrounded by mountains.  Our bus took us to an airfield, where we put on spiked shoes and then the four of us got into a helicopter.  Lifting off in a helicopter is something of wonder, and this one flew us up over the ice-capped mountains and snow fields, and onto the Mendenhall Glacier.  We landed onto the glacier and were taken on a small tour around the area.  We saw streams of water carving through the ice, and some people even tasted the water.  I decided not to as I’ve got a sensitive digestive system!  We took many photos and all-in-all had a wonderful time.  On the helicopter trip back I felt very blessed to have such an experience.  We were bussed back to the ship where we had a quick lunch before heading out on our second excursion.   This time, we boarded a tiny little steam boat and took a short, hour and a half cruise in the bay learning about the history of Juneau and the gold rush times.  It was an interesting story, though the highlight for me of course was the steam engine!  After that little trip, Heather and I walked around town, looking in the shops until we passed a shop that smelled very good.  It was a fudge shop, and I told Heather that we should go in.  She said that they’d definitely have free samples, and she was right.  We had a small sample and ended up buying a few pieces of fudge with cashews and caramel.  By this time I was starting to get tired, and we still had this lecture to attend.  All-in-all this day has been the highlight of the trip so far.  It’s going to be an early night, as I’m wiped out.

I woke up this morning both feeling MUCH better, and at 3:21 AM.  If I wake up and see the sky becoming light, I can’t go back to sleep as I’ll just stand and watch the sky change.  This morning I tried to go up on the top deck in order to photograph but everything was still closed off due to the roughness of yesterday.  I eventually went back to our room and hung out on the balcony for a few hours as we got closer to Ketchikan.  This town is interesting.   It has a population of 14,000 in the Summer and 8,000 in the Winter.  On any given Summer day, the number of cruise passengers outnumbers the actual population, and today, there were three ships in port, ours by far the smallest.  Ketchikan has been called the “Rain Capital of Alaska” as it rains more than 300 days per year.  Today’s weather however, was perfect.  It was sunny all day and reached over 70 degrees.  We had a double tour today.  First we went to a lumberjack demonstration where two teams of lumberjacks competed in events that consisted of throwing axes, climbing tall poles, and cutting logs with chainsaws.  It was comical and a lot of fun.  After that, we boarded a bus and were driven about 12 miles to Totem Bight, which is a totem pole park.  We learned about the different totem poles and walked around a very nice (and windy) forest.  After that, we were driven back to the port where we walked around town for an hour and shopped at the local stores.  All in all, it was a wonderful, yet short port today.  Heather and I had lunch in the dining room while the ship left.  I always love sitting in there and eating while watching the nature outside.  After lunch, we napped for two hours; something I rarely get a chance to do.  After dinner we were able to see a few whales outside, and we think some Harbor Seals sitting up on a buoy.  Now we are waiting in the lounge to see the commedian tonight, and that will probably end the evening.