Day 242/365 - All Ashore That's Going Ashore

My Alaskan cruise came to an end today when we returned to port in Seattle. It turned out to be as amazing as everyone says. The scenery routinely sliding past the ship was phenomenal. The ship was very nice, although I like Carnival better than Norwegian Cruise Lines. Carnival has better food, bigger staterooms, better quality service, and much much better onboard entertainment. Two-thirds of the performers onboard the Pearl (both in the theater and in the lounges) were godawful.

It was still well worth the trip, however. I saw glaciers, mountains, eagles, seals, whales (briefly), and porpoises, hiked through temperate rainforests, rode an old train, had beer for breakfast, flew in a floatplane, won $44 playing roulette, went undefeated at Scrabble, and got clobbered at shuffleboard. Never did get around to climbing that rock wall.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 235/365 - Getting Underway

We couldn’t board our cruise ship until noon, so this morning I walked over to the Space Needle. Even though I’ve only seen two of the most touristy parts of Seattle (Pike Place Market and Seattle Center), it seems like a cool city. I’m going to have to come back here when I have more time to spend. The nerd boy in me really wanted to check out the Science Fiction Museum, but I ran short on time. The view from the Space Needle was pretty spectacular. I could even see my ship tied up to the pier.

Once we got aboard, I spent about an hour just wandering around and taking photos of every nook and cranny. My cabin is pretty cramped and there are four of us in it. I’d like to have gotten a balcony room on my own, but it was easier for my brother to afford the trip if we packed four people into one room, so that’s what we did. There are two regular beds, a roll-away bed, and a bunk that pulls down from the wall. I claimed the folding bunk. It’s my own little penthouse.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 232/365 - Ready to Ship Out

Saturday morning I'm catching a flight to Seattle so that the next day I can board the Norwegian Pearl and get underway on a 7-day Alaskan cruise. I am 'redtago" (ready to go). Well, mentally ready to go anyhow. Still haven't started packing yet. I think I've picked out the shore excursions I want to do, though. In Juneau there's the Mendenhall Glacier hike, in Skagway there's the vintage railway scenic tour/Sawtooth Mountain rainforest hike combo, in Ketchikan I'm leaning toward the floatplane mountaintop sightseeing and crab feast outing, and in Victoria it will be the killer whale watching boat trip.

The excursions sound cool, but I'm still not sure how much I'm going to like this cruise. I've been on two Caribbean cruises before (not counting the half-dozen times I deployed there in the Navy on various ops) and my favorite part of those cruises were the days at sea where I could just lay in the sun on the Lido deck and read and listen to my iPod. Don't think there will be much working on my tan on this cruise given that the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-50s. Guess I can just sit by a window and read and listen to old radio programs, though. I've got one mystery series I recently loaded onto my iPod called "Passage of the Tangmar" about a group of heirs onboard a ship steaming from Australia to Jamaica to inherit a millionaire's estate and who are slowly getting bumped off one by one before they can reach their destination. It should be cool to listen to on my cruise. Plus I have a few books set on ships or at sea that should make for good reading.

This cruise was my brother's idea. I sent my parents on an Alaskan one last year and they raved about it, so my brother decided he wanted to go on one as well and he invited me to come along. This wasn't my first choice of vacations, but he and I usually have a lot of fun when we take trips together so I figured 'what the heck.' If nothing else, it's a week away from work and an excuse to take lots of photos. As if I really needed an excuse for that.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Clouds of War

This week's bonus photo from my archives is another shot I took on my trip to Philadelphia today, this time illustrating the 'war' side of the equation. This is the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62).

(Taken with my Nikon D90)