On the way to Whittier

Our bus coach ride to the port took us along the scenic Seward highway which we drove to Anchorage after our cruise last summer. Laurie slept through it again. As tempting as it is to take pictures from a bus coach window, my experience is that they are not too good.

Still plenty of glaciers but you may want to hurry if you want to see them.

We enjoyed services last night. Spouses of board members introduced themselves and they had name tags for everyone, even us. I think that's a better idea than tickets. If someone didn't have a name tag they would stand out. The temple just celebrated it's 50th anniversary and they were the first in Alaska other than a short lived congregation around 1900. The people we spoke with were long-term Alaska residents, 30+ years. We asked what the winters were like and they are not too bad. It only gets to 40 below for about a week in January. He described the air as “crisp.”. Crisp!?!? I think your lips would be crisp, or your breath could be crisp, solidify and fall out of the air if it wasn't stuck to your crisp lips. I'm loving the Florida summer humidity. A few people remarked on how tan we were. Especially when compared to frosty the snowman, sure. There are indoor ice skating rinks here (heated?) so we can have tanning salons in Florida.

All familiar stores and restaurants are here, even Red Robin which we passed up in favor of Humpys as recommended by our stewardess. We sat at the counter and watched the action in the kitchen. Food was good but not outstanding.

There is a 2.5 mile tunnel under the mountain into Whittier. It is a single lane tunnel which is shared with a train. Traffic in starts on the half hour going in to town, the other direction on the hour and no traffic when the train is coming. I could not make all this up. The tunnel has only been paved and open to vehicular traffic for 6 years. Prior to that, cars, trucks and buses had to piggy back on train cars. The tunnel was built by the military during WWII and is rough cut. There are 6 “safe houses” built into the side with food and water in event of an emergency. The tunnel closed nightly at 11:00pm so you better not be late getting home from a night out in the city.




Before we left home I called the Whittier post office to see of I could mail stuff home before the cruise started. I called at 11:00 am and asked if this was the post office and was told it would be in a few hours. The answer was "no" because the post office was closed on Saturday and she (the postmistress) was working the ship Saturday and she keeps her jobs separate. There are only about 200 people living there.



I asked the bus driver what the tall poles with reflective tape were alongside the road. They ae used to find the road I'm deep snow. They get around 100 feet of snow each winter. You would think that would keep the glaciers fed. I didn't notice at the time that the road worker was wearing a bug mask.



ON BOARD

Made it to the cabin with all our luggage intact. Our cabin is in a good location at the center of the ship but we prefer smaller ships. Surprisingly, for a ship with over 2000 passengers therte is no card room. A bridge lesson and duplicate are held in a dining room, not the best set-up with round plywood table tops. Classy.

I missed most of the Captain’s statement yesterday as I was on the phone making some farewell calls while I still had service. Interesting that I have better service in Whittier than in Mirasol. Anyway he said something about changing the route due to a typhoon.



Todays Captain announcement just barged into our cabin. We are now 57 degrees 30 minutes north, 150 degrees 53 minutes west. 7 miles from Kodiak island. Speed 22 knots, about 25 mph. 403 NM so far, 2750 to Muroran, Japan Overcast, strong wind from stern, gusting 45 kts, rough seas but following seas, 4 meter seas. They don’t look like 4 meter seas to me but that may be an issue with perspective. Sailing on Living the Dream things may look different than from 9 decks up. I do know that following seas are always a good thing

We are now in the inside passage. Tomorrow morning we enter the Bering sea at 10:00 am. Tomorrow, smoother passing until the next day when we will be affected by a typhoon off the coast of Japan. That’s the part I missed yesterday.



Have to go meet Laurie for lunch. More to say but it will wait until the next installment.

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Regards,

Steve & Laurie

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