VACATION

VACATION

We are back from vacation in Alaska.  It has been two weeks.  We first stopped in LA for a visit with my oldest son, that was great.  Then we spent a day in Seattle, I really liked that town.  From Seattle, we took a 7-day cruise to Alaska’s south east coast…Wrangle, Juno, Sitka and Ketchikan.

The scenery was beautiful, but I must admit to being a bit jaded.  This always happens to me when we go places to see stuff, and not to do stuff. 

“Why Cranky, what do you mean?”

Here is the thing.  As we pulled into the first Alaska port, the inside passage lined with islands and beautiful snow-capped mountains were spectacular, but by the end of that first day and for the rest of the trip they were just the same old snow-capped mountains.  Seen one, seen them all.  As we rounded one island after another it was,

“Oh look, another friggin beautiful snow-capped mountain!”

My first excursion off the cruise ship was fishing for salmon.  We caught nothing, but it was a nice trip.  I never really expect to catch fish anyway.  I did see a seal, a bald eagle, and a hump-backed whale up close and personal.  It was quite spectacular.

The next day we took an excursion for whale watching.  We saw one right away.  It blew a shot of spray, swam for about 100 yards, then flipped its tail and dove under never to be seen again.  That was ok, because we soon saw another, then another, then

“Oh look, another friggin hump-backed whale!”

The third day’s excursion we saw sea otters.  They are so cute, and such fun to watch…for about ten minutes.  Then it was,

“Oh look, another friggin very cute sea otter!”

We also saw more hump-backed whales, and an island full of interesting birds.  I was particularly excited to see tufted-puffins, but after about ten minutes around this bird island it was,

“Oh look, another friggin puffin!”

On our final excursion we learned about catching Dungeness crabs.  We also saw bald eagles.  We had already seen a few bald eagles, but these we saw much closer.  It was really cool.  They threw some fish overboard and the eagles, about five of them, dove and grabbed the fish about ten feet from our boat.  I loved this part of the trip…for about ten minutes, then it was,

“Oh look, another friggin magnificent bald eagle!”

At the end of this day we were served as many Dungeness crab as we wanted.  They were delicious, I ate about a dozen, I was stuffed…I ate until I finally had to say,

“I cannot eat another friggin crab, now and maybe not ever again!”

We ended the trip with a brief stay in Vancouver.

“Oh look, another interesting new city.”

Finally, we are back in New Jersey, where we have our own wild life in the back yard.

“Oh look, another friggin squirrel and wow, another friggin rabbit!”

In all seriousness, we had a wonderful time and loved all the sights in Alaska.  The people were great, the cruise ship, food and service the best. 

The weather you ask? 

Well I was warned by several friends and a few bloggers, that we picked a horrible time to visit Alaska.  We should expect nothing but rain, wind and cold.  I always love it when thoughtful people tell you to expect the worst when you are looking forward to a good time.

To those thoughtful negative Nancy's, if you are looking to say,

“I told you so”

PFFFFFFT!!! The weather was fabulous!  No rain…not one drop, and the temps were from 60 to even 70 degrees each day.  On the last day I commented,

Oh look, another friggin absolutely perfect day in Alaska!”