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the verdict
June 28, 2017
Alaska was amazing, Victoria was exquisite, Seattle is overrated, and cruise
ships are definitely not my cup of tea.
And I really hate being around throngs of human beings.
And my husband is kind of a lazy slug.
Ugh. SO MUCH VACATION. I'm trying to get my mind around it, still.
Okay. Organize thoughts, kid.
While I am appreciative of the opportunity that cruises provide to go to a
place I have always wanted to see, and would not otherwise get to...they also
kind of eff up the experience. You see, cruise ships do not travel alone.
There are always several docked in one port at one time. When you dump
anywhere from 6 to 15 thousand tourists into a small coastal (or island!)
town in approximately 2 hours' time...welcome to a human zoo.
Cruise ships are really, really boring for me because most of the activities are
nothing I am interested in. Some are sales pitches disguised as activities,
some are outright, undisguised sales, some are high-pitched, high-energy
activities...and pretty much all also require a level of human interaction that
stresses me instead of resting me. The lack of places to be alone in peace, to
absorb and enjoy the wonderful freshness and beauty of being on the
ocean...I ended up spending way too much time at the stateroom, since I
could go out on the balcony and enjoy it in relative peace. Even that is
uncomfortably close to all the other passengers who are out on their
balconies, trying to do the same.
The ship's library was small, but nice--could have been better-lit for readers,
though. Still too many people wandering in and out, talking loudly. I was
happy to find a paperback copy of Gaudy Night, because it turns out
reading on my phone at sea makes me dizzy and headachy.
The casino I avoided, for a couple of reasons. First one: except for a couple of days, it was one of the few "smoking allowed" places on the ship. (They did have "smoke-free days" twice, but they coincided with the formal nights and I avoided all of that like the plague.) The other reason was that I really don't like how slot machines have evolved. They bore me now.
Unlike Spouse, who preferred to stretch out on his bed and watch television in the stateroom--I did do some stuff. I attended an arts and crafts session, where I made a memory wire beaded bracelet. Went to see a comedian, who was kind of funny most of the time. (Hey--comedy is hard, and 45 minutes is a lot of material, so I'm not knocking him.) We went to "Puppies in the Piazza"; a presentation with sled-dog puppies by an Iditarod musher. Didn't get to see much, as it was a small space and drew a very large crowd. I attended a presentation by a musician-storyteller who spoke and sang about Alaskan history.
I shopped quite a bit, because we had so much money credited to our
accounts as part of the cruise package. (And because there was nothing else
I wanted to do!) They had a ten-dollar sale where I bought a pink pashmina,
and a watch (forgot to take mine and really wished I'd packed it), a ring sale
where I got two very pretty costume rings for $34.99, and part of our
anniversary goodies was a $25 giftcard for the onboard shops so I bought
myself a nice embroidered cardigan sweatshirt in a rich, deep red. And I
bought a Princess lanyard and badge reel, the first for my cruise card and the
second for my office ID. Plus the usual souvenirs, and a beautiful reversible
jacket for Spouse, marked down from $78 to $55. 3X, cream-colored on the
raincoat side, a blue-teal on the fleece side, embroidered with "Alaska" and
a whale tail.
We also found a couple of Alaska stocking caps in Juneau, which will be nice
this winter. And I bought myself a 36-inch snake chain with whale tail
pendant inlaid with blue opal--also in Juneau. I bought B a Canada bandana
in Victoria.
I did watch two movies I've been meaning to see for a while, and enjoyed them both--"The Founder", and "Hidden Figures".
And then there were the excursions--
Ketchikan:
Totem Bight State Park was wonderful--temperate rainforest, beautiful
flowers, an amazing collection of Native totem poles. The lumberjack show
was kinda cheesy, but really rather fun. Good energy, and the cast members
were pretty brilliant with axe and saw. Not hard to look at, either!
Skagway:
The White Pass & Yukon train ride was just gorgeous--beyond anything I'd
ever clapped eyes on up to that point. Tons of history, mind-bogglingly
beautiful scenery, a train ride that literally started & ended at the pier--that
was totally worth the money.
Endicott Arm Scenic Cruising:
While this was not technically an "excursion", it certainly was a significant
event. We did Endicott Arm rather than Tracy Arm, due to too much ice in
the latter, but Endicott Arm is sufficiently stunning, I can tell you. We
ordered breakfast in our cabin, with an extra pot of coffee, and spent the
entire morning on our balcony oohing and ahhing, and taking photos and
video of the incredible natural beauty. Mountains, waterfalls, icebergs, and
Dawes Glacier--your eyes never get tired of it all. The ship sailed slowly in,
got within viewing distance of the glacier, then stopped and rotated slowly
360 degrees, twice--and around one more time to face outwards and sail
slowly back out of the fjord. And that thing I said about the railroad being
better than anything I'd ever seen up to that point? Well--that was before
this! THIS was pretty much everything I went to Alaska for.
Our stops in Juneau and Victoria, B.C. had no excursions--we popped into Juneau and poked around some shops, then went back to the boat and went to the pool (me) & hot tub (Spouse), which was deserted and all ours for the taking. It was sixty & overcast, but the pool was quite well-heated so it was comfy.
We didn't get to Victoria till evening, and it was a short port. We grabed a cab & went to the Bard and Banker, as we had planned, and we both adored it. Just a fascinating pub, and an endearing tribute to Robert W. Service. With great cider, food, and wait staff, too! We walked back to the cab stand in front of the Empress Hotel, and got a great cab driver--he was from Hamilton, so he was a Great Lakes guy and very friendly. He took us back via Beacon Hill Park, so that we could enjoy some more of the beautiful scenery Victoria offers. Once we got back to the ship, we closed our accounts out, then picked up our Port Valet package, tagged our already-packed check bags & put them outside the door, and went to bed, since we would be back in Seattle the next morning.
The Port Valet service took them from in front of our cabin, and we didn't have to deal with them again until we pulled them off of the carousel at MKE. Super-Sweet! And in Seattle, it is a free service if you qualify. Apparently we did. Extra bonus--they print your airline boarding passes for you, too!
Which brings us to our last excursion--since we were not flying out until later in the day, we were eligible to go on the Seattle tour, which we were told included a visit to top of the Space Needle, a bus tour of downtown, and a few hours to explore Pike Place Market before the tour bus dropped us at the airport.
So we met our disembarkation group, left the ship, went right to and through customs (since we didn't have to pick up our bags), and got on our tour bus, ready to enjoy Seattle.
Basically, it was "let the clusterfck begin!"
First of all--we were there on one of the four days a year when the Seattle weather report is "Bright Sunshine, and a high of 95". So it was hot. Actually not as miserable for us as it was for the locals, since we are more used to it, and it wasn't as humid as it would be at home. But they were DYING. And they all seemed to be at less than their best over it.
Got to the Space Needle, bus driver dropped us off and told us she would be back to the same spot to pick us up at 10:30. Did the Needle, loved it, had no problem at all with the heights, and crossed another place/experience off my bucket list.
Then we came out to meet the bus--and the street was blocked off by the police department in preparation for the Pride Parade. No bus. Took us nearly half an hour to find it, parked on a side street two blocks away. Stepped in fresh dog shit in the process. Everyone on the tour pissed off by the delay, and further pissed off when we realized that we had to make our way through hideous downtown traffic, AND miss the downtown part of the tour, because everything was closed off for the parade and festival.
Next stop, the Legendary Pike Place Market.
Yeah...No.
Despite being repeatedly assured by our driver and several vendors that "the market wasn't crowded because everyone was downtown at the parade", it was basically a huge rambling labyrinth full of staircases, ramps, blind corners...and PEOPLE. Wall-to-wall people. After trying several times (unsuccessfully) to locate the Market Penmaker booth, Spouse and I soon tired of it and re-located to the nearby park, where we got some bottled water and retired to a bench in the shade to wait for the bus to come back.
And got crapped on by a bird.
From there, it was bus to airport, through security (unlike MKE, where we always get stamped TSA-PRE, it was the full shoes off, full-body scan, and pat-down of our fat lumps.) and a fight with an obnoxious family of table-snatchers when we went to grab some lunch.
Lunch itself was really good--Ivar's seafood restaurant has a quick-service branch at Sea-Tac, and I got a fish sandwhich that was amazing. Spouse said the same about his fish & chips. Then we waited to board our flight.
And ran into difficulties stowing our bags in the small (2&2) plane. Fortunately we had great Skywest/Delta flight attendants who did what needed to be done to find room for our carry-ons, and we didn't have to try and get all our meds and electronics out of them and have them gate-checked.
Then after the three hours and fifteen minutes of torture-by-coach-seating, we walked from the gate to our baggage carousel...which turned out to be the ENTIRE length of the airport. Seriously. From the very last gate of the very last concourse, all the way to baggage claim number 5 (out of 5). But--at least that was the last bad thing of what turned out to be, quite literally, a crappy day. Just as we reached the claim point, our bags passed beneath our noses and we were out on the curb, quick as a wink. Spouse ran to pick up the car, we loaded up, and headed for K-town. Stopped to get bread and went home, toted in the bags, ate a sandwich, and went to bed about 1:00 am.
Monday was all about picking up the dog, the mail, and the groceries, doing the laundry, and trying to bring my flowers back from the dead. And it was back to the grind for me on Tuesday.
Reading: Since I read Gaudy Night (for the umpteenth time)
aboard ship, I segued into Busman's Honeymoon on shore.
Then I started a Margaret Deland from 1915 called "The Rising Tide", about the a young woman with a narcissistic mother and a brother with some kind of mental impediment (when this happens in these old stories, you can't tell if they are supposed to have developmental issues or mental illness, and the manifestations of the condition don't really make any sense). The character, Frederica (Freddy) wants to be of use in the world and have meaning to her life. Not very far in--I like the character, because she is idealistic, but not perfect. Kind of obnoxious, even, when it comes to her passions. Doesn't suffer fools gladly, and is brutally honest. She reminds me of a young me, actually.
The mom is pulling all my triggers, though; she is astonishingly close to being a textbook example of NPD. In the narcissist hierarchy, Freddy is, of course, the scapegoat (as the truth-tellers so often are). Her impaired brother is the golden child.
Listening: Jason Isbell, The Blasters, The Killers, Primitive Radio
Gods, A3
Inked Up: Three, at the moment. The Conklin Duragraph fine,
the Bexley 10th Anni Italic, and the Lamy Safari Fine--with Pelikan Brilliant Brown, Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses, and Iroshizuku Tsutsuji (Azalea) respectively.
I am re-considering the Lamy; I didn't like it at first because the grip hurt my hand, but I have decided to let it train me to loosen up my grip. It does have a lovely nib.
And I am giving my Parker IM Premium another chance, soon. I didn't have a converter for it, so I just ordered one. I have a hunch I may change my mind for the same reason I have on so many other pens--I have a much better experience with converters than I do cartridges.
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