Back to reality...

We'll, they say all good things must come to an end, although I'm not sure Kelley would define this week as a "good thing."  I certainly don't think she'll be getting on another boat anytime soon.   Carnival had a couple of ways to leave the boat.  You could put your packed luggage in the hallway the night before, the crew would pick it up and unload it for you in the morning, and you could pick it up right before you go through customs OR you can lug it off yourself.  If you chose to "self debark", you could leave the ship anytime before 10am. We weren't in a particular hurry to get off the ship (well, at least I wasn't), but we chose to lug the luggage.  I guess we had all forgotten what a long walk it was to get on the ship, because we had to make the whole trip, plus an extra ship-length, in reverse while dealing with our bags.  I think by the time we got to the pier, Mom was ready to kiss the concrete.  We'd walk 1.5 miles just to get to the shuttle bus. (I should have known then the day was headed downhill.)

We made it to SeaTac by 10:30 or so.  Our flights were scheduled to leave around 2pm, so we decided to have lunch together before going our separate ways.  We found Anthony's Restaurant, and they had really great food and also great service.We decided to share a dessert, and since Washington is famous for their rhubarb, we chose a "Rhubarb Slump." What's a rhubarb slump?  Heaven in a bowl. (see photo below).  It was basically a cobbler, but the crust was soooo good.  I especially appreciated how the ice cream was sliced on top.  It would almost be worth the trip to Seattle just for the slump.  Yum.

Salmon burger

Kelley's Seafood Mac 'n Cheese - again

Fish tacos

Rhubarb Slump?

Rhubarb Slump!

 After lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed to our gates.  Zach and Kelley were headed back to Denver then Indy.  Mom and I were headed to Chicago then Cleveland.  The first leg of our journey was uneventful. We got to Chicago, and we had just over an hour to get to our next gate.  When we realized how far it would be to walk, I arranged for a wheelchair to transport Mom to the gate.  The dude with the wheelchair arrived and took off with mom at a crazy pace and didn't look back. I tried to keep up for a while, but I finally just decided I'd catch up with her later.  Ha!  When I made it to the gate, the board said that our flight was delayed about an hour.   We knew there was some weather in the midwest, so it wasn't a surprise, but if you've ever flown through O'Hare, you also know they don't have a great record for keeping to a schedule. After our flight was delayed a second time, I texted Kelley to check on them.  She said they had seen the storm from the air, but they had just landed.  Hooray for them.  In the meantime, American Airlines made an announcement that our plane had arrived, and they were going to try for a really quick turnaround and get us headed home....and then there was a maintenance issue.  They sent us to another gate down the hall, so we all scurried as a group to the new gate assignment.....where they told us there was another maintenance issue with this plane, too.  At this point, I was really starting to get fired up.  I had a meeting in Detroit the next day, and my ride was supposed to pick me up at 7am.  When they made the second maintenance announcement, they also told us that if the issue wasn't resolved in 20 minutes or so, the flight would be cancelled because the pilot had maxed out on his hours for the shift.  Are you kidding me?  (Of course, I'm not sure I would want to get on a plane that had a maintenance issue)  I'm sure you say this coming, but the flight was cancelled at 12:10am CDT.  Now what?

Our (not-so) friendly gate agent told me that they would be glad to put us on a flight the next day.  We would be flying from Chicago to Philly to Cleveland, arriving at 5:15pm.  Seriously?  When I asked her about lodging for the night, she said that since the delay was caused by weather, American Airlines would only reimburse 50% of our hotel bill.  That was the straw that broke this camel's back.  I decided that we would just rent a car and drive home.  Of course, we wouldn't make it back to Cleveland in time for me to catch a ride to Detroit, but it would be better than not getting home until tomorrow at 5:15 pm.  Besides, since it was so late (or early, as the case may be), we couldn't take our luggage home with us.  It would be on the morning flight to Cleveland.  Ironic.  About 30 minutes later, we were leaving the airport in a (non-GM) rental car.  Mom was pretty easy going about it, but I know she was very tired.  Frankly, I was, too, but at this point I was fueled by adrenaline.  She stayed awake all night to keep me company, but she was very relieved when we made it home around 9 am EDT.

Believe it or not, my boss still insisted that it was in my best interest to get myself to Detroit ASAP. (For the record, the meeting wasn't worth it, but I enjoyed seeing friends from other parts of the country).  Since our luggage wouldn't arrive until noon, I crawled into bed for 2 hours, then I took a shower, returned the rental car, took a shuttle to the airport to pick up our luggage, took the shuttle to long-term parking, then went back home. I quickly repacked, jumped in my truck and headed to Detroit...and as luck would have it, I got there too late to attend any of the Wednesday meetings.  It wasn't for lack of effort.   And it was just the way everyone wants their relaxing vacation to end.

If anyone is reading this post, I'm sure I've bored you by now.  Sorry.   The recap of this day was more for me than for you.  It will forever remind me to NEVER FLY THROUGH CHICAGO.  Just say no to O'Hare.

7,477 steps
3.36 miles

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Great news!  Kelley is feeling better, so she didn't need to go back to the infirmary this morning, 

Our stop today is in Victoria, British Columbia, but we won't arrive until 3 pm and will sail away at 10 pm.  The Jones Act states that cruise ships that are owned by foreign countries or that have crews that are not American citizens or residents cannot make their way from one U.S. port to another without also visiting a foreign port.  Thus, we have today's token stop in Victoria. 

We had a relaxing breakfast this morning before heading to the theater.  This morning, John Heald is having a "Behind the Scenes" talk where passengers can ask him anything about life on board.  It was pretty interesting. There were questions about how to get a job on a cruise ship, how many hours the crew works, how much vacation time they get, how one becomes a captain, and everything in between.  John was taking questions from each of the three sections of the theater, and when a young boy, who was sitting in the middle section realized John would not get to his question, he moved to the next section.  It probably wouldn't have been very obvious except that he was sitting in the front row with his parents.  Of course, John noticed immediately, and he made sure the 10 year old got a chance to ask his question, which was how to become the captain of a cruise ship.  Interestingly, all of Carnival's captains are Italian. 

We then headed to the photo gallery to look at all of the formal (and informal) pictures that were taken throughout the week.  Zach took several opportunities to have his photo taken with the wildlife, and they had a hard time deciding which ones to purchase.  Most of the ones of Mom and me went in the "bye-bye box." 

As scheduled, we arrived in Victoria around 3pm.  We didn't have any excursions planned, so Mom decided to stay on board while the rest of us went exploring. 

The bad news is that I forgot my camera when we went ashore.  The good news is that there wasn't much worth taking a picture of.  Unlike most cruise ports, there were no shops or tourist traps in sight.   We walk to the end of the pier to an information booth where we asked for directions to the nearest poutine.  If you are not familiar, poutine is a Canadian dish consisting of french fries covered in a brown gravy and cheese curds.  If that's not fancy enough for you, some places offer chicken or pulled pork on top.  Last summer, Kelley and Zach had visited Toronto on vacation, and they'd tried poutin there and loved it.  We were told we could find poutin at Fisherman's Wharf, which was a 15 minute walk from the pier.  It turns out that this was a really cute area with floating homes and a few small restaurants.  We found poutin at Grilligan's - where buoy meets grill.  I wasn't impressed with the poutin, but I'm not a huge fan of gravy of any kind. 

Grilligans

Water Taxi at Fisherman's Wharf

We really didn't have a plan at this point, so we wandered from the wharf to street level.  We were in a fairly residential area, so there really weren't any shops to explore.  We realized we were standing near a bus stop, and before long, a city bus came along.  It was a scheduled break for the driver, so he parked and got out to stretch.  Zach asked him how much it would cost us to take a loop around Victoria to see the sights.  The driver told him the route really didn't make a loop, but he would give us a transfer and we could switch buses at one of his outermost stops to come back to the pier.  All this for the price of $2.50 each.  No, it wasn't narrated, but we got to see quite a bit of the city.  The whole trip took just over an hour.  Score!

Our final dinner on board was delicious.  Mom and I had prime rib, and Kelley got the seafood mac 'n cheese.  I'm not sure what Zach had originally ordered, but he was instantly coveting Kelley's dinner.  He told Adnan, our headwaiter, that he wanted what she was having, and Adnan came back in a few minutes with two more bowls of mac and cheese.  Yep, he ate them.  What's a guy to do?

Seafood Mac 'n Cheese X 3

Tina, Rowel, and Adnan

We got off to a rocky start with our head waiter because Mom kept calling him Adrian or Adman, instead of Adnan, but he eventually warmed up to us.  He was always excited to see Zach.  Adnan was from Croatia, and although he didn't mention it until our last day (because he said we didn't ask), he was married with three kids.   His assistant was Tina.  She was from the Philippines, and she'd actually started her new contract on the Miracle on our first day of the cruise.  She was very sweet and soft spoken, and because she'd hadn't ever had a chance to see Alaska, she enjoyed looking at our photos at the end of each day.  This will be her last contract with Carnival because she's anxious to get back to her fiance in the Philippines. 

The ship was very quiet tonight.  Since it was our last night on board, I suspected everyone must be in their cabins trying to pack.  It will be interesting trying to get everything back in my own suitcase.  Luckily, I purchased only small things.

This was a great trip.  We had a lot of laughs.  I just wish Kelley had felt better.  She did say she might trying cruising again in the future, but only if the length is 5 days or less.  It's a start. 

Zach's Word of the Day - Ay (in honor of our pit stop in Canada)
9,746 steps
4.38 miles

Another Day at Sea

We slept in a little today.  In other words, we didn't see the sunrise; but, we were at breakfast around 8am.  We pulled out the Fun Times again and put together a schedule of activities.  We decided to go to one of the lounges to play a few rounds of trivia:  Divas, Musicals, Movie Themes, Sports, Sci-Fi (by accident - we really just watched all the geeks and nerds play).  Kelley and I participated in a slot tournament (with no luck!), then we all participated in the Genius Test (with no luck there, either!). 

After lunch, we went to John Heald's Marriage game, which was pretty entertaining.   Zach needed to attend the final art auction.  Remember when Zach entered to win a piece of art by guessing the value of the Peter Max painting?  They were finally getting around to naming the winner, and Zach wanted to be there.  After the gallery folks auctioned off a few items, they stopped to do the giveaway.  The emcee of the event made a comment that it may take a while to find the winner because they go in order of from best guess to worst guess, and you must be present to win.  But who had the most accurate guess?  Yep.  It was Zach.  Unfortunately, he didn't win the $27,000 piece of art, but he did get to pick out a nice painting from a collection and have it shipped home.  Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a souvenir. 

I spent the later part of the afternoon in McGuire's Sports Bar watching the Coca-Cola 600 (Jimmie Johnson won.) before heading upstairs to get ready for dinner.  It was the second and final formal night of the cruise.  Since Kelley missed the first one, we were hoping she would have a chance to enjoy this one.  But...she only made it through the first course.  She seemed to be particularly sensitive to the motion in the dining room, although I rarely noticed it.  When she didn't return in a bit, Zach went up to check on her.  Unfortunately, he returned alone with instructions to finish our meal.  After dinner, Zach decided maybe he should take Kelley to the infirmary, but when they got there (down in the bowels of the ship) they were closed; however, the doctor was still there.   She took her blood pressure and temperature (free of charge) and sent her to bed with instructions to come back if she wasn't feeling better in the morning.  

Hard to believe, but once again, we are in bed before 11 pm.  It must be a new record, but as I am reminded, it's really 3 am at home.   Speaking of time change, we are leaving Alaskan time tonight and going back to Pacific.  This means we will lose an hour.  Tomorrow we will be visiting Victoria, British Columbia, but we will not arrive until 3pm.  Depending on how Kelley is feeling, we may not even get off the ship.

Zach's Word of the Day - Butthead
6,069 steps
2.73 miles

Juneau, AK

Today we spent the day in Juneau, the capital city of Alaska. Believe it or not, it is the 2nd largest city in the United States by area (3,200 sq mi), but it only has a population of about 32,000.  The area was originally a fishing area for the Auke and Taku Indian tribes before being discovered by Europeans in the late 1700's.  It took about 100 years, but eventually, the Europeans came back with a mining expedition.   Once gold was found, the area quickly became a mining camp and then a town (the first to be founded after Alaska became a state.)  The capital of Alaska was moved from Sitka to Juneau in 1906, and although there have been several attempts to move the capital city to Anchorage, so far the votes have failed.  One of the most interesting facts about Juneau is that it is not accessible by road.  There are three ways to get to Juneau - by ferry/barge, by air, or by birth. 

Mom and I had an early Whale Watching excursion, while Kelley and Zach were doing a helicopter tour of the Mendenhall Glacier at 10:30.  Mom and I ordered room service for breakfast before meeting our tour group in the theater at 7:30 am.  By 8 am we were boarding the bus headed toward Allen Marina on Auke Bay.  Although we'd already seen some whales on this trip, we were both really excited about this excursion.  The excursion boat had two indoor levels with large windows all around plus an outdoor observation deck.  There were less than 80 people in our group, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  The seat benches were padded and were set up with binoculars and maps, and a galley in the back served complimentary hot chocolate, coffee, and doughnuts.  The company that sponsored this excursion guaranteed a whale sighting or we'd get a $100 refund, so we figured it would be a win either way.  True to their word, we saw whales within the first 15 minutes...and then more whales...and more whales.  We saw at least six, but it's a little tricky to know if that was an accurate count.  We also saw more bald eagles, a couple of bears, Stellar sea lions and some Dall's porpoise.  It was truly amazing. 

Point Retreat Lighthouse - Admiralty Island

Blurry bears on the rocks

Play date?

Sea Lions waiting in the water for their turn on the buoy

Say cheese!

Zach and Kelley seemed to enjoy their trip to the glacier, as well.  They had a 10-15 flight in the helicopter before being dropped off on the glacier.  The helicopter left them for about 30 minutes while they went to pick up another group and then came back to get them.  They had a chance to drink very pure water right off the glacier, but unfortunately, they couldn't bring any back with them.  Ironically, I haven't seen the photos of their excursion (exactly how does that happen??) but I hope to someday add some to this post.

We were all back on the ship around noon for lunch.  After comparing notes about our trips, we grabbed the VIP books and headed off the ship to shop.  The shops are very close to the port but spanned a 2-3 block area.  We tried to take in slow and easy, but we would occasionally park Mom on a bench while we explored the shops.

Please humor me while I editorialize for a minute or six.  When we booked this cruise, we were scheduled to visit four ports:  Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria.  Because of an acceleration issue with the ship that could not be resolved before the ship goes into dry dock next winter, Carnival cancelled the stop in Ketchikan and added Tracy Arm Fjord. (And in case you were wondering, we did know about this several weeks before the trip and were offered the option of a full refund, including air fare.) At some point in the past three years, Carnival has started selling these coupon books for $25.  The book is customized for the ports you will visit on the cruise , and the pages are color-coded for each port to make it easy to find the coupons. The coupons might be for a free charm or a charm bracelet, a free tote bag, a discount on an ornament or on fudge, etc.  Here's my beef....they charged $25, yet we would not be visiting Ketchikan.  There was an entire section of coupons that would never get redeemed.  Bryant, the Carnival "shopping expert", mentioned several times during his shopping presentation that several of the shops in Skagway or Juneau (particularly Juneau) would honor the Ketchikan coupons, but we found out first-hand that it was just a sales pitch.  The store owners in Juneau didn't know anything about it.  Now, I'm not saying they (Kelley and Mom) didn't get their money's worth because we used every coupon we could, but I do think it would have been a nice gesture for Carnival to reduce the price of the books (even by $5).  And for the record, Bryant thinks very highly of himself, but I don't.  He was a snake-oil peddler. 


After finding some bargains, we took a trip on a tram up Mount Roberts. It takes 6 minutes to make the 3,819 ascent to the top.  (I'm not a fan of heights, and I was doing pretty well until the tram swayed a little bit as it was docking....at which point I got cramps in the arches of my feet.)  At the summit,  there was a snack bar, gift shop, hiking trails, and a nature center that housed a recovery center for injured eagles.  The views of Juneau were amazing.

The Miracle from above

Two ships at port

By the time we came back down from the mountain, it was time to get back on the ship.  It feels like we've been going non-stop for days, so we were all exhausted.  We practically had to drag Kelley to dinner, but Zach, our energizer bunny, was the first one up to join our waiters in a conga line at dinner.  And another bonus?  My favorite dessert was served!

Doing the conga

Bitter and Blanc bread pudding...mmmm!



Zach's Word of the Day - Whale Tail
6,662 steps
3 miles walked