Don’t be getting on me for being anti-Santa Clause: Homer is a lovely secluded Hamlet in which WalMart has yet to grab a foothold. We went straight to the Lido for our usual breakfast. Sharon was getting intermittent cell phone service, and wasn’t able to establish a hot spot for checking email. We decided to go onshore; where, one free shuttle bus was running between the pier and the spit, and a second Ho-Ho-Ho (Homer Hop-On Hop-Off bus made four stops around Homer, completing a loop at the Statendam pier. There is a $15 charge per person per day to use this service. Holland America made it very easy to use, providing us with a voucher for our room number and number of guests, and handing this to the attendant checking people on to the bus ... read more

We had gotten to sleep in because Sharon had gone to the Vigil Mass on Saturday Evening, and we were still recovering from the early rising the day before. We made our way to the Lido Deck and I decided to get fried eggs over medium for the first time on either of our Alaskan cruises. Sharon did the scrambled eggs and crisp turkey bacon, noticing that several others were asking for their turkey bacon to be crisp also. That turkey jerky thing doesn’t quite make the cut! We made our way to the Explorer’s Lounge to take our daily Sudoku. We’d forgotten to bring pens and were forced to endure using those too-often too-dull ship pencils. As we hurriedly scribbled numbers in cells an Asian cruiser observed “Is this a race?” Sharon conceded that it ... read more

Breakfast started again in the Lido, and again we had pretty much the same for breakfasts; which, we have been enjoying in the Lido, more so in fact that in the main dining room. I did indulge in some Eggs Benedict, and I probably should get them with salmon or crab meat; but, I simply enjoy the regular Eggs Benedict. And I of course had the Swiss Muesli as well. Sharon got the French Toast, since we are going out on the tour and some really crispy Turkey Bacon. Well her first piece was crispy and after she had eaten half of that she gave me the rest, and it was cooked perfectly. That’s when she realized that the other pieces she had gotten were not quite done the same, and it was back to eating ... read more

Sharon rose to take in the breathtaking early dawn view as we neared our port of call in Ketchikan. Just one week earlier we didn’t even venture off of the Noordam in this port due to the inclement weather. Well, the locals refer to it as liquid sunshine, and they monitor the liquid sunshine each year. And they measure what most locales quantify in inches with feet. Their record is just over sixteen feet or 203 inches. The monitor shows that it is possible that will be exceeded this year. The average is between ten and twelve feet per year! We caught a bite to eat in the Lido, with Sharon getting the French Toast which was quite good. The turkey bacon wasn’t quite crisp enough for her, again; although, when I finished it I must ... read more

We survived the bus ride back to our motel, a second night sleeping in Seattle after a day of sightseeing, and ordered a taxi to take us to Pier 91 in the morning at 10 AM. We had a very enthusiastic, and helpful, and funny, and talkative elderly porter from Jamaica who helped us get our bags from the taxi to check-in (seeing to it the bags were properly marked as our half hand done tags showing the cabin did not include the floor on the Statendam). And his energy and cheer was rewarded with twice what we would have normally tipped, because he was just what we both needed to see to it that this cruise started out on a high note, unlike the customs ordeal we endured in Vancouver just over one week ago. ... read more