Sharon survived sleeping in Seattle. Despite her initial uneasiness with the area we found ourselves, and, how did she put it, “Didn’t you find the desk clerk kind of creepy?” Well, okay, he did have that Norman Bates thing going on. Initially it would not have taken much to convince her to brave another taxi ride to find another place to stay; but, once we were back in the room to eat our Jack-in-the-Box burgers, she settled in with the internet. The tour we’d planned for tomorrow doesn’t pick up from hotels in “this part of town”; but, Sharon found that the bus-line to downtown picks up right across the street from us. So we had a plan. We were at the bus stop early. Sharon’s practicing what the priests sermonize about being too judgmental was ... read more

The week has come and gone but the passage of our Alaskan venture has not hit us as our fellow travelers are readying for their journey home. In one sense, this week came and went with the knowledge that we would be back shortly. The weather looks better this morning than our first sea day. We had breakfast in the Lido. Sharon found the Lido better for breakfast on this cruise; which, has not been the case on previous cruises. I tend to agree. It seems that the dining room may have gotten dinged in the comments on the previous cruise for not serving food that was hot enough. Just about every dinner the server and often a supervisor would check at the end of the meal whether the food had been hot enough. The food ... read more

We’re still getting used to being awaken by light creeping in to our balcony view before five. Initially it purports to be a fine day for glacier scenic viewing, overcast some but good visibility. Sharon tried to post the two blogs to the internet; but, was unable to connect with the room WIFI. It seems to be rejecting her username and after being unable to get her hot-spot up yesterday after tour I think she’s becoming a bit irritated. We’re not talking meltdown here; but, Sharon doesn’t like it when things don’t work when they’re supposed to (or when people don’t do things that they’re supposed to). She has all of these rules for me about playing racquetball: Don’t get hurt, Don’t fall down, Don’t hurt anybody else… You get the idea. If I followed her ... read more

Our second morning at sea found us rising to see better weather than we’d experienced on our leisurely sea day. We could see blue skies out our window and we’d gained an extra hour overnight. I managed to finish the blog without losing any sleep and am well rested for today’s whale watching excursion. Over the loudspeaker the captain announced that the temperature was a balmy 58 degrees Fahrenheit and today’s forecast now had improved from his announcement yesterday of rain. It looks to be a fine day for whale watching. I finished yesterday’s blog entry and joined Sharon at mass. It was a small turnout and Father Peter asked those in the back to come forward. Today’s mass was very fast, even faster than the “Father Chuck” masses tells me of for her former priest ... read more

We had stashed our larger suitcases in the Storage and Meat Packing enterprise located between baggage carousels 13 and 14. For $20 a day we didn’t need to drag our two big suitcases to Las Vegas and back (or for about $20 net cost to us for the six days they were in storage because we didn’t need to pay the $25 per bag charge on Alaskan Airlines.) Storage prices range from $8 to $11 per day depending on the bag size. All in all, not a bad deal. If you’re wondering what storage and meat packing have in common, Seattle is after all where salmon fishing is popular. Even the sea lions in Puget Sound have become a nuisance, coming here to feast on the salmon, that legislation is being considered to “deplete their numbers”. ... read more