Adventures in Haines

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This morning we went up to brekky and sat outside on the deck - every other morning has been too cold, but today was glorious. We’d been seated about five minutes when another waiter greeted us! Nelson was on the Panama Cruise and the Russian one. It is so lovely - like being part of the community. After brekky we returned to our suite and then watched the docking procedure right outside our balcony. We had lunch outside on La Terrazza as well, and enjoyed some more Brown Brothers Sauvignon Blanc with my lunch.

We then headed off to shore side for our separate shore excursions. Tom was off to drive an ATV along old logging trails, I was off on a wilderness odyssey on a jet boat on the Chilkat River. It was very pleasant motoring along the river, and very interesting at its confluence with the Kleheni with different colours and temperatures. The cottonwood trees were shedding their cotton, making it seem like snow, except it was sunny and hot. So we motored around form1 1/2 hours searching for moose and bears. Of course we didn’t see any. We saw 7 eagles, which greatly excited the Americans, and two swans which weren’t exciting at all, and nothing else. Oh well, it was an outing and the little guide man talked a lot, giving us an insight into life in Haines, and life in Alaska in general. My tour returned to the ship at 6.30pm, Tom‘s just 15 minutes later. He was filthy, with black dust all over his clothes and face where it wasn’t covered by a mask or helmet. He’d had a lot of fun.

After his shower we went to a latish dinner at Atlantide where we were greeted enthusiastically by the staff, wondering where we’d been the night before. As we sat down roger, one of the sommeliers appeared with Brown Brothers in hand, he’d been in La Terrazza for lunch service! He also got us a bottle of Billi Billi to start breathing before our main. Even Karolina, the head sommelier came over to chat with us, and the maître ‘d later in the evening. After a lobster salad to start, I had a fillet Mignon with a lobster tail and bearnaise sauce, followed by a strawberry daiquiri pavlova, and a dark chocolate grappa.

On our way out we stopped by a table where we’d heard familiar accents - a family of 4 adults from Wollongong!

Tom heard today that there are actually about 60 children on board this ship, so they have put aside a function room for them to use and allotted a staff member to supervise.

The sun barely sets up here there are only four hours when it is not so strong. I got up at 2am and could still see outside quite clearly.

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