Dicey Eights in Icy Straights

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It was up early when we were anchored at Icy Straight Point this morning, needing to be in the Showroom to join our tour on the tender to the pier at 6:50 AM! The one good thing about having an early whale watching tour is that we would get to have lunch ashore before getting back onboard in time for Team Trivia. I just grabbed a bagel and Sharon had some French Toast. The Showroom was bustling, and I was surprised to find that I actually had 3G service on my phone. We had our “Pink 11” stickers and were just waiting for the call for us to go get on the tender, so I took that opportunity to get caught up on Word Crack. I’ve surmised that with some of the scores that people have been racking up against me, some must be using the “power-up’s” to extend their play time, get hints or double word scores. In reviewing some of the scores I see that only a few seem to use the double word score boost “dragon”. I’m lucky to find between thirty to forty words in two minutes and I played against somebody who had chalked up 111 words. Sharon was shaking her head as we headed towards the tender and I was trying to finish that final game. I lost by 8 points but got no sympathy from her.

We took the tender across to the pier at Icy Straights, and could see a crane in the bay that was helping with the construction of a pier so that cruise ships will be able to dock here as soon as 2016. We walked up the long steep ramp from the floating pier, and went inside the nearby mustering building to wait for our tour. We sat across a couple from Shanghai, and we talked for a while about our trip to China last year; and, their trip here to visit their daughter and take an Alaskan cruise. Our group was called and we walked back down the ramp to our whale watching boat where whale sightings are “guaranteed”. We soon spotted a spout to the port side in the distance ahead of us. Evidently the captain spotted this as well and we were soon slowed in the vicinity. Soon we were seeing many spouts and huge lumbering humpbacks cruising along on the surface in a group. We watched as seven flukes waved goodbye and these leviathans submerged, soon to return. At first we thought that there was a calf with the group; but, our guide later suspected that the smaller whale was simply a juvenile (too large to be a calf who would not yet have the strength to show his fluke out of the water while descending). The gay of humpbacks re-surfaced again within ten minutes, showing the distinctive double-blow of spray forming a “V” as the mist dissipates. We learned from our guide that orca whales will travel as a group and is referred to as a pod. It is rare to see humpbacks moving as a group, usually tending to be solitary creatures; although, when they are bubble netting, they certainly do work as a group this size. In Juneau the day before whale watchers did have the good fortune to see bubble netting; although, this behavior has not been observed at Icy Straights yet this season. We struggled taking pictures trying to get shots of the flukes from the bow of our tour boat. The third time that the humpbacks came up they had been down less than five minutes, so it surprised us all when the reappeared. They had moved off a bit, and the captain had to quickly reposition us in the area. We had not yet reached the point we had been headed for, taking this opportunity to stay with the gay of humpbacks that we’d stumbled on. The captain decided to push on to see what else we might see, and to make room for the tour craft coming up behind us to sightsee with these humpback whales. We headed for a green buoy bobbing in the water and saw numerous sea lions resting on the narrow buoy, sunning themselves and making no effort to aide two other young female sea lions who were trying to get up on the buoy as well. One did catch a swell of water and nearly get up and was trying to maneuver to lie down, and it appeared that she would be successful, until the large male blocking her establishing a flipper hold simply turned his head 180 degrees and his large nose just sent her flying off of the buoy back into the water. We returned to where we’d spotted the original gay of humpbacks, saw them spout and show their flukes, and hung around until they came up and did their thing for one last time. We then headed back to the pier.

We learned how that Icy Straights is a corporation of the local Hoonah people. Back in the early twentieth century some local Alaskan activists felt that it was inappropriate for the United States to have paid about seven million dollars to the Russians for Alaska, feeling that it wasn’t the Russians to sell! Russia needed the money to finance the Crimean War (remember Call of the Light Brigade). Well, these activists felt that if the United States wanted to buy Alaska, then they should pay to natives who inhabited this land. They filed suit in federal court, and nothing really came of it until the 1940’s when they won an injunction “to freeze” all undeveloped Alaskan lands. If that’s not an oxymoron, I don’t know what is. This didn’t really do or mean anything, until oil was discovered on the North Slope, and there was a push to build the Alaskan pipeline. With the injunction in place, no work could proceed on the pipeline and the federal government suddenly had a huge monetary incentive to settle the dispute. The government’s first offer was to establish reservations for the native people. Having seen how well that worked out for Native Americans of the lower 48, the Alaskans declined. Instead, local corporations were established where the native community would be chartered with profiting from the land they held. Every native person who had been born by the inception date of the corporations was given 100 shares in the corporation, plus one hundred shares of a regional corporation. Those born after that date were just out of luck. The government evidently had anticipated that these corporations would first become diluted as no new shares would be issued, and existing shares would be subdivided among heirs. And the anticipation was that the corporations would soon become insolvent and the government would be able to reacquire them for nothing. In Icy Straights Logging Companies from the lower 48 came in and offered to create jobs and pay for lumber rights. The money was used to educate some of the young, getting business degrees, and when they came back to help the local community, they saw the harm that the clear cutting was doing for the land. The land was their heritage and they put a stop to the logging. A plan was enacted to “harvest the land through tourism” and to make Icy Straights Point a cruise ship destination. Our guide telling us of how when he heard of this plan he was thinking “You mean those cruise ships that bring thousands and thousands of people to Juneau will be coming here?” And when the elders said yes, all he could think was “Where will they all go to the bathroom?” They converted a cannery to a museum visitor’s center. The established a board walk and some local stores and restaurants. The built a zip-rider ride, about one and one-half miles long with a quarter mile vertical drop. They created nature venues of whale watching and bear watching, and in three years’ time the cruise ships did start to come. Four years ago there were just a couple cruise ships that would come here; and, now about five visit each week during the cruise season.

The tour returned us back to the pier before noon and we could see how much the water level had changed since we departed. Some on the whale watch excursion were going to go look for bears in the afternoon; although, this is still a bit early in the season to find them easily. Once the salmon start to run, they usually can be spotted from viewing platforms over the streams. Sharon wanted to walk down and checkout the zip-riders; since, when I did this ride four years ago she had gone out to watch the whales bubble-netting instead. Priorities! The riders come down six abreast on six separate cables. They all had big smiles on their faces and more than one were saying how they wouldn’t mind doing that again.

We met John and Leane of our Trivia Team on the way to The Cookhouse for lunch, and confirmed the time for trivia at 3 PM. The cookhouse is renowned for its halibut fish and chips for which they charge about $16. I made the mistake of ordering the reindeer sausage with chili; which, came as a very fat kielbasa like sausage on a hot dog bun with what can only be called Taco Bell beef without the seasoning. If there was any chili in it, I couldn’t taste it; although, it did “look” like chili, but was more in the realm of a sloppy Joe and could not be eaten without utensils. Sharon’s fish was very good as were the fries. I had wanted to try the local Red Ale; but, they were temporarily out of that. I almost wished that we’d gotten lunch at the grill by the zip-rider where they had a Grilled Teriyaki Halibut Hoagie. They also carried the Red Ale; but, the halibut fish and chips wasn’t on their menu. They did have a brisket sandwich; which, I thought Sharon might have liked, but she had her heart set on eating as much fish as she can on the Alaskan vacation. Riiiight! Those of you who know Sharon know the truth about that last statement.

It was time for us to defend our standing in the Team Trivia Challenge. Things started off with a question about Angel Falls, asking which two countries borders does it lie on? I should have figured this was a “Ross” question on his homeland, he seems to pop them in there doesn’t he? Zimbabwe would have been half of the answer. And if he’d told us that the other country also started with the letter “Z” (which he didn’t) we would have still gotten the answer wrong! The answer is not Zaire! We were going back and forth as to what bird is harvested to make leather from its skin: Osterich or Emu. As it turned out, Ross would accept either answer. What is the largest cat indigenous to the Americas? Work on that one for a bit. That question was followed by “Why did they name the sports car the Jaguar XJ220?” If you guessed that in a time trial that it reached 220 MPH, you are right along with our teammate John who articulated the answer and pointed excitedly to me to "Write it down". Some people missed the Bonus question as to what the 3 smallest planets in our solar system are! They are of course Mercury, Venus and Mars. We weren’t among those that missed this one, Thank-you very much. We came in second, close, but no cigar as my college roommate used to say.

We played bingo at 4PM and all that I can say about that is that we did abysmally. It was Buy a Happy Hour Drink Bonus card day so I bought a double-sambuca to get mine. We didn’t come close on any of the games.

We ate dinner at 6 PM with a woman and her grandson. Sharon asked him what grade he was in. He replied without batting an eye, “I’m a junior (pause),” and then he named the university and an impressive list of course studies, majors and minors and such. After Sharon got her foot out of her mouth she ordered me the crostini and prosciutto; although, she didn’t say it to the waiter, only pointing at it on the menu. I got the cheddar cheese soup with bell pepper and both of these were quite good. I also got the Caesar Salad from the daily menu. Sharon ordered the tri-tip dinner and got them to add a baked potato to that. I had the barramundi fillet and enjoyed that as well. Sharon had the Baked Alaska again, and I had the double chocolate fudge cake with nuts.

Tonight’s show featured a hilarious juggler comedian Benji Hill who has been performing with Holland America for over 25 years. His first gig with them was on the maiden voyage aboard the Statendam; and, they will also be bringing him to perform on the final leg of the Statendam sailing to Australia where Carnival Cruise Lines LLC will transfer the vessel to one of their other carriers. Benji used to participants from the audience. With the first he demonstrated his skill using bolo balls to knock a cigarette out of the guy’s very nervous quivering lips. He started his act by demonstrating his ability to play a hand xylophone by blowing two ping pong balls out of his mouth, keeping both going simultaneously as they would strike the metal keys that he held over his head, bouncing back into his mouth where he would blow them out of his mouth again. He played a very recognizable “Mary had a little lamb” tune. He then invited people from the audience to name a tune that they would like to hear him play. One man shouted out “Flight of bumble bee.” Benji had some fun with this and then asked someone else to pick a different tune, which they did. He then invited the audience to vote on which tune he should play, and overwhelmingly they chose “Flight of the bumble bee.” He then said, “Right then, I believe in giving the audience what they want!” He then proceeded to play, in a slightly higher key “Mary had a little lamb”. For his final act he asked for another volunteer. When he didn’t get one, he said “I know what I want, give me that bumble bee guy.” And with the audience’s help, that poor guy soon found himself lying on the stage. Benji then blind folded him by laying a black cloth over his face. He then announced what he was going to do, juggle some swords over the participant. At one point the man ran off the stage; but, was coaxed back on the stage. When Benji started juggling over the man, he had switched out the swords for his very light juggling pins, finishing his act by saying “Oops” allowing one of the pins to fall on the man. The man on the floor doubled over as if he’d been mortally wounded, then removing the cloth saw the juggling pin, and picked it up through it at Benji. The audience was in stitches.

Afterwards we went to the casino and Sharon is still working for a “friendly machine.” I sat down at first base on the blackjack table. Sharon shortly came by, going through her daily gambling money and said that I could stay as long as I liked. I played, and played, and played, but had trouble making headway. At one point I got a pair of eights against a 6. I split them and got another 8. I started getting a bad feeling because I hadn’t been doing very well splitting hands this evening. I got a ten for 18 on the first hand. Then I got another 8 and had to split the hand again. Then I got a 3 and doubled down on that hand, getting a four (which isn’t good). I got a two card on my next eight and felt compelled to double down again. I got a face card and was starting to feel a little better, and when I got an ace for my fourth hand I actually felt good. That is until the dealer flipped over a five and followed that with a king for twenty-one, beating all of my hands. When I got another pair of eights later, and had similar results, I decided that maybe tonight wasn’t my night. It was nearing midnight, and I suspect they closed the table after I left.



That other country with a “Z” is “Zambia”. And that big cat was of course the Jaguar. I say of course, because I think this is the second time that we’ve missed this one. Our answer is getting closer, though, from “mountain lion” to “black panther”. Ross likes to link questions, as he did with this one and the sports car question that followed during this challenge, so keep that in mind if you ever play with Cruise Director Ross from Zimbabwe.

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