Tuesday Afternoon Texas Prairie Fire 7/28/09

The week has started a bit more active. This is a good thing! Remember to tell your friends and neighbors to love a Travel Agent too. We always need love. It also helps keep our Cruisitude on track! If you have been watching the news lately, you know that in South Texas it is hotter than H E double heck. No rain in sight and triple digit temps. Watering restrictions to boot! It is like we have a barrier around us. Oh well, what are you going to do? While researching for this week’s beverage, I said what the heck. I might as well just join the heat and sit on the porch for a while. The only rain I am going to get is the sweat off of my forehead! So, let me introduce you to a Texas Prairie Fire. No, the grass is not on fire yet, but it could at anytime. It won't be long and we really will have Texas Tumbleweeds blowing down the street. Get your fire extinguishers out. Here is the skinny. Get your Tequila of choice (Mine is Cabo Wabo out of the freezer), Lime juice, and Tabasco sauce. Pour a 3/4 shot of Tequila in shot glass, top off with lime juice, splash in Tabasco sauce, and shoot. Are you on fire yet? Just a little kick to remind you that summer is here and is on fire. Our journey continues out of Ketchikan on our way to Vancouver. So sad that our days are coming to an end, but so filled with memories to support me for a lifetime. Our trip has two nights left and we hope to make the most of them. The Princess Coral will cover 506 nautical miles on this part of our trip. Our travels will take us past Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This is where the Canada wilderness starts. They say on British Columbia’s North Coast you don’t control nature, you pay attention to her every mood. As we continue our travels at sea, we head into the Hecate Strait. This channel of western British Columbia, Canada, separates the Queen Charlotte Islands from coastal islands off the mainland of the province. The scenery is quite spectacular.
It made it really nice that we have a balcony and could just sit back with a glass of wine and chill. There is nothing quite like this experience, along with the view. As we leave the Hecate Strait, we make our way into the Queen Charlotte Sound. Soon we will be heading into the Queen Charlotte Strait. From there we continue into the Johnstone Strait. For unexplained reasons, Killer Whales like to rub the smooth rocks along the shore at Robson Bright. This part of Johnstone Strait is very popular with researchers studying the behavior of Killer Whales. I did not see any here like we saw in Juneau. We cruise past Vancouver Island for quite a long time and will be in Vancouver in the morning. As I sit on our balcony, I have time to reflect on some of the many things we did on the ship. The Coral has so many things to offer everyone. The food was fantastic. Go on a diet before you cruise, so you can eat as much as you want. They will keep feeding you until you say stop. We chose Anytime Dining. We wanted to eat on our schedule. After a few evenings of dining we found the perfect table for two. All I had to do was tell them what time we wanted to eat and they told me when that table was available. It was so easy to do. I highly recommend this option when you cruise. Our waiters took great care of us. They always remembered our names and what we liked. We ate at one of the specialty restaurants. The restaurant we choose was Sabatini's. This evening would take about 2 hours as we would go through tastings of Italy. I think we ate 15 different items. Way too much food and worth the very small up charge. Most mornings we could not wait to see what the drink of the day or the activities were. Most of our evenings would start off with that special drink at the martini bar. There were way too many combinations and it was a cool way to people watch. During our sea days when we were not on our balcony, we played bingo and competed in many of the fun events that took place through out the ship. There were so many things that you could participate in. It was up to you how active you wanted to be. They had things for all ages. We enjoyed the wine tastings, along with the behind the scenes tour of the kitchen. The shows at night were awesome. The midnight buffets were spectacular. The unlimited pizza was heaven! I wish this could be my house. Alaska is the most incredible place in the world. I would hope if you have never been that this is on your bucket list. I want to add it back to my bucket. Our last night on this grand ship ends with great food and wine as we sit at the back of the ship and remember all of the amazing things that we did. As we wake up this morning we are presented the beautiful view of Vancouver.
Vancouver is awesome! I hope to come visit her again. After breakfast we await our turn to disembark the Coral. Even though this part of our trip is coming to an end, we are going to spend a few days in Seattle. I hope you have enjoyed our journey so far. I sure have! Travel Agent Love! Remember a trip like this is possible and I am here to help. Until we hookup again in Seattle, Happy Travelin' and always Travel Your Way! How happy is your Cruisitude? Mine is grinning ear to ear!

Thursday Afternoon Tire Swing 7/9/09

Keeping with the drink theme, I thought I would find a very unique drink for today’s blog. There really is a drink called a "Tire Swing". Here is the scoop! Mix Amaretto, OJ, 151 Rum, crushed ice and blend. Pour it in a mason jar and find an old tire next to a lake or river and sit back and relax. Sounds like my kind of drink! Let our travels begin. A place exists in Alaska where the past lives on, where the cries of "gold in the Yukon" still echo from steep canyon walls, where the sounds of bar room pianos and boomtown crowds ring out in the night. A place where the romance and excitement of yesteryear linger around every street corner, every bend in the trail. That place is Skagway! One strange note about Skagway that you will not believe. Skagway makes it into the Guinness Book of World Records for Most People Tossing Eggs: 1162 on July 4th, 2008. That is a lot of eggs and must of been fun. We awake in Skagway and check out the scenery from our balcony. It is misty and a little chilly. We could not see too much except a lot of rocks on a hill that had most of the names and dates of the ships and their arrivals painted on them. It was cool! We head off to catch some breakfast and fuel up for our 7 hour adventure today. We are going to take the White Pass train into Canada. We really did not know what to expect, but we were really excited as this was our first shore excursion during our cruise. We disembark from the ship and walked down the pier until we spotted our tour company that we had signed up with. They check us off the list and we board the train for our adventure with our group. It was a pretty old set of trains and I am not going to lie, but I was a little nervous. I checked my Cruisitude at the front door so I was good to go. Our journey started off through some of the town and before no time we were headed down the track into the woods and were blessed to see some of the most amazing scenery that we have ever seen. We traveled by so many waterfalls and steep cliffs. There were old tunnels and some very old bridges that the White Pass trains used to travel over. Those bridges were spectacular to look at, but how in the heck did those trains not fall off of the tracks? Those must of been some very brave train drivers and the train conductors must of had some unruly passengers to deal with. Our train journey of 3 plus hours ended in Canada. You had to take your passport on this trip and they collected our passports to verify who we were and then they allowed us off the train for the next portion of our trip. Some people would either take the train or a motor coach back to Skagway. Our journey would continue into Canada. We were lucky and made our shore excursions with Shore Trips. This allowed us to travel via motor coach with a much smaller group of people. We only had four other couples with our group. If you use the cruise lines shore excursions you are in very large groups and cannot ask the bus driver to stop every time you want to take a photo of something. In our case we could stop whenever anyone requested. We are now headed into the Yukon where we will view Emerald Lake and visit the very quaint town of Carcross. As we head to Emerald Lake we stop at several other lakes and with the mist and fog we were again blessed with some very awesome photo opportunities. We work our way past more beautiful scenery as we arrive at Emerald Lake. I am not sure how to explain this lake besides it is incredible. It almost looks like you are in the Caribbean. The water is Emerald in color and we were just in awe of this lake. The photos I am taking do not do this great lake justice. You just will have to see this lake in person. It is finally lunch time and we arrive at Caribou Crossing. This is a cross between barbeque joint, gift shop, museum and a Husky race team kennel. I know it sounds really touristy, but it was not. The barbeque was very good. Yes, I am from Texas and I know barbeque, so don't laugh. The chef must of been from Texas. The Alaska Amber was excellent as well. The museum was very informative bringing us the history of the Yukon and the knowledg of the animals that were in this region. Janet had been waiting all day to get to this point of our trip. She could not wait until she got to be up front and personal with some real Alaskan Huskies. These dogs were incredible. Not only did we get to see them in action, we got to go in the kennel and actually pet some of these amazing dogs. Even though they were waiting their turn to get hooked up and dash through the woods pulling their sleigh, they were still very gentle and loving. This is something that Janet and I will never forget. As our time winds down at Caribou Crossing we get ready to head to Carcross. On our way to Carcross we stop to view the desert. I said that correctly. Carcross is also home of the smallest desert in the world. There were snow mobiles cruising across the sand. It was truly unbelievable. We make our way to the town of Carcross. Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, is an unincorporated community in the Territory of Yukon, Canada and is located on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It has a population of 431 (June 2008) and is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. This was the first nation in the Yukon Territory in Canada. Many of its citizens now live in Whitehorse. There were many shops and the little post office was amazing. We travel back towards Skagway and pass again through the Canada/US border again. It is passport time again. We stop at a few more waterfalls and finally make it back into Skagway. It is still misty and a little foggy when we arrive at the pier. It is time to get rid of our damp clothes and grab a glass of wine. What a remarkable day this has been. Skagway and the areas around here are a must visit while you are cruising Alaska. I will end this part of our trip here. We head to Juneau next. Oh my, do I hear the sound of whales? This once in a lifetime trip has been incredible so far. Until we cross paths again, Happy Travlin' and make sure you Travel Your Way! One more thing! What is your Cruisitude?

Margarita Monday 6/29/09

As the summer heat invades the other 49 states, it's time to talk about my favorite state. Margarita's are allowed! If you want to cool off in the summer, Alaska is the place to go. Cool weather and amazing sites. Now that is a Cruisitude feeling! We arrived Whitier around 3:00 in the afternoon and once we got off the train it was only a short walk to the terminal to start the boarding process for the largest ship I have ever stood next to. Man was this thing huge! She only holds 1900 passengers and I can not imagine what these new mega ships coming out that hold 5300 passengers will look like.
The boarding process did not take nearly as long as I thought it would. They took our pictures for our ID card, took some photos in front of some fake canvas, ran our carry on bags through the x-ray machine, checked our IDs and, now we are officially on the Princess Coral. We are staying in a mini suite and, we head of to find stateroom 721 on the Caribe deck. We are greeted by our steward and were amazed by how much room we actually had. Even though it had been a long day we were so excited to actually be on the ship. We had some champagne and got ready for the muster drill. The purpose of a muster drill is to prepare passengers for safe evacuation in the event an emergency occurs while on board the ship. You get to drink champagne and then they expect you to remember how to get off the boat if there is an emergency. I think Janet has it down pat. Go to the balcony and jump. Actually the muster drill went off without a hitch and did not take very long. We now know how to evacuate if there was a real emergency. Now it is time to party! We had selected anytime dining, but on the first night you eat dinner at whatever table is available when you arrive at the main dining room. With anytime dining you can eat anytime the dining room is open or at one of the speciality restaurants. You can be seated at a table with other passengers or just get a table for 2. That is what we did most of the time. It was very cool and simple. We ordered a bottle of wine and went through the many courses of food off of the menu. The food was very good. The other cool thing is they will cork the wine you have left over and bring it to you the next night. They keep track of it by your room number. Now in our case we did not have any left for the next night. What a great evening. The next 2 days we would be at sea.
College Fjord and Glacier Bay were our next two destinations. This would be scenic cruising only. This would allow us to utilize our balcony or go to the top of the ship and view the many wonders and the awesome wildlife. Some background on College Fjord and Glacier Bay. College Fjord is located in the northern sector of Prince William Sound. The Fjord contains five tidewater glaciers (glaciers that terminate in water), five large valley glaciers, and dozens of smaller glaciers, most named after renowned East Coast colleges (women's colleges for the NW side and the men's colleges for the SE side). College Fjord was discovered in1899 during the Harriman Expedition, at which time the glaciers were named. The expedition included a Harvard and an Amherst professor, and they named many of the glaciers after elite colleges. Glacier Bay is in Southeastern Alaska.
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes nine tidewater glaciers, and four actively calve (shed) icebergs into the bay. Wildlife in the area includes bears, deer, mountain goats, whales, and waterfowl. Glaciers descending from high snow capped mountains into the bay create spectacular displays of ice and iceberg formations.

In the last century the bay's most famous glacier is Muir Glacier.In 1879 naturalist John Muir found that the ice had retreated almost all the way up the bay, a distance of around forty-eight miles. No roads lead to the park and it most easily reached by air travel. Despite the lack of roads, there are over 300,000 visitors per year, most of them on cruise ships. Now that you have a little of history, you can not believe how spectacular the Fjords and the glaciers are. The ice displays so many different colors.

While we spent most of our time viewing the Fjords and glaciers, it did not keep us from exploring the Coral and participating in the many activities and events during the first two days. Let's see, we had a class on how to make martini's, played bingo, putt putt golf down the hallways, wine tasting, sampling reindeer chili, and champagne brunch on the balcony as the glaciers passed by.

It is amazing how many things they have for you to do if you want to. You can do as much or as little as you want. I will end this part of our fantastic trip here. I will pick back up as we pull into the ports of Alaska. The adventure so far has been unreal, and we have not even stepped off of the ship yet. Until then, Happy Travlin' Travel Your Way! How is your Cruisitude?

Tuesday Evening Tequila 6/16/09

Now that the Alaska cruise season has started, I thought I would share our adventure's on the trip that Janet and I took to Alaska in 2007. It is a trip that is still fresh in my memory and I will never forget it. We elected to cruise with Princess on this trip. We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and could not think of a better destination than Alaska. So we decided to do a wilderness tour for 5 days before we caught up with the Princess Coral in Whittier (Near Anchorage) We started off our trip from San Antonio with a long flight to Fairbanks through Minneapolis. It’s a long ways to Fairbanks. Packing for the trip was even more difficult because you had to have one bag for the ship and one for the land portion. When we arrived in Fairbanks they took our bags for the ship and told us that our bags would be in our cabin when we boarded the ship in 5 days. I hope I see my clothes again! We were just staying one night in Fairbanks and catching the train to Denali in the morning. Since it stays daylight in Alaska forever, we had no problem checking out Fairbanks. Neither one of us slept at all with the anticipation of our journey starting in the morning. Morning arrives and we take the motor coach from the hotel to the Princess train. Most of the cruise lines all have their Double Decker trains all hooked together. We were seated at our assigned table on the upper deck and had the most amazing view from our domed train. They had a specialist on the train who gave us the history of the different areas that we were traveling through. We were able to get up and walk around the train. They had an area at the end of train that you could go outside and see the views from there as well. As you can see Janet is a Happy Camper! It was really awesome. About half way through the train ride our table was called to go down to the dining car where we ordered breakfast and watched the most amazing scenery go by as we sipped our coffee and juice while we waited for our breakfast to be served. After breakfast we went back to our upper deck table and watched the beautiful scenery pass by. As we arrived in Denali there was a small lake off to the left side and we saw our first Moose playing in the water. Well I think it was playing!
We have now arrived at the Princess Lodge at Denali National Park. This is so cool! Hoo Ya! We get off the train and we are just about 1/2 of mile from the lodge. Once we get to the lodge we walk around a bit. It is a huge place with several restaurants and shops. Our favorite place was the Base Camp Bistro. It has the most amazing decks that looks over the river and mountains in the background. We liked it so much that we ate lunch and dinner there. They had this most incredible appetizer. It was an Alaska Crab Pot. It had crab, artichoke hearts, sherry cream, celery and loads of Parmesan cheese served with toasted Parmesan baguette slices. I am drooling! As we were eating lunch we kept seeing these Mewgulls flying around. There was a group that had just finished eating and their table had not been cleaned yet and all of a sudden here came the Mewgulls and stole the french fries. Crazy birds. We spent the rest of the day walking around the many trails around the lodge and visiting the Denali National Park Museum. It was really breathtaking. We awoke the next morning for our 65 mile trip into Denali National Park. We elected to upgrade our tour to the Tundra tour that would take us even further than the Natural History tour. We saw, Grizzly Bears, Moose, Caribou, Dall’s sheep and many other wildlife. Way too cool! Can not explain the rush when a Grizzly Bear comes right up to the school bus that we were on. I would love to spend more time here, but we are now off to the Princess Mt McKinley Lodge. Oh mountains here we come! Mt McKinley is a very strange mountain and only likes to show her beauty once every so often. We take a motor coach form Denali and arrive at the Mt McKinley lodges. They were spectacular with many restaurants and shops. They also had this amazing deck that looked out over the area where Mt McKinley is supposed to be, but nothing but clouds blanket her. We walked around some of the trails around the lodge. The funniest thing is the warning signs for the bears while you are on the trails. They show you six bear types and what to do if you see that type of bear. One bear type has you lay in the fetal position, another has you start clapping and yelling. I can tell you that if I ran into a bear no matter what type, I would not take time see what type it was nor figure out what I was supposed to do. I would be running like hell as fast as I could in the opposite direction. We had several meals, drinks and played cards in the bar that looked out over the deck waiting for the glimpse of seeing the mountain. No such luck on day #1. The next morning we take a motor coach to the small town of Talkeetna. This place is so cool. It has old shops, restaurants and a super tiny grocery/package store. We found this awesome pizza joint called Mountain High Pizza Pie and I have to tell you that besides my mom's pizza that this was the BEST I have had anywhere.
Those of you who know me know I love to eat and I love pizza. Oh yea, the beer was good too. When you finish your pizza you need to walk around a while and make room for pie at the Road House Cafe. Sweet Perfection! Not to take away from desert, but we found the city hall while walking around and they were selling shirts for the Moose Dropping Festival the next weekend. How bizarre is that? I guess they have a Moose Dropping toss, like in Texas they have the Cow Chip toss. Too Funny! We head back to the lodge in hope of seeing a glimpse of the mountain, but nothing but clouds. We have a few drinks and toast the mountain and still nothing in sight. We are bummed that we can not see this mountain. Are you really there or you just a myth? Off to bed we go and it is still daylight. It never gets dark in Alaska and this makes sleeping quite interesting. We wake up the next morning and pack our bags as we are heading to the Princess Coral today. We put our bags outside for the staff to pickup and we head to the big deck to see if maybe she might show a little and oh my gosh. There she was in full view and not a cloud in the sky. Janet was smiling from ear to ear. She was so excited! Almost like being in a candy store. She took video and I snapped tons of pictures. In a matter of 15 minutes she was gone. The clouds had taken over Mt McKinley and she had vanished. We were so blessed with the perfect timing and the view that would last us a lifetime. So Unbelievable! We jump on the motor coach back to Talkeetna where we will board the train down to Whitter to board the Princess Coral. The train will take around 6 hours to get to Whitter. We have a great table to see all of the awesome scenery as we reflect on our first trip into the interior of Alaska and what an experience it has been. We are very excited about our first cruise to Alaska. I can tell you this much, I fell in love with the area's of Alaska that we have visited and I will return again. I will end here as our land portion of our trip has ended. I will continue my next story on this fantastic trip as we review the various ports of call. Until then Happy Travlin' Travel Your Way!