Checked out of the hotel a little after 8 after packing up the car. A 10pm boarding time for a ferry may seem late, but those of us who have lived in Alaska for any amount of time are used to the late night/early morning departures. I think every flight I have ever taken out of Anchorage left sometime between 11pm and 1am. 10pm is early for a departure! Oh, and Happy Birthday, Lucy!
Got the car on the boat; parked at the very edge of the aft. Sam got the cats situated while I got our stateroom and took everything up that we would need for the journey. Somehow, we wound up with a 4 berth stateroom. I remember only asking for and paying for a 2 berth. Ticket check. It says 4 berth. Turned on the computer to check our original itinerary. It says 2 berth with the same prices as the 4 berth on our ticket. Free upgrade! We would later figure out why this happened. We were originally book on the Matanuska. However, we seemed to be standing on the Malaspina. The two boats are identical in size and capacity, with the exception of the number of staterooms. Less staterooms, but bigger ones on the Malaspina. Hence, the nice little upgrade.
We went to bed almost immediately. There was an announcement that we were in port in Juneau at about 3am. We were allowed down in the car deck. We are only allowed down in the car deck, where all pets must stay, about three times a day and during port calls. Sam wanted to go check on the cats, since this was our first chance. Groggily, we hiked below deck. Cats are fine. We went topside, since I had never seen Juneau. I still haven’t seen Juneau. All I saw was nighttime and a ferry dock. Back to bed.
Rolled out of bed to the beauty of the Inner Passage. Better described as the Alaska Fjord. Got coffee and made some of our store bought instant oatmeal for breakfast. We both had work to do today. Sam has her Fundamentals of Surveying Exam coming up in April. She is taking it in California. Now that the packing is done, it is time for her to hit the books. I took on a lawyer project for Rex. Listen to a stack of jailhouse phone call recordings and write a memo on it; listening for our hero or his co-defendant to say anything incriminating while talking on the phone. (Seriously, guys, there is a warning that your calls are recorded out of the jail, unless you are talking to an attorney. That warning isn’t an empty threat. ) We spent most of the late morning and early afternoon attending to our projects. Sam stayed in the stateroom. I set up shop on the forward deck so I could enjoy the scenery while working. I would get up and take pictures occasionally. The ferry was stalked by a Coast Guard Helicopter for a while before getting to Sitka. I don’t think this had anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security.
We took a break when we docked in Sitka for a few hours. There was an announcement that, for a fee of $10/head, a bus would take anyone into downtown Sitka and back. We were in port for over two hours, but that sounded like a price gouge if I ever heard one. Right up there with the “bag handling fee” the airlines are now charging. The town of Sitka didn’t look too impressive as we pulled in. We’ll pass on the $10 bus. I hear Ketchikan is the best of the SE towns, anyway. We checked on the cats, then got off the boat. Ah, so that is why there is a bus charging money to go into Sitka. The actual town was 7 miles from the dock. We bummed around the docks and the little park next to the boats for about an hour, before getting back on board and back to work. It is interesting to note that when we got back on the boat, it was rather hard not to notice how many vehicles cleared out of the car deck. Half the cars and trucks down there cleared off in Sitka. I would guess that more people got on the boat going to Sitka than all the way to Bellingham. Maybe the Coast Guard was sending a new crop to the Sitka station.
We both moved to the bar area. Not because we wanted to drink (don’t want to pay $5 for a 12oz bottle of beer), but it was not crowded and no screaming kids. There was also a nice starboard side window. The moment I sat down, I looked up to see a whale’s tail right outside the boat. I have been on numerous whale and glacier watching cruises out of Seward. I have seen plenty of gray and humpback whales. It is so rare to actually see the tail breach the water. And here I was, not looking for whales, on a boat where the purpose is to get us from point A to point B, not to see wildlife, but there was a tail right in front of me. Very cool sight. Later, the captain came over the intercom to point out a tree full of pink flamingos on a small island. A picture of this interesting phenomenon was sent to the University of Washington. A professor gave some possible explanations of why a flock of flamingos would wind up in SE Alaska. Possibly some strong trade winds and they were high up in the tree due to the cold water. Of course, these flamingos really didn’t appear to move and their feathers had a glare which would appear plastic. The captain said that the local Coast Guard could not confirm, deny or comment on how these plastic-looking, immobile flamingos wound up on a remote SE Alaska island. Join the Coast Guard and play pranks on professors and tourists!
After another store-bought microwave meal (Grandma’s cooking is going to taste great when we get to Sequim), we lay in the stateroom, watching FlashForward. In anticipation for the trip, I downloaded the first 10 episodes on iTunes. The show looked interesting and neither of us had a chance to watch it yet. We watched the first two episodes. Two of the main characters are Richard and Penny from Lost. It is Tuesday, and we would otherwise be watching Lost now. Maybe in Ketchikan we can get some internet to buy the new episode we are missing on iTunes. Calling it a day. We are going to miss Petersberg, because it is another middle of the night port. Wrangell first thing Wednesday morning.
Up Next: More of the Marine Highway
M.E.
Got the car on the boat; parked at the very edge of the aft. Sam got the cats situated while I got our stateroom and took everything up that we would need for the journey. Somehow, we wound up with a 4 berth stateroom. I remember only asking for and paying for a 2 berth. Ticket check. It says 4 berth. Turned on the computer to check our original itinerary. It says 2 berth with the same prices as the 4 berth on our ticket. Free upgrade! We would later figure out why this happened. We were originally book on the Matanuska. However, we seemed to be standing on the Malaspina. The two boats are identical in size and capacity, with the exception of the number of staterooms. Less staterooms, but bigger ones on the Malaspina. Hence, the nice little upgrade.
We went to bed almost immediately. There was an announcement that we were in port in Juneau at about 3am. We were allowed down in the car deck. We are only allowed down in the car deck, where all pets must stay, about three times a day and during port calls. Sam wanted to go check on the cats, since this was our first chance. Groggily, we hiked below deck. Cats are fine. We went topside, since I had never seen Juneau. I still haven’t seen Juneau. All I saw was nighttime and a ferry dock. Back to bed.
Rolled out of bed to the beauty of the Inner Passage. Better described as the Alaska Fjord. Got coffee and made some of our store bought instant oatmeal for breakfast. We both had work to do today. Sam has her Fundamentals of Surveying Exam coming up in April. She is taking it in California. Now that the packing is done, it is time for her to hit the books. I took on a lawyer project for Rex. Listen to a stack of jailhouse phone call recordings and write a memo on it; listening for our hero or his co-defendant to say anything incriminating while talking on the phone. (Seriously, guys, there is a warning that your calls are recorded out of the jail, unless you are talking to an attorney. That warning isn’t an empty threat. ) We spent most of the late morning and early afternoon attending to our projects. Sam stayed in the stateroom. I set up shop on the forward deck so I could enjoy the scenery while working. I would get up and take pictures occasionally. The ferry was stalked by a Coast Guard Helicopter for a while before getting to Sitka. I don’t think this had anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security.
We took a break when we docked in Sitka for a few hours. There was an announcement that, for a fee of $10/head, a bus would take anyone into downtown Sitka and back. We were in port for over two hours, but that sounded like a price gouge if I ever heard one. Right up there with the “bag handling fee” the airlines are now charging. The town of Sitka didn’t look too impressive as we pulled in. We’ll pass on the $10 bus. I hear Ketchikan is the best of the SE towns, anyway. We checked on the cats, then got off the boat. Ah, so that is why there is a bus charging money to go into Sitka. The actual town was 7 miles from the dock. We bummed around the docks and the little park next to the boats for about an hour, before getting back on board and back to work. It is interesting to note that when we got back on the boat, it was rather hard not to notice how many vehicles cleared out of the car deck. Half the cars and trucks down there cleared off in Sitka. I would guess that more people got on the boat going to Sitka than all the way to Bellingham. Maybe the Coast Guard was sending a new crop to the Sitka station.
We both moved to the bar area. Not because we wanted to drink (don’t want to pay $5 for a 12oz bottle of beer), but it was not crowded and no screaming kids. There was also a nice starboard side window. The moment I sat down, I looked up to see a whale’s tail right outside the boat. I have been on numerous whale and glacier watching cruises out of Seward. I have seen plenty of gray and humpback whales. It is so rare to actually see the tail breach the water. And here I was, not looking for whales, on a boat where the purpose is to get us from point A to point B, not to see wildlife, but there was a tail right in front of me. Very cool sight. Later, the captain came over the intercom to point out a tree full of pink flamingos on a small island. A picture of this interesting phenomenon was sent to the University of Washington. A professor gave some possible explanations of why a flock of flamingos would wind up in SE Alaska. Possibly some strong trade winds and they were high up in the tree due to the cold water. Of course, these flamingos really didn’t appear to move and their feathers had a glare which would appear plastic. The captain said that the local Coast Guard could not confirm, deny or comment on how these plastic-looking, immobile flamingos wound up on a remote SE Alaska island. Join the Coast Guard and play pranks on professors and tourists!
After another store-bought microwave meal (Grandma’s cooking is going to taste great when we get to Sequim), we lay in the stateroom, watching FlashForward. In anticipation for the trip, I downloaded the first 10 episodes on iTunes. The show looked interesting and neither of us had a chance to watch it yet. We watched the first two episodes. Two of the main characters are Richard and Penny from Lost. It is Tuesday, and we would otherwise be watching Lost now. Maybe in Ketchikan we can get some internet to buy the new episode we are missing on iTunes. Calling it a day. We are going to miss Petersberg, because it is another middle of the night port. Wrangell first thing Wednesday morning.
Up Next: More of the Marine Highway
M.E.
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