My Happy Birthday

I wore out before the last hours of my birthday were over. I began my birthday when I walked on the 7th floor, up and down the corridors from Rooms 7002 to 7208 – up and down, until tonight when Wyona asked if we had seen last month’s room attendants, I had to say, yes, I passed them many times in the hall this morning. They work on the other side of the ship where I do have of my walk.

Wyona has been sick, so we had lunch together in the Ocean View, moving down the row of vegetables and pointing to everything we wanted on our salads. Yum to artichokes, shredded zucchini, toasted sesame seeds and pumpkin sees – all of the items that are just too troublesome to prepare for a quick meal at home! I saw the Russian Matryoshka Doll lecture and took notes, copious ones, having so many already. The bottom line is, if you like it buy it. There are no nesting dolls you can purchase that will be more valuable next year. And even the ones that a person can buy in the subway in the middle of St. Petersburg may have been made in China. I have no idea how I ended up in the Beyond the Podium Lecture called American Madams 1860-1910 but I was there with Greg and another dinner companion. I had the suspicion that I would be listening to a talk about madams in the Alaskan Panhandle – since Alaska is where we are headed. I was taking notes and able to refer to remember Mother Featherlegs and Diddlin’ Dora’s Saloon and know that I have to do some internet research when I go home to scan again the poem written by Lusk, Wyoming’s mayor who immortalized Mrs. Charlotte Shepherd.

My day went from good to better. Of all of the seminars my notes are the most copious when I sit in the Photography Question and Answers Sessions. Greg and I went to dinner and came home to tell Wyona that if she had joined us she could have had her choice of Beef Wellington, Lamp Chops, or Lobster Tail. I choose the latter to go with the oysters – two, still in the shells. No pearls were found. I had ordered a small cake, brought from the kitchen, my name tastefully written on it. Nothing like creating your own birthday party!  Our two waiters joined the table singing Happy Birthday. That was good. But the 3 tables of fun loving Germans who toast and sing at every opportunity joined in, raising the volume level more than I had anticipated – a blush from me for my 73 birthday to say the least. I still like to remain anonymous.

I watched the iBroadway Stage presentation – twice: 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. I was wondering what my favorite songs were tonight: On Broadway? Defying Gravity? Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You? We will Rock You? The good thing is that I could hear the show twice to help me make up my mind.

Can you imagine me stopping by a jewellery store on the way back to my room. Wyona and Greg had spent some time in there while I was at lectures today. She tried to convince me that a lovely pearl hanging on a black diamond necklace would be the perfect birthday gift and that I should buy it for myself. I opt for a new used car instead. Greg said it would be a hard choice, but if I choose the jewellery, I could just hold out my ring finger and say, “I am wearing an automobile on my hands”.

We had late night pizza in the Ocean View – a ‘60’s thing to do. 

I don’t know what a ‘70’s thing to do would have been. I am still having trouble getting good models for what it is like to grow old.

In any case, I had a lovely birthday.

Arta

White Pass Summit, Alaska

All Aboard!

... waiting for the engine to start ...

... capturing part of our train as we round the bend ...

The Scenic Railway of the World. White Pass Summit.

Board the train and then watch out the window as the following pass by: the Gold Rush Cemetery, Black Cross Rock, Bridal Veil Falls, Dead Horse Gulch, the Steel Bridge. Greg reminded me that Dave Wood has been wanting to take this trip for years – but my car.

Moiya always says, “Go, but I am not getting in the car.”

After the railroad ride, I can see why Wyona and Greg are taking the railroad trip for the second time ... and why Dave might want to go there.

Stunning to climb the side of the mountain until the summit is before you with its trees, hundreds of years old but not able to grow higher than six feet tall because of the climate.

... the conductor takes our ticket ...

An excellent part of the trip was when the train broke down.

At the end of the line, people were told they could get off in town and walk around, or stay on the train and be delivered back to the vessel. Greg got off.

We elected to stay on the train. The engine was to come around from the back to the front of the train for that journey, but the engine wouldn’t start.

The next thing we heard was an announcement that 3 coaches were coming to take us back to the boat.

I decided to get off and walk – a test to see if could walk back faster than the coaches could make it back after loading all of those people.

I beat Wyona back, though she was stopped on the gangplank by a woman in front of her who collapsed to her knees.

Travelling with old people?

... the top of White Pass Summit ...

There is often drama, just in climbing stairs. 

Someone collapsed on the stairs. 

Wyona was the one who caught her as she was going down and called for help.

... water tumbling down the hills ...

Tonight we are sailing down the Lynn Canal, part of the inside passage of the Pacific Ocean.

Tomorrow morning we will wake up in Hoonah, Alaska.

The port is so small that you can get to the ship from anywhere in town, in 10 minutes.

As the activities director said today, “In a couple of hours, you can see the whole town ... twice.”

Arta

A Near Miss

I thought Greg, Wyona and I were leaving for Vancouver on a 7 a.m. flight and then on to Hong Kong. She was sure the departure time was 12:05 pm. I said again to her, "I am pretty sure it is 7 a.m. I have been looking at that timing for the past couple of days." She said, no, -- noon. We traipsed downstairs at her house to look at the tickets. One set of tickets said noon, the other said 7 a.m.

“Greg? What does a person do when they have five hours to kill between flights,” Wyona asked.

“I usually walk,” he said. Then his eyes grew wide, for he thought he was coming along with us and would have missed his early morning flight. That is the way Aeroplan points work. He will get to the row of three seats we have booked together to fly across the Pacific, but not in the most convenient way. Wyona’s and my flight is different for we are using up the return ticket from when we flew back from Shanghai last year.

Wyona made me laugh tonight with her follow-up phone call. “I just want to warn you, we are not in a hotel for our three days there, but in something more like a hostel. Well, really it is a one-star hotel. No toiletries. No towels.” 

I don’t care.

For the curious, we will see Taipei (Taiwan), Nagasaki (Japan), Busan (South Korea), Jeju Island (South Korea), Tianjin (China), Shanghai (China), Kobe (Japan), Tokyo (Japan), Petropavlovsk (Russia), Seward (Alaska) and then continue on down the coast to Vancouver and home.

Arta

Hubbard Glacier

Wyona here:

Right now it is 10 p.m. at night.

We spent the day from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. seeing amazing things as we cruised Hubbard Glacier in Alaska.

Photo: Wyona Bates

We were just one half mile away from the glacier, the closest the captain has gone for the last 30 cruises.

As we went in there were a few icebergs but not enough to stop us.

However, as the captain went to exit Yukatuk Bay, the iceburgs had gathered behind us so he took a second route out around an island close by.

Photo: Wyona Bates

Here are a few of the pictures.

It was beautiful, amazing and cold!!!!

For the last three hours today we have been engulfed by thick fog so the captain pulls the fog horn every five minutes.

We had a lucky, clear and sunny day.

Wyona