I’m going to start this post with a real-life, first world problem: limited access to fast and useful internet service. I mean seriously, it’s 2016, can’t a girl (an impatient one at that) just get some decent internet service while on vacation? The answer is no. The whole concept of “unplugging” from work responsibilities, crazy life activities, and the daily string of useless e-mails sounds fun for about 3 days. After that, having internet access is now like one of those “can’t live without necessities,” as this runs a close match to air conditioning and Diet Coke in my book. Here’s why I say this, it’s one of those “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” things. I’m fine not catching up on the latest celebrity gossip, Facebook, or even the local news, but when it comes to needing restaurant reviews, maps and directional guidance, and just general information when traveling, that’s when having the Internet helps greatly. During the last week, our internet service has been terrible, hence the lack of blog posts and out of order random videos and pictures Matt puts on one social media site or another. So, as I quickly had to re-learn how to use an actual paper map in lieu of my handy phone GPS system, I realized having internet service was pretty much something I don’t do well without. On to other things we need to discuss….like what it’s like to be some of the youngest people on a cruise ship to Alaska, how amazing Glacier Bay National Park was, hilarious stories of our personal salmon fishing trip in Ketchikan, a day trip to Vancouver without my personal photojournalist, and some sort of 24 hour mega-death stomach virus we managed to put in our suitcase when starting phase three of this trip. Let’s get started….
What’s it’s like to be a “Cruiser?”-As many of you know, it’s been at least 8 years since we last took a cruise. That’s like ¼ of my lifetime ago, so I guess I just didn’t realize how much our adventurous lifestyle has changed during that time, making cruising really just not for us anymore. I know people love cruises, in fact, I used to be one of them. I just knew that is how I would spend my retirement days, drinking cocktails with the ladies on the boat, complaining of our spouses, spending endless dollars in a non-winning casino, all while getting in my daily soduko puzzle and group line-dancing class. There is nothing wrong with cruises, I just personally find that I am not really interested in all the senior-center scheduled activities, meal times and cheesy shows and casino nights that cruises provide at this point in my life. I suppose we do better spending time in nature, exploring the vastness that surrounds us. I will say cruising truly is the best way to see southeast Alaska in a quick, cost-effective way. We had wonderful table mates each night (Table 233-shout out to the 6 youngest people on the entire cruise), as we got to share our different adventures we all did each day. The other four at the table were first-time cruisers, so we got to share our love for exploration and travel, and provide the newbies with tips and tricks of the trade. The cruise was perfect for what we needed it to be, just be prepared to go with all other 60+ year olds on the Alaskan cruises in September. School is back in and it’s just us, others that did not have children and all the retired folks. Get a balcony room (it’s substantially colder here with the high being no more than 60 degrees each day) and sit out there and watch the beautiful scenery go by. We saw hundreds of whales (humpback and orcas), sea otters, bears, mountain goats, and tons of glaciers from that view!
Glacier Bay National Park-Only available by boat (or small plane into the small town of Gustavus-hello graduating high school class of 1) it’s that remote, which is pretty stellar. That’s how you know they are trying to keep this place as wild as possible. They just opened this area up after September 1st because each year it is home to thousands of pregnant Harbor Seals that use the icebergs as floating labor and delivery rooms for their pups. How precious would that be? Seriously, there is nothing cuter than a baby wild animal, they are just so tiny, fragile and have big hopes of making it in a really tough world out there. What you will find the photo is the John Hopkins Glacier calving chunks of ice into the water below. I won’t say anymore about this place, just take in the photos and enjoy the beautiful untouched place. If we don’t make changes soon though, these glaciers won’t exist for much longer (my PSA for now).
Salmon Fishing in Ketchikan-As you all know, fishing is not one of those skills that comes natural to me. I love the idea of fishing, in fact, it would best be done if someone would set it all up for me, I basically just reel it in, and then again a professional take over and handle all the unhooking, killing, gutting, unpleasantness for me and then I can take a few photos of how cute it was to catch a fish and then we can move on. You can’t come to Alaska without going salmon or halibut fishing, it’s like a rite of passage. I’m also going to admit, it’s the most expensive fishing we have ever done. Matt and I are now in a habit of not planning anything in advance and we always want more of the local experience and less of the commercialized options that are out there. Well, let me tell you, we got it when it came to salmon fishing. Again, having almost no internet service, I tried to track down a local fisherman to take us on a chartered boat to do some salmon fishing. What we found is that this fishing operation business is rather informal and people only go by first names like this is an ongoing AA meeting. We received and email back from Captain Mike (last name unknown) that told us he was full for the day (and was going halibut fishing), but referred us to Captain Rich (again last name unknown) with his phone number and we were to give him a call. We did, and boy that Captain Rich, real funny of a guy he is. He did a private charter for Matt and I and picked us up right off the dock next to the cruise ship. He drove us 35 minutes out of the area to the perfect spot to go fishing for salmon. Captain Rich was what I would call probably more of leisurely fisherman and less of a formal charter fisherman, but it totally added to the experience. Let me tell you about Captain Rich-he pulls up in a sleeve-less t-shirt that reads “Mexican Redneck” and tells us to jump in the boat, as we need to fill out the necessary paperwork (by that he means we need to get some fishing licenses). He asked how we wanted to pay and I said well, do you take Discover (Discover It card, you should check it out if you want a credit card-they pay you 1% cash back on all purchases and there are no fees or other hidden crap involved, just pay it off monthly-PSA number 2 for this post). He replies with “well hell, I just got this square thing yesterday and not sure how to use it, but I guess we can try, ok, sounds good Captain Rich-payment approach number one. At various times in this process, I felt like maybe Matt and I had got involved with a local drug runner, I mean who goes by first names only and then struggles with payments outside of cash? I thought this guy was a professional? It’s fine, we know it’s going to just be fine from this point forward. We take off and that’s when we really see who Captain Rich is and we get all the great stories you can only get from a "transplanted” local. About an hour into the trip, Matt (now named the fish whisperer) caught a lovely silver salmon and Captain Rich got so excited he just couldn’t stand it! I did too, but then came this whole “bleeding out” part that I was not prepared for, so I reclaimed my excitement shortly after when that part was over and took this lovely picture of the fish Matt caught. After getting a nice sunburn on the lake, two other large hits on my fishing rod (but no catch-and I’m the one who wanted to go fishing), and a few hours later we left our crazy adventure with Captain Rich to take the fish to be processed (smoked and nicely prepared like grocery story salmon) and sent home upon our return. I hope Matt enjoys his freshly caught salmon, because after all was said and done that was the most expensive fish I’ve ever purchased. But the experience was totally worth it and just the fact that we got to meet Captain Rich (and I’ll tell you all some additional hilarious stories at a later date), was well worth the money in my books, I guarantee it.
After we arrived back to Vancouver on Tuesday, we exit the cruise ship, get a taxi and make our way to the airport to pick up our rental car, when Matt gets violently ill and the trip takes a turn for the worst. Matt was pretty sure he had food poisoning (aren’t cruise ships notorious for this happening?) So, Matt was not at all interested in doing anything but getting well, so I took the opportunity to go and mosey around Vancouver by myself (using real maps because again my internet coverage was awful and therefore my GPS was of no use, all while driving a car I had never driven before in a city I’ve never been too, and of course not in America where I know all the rules of the road) seeing all the exciting sites, taking a ton of selfies to document the process (apparently this is what you have to do when your resident photojournalist is unable to accompany you on the trip) and returned back about 8 hours later to share the highlights of my day with Matt. By the next morning he was feeling better and we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Anchorage to meet up with Matt’s parents. We arrived as scheduled and began our next leg of this trip exploring Anchorage, but by day two here, Matt’s “food poisoning” found me as well….no one needs a 24 hour stomach bug on vacation…absolutely no one.
So, as you can see, we have covered a lot of ground in the past two weeks, lots of exploring and taking in new cities and activities. Things has been “business as usual” in terms of my tolerance of Matt and his shenanigans. I mean, we still have 9 days left of this trip, so we all know this could change at a moments notice as Matt comes up with crazy things for us to do. We have a rental car booked, but beyond that, we will see where the road takes us. Matt will fill you in our last few days in Anchorage and we are now headed up to Denali National Park where we will spend a few days going through the park (we got a road lottery ticket for Sunday-more about that later as well), and we will be returning to Seattle to head towards the Oregon Coast on Tuesday bright and early.
Happy Saturday All!
