The Great Northern Adventure, Day 4: To Alaska

Monday, July 5, 2010

We get to leave the boat for a little while today.  First stop: Juneau.  The weather was cold, foggy, and misty.  It was like walking around Twin Peaks.  There were several other large cruise ships in port, so the town was crawling with tourons (tourists + morons, thanks to Donna Z. for the vernacular.)  The town was filled with jewelery stores, gift shops, ice cream places, etc.

First stop was the Alaska Brewing Company.

This beer is highly featured on the ship, but probably not for the right reasons.  Jennifer and I did a beer tasting yesterday where we tried four of ABC's different beers: Amber, Pale, White, and Summer.  All but the Amber looked identical, and pretty much tasted that way too.  I suspect Alaskan is the Coors of Alaska (that is so not a compliment.)

We found a coffee shop off the beaten path and relaxed a little.

On the way back we stopped at the Red Dog Saloon, a very touristy, but fun bar, suggested to us by Connie via Facebook.

We got a beer, root beer, and a smoked salmon, cheese, and cracker appetizer.

In town, the kids bought some Lego minifigs and some stickers for our journals.

Back onto the boat.

Dinner was casual again, with fewer people on the boat since some were out on excursions, (or exertions, as Zoe referred to them.)  Last night on the boat, and the luggage had to be outside the cabin by 03:00.  That was kind of a pain, and I guess the downside to almost never having to handle your own baggage.  Thank you, overpackers for your laziness.

The Great Northern Adventure, Day 3: You and Me, By the Sea

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Jennifer was up earlier than the rest of us, meeting up for breakfast on the Lido (#9) deck.  The breakfast selection is excellent, of course.  The whole day was spent at sea, so other than the eating, there was plenty of viewing of the geography.

To celebrate the holiday, lunch was grilled "outside" on the Lido deck by the pool with the retractable roof open.  The bar even had some holiday-themed overpriced drinks.

And more pool time, of course.

(Jennifer, Andy, Shelley, and Jenni)

For dinner, which was "formal" night, we dressed up as little as we thought we could get away with.  Jennifer used two of her travel skirts to make formal dresses for Krista and Zoe.

Dinner included some King Crab and other stuff.  It wasn't a lot of food, but it was good, and our Indonesian waiter, Rianto , was very nice.