It’s Good To Be Home

Most of this week has been spent in recovery mode - 

we’re tired from traveling and Jac’s been sick with allergies -

Red and gold Spiderman 

so when we all had energy today, 

The Hulk

we made the most of it …

Chalk painting - including Jac’s 49 step hopscotch (red arrows below) 😳-

chalk watering (every bit as much fun as drawing),

making play-dough,

and my favorite - 

bribing Donovan to get his face wet. 

Both kids like playing with water, but neither likes being wet 

and they especially dislike having water on their faces. 

Working to fix that, one two Oreos at a time. 

(Oreos have replaced Tic Tacs as the favorite bribe payment and Donovan is quite a negotiator when it comes to getting more sweets. 😂)

At Sea, Day 12

Sea days are long and lazy, 

with lots of reading and eating, 

capped by a formal dinner since we’ll have lots of time to get gussied up. 

Love that the ship gets gussied up too. 

We didn’t do anything special for the masquerade theme, but I’m thinking next time we could get some nice Queen Elizabeth imitation tiaras to wear. Wonder if I could talk the other ladies into it . . .

Ketchikan- Day 11

Ketchikan was hot - all of 71°, which means we must be getting used to Alaskan weather. 

We had decided to skip a ship-sponsored shore excursion here since the town was right by the dock,

opting to walk the 15 minutes or so that (they said) would take us to most of the highlights. 

Eagle totem

It was a bit further, 

Note the houses on top of the tunnel and the steeeeeep stairs up the hillside

and we were way overdressed for the temperature, 

The two ends of Creek Street, a neat shopping area

but still glad we did it.

Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have found hubby’s bear buddy (look closely…),

a harbor-side fish and chips place (Juneau’s was better…)

Fabric from Alaska-based designers

Quilt ideas

or the second great quilt shop (where I spent lots of $$.)

Ketchikan is known for its totems

and the salmon run that runs through town with a walkway alongside. 

After walking back to the ship,

somebody had a short nap in the Commodore Club

before we once again headed out to sea.

View from the balcony, looking away from downtown 

Tomorrow is an at-sea day, 

Leaving our berth

then we are in Victoria and Butchart Gardens. 

Arrow is our lunch spot, behind the big pink building is Creek Street and several totems

Icy Strait Point, Day 10

Today we took a 2.5 hour wildlife and whale watching cruise from Icy Strait Point

Fancy walkway from the dock to town

and within the first 30 minutes 

Barnacles

we were watching a mama brown bear and her 3 cubs walking and playing on the shore. 

Mama and cubs

Worth the price of the tour right there!

Brothers

The boat was an inclosed catamaran 

Our sister ship

with comfortable seats,

lots of windows,

and open decks in front, back and above.

We saw a surprising number of whales (probably 10 or more individuals) -

most were in the distance,

where we could mainly see them blowing,

but a couple were close enough to see clearly. 

The magic of zooming-in

We also saw hundreds of sea birds (tap to enlarge),

a crazy number of salmon jumping and spinning in the air,

Belly flopping salmon

sea otters, 

Otter

harbor seals and more. 

Bow spray

Usually, we spend all day in each port, arriving around 7 or 8 am and leaving around dinner time. 

But today we were underway at 2:30, giving us time to visit the Commodore Club, our favorite hangout, where we saw even more whales! 

Tomorrow we’re in Ketchikan for shopping and maybe some sightseeing.