Enjoy The Ride: Days 10 - 14 : America The Beautiful...

Hi Friends.

We boarded the ship for an Alaskan cruise in Vancouver on Tuesday. We are on the Crystal Symphony - it’s a beautiful ship. The food has been really good - but most impressive have been all of the folks who run the ship. They are fantastic and truly an international crew. They have folks from over 40 countries - and everyone has been so friendly.

One memorable story came from our waiter Salih at dinner the other night. He is from Istanbul Turkey. We complimented him on his English which he said he is still working on. He then shared how / why he learned English. At the age of 9 he went to work selling tea in the bazaar. He spoke no English and sold his tea to the local shopkeepers for 25 cents a cup. One day an American couple asked him to buy 2 cups. They gave him 1 dollar and he gave back 50 cents - they wouldn’t take the change. He kept trying to give it back and they kept refusing before leaving. When he asked an older shopkeeper why - the man simply said ‘they are Americans’ :). Salih then realized he had an opportunity to make more money selling to Americans - and that began his English lessons starting with ‘thank you’. Smart man.

The next night we met a wonderful newlywed couple, Chris and Beth, at dinner and shared a lot of laughs. Craig and Chris tried to convince another diner with a scooter to let them take a whirl but it was a no-go. We also met Art while having a drink at the bar. He was a cool guy who runs fishing charters for a living. He donates time on the boats to the Wounded Warrior program - such a great cause.

The first two days were at sea making our way to Juneau. Along the way there were some beautiful sights from onboard including seeing our first icebergs! We had no idea they often looked blue in color - it was very cool - and, thankfully, ships have become much better at navigating around them!

We also took advantage of the time to take part in some of the activities offered onboard. We are taking bridge lessons from a retired couple who teach bridge on two cruises a year - what a fun retirement gig! In the afternoon we took dance lessons from four professional dancers from Hungary. So far we have learned the Salsa and Waltz. To wrap up the day we have joined the Bingo games and we even bought daubers :). The host is from China and she is very entertaining - it’s been a hoot.

Yesterday we were in Juneau and went on a whale watching boat. It was amazing. We saw several humpback whales - a couple that went right up by another boat on he water. We then had a special treat when our captain spotted a pod of 7 orcas - they said none had been spotted in over two weeks. Three of them swam right next to us - it was awesome.

In Juneau we visited a few iconic places - lunch at the Alaskan Fish Company with some of the best fish and chips ever. We then stopped for a drink at the Red Dog Saloon - one of the oldest bars in Alaska. Wyatt Earp used to frequent the place before heading to Nome and they have one of his old revolvers on display. The walls display lots of interesting stuff - including a large mounted bear - no doubt some great stories if those walls could talk.

Today we are in Skagway. We were supposed to go on a heli-hike followed by a train ride. We were going to fly on the helicopter through the mountains and get dropped off where we would then hike for 5 miles. We would ride the historic Skagway train an hour to get back to town. Unfortunately right as we were getting ready to depart they learned the helicopter pilot felt it was too windy and unsafe to fly. It was just us and another couple but we were going to be joined by one of the crew - he was as disappointed as we were - but obviously need to be safe.

So instead we did a round trip on the train. You ride the train up the mountain to a summit at 2880 feet and then loop around to come back. We had a bit of excitement when almost at the summit the train stopped. Apparently the ‘check engine’ light came on :). They checked things and restarted but only for 2 minutes before stopping again. This time we’re stopped for ~10-15 minutes as we watched the conductor walking back and forth along the tracks. Thankfully things checked out enough to get going again but not before a lot of nervous laughter wondering about the infamous ‘Plan B’.