lots at once

August 15, 2014
It has been busy here in Alaska the past week or two. Marti came on board, so most of my free time last week was spent hanging out, catching up with her, and showing her around the ship and ports and such.
Last week:
Juneau was a tender port, plus Marti had immigration and drill to go through, so we didn’t get off until later in the afternoon. We did a bit of shopping, got a crepe and hung out in the Viking using the internet until I had to get back for movie night in the Loft. The teens and I ended up playing Apples to Apples and Monopoly (which is their favorite game this week) before watching our movie. They’re a good group of teens, the ones that show up at least which has only been maybe a max of 7 at a time (out of the 90 or so on board). Marti, Lindsey, Randall (Lindsey’s boyfriend) and I decided a few nights ago to watch Land Before Time in one of our rooms after work tonight, so we got out food and stuff, and somehow we managed not to fall asleep through it (it helps that it’s only about an hour long!).
Skagway, Marti worked the morning shift, and I slept in and hung around until she was off duty. We’d discussed the day before going hiking if the weather was nice, and it looked sunny and beautiful out, so we decided to go on one of the longer hikes! I had the trail maps, so we set out, equipped with my camera, some water bottles, and some snacks. It was the perfect day for a hike, warm enough I could wear my sandals, but cool enough that we didn’t get too hot as we were climbing. The maps said it was a 14 mile total hike, we managed to do it in less than 4 hours, including frequent picture stops. The hike was Icy Lake and Upper Reid Falls; I’d been to Lower Reid falls a few weeks ago, with Abrie and that was much less of a hike, for a much prettier waterfall. The lake was beautiful, glacier water, that part was definitely worth the hike at least.
Ketchikan was rainy and cold. I had the morning shift, Marti slept in and waited for me. We got off the ship together, wandered around town and through Creek Street, then around the shops. Not too exciting of a day considering the rain, but we ended up just using the internet in the OB

Vancouver, Marti and I went out for a bit in Vancouver, to the Olympic Cauldron, then to get some internet for a bit before she had to get back for Open House.
Marti and I both had the day off in Juneau this week, she actually had the night off as well. I really wanted to do something other than just stay in town, so we went up to one of the booths selling tours, discussed a whale-watching one (too expensive for Marti at the moment), and ended up deciding to go on a short city bus tour to the Mendenhall Glacier. It got us out of the rain, we learned a bit about Juneau, and I finally got to see this glacier. We had an hour at the glacier site, and would’ve liked to ‘hike’ (the glacier’s receded from this land, so it’s very very flat) to the falls closer to the glacier, but the trail was closed due to flooding. Maybe another summer, the falls looked beautiful from afar, and they’re a lot closer to that giant glacier, plus it would be a short trip to and from and including plenty of pictures since it’s only a mile! Anyway, we enjoyed our time there, and the bad weather stopped for a bit, so we had a dry time there after the rainy bus ride. It was good to get away and do something other than sit in the Viking doing stuff on the internet (or pretending to do stuff on the internet because the people you hang out with were online and not really talking). We had some time before I had to be at work after all that, so we got crepes for dinner and looked through pictures for a bit. Overall, it was a very relaxing day.
I had the morning Skagway shift. I was surprised that so many kids showed up, and so early in the morning, and on such a beautiful looking day outside. But, a good many of them got picked up by lunchtime at least, so they did see some of the pretty day. I went outside and sat on one of my rocks by the train tracks to talk on the phone for a while, then got Marti once she was off work, and we got ice cream, and watched the three seals swimming around beside where we were docked. They were cute, looked like relatively baby ones being so small.