The Alaskan Jewel! Welcome Aboard….You don’t Exist!

[jenseib]

I love all of the pictures of a smiling Skip on the excursion. He was loving it and you could totally tell it.

Oh poor Claire, she looked like she was just about to fall over from hunger. Good thing you finally got her something to eat.

She gets it from her mom! LOL

I really enjoyed your walk around the town. If you say that your pictures don't do it justice, I can only imagine what it looked like in person.

It is just gorgeous. I bet John would LOVE Alaska!

What a fabulous day! Poor Claire, I just got back from Florida with a friend that acted like this... I'm glad Claire survived and you found a tasty lunch spot.

I need to eat too, but I just get grumpy. But Claire was really putting on quite the show.

Cool that the excursion guys waited for everyone who wanted a picture.

They were such nice guys. I recommend this tour to anyone and everyone now.

I'm thinking the jacket is bigger than XL?

um....yep!

Loved all the pictures, what a beautiful place.

Thanks, it really is amazing there.

Too fun about the seals

We had a good time watching them.

 

[jenseib]

We now were slowly moving and sailing out of Ketchikan. It was really a very slow process and I took several pictures as we moved along.


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Another dead jellyfish….seems so odd I have seen 2 this trip.


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The misty mountains still look so cool to me.


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Well this is one way to fix a roof!


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A sea plane coming in…I just can’t get enough of those…they are so cool to see take off and land.


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Now this is one steep road.


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A plane taking off.


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Good bye Ketchikan!!!


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As we sailed away I went and looked at our purchases and showed Skip his new coat…and looked at mine….. XXXL. Well no wonder it seemed quite a bit bigger than the large. Oh well nothing I can do about it and it wasn’t overly big and I could wear a sweatshirt under it. And for the price, if I never wore it again after the trip I would still be ok.


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A ship in drydock.


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And another.


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I don’t know about you, but I always find it kind of creepy to see the ships out of water like that.


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I just think these misty trees are beautiful.


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After we got a ways out we headed back to the room to find our snack of the day.


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Skip ate some cheese before I had a chance to photograph it.


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Up next……a relaxing afternoon and missing the whale sightings once again.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Just read your whole report! Really enjoying it and the pictures are awesome. You could really tell how much fun the excursion was

 

[Pinkocto]

oh my XXXL! That's nice that it's big enough to wear a sweatshirt under it though.

Beautiful misty trees pictures.

I was looking at the crab pictures again, the guys weren't afraid of those giant claws?

 

[jenseib]

Just read your whole report! Really enjoying it and the pictures are awesome. You could really tell how much fun the excursion was

Thanks for reading along!

oh my XXXL! That's nice that it's big enough to wear a sweatshirt under it though.

or two! LOL

Beautiful misty trees pictures.

I just love how it looks.

I was looking at the crab pictures again, the guys weren't afraid of those giant claws?

I think if you hold them just right you are ok, but yes if you get to close or aren't careful they will pinch you. That was my fear...so I held them just the way the gal gave it to me to be safe.

 

[jenseib]

At some point after we headed back out to sea, Claire was ready to go to the kids club again so I took her.


I hung out and took pictures, played a little in the casino and just enjoyed the afternoon.


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I wanted some icecream so I went in search of it…And the machine wasn’t working right, basically just spitting out a little bit, so I assumed it needed a refill so I went for something else instead.


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I found a table and there were a bunch of people who spoke mainly Spanish, but mixed with English too, were saying how there were whales. I kept looking and looking and then someone would point….I would look and then they would say, oh no that’s not one.


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I think I basically sat down right after we basically passed the whales as one was never confirmed after that.


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This was my snack. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either.


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I headed then out back to see if I could perhaps get lucky and see a whale.


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If course while I stood there a mother caught up with her teen daughter there and the daughter was going on and on about all the whales she saw a little earlier. I was jealous!


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Part of the wonderfulness of cruising is just staring off and watching the world go by.


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My next pics are inside, so my guess is I was changing decks.


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At some point it was time to get ready for the evening and I showered. I also went to the task of trying to dry our tennis shoes out. I stuffed them with tissue to get some moisture out and then I took a hair dryer to the inside of each pair. Let’s just say, blowing warm air in tennis shoes does not produce the loveliest of smells…..but it did help them dry up and by the next day there were all comfy again.


At some point Skip and Claire returned and we all got cleaned up.


I think I must’ve taken a little walk while they were getting ready.


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And then we headed to the early show for the evening. Tonight was Jean Pierre, though they called him JP. He was advertised as a magician but also was noted there was comedy with it.


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It was already pretty crowded when we arrived. We sat in the balcony and those stupid glass dividers really make it hard to get a good look at the stage. You either have to kind of duck down and look through the glass or get taller to look over it.


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JP was funny. He did some tricks along with jokes and we really enjoyed him. We were laughing pretty hard at times. He is rated PG13 and there was some adult humor, but nothing too bad.


At the end he was selling little magic kits of some sort, which we did not buy, but I did catch a picture before we left.


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After the show we headed outside for a few minutes and then it was time to head to dinner.


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Up next…Dinner!

 

[Beth D]

Great update! I love the bikini! How many colors did you buy it in? I bet they sold lots of those in the 3xl size!

You like those seaplanes now, but just wait until you're on a tender in St. Thomas and your tender almost hits another one as it's trying to avoid the seaplane thats' landing right in it's path!

 

[dizneeat]

Jen, I loved all the updates. I did read them all when you post them, but with school starting it was hard to find the time to actually get some words in.

Your photos are beautiful (as always) and I really really hope that you will get to see a whale SOON!!!

 

[Pinkocto]

I like your top, very cute.

Oh my goodness, the scenery pictures are so relaxing just to look at. I can't imagine being there in person. I hope you see a whale soon!

 

[JKSWonder]

Just amazing photos. I wouldn't know where to look first.

 

[jenseib]

Great update! I love the bikini! How many colors did you buy it in? I bet they sold lots of those in the 3xl size!

You like those seaplanes now, but just wait until you're on a tender in St. Thomas and your tender almost hits another one as it's trying to avoid the seaplane thats' landing right in it's path!

Oh yes...fur bikinis for all...no matter what you size! LOL.

I like your top, very cute.

Oh my goodness, the scenery pictures are so relaxing just to look at. I can't imagine being there in person. I hope you see a whale soon!

thanks. I love that top. I got it at cracker barrel. LOL.
The scenery is just amazing.

Just amazing photos. I wouldn't know where to look first.

Left right...back left..no wayit, look right. LOL

 

[jenseib]

Jen, I loved all the updates. I did read them all when you post them, but with school starting it was hard to find the time to actually get some words in.

Your photos are beautiful (as always) and I really really hope that you will get to see a whale SOON!!!

I do a lot of that lately too. I can barely keep up here but I am trying to put a few updates each week to keep this going.
Thanks. I really needed to see a whale!

 

[jenseib]

Dinner tonight was at Cagneys, which is a steak house.


We checked in and were seated shortly. I went to take a picture of Skip and Claire as we were seated and our hostess offered to take one of all us.


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As we settled in I took a picture of the chairs and area around us.


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Our view.


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And the menu.


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We started with some rolls.


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Skip and I also ordered a drink. I think it was called a Speakeasy Martini.


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WOW!!! This sucker was strong and not that tasty to me. I ended up giving most of mine to Skip.


A photographer came around at one point and took our picture.


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We ordered appetizers and I got the lump crab salad.


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This was just ok to me. Not bad, but really more just not my thing.


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And the potato soup, which I enjoyed.


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Claire got the chicken wings and said they were good but she preferred the ones at O’Sheehan’s better.


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Claire and I got the filet mignon. Claire thought it was way too small. She likes her steak. They did butterfly hers so it looked a bit bigger, but she still wished she had more. She also got the truffle fries, which were the same they had been serving in Moderno and she was in heaven.


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Skip got a steak too, but not sure which one. It looks like he got onion rings as well.

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We both got mushrooms as a side.


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I thought the meal was very good. It was all cooked well and tasted great. The service was slow, but our waitress was very nice. We could see the Moderno staff coming in to get meats to take next door (they share a kitchen). We found it odd but it seemed like they would stand around chatting more than taking their meats off to the other room. I had heard Moderno service can be slow and seeing this made me realize why.


Time for dessert, and we were all pretty full at this point, but we still ordered.


Skip got the some sort of warm brownie with ice-cream and caramel brittle.


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Claire and I got the Oreo Cheesecake.


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YUM! With a Capital Y. It was so good and we were so full but we stuffed as much as we could in.


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After we were done we rolled out and headed outside for some fresh air.


Skip got to talking to some guys and Claire and I noticed a lighthouse blinking off in the distance. That Squiggly light is the light house.


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We were pretty tired after a busy day and headed back to our room for the night.


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This guy met us in our room tonight.


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We all got ready for bed and went out fairly early…though I think Claire watched TV later than us. The TV had a timer which I would set to go off each night…otherwise Claire might be up half the night channel surfing.


Tomorrow….Will I finally see a whale?

 

[Pinkocto]

Dinner looked very yummy!

Odd about the staff chit chatting instead of working, that would have annoyed me to no end.

I like the restaurants decor.

I hope you see a whale tomorrow

 

[rndmr2]

Dinner looked very good. Lots of interesting looking things on the menu too.

I hope you see a whale!

 

[jenseib]

Dinner looked very yummy!

Odd about the staff chit chatting instead of working, that would have annoyed me to no end.

I like the restaurants decor.

I hope you see a whale tomorrow

It was very good and I could've been happy eating here every night.
The mMderno staff did drive me a bit batty and we worried as we had a reservation here later in the week so we knew it was going to be slow.
I was praying for a whale sighting.

Dinner looked very good. Lots of interesting looking things on the menu too.

I hope you see a whale!

It had a great menu. I think Claire would have eaten here each and every night and been happy.

 

[jenseib]

Day 5, Aug, 4, 2015, Juneau


We were up nice and early today…Our bodies still were not adjusting to Alaskan time…Well Claire’s was already on it, but Skip and I weren’t. I think I was up before 5:30. We did have an early excursion meeting time today as well but I knew it wouldn’t be an issue for us with the time change.


I went out to take a look.


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We were getting phone signals too, so we knew we were close and sure enough there were signs of civilization.


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Every view was just breathtaking.


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I believe I had been going back and forth from deck 7 and our room taking pictures


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I loved seeing the waterfalls on the mountains.


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Needless to say, Juneau’s surrounding area is gorgeous!


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We got so far in and then turned around and backed the rest of the way in.


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Up next….This is not the way I would run things!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Poor Claire nearly starving to death. I loved watching the seals at Ketchikan. I really enjoyed all your photos Creek Street is so picturesque. What a shame that the jacket was too big. What a shame that you just missed out on the whales. Dinner looked amazing.

Looks like you had glorious weather in Juneau. This was the only port where we had rain.

Corinna

 

[bcwife76]

Well getting up early definitely meant getting some amazing shots! That one waterfall looks like it went on forever!

I love that Claire thought her steak was too small, atta girl!

 

[ukintheus]

Just joining in and enjoying all the adventures with the whole family. I am curious about Alaska but not sure about using precious vacation to go somewhere chilly! If we did go it would be on another line and not DCL, so loving your review so far. Great photos, as always.