Life is a Journey

Believe it or not we slept in till 8am today! Just shows what happens when you’ve got a nice comfy bed and block out curtains. Once we got up and dressed we headed to Windjammers for breakfast. I got a nice selection but was too full to each of my favourite chocolate donut :-(.

After breakfast we checked out the shops. We thought about going to see a movie but it had already started.

Instead we went back to the room, and with the internet package that Kevin bought, was able to upload a blog post for yesterday. I sat outside and boy was I frozen when I was finished.

I did a bit of reading till it was time to head for our 2pm lunch at Rita’s – the new Mexican restaurant onboard. It’s one that costs – but at $10 for our meal we weren’t too worried. Once seated we were served the most delicious corn chips – I don’t think I’ve ever had any this good before.

We ordered Vegetable Burritos for 2 which were so yummy.

All enjoyed as we cruised up to the Hubbard Glacier. We loved watching all the ice float pass – some of the pieces were HUGE!

After lunch we bundled up and went outside for some more viewing and photo taking.

It was cold but pretty awesome.

We decided to get changed and go hang out in the Thermal Suites in their heated seats. We thought it would be packed but we were the only ones there. So we had a million dollar view, were nice and warm and had lovely relaxing music.

Finally we were right up beside the glacier and we able to see a bit of carving.

We the ship turned to head back out we headed back to our room since we had our very on balcony to hang out on.

Hear we could the thunderous noise the ice makes with it carves. Just amazing.

Eventually we went back inside and I read for a bit before getting sleepy enough to actually want/need an afternoon snooze – something I very rarely do. I think I napped for 2 hours so I must have really need it. When I woke up it was 6.30pm and I no way felt like getting all dressed up for formal night in the dining. Instead we decided to just to Windjammers – no makeup need for that :-).

Another nice meal which we ate watching the water go by. And Kevin even spotted a humpback whale which was quite exciting.

A scoop of ice cream for desert and we headed back to the room to find our first towel animal – a penguin – so cute!

Now that I’ve blogged today it’s time to read some of the latest Snookie Stackhouse.

Our phone rang at 5am, luckily as we were both fast asleep. We got up, got dressed, packed up and headed downstairs where our 5.30am taxi driver had just arrived. A quick $3 cab fare later (we gave him $10 because we could see the station from our room but had 5 cases to deal with) we were at the station. We were pleased to be able to check in our luggage with RCCL so it would delivered right to our cabin on board Radiance of the Seas. We got checked in and were able to collect the $40 in vochures we had leftover from our booking, and received our gold class pins.

It was then a short wait till the train arrived and we were able to board.

At 6.45am the train departed. About half the trip was alongside the road we had driven just over a week ago on our way to Seward. We had the perfect blue sky day for it and didn’t even need big bulky jackets – which was nice for a change. Before we had even left the station we were taken downstairs to the dining cart (since we were seated in the second row). We had a lovely breakfast and a nice chat with another couple who are also going on the cruise.

We spent most of the 4 hour trip looking out the window enjoying the view. We did spot a black bear right close to the train. I was able to get some video but the photos didn’t turn out due to glare on the glass.

There is also an outdoor viewing area but it was a bit windy out there.

Midmorning Kevin went in search of some snacks to share. Drink were complimentary. That cookie was delicious.

Our train was actually running late so we didn’t arrive in Seward until 11.30pm. We thought about going into town (since we hadn’t visited the actual town on our previous visit) and got onboard the free shuttle. But when the shuttle went to the ship first we decided just to get off and get onboard.

Check in was quick and painless as it was very early.

I forgot to take a photo of the ship with my camera – only my i-phone – but it’s a sister ship to the one we went on last year.

Unfortunately there was a big mix up with our dinner booking. We were supposed to have main seating at 6pm – it said so on our sea pass. But we had no table allocated and there were no more left. We weren’t the only ones this happened to (around 200 I was told) and no one was very impressed. After a good 30 mins of seeing different people they finally made another traditional dining time of 7pm. Not ideal but it was okay. We then headed up to Windjammers for some lunch. We kind of dined in 3 stages. We had a small plate of food here. I was pleasantly surprised with the vegetarian options – much more than I often have.

More exploring. Finally at 1pm we were able to get into our cabin. I’m so happy. I didn’t realize we’d have such a big balcony and being at the back it seems to have good wind protection.

We went back out to do some more exploring. I had to laugh when I saw this picture of the pool….with the snow capped mountains in the background. It seems so wrong :-).

Kevin & I hung out for a while trying to get facebook photos to load (unsuccessfully).

Then it was time for part 2 of lunch. I had a bowl of salad and Kevin had a hotdog.

We wondered around a little more and we had tea and plate of dessert to share. Yum.

Back to our room and luggage had finally arrived. Kevin was quick to settle down for a nap while I unpacked. I then lay in the sun on the balcony – it was so nice to bask in the sun and be warm. I managed to upload some photos and read some of my book. Just before 7pm we headed down to dinner.

Only to discover the saga was not over. We were seated at a table for 2, which was not what we’d wanted, we like to meet new people on the cruise and linger over dinner. Also we were near the entrance which was busy with people waiting and moving around for their any time reservations. I ended up having a bit of a panic attack. Stupid, crazy I know but it was totally spinning me out to see crowds of people while I was trying to relax and enjoy my dinner. It was just such a wrong picture and I couldn’t cope. I ended up switching with Kevin so I was facing the relaxed dining room and I was okay. With only the 2 of us being served dinner was very quick and even though I only had a roll and half my delicious enchillas – I was too full for desert. I did order one though and only ate half.

Dinner was so quick we were finished in 45mins and that was with me playing around trying to make a meal last longer :-(. Oh, well, only another 6 nights to go. After dinner we had to do the muster liferaft drill – which meant we had to stand outside in the cold for 20mins – not fun and hardly anyone had thought to take a jacket – we didn’t as we’d come straight from dinner. We went right to get coffee and tea (but ugh, the tea was horrible).

The ship had already set sail while we were doing so. Back in the room the surprise I had ordered for Kevin had turned up – choc covered strawberries.

We took them, and our teas, onto our verandah to enjoy while we left port. I didn’t have my traditional virgin pina colada at sail away as I was too cold after the muster drill. But the strawberries might be a new tradition :-).

It seemed sad, like we were leaving Alaska and I’m not ready to leave yet. Luckily we’re not really. We headed back indoors when it got cold and read for a bit before going to sleep.

Before we set off this morning I took a photo of our MH next to the BUS that came in beside us. It was at least twice the size of ours. I would not to be driving that all over the country.

We left the MH park around 8.30am and drove to our hotel – the Historic Anchorage in downtown – to drop off our luggage.

We then drove out the RV Rental place, stopping to refill petrol along the way. They then gave us a life back to the downtown area.  Unfortunately we now discovered the shared food drop table too late and we’d already thrown up quite a bit of food, excepting totally sealed items. I thought it a shame we hadn’t been told about the table when we arrived.

We had a bit of an explore around some shops, and tried to work out if we could get this dog or moose home to Australia. I think not!

I picked up a couple of tops in Nordstroms and we had some morning tea.

This cake was delicious.

I was Gymberee buying some clothes for Christy when everything shook. I asked the sales girls “what was that?” and she said the workmen doing  renovations next door. We later found out it was indeed a 5.2 earthquake.

We then went looking for an extra suitcase in JC Penny. They had some lovely Samsonites and the best part 60% off. We’ve been wanting to upgrade our bags for some time so this was a great opportunity. We saved over $1000 and probably another $500 than if we’d bought them in Australia. Amazing!!!

We wheeled them back to our room which was now ready. And boy, oh, boy and is it fabulous. I treated us to the Juniour Suite as it wasn’t much dearer so we have a seperate lounge area. I’m thinking we’re going to sleep like babies in this bed tonight.

Since we’ve got an early start in the morning I repacked our suitcases. Aren’t they so cute?

And the tag? It was meant to be :-).

We headed out to get some lunch and found this Thai place just around the corner.

We shared Ginger Tofu which was delicious.

This is was time for our Segway tour of Anchorage.

Kevin has done one before but it was my first time. It took me a while to get the hang of it – especially turning – but it was lots of fun. And a great way to see some of the sights. It’s a lovely town and I especially love the flowers EVERYWHERE.

A statue of Captain Cook.

A beavers den.

And the Railroad Depot where we’ll be bright and early in the morning.

And Kevin being a moose…. no idea why!!!

After our tour we enjoyed an ice cream and I gave my feet a bit of a rest. I then went to the souvenier shop next door to pick up a few things then uploaded some photos before we headed out for tonights event. Can you guess what it involves?  Yep, more sled dogs.

We had such a good time at the Seavey’s place in Seward, we decided to also see the Wildride Sled Dog Rodeo run by son, Dallas Seavey.

Over dinner we got to talk to Dallas and here about how he plans for the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. His love for his dogs and his sport is amazing.

Dinner was yummy. They forgot my vegetarian so it was bought out late. But I was happily enough having bits from the other dinner. When they did remember my meal it was a beautiful pasta filled with ricotta. Yum.

And then there was desert. Goodness me this baked cheesecake was the best I’d ever had.

We then watched a short video about the Iditarod – which was actually the one we’d seen at the Headquarters the other day. Then it was outside for the show. This was really well done and we both enjoyed it. So different to our experience in Seward that it was definitely worth doing both of them.

This beautiful pup actually got to be the musher – too cute.

They showed us the strength of the dogs.

And here a full team of 16 pulled a loaded truck (oops, I forgot to photograph the truck)

After the show we got to meet some of the dogs. Including one of our favourites…

Check out the size of those paws.

This beauty was in the movie Snow Buddies, and is a pet, not a sled dog.

And there was, of course, more puppies. But these babies were just 5 weeks old.

Just look at those eyes. She had sharp puppy teeth too I tell you 🙂

Then it was back to the hotel for a shower, blogging and hopefully a fantastic nights sleep.

Tomorrow : Train to Seward and the start of our cruise. It also means a likely ending to blogging for a while. So if you’re keen to keep up make sure you’re my friend on facebook.

First stop today was Subway in Denali to get some breakfast. Kevin wanted a change from cereal and I was out of bagels.

I had a flatbread with cheese and egg. It was quite nice.

Then we hit the road for the 5 hour drive back to Anchorage. As you can it was not the best weather this morning – and we were very glad we weren’t going on the tour of Denali National Park today.

We had driven this same road on the way up so we enjoyed listening to some more of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as we drove.  We did go past this giant igloo which is for sale. Any takers?

At Wasilla we stopped in at the Iditarod Headquarters.

I was excited to see they had some dogs there (from the Redington kennels). We debated going on another ride but decided it wouldn’t be as good, or as memorable, as the one we’d done at the Seavey’s. This is how they transport lots of dogs.

I was really excited to visit the headquarters. We watched a film about the Iditarod and I bought some things (including this years Iditarod DVD). We then saw some of the puppies. I loved how two were asleep and 2 were trying to escape. I wonder which will made the best sled dogs :-).

LOVED these 2 – so cute – one sleeping on top of the other.

Statue of the Father of the Iditarod.

We stopped at a Walmart to pick up a few things, then drove on to Anchorage where we went to Wild Berry Products.

I think Kevin wanted to dive right into the world largest chocolate fountain.

You could see them making chocolate (of which we bought some) but it was basically a big shop geared for tourists.  They did have some reindeer out the back though.

It was getting on towards 2pm and we were hungry so we went across the road to the Sourdough Bakery.

Loved the flowers outside. Like the UK there are hanging flower baskets everywhere.

And inside was very cute and rustic.

The only thing wrong with the place was that there was NOTHING vegetarian on the menu. So ordered the cobb salad with cheese instead of bacon & turkey.

It was huge (I barely made a dent on it) but was really yummy.

We then drove onto tonights RV park.

I had a lot of trouble finding a decent (according to reviews) park in Anchorage but this one is lovely. Just check out all those flowers.

I spent the afternoon doing some laundry and getting some bags packed. Then it was dinner (another Amy’s meal), blogging and catching up on some blogs while we have good internet access.

Tomorrow : Goodbye to the MH and a day exploring Anchorage.