READY TO COME HOME NOW

I am so tired, in a good way.  We spent yesterday combing the side streets and back alleys of Skagway.  What a pretty little place it is.  We just strolled along all over the wee town looking for interesting ideas for our new house and things to take pics of.  The weather was amazing.  I am turning brown again!  Quirky and quaint...that describes it perfectly.  And, thankfully, the great masses of people that swarm off the ships don’t venture past the busy main street.  We could hear the birds singing, and children playing and lawn mowers humming.    It was perfect.

Last night we went upstairs and had pea soup and mac and cheese for dinner.  It was delicious!

Today we hit Juneau fairly early.  We leave here at 3:30, fairly early.  We were going to try to do the same thing today but its a whole different type of place here.  Not so pretty, but certainly interesting.  

There were only two ships in port when we arrived at six this morning.  We got off our ship early and walked down to a coffee shop that we like.  We can sit on the sidewalk, have a blueberry something or other and mozie on in good time.  As we sat there three more ships, with approximately 2500 people per ship (or more) arrived.

Its really something to watch.  This little town simply swings into tourist action.  Up pull fleets of buses and hundreds upon hundreds of people of all sizes, shapes, colour and ability, squeeze onto them and off they go to be carefully placed in tippy canoes, or get stuffed in kayaks, or be pulled by sled dogs over iffy tracks, or strapped into zip lines, or helicoptered onto glaciers, hike up into forests and have salmon bakes, or visit native villages, that are carefully planned out so you won’t miss a thing, or get onto boats and go off in search of the whales, or get taken into the ‘ancient rainforest’ to go walking on a tippy rope path high up in the branches, or get stuffed onto trams that whisk you up to the top of the mountain, or transport you to rickety old steam trains that take you impossibly high up a canyon.....and all of them have irresistible gift shops you must pass through to get out to go back to your ship. 

 All along the main street a full fleet of good looking young men from the middle east, dressed in beautiful dark suits with impeccably crisp dress shirts, dark hair slicked back, shiny black dress shoes, stand at the ready in the doorways of many jewelry stores, all claiming to have the best ammolite, or diamond or opal or whatever piece of jewelry you really really want.

All the food trucks fire up and pretty soon you can smell salmon grilling, halibut deep frying, seafood chowder heating up, sourdough bread being baked, fish tacos being hand made and that one falafel truck, which always ends up with the longest line up of all.

Later on, as we were sitting on a bench we watched all those hundreds of people, a good deal of them truly old and a lot of them truly overweight, dragging their butts back to their respective ships, carrying giant shopping bags full of t-shirts, alaskan blankets, everything moose, kids’ stuffed whales, smoked salmon in pretty wooden boxes, fudge from the Alaskan Fudge Co., ulu knives by the dozen, train whistles, pj’s with bears all over them, smoked salmon flavoured vodka (really) and a thousand other useless but fun crap.

And now, a lot of us are sitting in tired stunned silence as we watch gorgeous Alaska slip by our windows, where ever we happen to be on the ship.  Whales are spouting out there but everyone is too tired to care too much anymore.  I think even the crew were tired because dinner was really crappy tonight.  Oh well, like we need more food!

Tomorrow Ketchikan.  The Captain came on the blower at dinner and told us that it actually wasn’t going to rain there tomorrow.  I will believe it when I see it.  TTYL  I see the font is tiny again, Dammit!!!

MOOOOORE GLACIERS AND CRANKY PEOPLE

Well another day, another glacier and another trip or two to the food trough.  I have very little to report.  We floated through glacier bay...again...and I heard about blue ice...again.  Made me laugh!  We saw a million whales, and otters, and seals.  The glacier was calving tremendously.

I went upstairs first thing this morning and had my hair done.  And this girl was amazing. My hair looks about the best it ever has (not saying much).  On my way back to the room I heard a holler from across the whole middle deck swimming pool...”Hey Fannie!!  Give us a line or two!”  Man alive!  I couldn’t believe it.  I will never live that stupid show down.  I think if I cut my hair off it might help, people only recognize me because of my ridiculous hair.

One other thing happened...I was down on a lower deck in the middle of the atrium in the middle of the ship.  I was yet again getting a new key card.  Mine demagnifies every three days or so.  On my way back through the middle of the atrium, I heard a yell.  And right before my eyes an old man was tumbling head over teakettle right down to the bottom of the stairs.  He landed awkwardly at the bottom and we all just froze for about five seconds (and thats actually a long time) we all thought he was dead.  In fact I had actually got to the “Damn, another helicopter delay!!” thought when he suddenly sprang to life, leapt to his feet and said “Thats the fastest I have moved in a long time!”  He chuckled and hobbled away.  Seriously!  We all stood there, first in shock and then in total admiration.  Wow!!  If that had happened to me I probably would have popped open and gross spillage would have happened.  What a guy!

At lunch today something annoying happened.  Because its a day where no one gets off the ship, the buffet upstairs gets super busy.  We didn’t have breakfast and it was getting on to 1 or 2 in the aft.  We headed upstairs.  One thing I will not do is get my food then look for a spot to eat.  We find a spot first.  It took several rounds of the whole eating area and we finally found a couple of seats at a table for six.  Lovely table mates from Minnesota and Pittsburg.  I went to get food first.  About half way through the mob, holding an empty plate I headed down to where the soup is.  Suddenly a man, also holding a plate gets loud  and says, “we don’t like budgers around here!!”  All of a sudden I realized he was talking to me!  I took a quick look around and noticed a line had formed at the other end of the food area.  I had no idea as I had come in from the other way.

He was getting quite loud and belligerent, much to his poor wife’s horror, when I finally had had enough.  I leaned in and very quietly told him that it wasn’t against the ‘law’ to come in from the other way and line ups were for stupid people.  I then shoved through and got my soup and bun and left the area.  What is with these people?  Everybody seems cranky.

And now we are back in our stateroom.  Tomorrow is Skagway...our favourite town.  But...if its raining, and I don’t think it will be, we are staying on the boat.  If its not then we shall head into town and walk some of the back streets. TTYL

IM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD, I'M IN A SARCASTIC ONE...SORRY

Well, back to the crazy fonts.  I type up the post in my word processor ‘bean’ then copy and paste.  I am never sure whats going to happen!

So here we are, back on the boat amidst an awful lot of people.  We were sitting down in the coffee spot for a while today and you hear various conversations going.  Its always about four things:  which cruise line is best, how many cruises have you done and where, where are you from and food.  Gaining weight, eating way more than normal, food is good/bad, food is better on another cruise line etc....Today I decided to really pay attention and see if even one convo was NOT about one of those four.  And amidst all the yackety yack about food, cruiselines and what sounded like a world atlas being read off, I heard the word shower, never, dirty house, and your fault right behind me!!  Alright!! Pay dirt!

So I finally figured out from the conversation that this was at least a second marriage involving a very spoiled late teen daughter of the woman’s.  Jeez it was funny.  He was bitterly complaining about this slovenly little beast and mom was valiantly trying to defend her.  I guess she is lazy!  To the point, according to him, where she doesn’t even shower and she apparently stinks!  Oh man, the fight was on and its so funny to listen to people fight quietly.  They kind of hiss and they try to make emphatic points whilst whispering.  It is so silly.  Its like yelling ‘fire fire’ in a whisper.

At some point down where we were sitting we noticed that the music was too loud and it was awful elevator crap, someone was constantly shuffling a deck of cards, five women sitting together were endlessly cackling so loud and long and disturbingly, announcements constantly made....I told Bill we just need to put ourselves on an island all alone..we don’t deserve to be on a cruiseship.

In the night around 3:30a.m., the emergency ding ding which precedes an important message, sounded in our rooms.  This NEVER happens except when they call us to safety drill when we first get on.  Never.  They just do not invade our staterooms like that...yet there it was, dinging away and waking everyone on the ship, except all the old men...they are all deaf.

Turns out someone was having a very serious ‘medical event’ and needed to helicopter out.  So we were all being warned to shut our deck doors, no flash photos, and to stay put.  Well Jeez!!!  Wake us up and tell us to stay in bed!  And once again I point out that they should have an age limit on who rides these ships, or pass a medical.  You should see some of the people on here.  One guy was sitting at a table near us with a companion.  He was quite old.  He was both deaf and blind.  His care person had to spell words by tracing letters on his hand and when he needed to walk she had to lead him with both hands.  So how does someone like that get anything out of a trip like this?  Not that I mind...just wondering.  I don’t know how many times we have been held up to helicopter or boat someone off a ship.

So now we are at sea going into Disenchantment Bay.  Its really cold and desolate here and there is ice all over the surface of the water.  We are also getting a lecture about the Klingquot Natives and how they lived here.  So interesting.  Really.

I am feeling somewhat jaded and sarcastic at the moment so I think I had better stop writing.  I just know that after spending a wonderful six days with no people around, this mash of humanity is totally getting to me.  I am going to hunker down in my stateroom and hide out.  I am happier here with no people around  :)  TTYL  ps:  if I hear one more time why the ice is blue I am going to puke.  Swear to god.  Oh god, I have to quit writing.

GLENALLEN TO GIRDWOOD TO ANCHORAGE

Ayayayayaya!!!!  What a couple of days.  First the sad part.  I am not at liberty to say too much but April and Andrew are not in a good place...really not.  And after seven years, its just so shocking and so so painful for everyone, but especially my little Doods.  She is in so much pain and methinks Andrew is too.  Enough said.

We left Glenallen fairly early in the morning.  As I said before, we backtracked to Wasilla, so I have already said it all already.  We got into Anchorage and shot right through another forty miles to Alyeska Ski Resort.  It was truly beautiful and a real treat after some of the places we have been staying in.  We had a nice dinner then lazed around in our underwear in our room, some of us without our bra and teeth, 'sigh'...heavenly!!!    In the morning we drove around and poked into little roads here and interesting spots there.  Sometimes that gets us into trouble!  We have been yelled at, chased and outright threatened.  Oh well we have seen some crazy stuff on our nosey trips.

We ended up in Anchorage and at a Costco right at lunch time...imagine that!  This Costco was the biggest building you ever saw stocked to the ceiling!  We had a hayday!  Then we bought hot dogs and cherries and left.  Now I have to tell you what we ACTUALLY did all day.

Back in Fairbanks we had gone to a Fred Meyer store.  In that store they had a fat lady clothing section.    I am too big for the tops etc that are in there, but, because I am built just like a first nation's lady, things for the waist down do fit, (no bum and skinnier legs but a huge gut).  So I check out their underwear.  You see, at home they don't make nylon undies for fat ladies.  And guess what?  Good old Fred had them and in my size!  So I bought a much needed couple of them.  A couple of nights later, being out of clean ones and not feeling like washing out some, I put on a pair of the new ones and HOLY HANNAH!!! they were the best undies I have ever owned.  Seriously!  They are amazing!!!

So, today here in Anchorage, figuring that there must be a Fred Meyer on every corner, seeing as how dinky Fairbanks had two, we started looking for one.  Two hundred miles later, and now I am totally familiar with every major street in Anchorage, we couldn't find one to save our soul.  We saw every frigging inch of this city and nary a Fred Meyer to be found.  They are here...we asked people and got directions, but we never found one.  I will have to go to Bellingham when I get home and buy them!!!

So now we are in a Marriott downtown.  The parking was 24 bucks and this here wifi 15.  After a while you start feeling gouged.  Tomorrow we have to have the car back to Avis by 12 noon, and we are being picked up by a shuttle bus out to whittier and onto the Princess Coral.  One week to home.  I am looking forward to getting there.  Theres a little girl I need to hug.  TTYL

SAD

Something sad happened in our house today and I just can't bring myself to blog tonight.  Sorry to be so cryptic but I just can't talk about it yet.  I will blog again tomorrow night.  Sorry about the shortness of this.  Till Tomorrow

DRY TOWN...AS IN NO BOOZE

I wish there was a way to convey just how beautiful Alaska is without sounding trite.  You guys that read this blog pretty regularly must get sick and tired of me using 'awesome' 'amazing' 'incredible' 'unbelievable' etc...all the time.  I will have to go to a thesaurus for better, or at least different words.

As we drove today, we simply didn't know which way to look.  Both sides, front and back the scenery was like nothing I have seen before.  Parts of the rockies are like this but Alaska is soooo much bigger, wider, deeper and huger than anywhere else I have been.  I just wish there was a way to describe it but there isn't...so I am not going to say it anymore!  Just look at the pics I put on fb...even that doesn't really convey its true beauty here.

So, hmmmmmmm, if I am not going to talk about the scenery that just leaves people stories.  I have lots all bottled up but they aren't very nice and I think my old life coach has found his way here and I don't think he would approve of my take on humanity  in general.  We have run into some wonderful kind interesting people...well no not really.  I find that getting too chummy with people you are travelling with is just too exhausting.  You either end up hiding out in your room, or you end up ducking and running.  Just say hi and move on, how hard is that anyway?  On Wednesday we get back on a ship and cruise back to Vancouver.  It's going to be hard.  Out here in big old Alaska, no matter how many people there are here, you just don't see them.  You can stop in the middle of the road or a bridge for five minutes to take pics and nobody comes along.  I LOVE it!!!


The trip down from Healy was good.  It rained, it sunned, it rained, it sunned.  We saw Denali park again and we saw a lady moose up close.  Every time we stopped for anything the mosquitos would eat us alive.  They are BIG and plentiful!  We stayed in Wasilla and I had to sit on Bill to keep him from going out to hunt for Sarah Palin.  Hahaha.  The motel that I had booked ages ago was very odd but clean...and thats what counts.

Last night  in Wasilla we had dinner in what was called an Asian Fusion restaurant on a lake edge.  It was so good...won tons, duck rolls, tempura prawns to die for, s/s chicken, tempura halibut...mmmmm so good.

Tonight we are in a teeny tiny town of 400 people, spread out over 400 acres.  There are about eight buildings spread over 3 miles.  Attached to our hotel is a cafe.  At 5:30 we wandered in to get some dinner.  The native girl working there met us at the door and took us to our seats and asked what we would like to drink.  Alaskan Amber, Bill says and before I could get anything out she tells us that this is a "dry" town.  Wow!!!  I have never been in a dry town before.  So happily we ordered diet cokes.  We proceeded to have a fantastic dinner cooked up by a gigantic native lad with three gigantic bear claws hanging off his gigantic neck.

After dinner we went for a drive down the highway towards Valdez.  We went into a wee place called Copper Centre.  What a place!!  I got some pretty good pics of old trucks and falling down log cabins.  There are a lot of those around.  Everything over here on this side of Alaska feels very desolate, empty, and defunct.  When the Coquihalla was built, the Canyon went through a bad decline.  Places became ghost spots.  The same thing happened here.  The highway through here used to be the only highway, and the Alaskan highway and pipeline were going in so things were bustling.  Then those projects ended and they put a more direct route in to Fairbanks from Anchorage and everything over here has fallen by the wayside.  But holy moly it sure is beautiful!!

So before I go off ranting about that again, I shall sign off.  I promise that tomorrow night it will not be about Alaska at all.  We are going back over what we saw today so no need to say anything.  I have a few people stories...we met/saw some real doozies this time on the cruise, and we were with them waaaaaaay too long.  So until tomorrowttyl

LOVE IT ON OUR OWN

It was such a good feeling to just get into our car and take off.  We were up and out pretty early.  We made a stop at Fred Meyer for some humous.  Holy Moly!!!  I have never been in a store like that.  The guide said its like Walmart and Costco got together and had a baby...only the baby is bigger and more stocked that the other two combined.  We had a hayday in that place.

We finally left Fairbanks, in the rain, and made the first leg of our return trip to Anchorage.  Not much happened along the way.  We didn't see any wildlife, or sasquatch, or accidents, or gun totin' army peeps.  There wasn't much traffic and we just stopped anywhere we wanted, drove down little side roads, found old dead trucks in bushes, saw some amazing living abodes, drank our thermos of milky coffee, stopped at a giant bridge for our picnic, inside the car because of the mosquitos..

At one place, Anderson, we stopped to use a portapotty that was placed on a sort of campground near Anderson.  Anderson was six miles off the main road out towards those giant massive missile detecting radar structures on an air force base, which we were definitely planning to NOT get too close to.  All there was was a few scrubby houses, a lot of bush, a million or more mosquitos and a random portapotty in a totally abandoned and empty campground.  I had needed to go for quite a while now, and I sure as heck was not going to stick my bare fanny out for mosquitos to eat, so I had Bill stop.  I ran over and went to go inside, paused a little at the door, you never know what you might find inside a never used turlett afterall.  I opened the door and it was a godawful mess.  And sitting right beside the toilet seat was a rubbing alcohol bag, in a box with some kind of huffing straw sticking out of it.  Along with a lot of other very disturbing drug paraphernalia, and things I won't mention here...I turned and skedaddled out of there as quick as possible.  Ewwwwwww!!!!  Dysfunction is a word that comes to mind way too often up here.

We drove up Stampede Road for a while, retracing C. McCanliss's footsteps.   Then we found our hotel, out in the middle of nowhere but quite near Healy I think.  We checked in and just stayed.  We were going to go into Healy and find the bus that McCanliss used.  Apparently they moved it down out of the mountains because too many people were trying to find it and getting hurt or lost.  But we will do that today on our way out of here and on to Wasilla...home of the infamous Sarah Palin (Bill is sooo excited!)  We made cup of noodles for dinner in our room, ate humous and carrots, a batch of strawberries and off to bed.  I got netflix here so I watched "Into the Wild" again.  Sooo sad.  Now its morning, almost ten and gotta go.  Another fun day of driving, this time through Denali park again and I can guarantee, as I look out the window, we will definitely NOT be seeing Mr. McKinley this time around.  TTYL

8 BIG SNIPER RIFLES AND ONE PISSED OFF ME (MY APOLOGIES TO ANY AMERICANS READING THIS)

We hitched a ride out to Avis at the airport here and got ourselves a lovely baby blue camry.  What a nice car!  We went straight to McD's and had a goooood coffee and some breakfast.  We then headed out to the town called The North Pole.  I noticed on the map that Ellison Air Base is about four miles past the North Pole so I suggested to Bill that we go out there, take a look and we should see some F16's flying around.  Its a training base.

So we did just that.  As we approached the main gate to the base (we know we can't go in) we noticed a parking lot right there.  So we pulled in and we just sat there and sure enough some big jets started to do their maneuvers and flying over our heads..so noisy and so exciting...at least to Bill and me!

After about fifteen minutes a young soldier approached our car and asked what we were doing.  So we told him we were a couple of tourists from Canada and we wanted to watch the jets.  He said we couldn't, wasn't allowed, so we said okay we will leave right now....nope....we had to stay right there while he called a superior.  Before you know it our car was surrounded by a bunch of rifle toting, camo wearing, soldiers.  We weren't allowed to move.  I hadn't even taken any pictures and neither had Bill.  We got a polite but stern lecture while our cameras were checked and then we still weren't allowed to leave.  There was a soldier right at my window and when I tried to get out to help Bill with all the id etc they were demanding, he wouldn't let me out!  Thats when I started to get pissed off.  Come on, we are two fat old Canadians...what the F do they think we are going to do.

  You know, this incident combined with the brainless 911 fear we saw ten years AFTER the incident in New York City, my opinion of some, and I stress that only some, of our southern neighbours is going south quick.  So freaking melodramatic and unnecessary.  We were there for half an hour while they took down all our passport info, driver's license numbers, addresses, phone numbers, place of birth blah blah blah.  Actually to tell you the truth it was hard not to burst out in sarcastic disrespectful laughter.  Our mentality here in Canada is so so different than that of the Americans.  We run into this in Maui as well.  Its just a different way of living.  Canadians are never ever a target so I guess its easy to be pretty complacent about everything.  But even with that understanding, there have been just one too many incidences involving fear mongering  for my liking.  I can't even imagine growing up with that kind of axe hanging over my head.

  We were finally allowed to leave.  And I think I had best not say anymore. The good people here, and in Maui, and for sure on the cruise ships are wonderfully friendly and our favourite people to travel with.  But....I don't know.  And now we are being earnestly questioned by our fellow American travellers about universal health care and how we like it and does it work Etc...Probably in light of ObamaCare program.  So interesting.

We then stopped at The North Pole....a teeny town with a huge huge Christmas store.  We spent a little time there, bought a few things and took a few pics.  We didn't stay long.  We then hit the local Walmart.  Found all the stuff we needed, thermos, cooler, food, etc...  And then we found our hotel, checked in and took off to the bush for a picnic...and I would say the mosquitos got more to eat than we did.  They are like little helicopters.  Now we are in a ratty hotel, and tomorrow we are off to Healy, Into The Wild!!!  TTYL

ANOTHER CRAZY DAY & I STRUCK GOLD....FOR REAL!!!!!!

We have been so busy!  They don't let you sit down too long on this land part of the cruise.  I am trying to remember where we left off.  I think we were lazing around the Denali lodge, waiting to take off for Fairbanks.  And I am now answering to Fanny...so annoying.  Jeez!

It was a two and half hour trip to Fairbanks.  We had a fantastic tour guy who told us story after story.  It was a great bus trip.  We managed to get the very front seat behind the bus driver, who didn't look old enough to be unsupervised let alone driving a giant bus.  But he did a great job.  The first thing we saw was a cow moose running beside the road.  They are so gangly and stupid!  A lot of them die on the highway, poor things.  A lot of what we saw, and what we saw was amazing and interesting, I will talk about when we drive down to Healy day after tomorrow.  Healy is the town where Christopher McCandless hiked down a road and off on a trail, into the wild Alaska until he came across an abandoned bus and settled in to live there.  "Into The Wild" was such an interesting story and film, and we will be seeing exactly where it all started and ended.

We got into Fairbanks to a magnificent lodge on the Chenna River right in town.  We were starving so we went directly to one of their restaurants and had scallops in blueberry sauce, seafood mac and cheese, halibut.  Homemade Huckleberry Ice cream for dessert.  Into bed early.

Today was crazy busy and so much fun, except for most of the people.  This trip has been long and when you are having to put your luggage out at six a.m. each morning, climb in and out of buses, keep a lot of details straight in your head, well,  some of these oldsters are getting a little cranky and whiny.  They should have come straight up here, done the physically harder part of the trip and relaxed on the cruise ship back to Vancouver.  But I wasn't tired, didn't need a bathroom every five minutes, knew all the right times and bus numbers, could hop in and out of buses so I had a good day!

First thing we did was go for a three hour paddle wheeler ride up the river...with 200  close and personal friends (by now we know EVERYBODY).  The set up along the river was fantastic.  We would pull up to a particular interesting site, someone on shore would have a radio/mic and our tour person on the boat could talk to that person and they would demonstrate whatever it was they were there for  Eg:  The iditerod ...Have you heard of Susan Butcher?  Well she was that famous lady that won the iditerod (dog race) several times and she is one of Alaska's heros.  She died a number of years ago at the age of 51 from leukaemia. But her husband still runs the kennels and trains dogs.  So he was out on his riverfront and showed us dogs and gave us history.  We met him later at another stop.

We had a number of encounters like that.  We stopped at a native village.  We actually got off the boat for that.  I loved that.  We learned so much and I got some awesome pics of pelts, and trapper's cabins, old boat motors etc...

After that we went back to where we got on and they had a huge hall laid out with trestle tables and a fantastic stew lunch.  Mmmmmmm.  We boarded the buses again and took a one hour drive to a dredge mining (gold) site.  We all boarded a train and we were taken through the site with all the info one could want about that type of mining.  Then we got to pan for our own gold!!!  When they weighed mine I got 19 bucks worth of gold and Bill got 6.  I had a pendant made out of it (and thats where the gold is for them hahahaha)  Then they served free cookies and drinks and we moved around the giant gift store and visited with peeps and actively avoided some others.  Tomorrow or the next day, when I don't have to look 'em in the eye anymore I will blog about some of the characters we have become all too close to in the last couple of weeks.  Boy there have been some doozies!!!

 And let me tell you, I know waaaaaaaaaaay too much about old men's bad bathroom habits.  What is it about them that they have this need to tell you EVERYTHING about the troubles they are having in the plumbing department!  You have no idea how many of them wear depends.  I caught myself even having a long in depth conversation with one old dude about the pros and cons of depends versus Kirkland brand.  When I realized, I was horrified!

Anyway, it was a long and wonderful day.  We sat on the big sunny pretty deck here on the river and drank beer and blueberry mojitos, had some dinner and now to bed.  (and thats hard because the sun shines at one in the morning).  I can't wait for tomorrow.  We get our rental car early and then we have a whole day to do what we want.  I have us booked into a hotel here (not a nice one like this though) here in Fairbanks.  I think we are going to take a run up to a little town called the North Pole.  Its still 150 miles to the actual pole, but this town is a Christmas town and apparently worth a visit.  We are also going to go find the Carlisle Ice Truckers and the air base with all the F1's.  TTYL

DENALI AND MAKING FRIENDS

I love it here...more than any other place so far.  There is a different feel in this lodge.  This is more like what I grew up with...river, rocks, trees, mountains...I love it.  Our room was so appropriate with all the right type of decor and the view out the window was unbelievable.  We were right on top of a rushing river and tops of big trees.  We left the window open all night so we could hear the rushing river.

We got here right at lunch.  Another couple from Colorado hooked up with us and we headed across the highway to the quaintest little row of log shops and restaurants.  We got ourselves some sandwiches at subway for lunch then went back over to the lodge and snagged a table in the coffee shop.  Another couple from Texas joined us and we spent a couple of hours in fun discussion.  I must admit that it was kind of nice to talk with others for a while...reluctantly I admit this.  One of the men, Clark from Colorado, spent the last many years of his working life as an electrical engineer in a nuclear weapons plant.  So how many times in your life do you get a chance to learn about that?  Sooooo interesting and he was such a sweetheart.  His wife is a little spitfire with very few filters...which of course I like!

We went to a dinner show with them last night.  Unfortunately I was pulled up on the stage to participate...in front of hundreds of people.  Jeez...why me?  We go to a lot of shows and normally we totally avoid sitting up front...just to avoid this very thing.  But that little spitfire was completely determined to have front row seats...and she got them for us!  So after the show I totally blamed her and gave her hell!  Now, due to the fact that hundreds of people saw the show, everywhere I go I am being called Fanny...the name of my character.  Sigh.  Nothing like playing the part of the funny fat lady!

We could have gotten up at five this morning and joined all the others on a six oclock Denali tour...but..we didn't.  We will be driving back through here in a few days so we will explore it then.  Now I am blogging in the lobby and I am starving so I am signing off and am going to go get breakfast.  TTYL (I am not even going to try to post pics here...they are on face book)

WOULD BE PERFECT EXCEPT FOR STUPID PEOPLE

This is going to be hard to describe.  If there was ever a trip that one should take, this would be it.  Alaska always surprises me.  I mean, we already come from a beautiful province with similar terrain, but then we get up here and its like home on steroids.  We have come up here in early May, too much ice and you can’t get very close to the glaciers, in September, much more likely to be raining or foggy, and now in July, and it has been perfect.

The mountains are massive, the wildflowers prolific and lots of wildlife..the real kind....big bears, giant moose, ratty beavers, graceful undulating porcupines.  And for me it really really reminds me of Smithers where I grew up.

Very early yesterday morning we got onto a fantastic train with a glass roof and a lovely dining area at the bottom of the car.  We had a three hour trip to Tillamook (sp?), about an hour from the Princess Lodge.  We sat at a table with a father/son from Georgia and had great convo as we went along.  Alaska is so beautiful, even along the tracks.  We passed endless flowers, grassy swamps with moose, and expansive grassy fields, off to the mountains.And then, with no warning, there it was...Mt. McKinley.  And it was Clear!!!  I truly didn’t expect to be able to see it.  Mt. McKinley is very much like Everest (which is only about 6,000 ft higher than this mountain) a mysteriously huge mountain that is shrouded in cloud most of the time.  But not today!  It almost looks like a joke.  There are lots of really tall craggy mountains and then bam...this giant tall white monster plunked down in the middle making the others look like insignificant hills!  Pretty thrilling I must say.

The lodge is really lovely, very lodgey and all that.  The rooms are pretty utilitarian with quaint lodgey touches.  The grounds are rustic, wild grass with flowers (the wild ones).  There are paved pathways to all the little buildings, each one with about six rooms.  I took some pictures as we walked around looking for building 15, ours.

We found our room, plunked our backpacks, and went back to the lodge, found some awesome chairs and stared at the mountain....for two hours!  Bill had a snooze and I listened to awful people.

I know I have said this before, repeatedly, sorry, but honestly the people, in general, are so stupid.  I just cannot believe some of the questions they ask.  eg....when we were going through the tunnel out of Whittier, the longest multipurpose tunnel in North America (its actually a train tunnel that cars share, one way, 15 minutes every half hour), its very very narrow and when you are in a big vehicle like a bus, you feel like you can reach out and touch the roughly hewn rock walls.  It was built during the war to move munitions into should there be an attack.  When we reached the other side, a very authoritarian male voice pipes up from the back,” is this a two way tunnel?  I didn’t see much oncoming traffic!”  What??  Is he blind?  Well when you hear forty questions like this per day, a lot of them asking a question that has just been explained to us by a tour person, one can get a little jaded about the brains of the average human.  

But that truly is the only negative.  As usual its the people.  And they are very ignorable! (as well as ignorant haha)

Last night we had reservations in their finer restaurant here.  We each ordered the king crab and beardi  crab.  Over a pound of meat and utterly divine.  But more than that...it was so much fun to eat.  It took forever but its fun to dig around and bite and crack and get every little morsel out.  There was an Asian couple sitting near us, a couple we had run into several times over this trip.  They are very demanding and unhappy and complaining.  He came over to ask about the crab, saying they had ordered it in Anchorage the night before and were very unhappy with the skinniness of the legs and no meat blah blah blah.  Well, I said, this is amazing and well worth the try.  It was so awesome to see him get his crab and start to smile and nod his head and proceed to dig in and crack and bite get out the meat.  Every time our eyes met he  would vigorously nod his head, bits of crab flying, give me a thumbs up and laugh.  So cool and such a wonderful shared moment or two.

Now it is 7 in the morning.  I am sitting in bed getting this written.  Its time to pack our one little suitcase each we are allowed and get them out the door for pick up.  We head off by bus today to the Denali Princess Lodge for another splendiferous nite.  You know for 1,800 bucks each, we got a week cruise plus a five day train/bus land cruise....you just can’t beat it.  Plus that was in a mini suite on the ship, a bigger stateroom than the regular stateroom.  Amazing.

I am going to try to post some pics here...but if they won’t then I will try to get them on face book.  TTYL  WELL AS USUAL, IT WON'T LET ME POST PICS....BLOGSPOT SUCKS

OFF THE SHIP AND INTO ANCHORAGE

Yayyyyy!!!!  Back to real wifi.  I am sitting all sunk down in the most comfortable armchair in a lovely hotel room in the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage.  I have to admit that I am totally impressed with how Princess organizes everything.

We got up this morning and packed our meagre belongings that we were allowed to keep.  Everything else had to be packed and put out the night before in the hallway.  We left the stateroom by 8 like the good little passengers that we are and headed up to the Lido...food trough deck.  We had a very leisurely breakfast, killing as much time as possible until our meeting time downstairs at 9:30.  When we got down there the dining room was full.  But, when they called us we strolled straight off the ship and into a bus.  On our way to Anchorage we stopped at a wildlife refuge/park.  Very enjoyable and saw moose, bears (really honking huge big brown bears), caribou, elk, deer, muskox etc...and a very expensive crowded gift store.

In Anchorage we were dropped off at the cruise centre down town and with the couple of hours of free time we headed down to the outdoor market.  It was so hot and soooo busy!  And truthfully I have never seen so many really huge overweight people and huge hairy dogs anywhere.  Not even in Maui where the people are known for their size.  These people were white and huge...morbidly so.  I wonder why?  Maybe the long cold winters and not eating properly.  Its funny, when you walk around a city certain things will jump out at you.  Here...there were a lot more posters for meetups for teens and signs painted on buildings warning against a drug or living on the streets lifestyle.  There were also a lot of places one could go to get nutritional help...way more than one normally sees elsewhere.  So, I think they may have a problem here with these issues.

When we got back to the cruise centre a bus was waiting for all of us, took us directly to the hotel where a lovely lady was standing at the entrance with our room keys and our itinerary for the next day, oh and more confusing luggage tags.  Oh well we must have done something right because when we got up to our fabulous room our little bags were sitting there waiting for us.  And they are being picked up again tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.  I can't wait to get on the train!!!  But right now I want dinner, with or without Bill.  He ate a whole plate load of deep fried halibut and chips and hush puppies at 3 and isn't hungry.  I didn't and I am.  So I am going to go get dinner and he can stay here if he likes!

Well he came along.  We just went downstairs and he had a bread bowl of chili and I had a bread bowl of seafood chowder...sooooo delicious.  It was nice to have a finite choice of food for dinner for a change!  Now we are back in our room on our laptops and I am trying to keep Bill from commenting on my pics I post on fb.  I don't like him commenting and I am always going in a deleting them!  Anyway...I am going to try to post some pics here...sorry they probably won't be all that interesting, just a test.  TTYL  looks like it worked!

THE SNOW PLOUGH PART OF THE TRAIN

IT WAS A LONG WAY DOWN ON THE BACK OF THAT TRAIN

FOR 35 BUCKS YOU CAN STAY IN THIS CABOOSE...ITS ALL SET UP BUT NO ELECTRICITY AND A LOOOOONG WAY FROM NOWHERE

I LOVED HIS SHEET MUSIC..HE WAS PLAYING BEEHTOVAN'S PATHETIQUE

DRIPPING ICE CREAM

AN EPISODE OF TOP CHEF WAS DONE RIGHT HERE

THIS IS WHAT I AM LOOKING AT RIGHT NOW!

I HAVE WRINKLES AROUND MY EARS!!!

GLACIERS AND STUPID RULES

Beautiful weather today!!  It started off foggy but burnt off in time for us to see the most magnificent snowy mountains.  This place up here is truly amazing and in your face beautiful.  Right now it is five o’clock in the afternoon and we are due to enter another glacier area.

I woke up with tourista this morning but it seems to have burned off with the fog..thank goodness.  As such though I didn’t go up to eat anything...just not hungry.  

We were given the most complicated set of instructions, along with various baggage tags for disembarkation.  Seriously, I have read and re read it all and still am not sure what to do.  I even watched the video on tv.  And this is ironic because all along the way we have been made to watch videos, very very patronizing videos I might add, on how to wash our hands, how to hold hand rails, how to line up courteously, and, worst of all, how to f*****g glacier watch.  Five rules for that one with the last one being “and please do not spoil this experience for your fellow traveller.”  Okay.  How?  How the hell do you “spoil the experience” for someone else...photobomb a glacier shot?  There are explicit rules laid out on how to enjoy your personal deck...don’t leave doors open (a/c concerns), don’t lean over edge, don’t throw burning material over, don’t throw garbage over....its like putting “open other end” on the bottom of a coke bottle.

Then...they hand out all these instructions on how to disembark with appropriate tags to get our luggage where its supposed to go.  One thing I understood, we have a specific time to meet in a specific place, according to the colour of one of the tags.  Ours is in The Wheelhouse at 9:30.  We are NOT to go there before our allotted time.  And...we HAVE to vacate our stateroom by 8 a.m.  Okay...where the hell do we go?  Every club and dining room and theatre is being used for disembarking groups.  So we have 1 1/2 hours to kill, lots of time to figure out how to cause trouble!

I had my hair done today!!!  It feels so good.  I always get this thing call a frangipani oil treatment and head massage then a teeny tiny hair cut.  The last time I had this done I was with a young hairdresser and we got talking about how much we despise Taylor Swift and we got carried away and waaaay too much hair ended up on the floor.  So I kept a watch this time and my hair came as good as it ever could.  Its shiny too, not something that my hair is vey often.

Now its time to get Bill packing.  I finished mine this morning and now I have to figure out the tags and get them out into the hall.  I shall come back before posting and report on the latest glaciers.

Well, they were utterly amazing.  And the big one Harvard Glacier was calving.  The whole thing sounded like gunshots and thunder.  It felt like the glacier was talking to us and now and then she would drop ice off just to make us happy.  Unbelievable.  Now we are back in our room, have had a delicious supper and we are off to bed.  TTYL

GLACIERS, WHALES AND ROTTEN KIDS

Glaciers glaciers everywhere!  The day was so sunny and perfect, I couldn’t help but take some pictures, not too many!  This is about the fourth time I have been here and it is so different every time.

Kids.  Like I said earlier, we haven’t really cruised with kids before.  At first it seemed like it would be fun and kind of nice.  Us old peeps like kids, right?  And at first we did enjoy them.

But, as time has passed, the kids have found like aged kids onboard, and formed roving little gangs.  The worst of them are the ones that are just barely old enough for some freedom from parental supervision now and then, but definitely not old enough to be aware of how loud and uncontrolled they are.  And the worst of them have THOSE parents, you know.  He is completely absent, probably in the casino or a bar.  She has long dirty blond hair, scrawny skinny, indeterminate age between 38 and 47, baseball cap on (a particular peeve of mine...I hate baseball caps on women), laughs too loud.....and totally ignores her kids.

Today, this was the exact scenario, but at the pool.  There was a little band of brothers, four to be exact, aged about 10 to 13 yrs old.  And they were breaking every listed and some that were not, rule in the book.  Screaming, running, jumping, canonballing and getting everyone wet, shoving, landing on old people in the pool...etc...and where is dad and mom?...well mom is sitting in a deck chair, all bundled up, with her back to the little blighters.  The crew finally strong armed them out of the pool, pissing mom right off.  One of the kids took huge exception to being booted out and ran off yelling, and smacked right into a very old oblivious tan panted man.  And knocked him right on his ass.  I couldn’t believe it!!  Now the mother starts screaming at her kid.  A little late lady!..We all helped the old guy up off the floor and into a chair.  He was okay, just a little shocked.  And guess what?  The Captain came and took the boys aside and had a stern talking to the kids.  I was impressed with that.

Today was a truly beautiful sight for the eyes.  The glaciers were all blue and glistening and there was livestock riding on the broken off pieces, floating around.  When the glacier calved, it truly sounded like canon going off!  Then a huge splash and a collective  “oh my God!!!” from 3,000 people.  So cool.  We had rangers on board describing and explaining every step of the way.  And the whales were breaching and dancing in droves.  These are the exact same whales that we see off Lahaina...the ranger even stated that.  

Tomorrow is another glacier float around day.  We also have to pack up our bags and get organized.  The day after tomorrow we get off the boat, go to Anchorage and then take a train into Denali park for a night.  Love those train rides!  TTYL

FABULOUS DAY IN SUNNY (YES SUNNY!) SKAGWAY

It is sunny out there.  This font is so big it is scaring me.  I simply cannot get it right.  Oh well.  As I was saying, its beautiful outside, for now.  Its supposed to start raining later.

Skagway is one of our fave towns to go to.  We are parked in the farthest possible berth as per Princess usual.  In fact, they supply a 2 dollar shuttle from this berth.  Its early still and I can see the helicopters coming and going.  I think we are going to try to find the Jewel Gardens here today.  We haven’t been to them yet, we always go on the train up to White Pass.  But today I think it will be the gardens.

Okay, I shall continue this later.  Right now I can’t concentrate...I told Bill I was NOT going up for breakfast today.  I am not hungry, I am eating too much as it is and I can get something in Skagway.  If I get hungry thats okay..it will be a reminder of what hunger feels like.  But he is whining...”Come with meeeeee, I don’t like going up by myself, I will have to sit with someone and talk, come with meeeeeee, you can just have coffee, you will whine and complain later and ask why I didn’t make you, come with meeeeee....!”  I am going to go hit him and I am NOT going to go up.   Later.....

We had the best day ever!!  It stayed sunny and totally beautiful the whole day.  We walked up the main street (so much like Front St. in Maui) and shopped and looked and ate and strolled and took pics.  I can’t even recount one thing that wasn’t perfect.  So this blog post is boooorrring!!  Sorry!

At the last moment we decided to do the train ride, again!  I am so glad we did.  It was stupendously beautiful up in the pass.  We got back just before sail time.  I think thats the latest we have ever been when we were out on our own.  We went straight up and had dinner (around 8) and now we are in our room, tired, full and happy!  Tomorrow is a sail around glaciers day and I am going to try to get a hair appointment.  Man I gotta try and do something about this font.  Its way too in my face...I can’t think!  So til tomorrow.....TTYL

FUN FUN FUN IN JUNEAU

Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain...it seems that the whole world is raining.  It rained all over Europe, it was raining in Vancouver when we got home, it rained in Port and Courtenay and now its has done nothing but rain since we left Vancouver.  As I mentioned we didn’t get off the boat at all yesterday in Ketchikan but we can’t do that two days in a row.  And once again this stupid boat has parked in the farthest possible berth from town.  Thats okay for me but its hard on Bill.  Thats a long long walk for him, especially when we are returning.  We pinky packed this morning that we absolutely will not be taking Princess again.  We are booked on the Coral Princess for the trip home.  Once last time.

We knew this when we booked this trip.  But this is the only cruise line that does the land part of this trip as well.  We get a train from Anchorage and go into the Denali Park.  We spend one or two nights at the Princess lodge there.  It looks magnificent.  But...its Holland from now on.

It is now 11 a.m.  The tv is on and we are watching Extreme Cow Feeding...oh God! TLC do you have no boundaries?  At all??  So I think I am going to don my new rain gear and walk to town.  Bill wants to go to that saloon..the Red Dog I think, and I know why.  The serving wench kissed him the last time and I think he secretly wants to see if she is still there.  So off we go.  I shall report back later!

What a fun day!!  We got all coated and umbrellaed up and headed out to walk to town.  We stopped halfway for some coffee and I had to take my coat off and stuff it into my backpack.  Its just too warm to wear a coat, rain or no rain but my bare arms and lack of rain gear garnered a few sneers.  Oh well!  We had a lot of fun, bought nothing and had a fabulous lunch in the Red Dog Saloon...the go to place in town.  It was packed and the piano player was as lively as ever.  We sat at the bar.  I ordered reindeer sausage hoagie and Bill had fish.  He actually took a bite of my reindeer!!!  If you know Bill he has never ever eaten anything bambyish ever...not one bite!

We sat beside a couple of thirty something fellows and I noticed that the one beside Bill kept glancing over at me and at times outright stared.  I thought maybe I reminded him of somebody or something.  Later in the meal we got talking to them and found out a bit about them.  They were on our ship and they were from Minnesota of all places.  Anyway when we left Bill detoured into the can so I was outside waiting when the one that had been staring came over and apologized for staring at me and then he said, “It’s just that I LOVE your hair...I just can’t quit looking at it...it is so beautiful and interesting and gush gush gush!”  It made me laugh.  I think I have mentioned here in this blog that filipinos and gay guys love my hair, more than anybody.  I don’t know what it is about the hair but at least they love it!

We came back to the boat, past a fish boat unloading its load to a buyer.  What an interesting process that was to watch.  We have had a stupidly delicious enormous Italian dinner (its Italian night tonight complete with lemon cello)  and now in our rooms regretting the last fifty bites.  Speaking of fifty, I just walked about 80% of our hallway back to our room and I counted 65 lights in the ceiling.  So many lightbulbs to change.  TTYL

SORRY BOUT THE SMALL PRINT...I CAN'T SEEM TO GET IT UNDER CONTROL

KETCHIKAN.....RAIN RAIN RAIN

We have decided to stay on the ship today.  This is not something we ever do but we have been to Ketchikan many times, taken a zillion pics, and as per usual it is raining.  There are only five rain free days per year here.  On average they get 160 inches of rain every year.

When you travel on ships, the conversation very frequently turns to one cruise line versus another.  And today the convo was princess verses holland america.  Holland America wins hands down with us.  This is going to sound really spoiled, and I admit it is but....the orange juice is watered down on Princess, on Holland its fresh squeezed, no smoked salmon for breakfast on Princess, platters and platters of it on Holland (my fave food on the planet), cloth towels in the public washrooms on Holland, paper on Princess, and very utilitarian bathrooms here on Princess as opposed to brass and marble on Holland, Holland gets way better docks than Princess, the staterooms are barely appointed with amenities on Princess, on Holland you not only get the usual stuff but they supply you with robes, slippers, binoculars, dvd players, wine glasses and a full mini fridge.  Not princess.  So anyone reading this who are planning future trips to Alaska, even if you pay a little more, you seriously get what you pay for.  Plus certain groups that tend to be difficult to travel with prefer the cheapest form of travel and this boat is loaded with them.  Makes for interesting people watching!

This morning at breakfast a lovely looking Asian lady had chosen a banana for part of her breakfast.  Upon finishing her meal, she proceeded to take the banana skin, and using the inside of it, she spent about fifteen minutes rubbing the skin all over the back of her hands.  And she had lovely hands!!  

Its so funny.  We are sitting down in the coffee shop area of the ship.  This is kind of the hub of the place and also where people are leaving and coming back to the ship.  I am comparing the crowd here today compared to yesterday, an “at sea” day.  Yesterday the place was full of young people, kids and Asians.  Today it is full of old, white haired overweight white people!  Guess we don’t get out and walk around so much!

Hahaha  a big huge lady with big hair (sorta relating to this person) just went by with an officer, or at least someone dressed in white with thingies on his shoulder.  What made me notice is she had life jacket stuck to her head!  It looked ridiculous!!!  From what I overheard, she was trying it on and taking it off and the straps or velcro or something got completely stuck in her hair and she couldn’t get it off!!  The officer was guiding her along as she couldn’t see! Hahahaha, she looked so funny!  I think he was heading her to the hairdressers spot to get their help to get it off.  She was NOT thinking this was funny at all.

Well they just brought out the little sandwiches.  There are two large covered trays that are kept full all day long.  Continental goodies in the a.m., little sandwiches and sliders til three, and delicious little delectables after that.  Seeing as how it is now 12, I think I shall go get me a sammich.  TTYL

Well here we sit, now an hour past our sailing away time from Ketchikan.  There are four Asian women they can’t find.  They probably don’t speak english and as such don’t understand times and places.  I do believe the captain is going to leave them behind.  Should be fun.  It must drive the staff crazy when half the ship doesn’t speak the language or understand time constraints.  But I also noticed on our trips to Beijing and Shanghai that even in their own country, where they do understand the language and protocols, they would still indulge themselves and do what they pleased, when they pleased.  Sigh! Hot water anyone whilst we wait?

READ BETWEEN THE LINES.....

So, I am not going to slag on any one race...that would not be politically correct.  In the past I have loudly complained about the Dutch...very pushy abrasive people, I have complained about the German.....very cold and unfriendly (sometimes they are awesome and jolly), I have complained about the Aussies (stingy with tips, I refuse to believe that they don’t understand that out in the rest of the world we TIP!  Just because you don’t doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t), I have complained about the French, oh, correction, I haven’t because they never leave their country, and I have also complained about our own Canadians, they have a tendency to be whiny and cheap, all the while being exceeding nice.  And judging by myself, complaining ungrateful people!!

Now I am complaining about another group of people, new to the tourist travelling world.  This group is very very green to the protocols and general world expectations, or they just don’t give a hoot.  They are happy friendly and so grateful to be enjoying this experience.  And that is so good to see.  But,  they just don’t understand the meaning of lining up, no hawking and spitting, watermelon is for everyone as are the chairs, you don’t have to break your leg to get to an elevator first, andI swear, we are going to run out of hot water!  When we were visiting their country I noticed that just due to the extreme number of people in their place the niceties of life just simply disappear.  They are not poverty stricken like some countries, which may cause the same sort of behaviour, just sheer numbers forces you to become aggressively pushy and self serving.  Thank goodness their is no driving involved on this trip!!!  But due to the fact that over half the 3000 people on board are of this race, it makes for a tense competitive atmosphere. 

I wasn’t going to make friends, as I always say.  I really don’t like people.  But....I was waiting for an elevator, as were a jillion others, and this little man of about 45 yrs attached himself to me and started to ask about where everything was.  Why me?  Why do I always get these lost little people attaching themselves to me?  Jeez!!  

Well this guy was a true blue hillbilly.  I mean right down to having only one front tooth and a redneck accent like none other. Straight from dogpatch.  And he was lost.  He was looking for a place that I had no clue where it was.  So I took him over to the brass map and legend on the wall and we both had a look.  Upon finding it we proceeded to the elevators and he told me he had never been on one before.  WHAT??  I thought maybe I was being punked!  So we got on and I gave him a tutorial on how to use it.  We were on 14, I was getting off on 9 and he was getting off on 6.  So I had him push the two buttons and away we went.  At 9 I went to get off and he literally attached himself to me and got off too.  I pushed him back and said no no, you get off on 6 remember?  He hung his head and said he didn’t know how to read the numbers!  Holy crap!!  A woman in the elevator, impatiently said she would show him how to get off...she was so annoyed at all the delays.  I had become kind of fond of the little lost fella and felt a twinge at leaving him with a pushy not nice person.

Today I ran into him again, down in the bowels and middle of the ship.  Again he was lost and didn’t know how to get out into the open.  So I tried to explain but he was so upset and bereft.  I finally took him in hand and led to the correct spot.  I’m just going to hide in my room now.  How does a person like that get on the ship?  He said he is alone...I don’t know..seems fishy to me.  I remember one time in an airport the family of an old lady with dementia was put on a plane by her family with no way to track back to them.  She was wandering around the airport totally lost, didn’t even know her name.  It was awful.  I never forgot that.

At the moment Bill is watching a show.  Its so funny because he is totally engrossed and trying not to show it.  It is Snow White and the 7 dwarfs so he is feeling kind of foolish but at the same time completely into it.  He now and then bursts out with stupid inappropriate comments just to show that he isn’t seriously watching it...which he totally is.  I am going to suggest we go down to the stores and I bet he says no and finds some stupid excuse!  I shall then make total fun of him.  hahaha.  

I am going to try to load a couple pics but it may be too slow.  I shall post them on facebook though.  TTYL

DONE AND DONE

Well I am almost done and done.  I left the printing of the documents needed to board the ship til yesterday.  I truly despise printing.  I am not a particularly patient person and as such equipment that doesn't perform irks the hell out of me.  As I have mentioned before vacuum cleaners learn to fly in my house as I fire them out the back door.  And printers.  I remember in the last house I was trying to print something.  The printer was on the floor under the desk.  It wouldn't work no matter what I did.  Well, in a fit of very childish anger I used my foot to get that sucker out from its little spot and proceeded to boot it across the house to the back door, scooped it up and pitched out into the backyard so far it hit the side of the garage.  In front of the kids.  Not good, because I think I learned this from my mom.

I distinctly remember back when I was about five she had an old pump pedal sewing machine.  That thing caused more angst for my poor mother, who was not much more patient than me with all things stupid.  I remember that machine had vibrated to the edge of the card table she always used to sew on, it had started to tip over the edge, and bless her heart, she just stepped back and let 'er drop.  Hahaha...it smashed into pieces on the floor with an incredibly satisfying smash!  And I don't know why I am even talking about this because yesterday the printer worked swimmingly well...it was Princess's website that was down.

I managed to get MY stuff printed but when I went to do Bill's it wouldn't print and then a message popped up to say that their site was down.  And its still down this morning.  So...this might mean I am going on this trip alone.  Hmmmmm....not sure if that would be a good adventure or a missing Bill trip!

Now I must get my butt out of this bed and do the final things always needing doing.  I don't think we are going to go down too early.  If you get there too early the rooms aren't ready.  They send you to the Lido where the buffet is and I really don't want to start the trip at the food trough!  I want to go up to the very tip top near where they blow the horn (which almost flattens you its so loud) and take another bunch of useless pictures of us floating under the Lion's Gate Bridge.  I think I am coming to the end of my picture taking.  When you get up to quadruples of the same thing its time to quit!  But...in the meantime I will try to find the weird and wonderful to post on facebook.  I am NOT GOING to take one picture of ice this time.  I have enough.  Or at least I am going to try not to.  Only if it is really spectacular and different.  TTYL  (these are to remind me that I have ENOUGH!!)

CRASH AND BURN

Hokey Dinah!  I just couldn't function today.  I couldn't even really be happy!  I think it all caught up to me finally.  I was never really any good at doing too many things at once for too long.  I woke up this morning around four am and simply could not go back to sleep.  I kept redecorating the new house and making lists in my head.  And then I started to think about all the decisions that NEED to be made ahead of time so that we (read "I") get the place exactly the way I want, I mean we, want it!

Bill and I have done many renos and actual building of houses in our history and I have learned the hard way that to get what I know will work and look good, I have to get loud and bossy.  When I haven't done so in the past we have ended up with tubs that try to drown you, doors opening the wrong way and you lose the use of half a room, a four hundred step kitchen instead of a ten stepper, islands that don't have plug ins...well you get the picture.

So, in the night I had some serious thoughts to this end, serious enough I decided to write them down.  Now, I have to tell you how writing something down in the night is a ridiculous idea at best for me.  You see I am blind enough in blazing sunlight with my glasses on.  In the night?  Sure......I can see shadows and thats about it.  I use a cpap, you know, one of those breathing thingies...Its a head gear that fits over your nose and half your face with straps that go around the head.  If I need to arise for any reason, and I am coming back to bed, I just leave the head gear on and pull the hose off, its easier.  But I cannot possibly put glasses on.  So, I reached over and got my notebook and pen and started to write my list, blindly.  I was pretty sure I stayed on a straight line and I printed very clearly but when I got up and looked this morning, I couldn't read a thing.  How the hell does something that is so straight and perfect in my mind be so flipping illegible and messy.  I really couldn't read a thing!  And whats more, when I did recall some of the things I had written down, they were completely unimportant and insignificant!  They seemed so dire in the middle of the night!

Another thing that seems to happen a lot is choices.  The builder, or Bill or whoever will come over and say some thing like, "So we have the boards ready to lay the floor.  Which way would you like them to go, back and forth or up and down?"  "Oh Jeez!," I answer, "they have to go back and forth, up and down would just make the room look way to small."  "  Well,........sorry....can't be done.  The way these boards measure out they are going to have to go up and down."  Well wtf!!  why the hell did you ask me?!!  This happens over and over..its just amazing.  I will be blogging through all of this coming up and you will see...I will mention it each time it happens!

And that brings me to another thing....we have pigeons up in the rafters or whatever its called, outside our bedroom window.  Really early in the morning they start cooing to each other, and they are loud, at least to me.  Bill, who is deaf, can't hear them and what he can't hear doesn't exist.  So annoying.  And they are stinky and messy.  So even if I do manage to sleep past four in the morning, the stupid pigeons wake me up.  And I know from past experience that you CANNOT get rid of them.  I need a gun, one of those big blasters that porky pig ran around with.

Well I must be off to bed.  I am too tired to think straight and I might say something I shouldn't.  TTYL

ps...dumb pics today..sorry

I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS

Seriously!  What an insane week and it isn't over yet.  In three days we have to get on a ship to Alaska and I just am not sure how we are going to do  it!

I would have blogged sooner but Kevin's internet was disconnected on the 30th, due to their move.  He had a small mobile router but it couldn't handle much traffic.  I could post a few pics of the grandkids on facebook but that was about it.

I had so much fun with those two kids.  I would have had fun with them even if they weren't my grandkids.  I arrived at suppertime on the 29th with two big containers of dahl and subjit.  We ate the dahl for supper and the kids were off to bed about 7.  Tandy went to work at nine for the night (her last night of work!) and Kev and I had great discussion about technology and the pros and cons of legalizing weed, and the Boston bombings and 911 and conspiracy theories.  To bed late and he was so tired the next day.

Monte came over in the morning and we had a fun birthday lunch for Kevin.  I had made him a rice krispy square cake.  I made the squares and moulded them in a tube pan then iced it like it was a real cake.  When he went to cut it he couldn't figure out why the cake was so hard.  When he finally got through I think he was pretty happy...rice krispie squares are his fave, even besmirched with chocolate icing!  Then the two of them took off for a relaxing night in a cabin on the ocean at Quadra Island.  Monte stayed til late then headed home.  I played with the kids til bedtime.  They are so much fun.

They slept til after 7 the next morning, which apparently is late for them, so I got lucky.  We had such a great day and K & T got home just after six.  I stayed for a while and then at the kids bedtime I took myself over to the travelodge.  I needed to do my hair and they only have two bedrooms plus I needed to leave by six the next morning.

I picked Bill up at the Nanaimo ferry at 8 in the morning and it was an amazingly beautiful day.  What a beautiful trip down from Courtenay.  We mozied down to Victoria, taking our time and stopping for coffee along the way.  We were to meet the real estate lady at the first house we were to go see at 1:30. Having several hours to kill, we found the first two houses, our faves, on our own and without question or doubt I knew which one we were going to buy.  After a little sight seeing and distraction, we finally met her at the first house.  It had a huge, a perfect beautiful lower above ground deluxe suite.  We fell in love with it.  The house was almost new and the upstairs was magnificent.....but.....the house is plunked down and wiggled into a tiny lot completely surrounded by large beautiful homes, right in your face.  It would be like living in a fishbowl.  And I had already had my heart set on the second place, even though I hadn't been in it yet.  And here is why:

THAT IS THE VIEW OUT OF THE KITCHEN WINDOW

When we stepped out of the car you could smell the pine needles.  And when we drove up the second time, this time with the real estate lady, a beautiful big antlered deer daintily strolled around the side of the house and into the forest beside us.  And the house is comfy, homey and exactly what suits us best. The lower level is ground level and finished.  All we have to do is turn one of the three bedrooms into an awesome kitchen (the kitchen above in the picture would be April and Andrew's), a few cosmetic fix ups and we are done.  And best of all, this place is 120,00 dollars less than the pristine perfectly finished ticky tacky box we first looked at.

So today April, Andrew and Monte are winging their way down.  We have an appointment to see the place at 11:30, with all three of the dogs too.  After we have a good look I do believe we will be putting in an offer!  I am so excited!  Can you buy a house in three days?  Thank God we have Aryn with a power of attorney and a willing heart!  Tomorrow I will post pics of the house!  TTYL

PICKING UP BILL

TAKING A STROLL

VICTORIA IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND THE TRAFFIC IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT HERE

CHEEKY DEVIL....STANDING ON THE HOOD OF THE CAR

BUNNY CATCHERS