Cruise to Alaska on the NCL Pearl - June 2008

The beginning of my summer vacation tale begins with a fantastic journey to Alaska via cruise ship.  After planning this vacation with Terri for over a year, I can’t believe it’s finally here.  Our ship is the Norwegian Pearl and our itinerary has us going roundtrip out of Seattle, Washington.  

On June 7^th, just two days after school is over for the summer, we head out for Seattle.  Adam, Terri and Wayland arrive in the early afternoon, but Kris and I arrive don’t arrive until around midnight.

On June 8^th, we arrive at the Pearl around 10am and board the ship.  (Before getting onboard, I go on a search for my Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.  I’m addicted.  I found online, before arriving in Seattle, the nearest grocery store to the dock, and the five of us trek the 1/3 mile journey to the store.  On the way we are stopped by bum after bum asking for money.  We’re obviously traveling together, but some ask each and every one of us.  Needless to say, I did not get a great impression of Seattle.)  The ship departs at 5pm.  

Wayland and Terri's door sign

Our door sign

We have mini-suites with balconies.  The rooms are fantastic.  I’ve never had a more spacious room on a cruise ship…I must say they were worth the money.  The beds were super comfy.  We even wound up trying to find out what mattress it was so we could buy one for the house, but it was a specially made NCL brand.  It was also really nice to have a cabin with a tub in the bathroom.  After unpacking, there was nothing to do but explore the ship, and, of course, eat.

 

I’m going to throw in here that I’d normally describe the day-to-day cruise activities I participated in, but there really isn’t a need.  The best part of this cruise was the ports of call.  We wound up with perfect weather, beautiful temperatures, and fantastic excursions.  I’ll describe them in detail.  

All I’ll say about the cruise was that, aside from the room, the itinerary, and the spa (which you pay extra for), I’m far more impressed with Carnival and Royal Caribbean.  (Carnival is my favorite, but Royal Caribbean had the best food.)  NCL had okay, but completely unspectacular, food and entertainment on the ship.  My favorite food on the boat was the pretzel bread…and I’m not joking.  We also found “freestyle cruising” to be a hassle, as you had to wake up early to get down to the desk to reserve somewhere to eat for that evening.  It wasn’t convenient in the least.

 

On June 10^th, the Pearl arrives in Juneau, AK where we had booked an excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier.  The bus picks us up at the dock and transports us about 10 miles to the glacier.  A canoe awaits us and we paddle out to a point about a mile from the glacier.  Safety concerns do not allow the canoe to get closer, since a major calving (ice break-off from the glacier) could cause a wall of water to swamp the canoe.  

The weather is windy and cold, but what else do you expect whenever you’re feet from a glacier?  We enjoyed hot apple cider and crackers while overlooking the glacier and Nugget Falls.  There were numerous icebergs in the lake, and Adam and I had fun boogying next to the waterfall.  (And I mean right next to the waterfall.  It was spectacular, and oh so powerful.)

 

June 11^th has us stop in Skagway, Alaska.  Almost everyone split up this day.  Kris and Wayland climb up the mountainside to Upper Dewey Lake, while Terri and Adam shop Skagway.

I decided to take a wonderful scenic drive and horseback ride into the Canadian Yukon.  The highlight of this excursion was supposed to be the horseback ride, but it wasn’t.  The 6 hour excursion (which wound up being 7 hours thanks to a wonderful van driver who let us stop for photo opportunities whenever we wanted), was filled with breathtaking beauty.  The views were like Colorado on steroids.  

Whenever and wherever you looked, you saw another majestic mountain or glacier…I saw the world’s smallest desert (Carcross) and the top of the treelines.  

Whenever we were riding on the horses, we trotted to the top of a rather large and steep hill and walked right into a postcard at Emerald Lake.  

I don’t know that I’ve ever spent as much time awestruck and dumbfounded in my life as I was in the Yukon.  Visit the Klondike Highway if you ever get a chance…go to Skagway, a wonderfully picturesque town with wooden walkways, great souvenir shopping, and a nostalgic feel, and head to the Yukon stopping at Emerald Lake.  It’s so worth it.

 

The next day was a cruise into Glacier Bay National Park.  The ship visited the Margerie, Reid, Lamlugh, Grand Pacific, and John Hopkins Glaciers.  Each glacier was approached to within a mile for viewing.  The cruise ship slowed and gradually rotated to allow maximum viewing pleasure.  I spent the day in the spa in a one person hot tub with the best view…heavenly.

On June 13^th, we docked early at Ketchikan, and were greeted by bald eagles at the dock.  Kris, Wayland, and I took an excursion to the Tongass Rainforest to do ziplining.  (My idea.)  

The zipline excursion starts in the trees high on the mountain, and descends via 7 separate zipline runs and 3 rope bridges.  At times the ziplines run 135’ above the forest floor and up to 850’ in length.  I never did quite get the hang of breaking, as I was having too much fun to slow down, but the trees had padding wrapped around them, and I was always able to kick my way into stopping.  We returned to the city to find Adam and Terri still shopping.

June 14^th was a day at sea (Terri and I went and got discount massages in the morning and they were fabulous) with an evening in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  

We took a cab into town and walked around awhile.  We were unable to find interesting shopping opportunities or activities to do, although we were entertained by many a street performer…namely a violinist dressed as Darth Vader.  He was playing a mean tune.  

We did get a Dr. Pepper from a 7-11 in Canada before going back to the cruise ship.  That was neat.

 

On June 15^th, the ship was docked by the time we awoke.  We joined a Seattle City Bus Tour that kept Wayland, Kris, Adam, and Terri amused by seeing the significant sites of Seattle, and then ultimately deposited us at the airport.  I slept on the bus tour.  It was boring.  Every time I woke up in the 3.5 hour tour, the tour guide was talking about yet another beautiful tree you can find in Seattle.  Our tour was supposed to stop at the Space Needle, but it just drove by it.  All I know about Seattle is that it is foggy, chilly, has great trees, and it has lots of beggars.  Needless to say, I shant return to Seattle.

We were home for a few days, where I slightly prepared for my Tech Apps certification test, Kris went to work, we played with the cats, and I researched information about our trip to Chicago.  I love planning trips…this summer has been right up my alley.

Colorado, Oklahoma, New York - July 2007

The Chinese call it the year of the pig, but, for me, it’s been the year of the apple.

Kris and I finished our first year of teaching well, with my winning Teacher of the Year and the Freedom Award and Kris making massive improvements to several key processes within Winfree.  But, having had an exhausting year, we were ready for a good summer of travel.

After a few days off, Kris and I drove up to Denver to visit my sister and her family from June 10 - June 21, 2007. 

While we were there, Jimmy flew up as well. 

We had a lot of fun celebrating Jenny's birthday, going to the park, pool, sprinklers, and to the Colorado Renaissance Fair.  As much as it pained me to leave, we headed back home on the 21st. 

We then had a few days alone before Adam came to stay with us, and Terri joined us on the 4th of July.  After a trip to Oklahoma to visit the WinStar, we all headed down south to Houston to spend a few days in Pasadena with Wayland, Terri, and Adam, then drove back home to give me time to pack for my New York trip with Valerie Albright on July 12 – July 16, 2007.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
We flew from DFW to Newark airport with a connection in Atlanta.  Our first flight left at 5:45 am, and, if you know me, you know that I didn’t sleep any the night before.  I was quite tired by the time we arrived at EWR, but we took the Airtrain to NY Penn Station and pulled our luggage the four or so blocks to the hotel anyway.  (This wouldn’t be such a hard feat if you didn’t have swarms of people running into you and going the opposite direction.  I felt, quite often, that for every two steps I went forward, I went one back due to the pressure exerted on my luggage.)  We checked-in to the Wingate Inn Manhattan Midtown, a really nice hotel with a nice sized room and super comfy bed.  They offered a free hot continental breakfast every morning.  I was quite happy with the hotel.  Then we rest and unpack before Danny comes and picks us up from the hotel to drive us to Astoria to see the entire family.  (Now I’m ready and raring to go.  Miraculously, I don’t feel any of my previous exhaustion.  That hits me on our trip home.)

We make it to Astoria to have dinner with Aunt Alice, Uncle Nick, Danny, Nicky, Caroline, and Juliette.  They delighted us with fantastic pasta, ravioli, pasta salad, potato salad, BBQ, etc.  My aunt even went out before we got to NY and bought my favorite soda.  Then, after a remarkably tasty dinner, Danny gave us a remarkable driving tour around the city. 

We got to see Times Square, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and more all sparkling and dazzling at night.  It was phenomenal.  Walls and walls of light and concrete spanning distances beyond imaginable.

Friday, July 13, 2007
I’m a tripaholic.  I love traveling and planning to travel.  I almost live for exploring new places, taking pictures of new places, testing the boundaries of what’s completely familiar to me…well, as long as I still have a semblance of control over the situation.  That being said, I went a little plan happy over this New York trip.  So much to see, so little time and all.

After eating breakfast, we walked to Planet Hollywood to pick up our New York 3-day passes (highly recommended for those wanting to do a lot of activities).  We walked in Times Square and over to Rockefeller Center where we stopped at La Maison du Chocolat for Iced Chocolates and a platter of amazing chocolates.  We then took our first subway to the Museum of Natural History.  After touring the museum, we walked across Central Park to the Guggenheim, which wound up being my favorite museum.  We walked east to Ray Bari’s pizza parlor where Val and I both had a slice of cheese pizza and I had a lemon Italian ice.  We then walked to my mother’s old high school, St. Jean the Baptiste, and to her old church, which was very pretty in a churchy way.  Then southwest to the MET before hitting a subway back toward our hotel. 

A few showers later, we headed toward the Empire State Building to meet up with Danny, his cousin, Joey, and Joey’s girl, Chrissy.  The five of us got on the NY Skyride…really cool…and then went to the top of the Empire State Building.  This was definitely worth doing…we were up there on a beautiful night with great company and a spectacular view.  Afterwards, we went to Scotty’s where I had an amazing meal…roast chicken stuffed with swiss cheese and broccoli. 

Saturday, July 14, 2007
We got a later start today and had a slight revision in plans.  We hit a few stores in the morning and then took the subway to Rockefeller Center to go to the NBC Experience Store and do the NBC Tour.  The tour was incredibly neat.  We got to see where Conan and SNL are filmed, how makeup is used, and I even got to pretend to be a newscaster while reading a teleprompter.  I’m glad I wasn’t the weatherman…that guy embarrassed himself a bit.  We later ate at Planet Hollywood ($20 off thanks to the NY Pass), visited the Hard Rock Café and a few other shops, and took the subway back near our hotel.

After cleaning up, Val and I took the subway to our chosen off-broadway show, My First Time.  It was so phenomenally funny, and we had front row center seats that couldn’t have been beaten.  It was super enjoyable.  After the show we walked to a subway station that took us over the E. 60th and 3rd where we met up with Dan, ate some pizza at Patsy’s, and had AMAZING Frrrozen Hot Chocolates and desserts at Serendipity 3 (from the movie).  Then Dan gave us a few hour long tour of the city.
 

We drove to the WTC site and walked around, drove uptown, downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy, Wall Street, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and to the South Street Seaport (where we walked around).  He gave us such an amazing tour of the city.  I don’t think you could pay hundreds of dollars and get the caliber of tour that we got.  We didn’t get back to the hotel until 3am.

Sunday, July 15, 2007
We woke up and took the subway to Times Square to grab a hot dog and take the M42 bus to Pier 42.  We were able to grab our tickets onto the “Beast” to see the Statue of Liberty. 

(The Beast is a speedboat run by the Circle Line.)  There was no line and no wait, which was amazing, and the boat ride was fantastic fun.  I strongly recommend this ride as the way to go see the Statue of Liberty.  After our 30 minute boat ride, we rode back to Times Square to get a subway to Little Italy. 

We walked Canal Street, bought some Coach in the back room, ate at a great little restaurant called Vincent’s (I had the stuffed shells and Val had ziti), and we decided to get the heck out of Chinatown.  It smelled really badly.  We headed back to the hotel, stopping in a few shops along the way, and I got into the shower.  When I got out, Val was sleeping, so I went to a little shop near the hotel and bought a really cute top.  I was later picked up at the hotel by my Uncle Nick to go see Dan and Nick play ice hockey.  (Val was plum tuckered out, so she opted out in favor of R&R at the hotel.)  Aunt Alice, Danny, Nicky, and I went to the ice hockey game, and I got a few great hours watching the guys and seeing my Aunt.  After the game (which the guys won 5 to 2), we drove back to drop off my aunt and cousin Nicky and Danny drove me back to the hotel.  Val had already packed all of her stuff, so she was nice enough to help me pack mine.

Monday, July 16, 2007
Val and I hit a few shops right near the hotel, and we picked up black & whites for our respective loved ones back home before Danny came to pick us up at the hotel.  The streets were bustling, so I must add here an astounding observation…I don’t see how anyone can drive safely in New York…let alone in a garbage truck.  Geez, it’s amazing.  Uncle Nick had picked everyone heroes up at this great deli near my aunt’s house, and the lot of us – Aunt Alice, Dan, Nick, Caroline, Juliette, Val, and I – ate a fantastic lunch before getting to
see “Sugarless” (one of D&N’s garbage trucks) and a tour of Caroline and Nicky’s house.  After a few hours of talking, Danny and my aunt drove us to Newark so we could catch our flight.

All in all, my trip was fantastic, and I can’t wait to go back.

And this is why I call this the year of the apple…from teaching to visiting the big apple…back to teaching again.  It’s a theme.

Camping in Lewisville, TX - April 2005

(Trip write-up by Kris)

Kristy and I took Adam camping on Lake Lewisville in April 2005.  We enjoyed burgers with roasted potatoes.  Afterwards, we sat around the fire singing oldies while I strummed the guitar.