Alaskan Adventure - Day 4 - Saturday, June 3, 2006

At sea, en route to Ketchikan, AK
Low overcast in morning, mist and fog throughout the day. Temp in the low 60s.

Alaskan Adventure - Day 4

Slept in until almost 0800.. Went to the gym on the Lido deck and worked out for about 45 minutes (treadmill and Nautalis), then showered and went to breakfast with Cindy in the Lido restaurant. We ran into our "New Best Friend" (NBF), Lee who followed us to breakfast, even though he had already eaten. After breakfast, we looked at some additional tour bookings, with NBF Lee hovering over our shoulders trying to make sure he and Annette were by our sides every minute. They even switched their dinner time to be with us. Fortunately, we accidentally (honest!) told them the wrong time. This is going to be a challenge to enjoy their company (they are nice folks, and we do enjoy some quality time with them) while not being stitched to them at the hip.

Lunch was in the Rotterdam dining room. I spent the afternoon in the Explorers Internet Cafe, reading and updating photos and this journal, while Cindy attended a meeting on shopping info. Internet connection was intermittent because the heavy cloud cover made connection to the satellite spotty, so I was not able to get on the internet to update my travel blog, get email or IM. Makes me feel really disconnected.

In the late afternoon, Cindy and I did a "bar tour", hitting the more out of the way bars on board; the Crows's Nest, Ocean Bar and a couple of others. The Crow's Nest was especially nice, with a panoramic view over the bow. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see, with the low clouds and fog.
It was formal night tonight...suit and tie, dress for Cindy. After dinner, we caught a show at the van Gogh lounge. It was "the world's fastest banjo player". God, am I really here? Am I really doing this? But it just gets better... We went up to the Crow's Nest club and ran into Andy and Lynn (the Penn State people, remember?). We joined them and another couple from North Carolina. There was a band and a DJ when the band was on break. I tried to shake off the feeling that I was at a geriatric day care center and have fun, but Cindy wouldn't dance. I had to ask some of the women there to dance. When I found myself on the dance floor with a 75 year old woman who was doing an arthritic version of Elaine Benis' body spasm, I wanted to scream.....Shoot me, just shoot me!!!
We left after midnight. Cindy went to sleep, and I went up to the Internet Cafe until 1:30 AM. Still no satellite connection.

The clocks get turned back tonight. There are so many hours of daylight in Alaska, that they don't have much use for Daylight Savings Time. That makes us 4 hours behind EDT. Tomorrow, we dock in Ketchikan and I will take a float plane flight to Misty fiord, weather permitting. Something to look forward to.