indigo_rose99

I woke up at about 4:40am. Which turned out to be a good thing, as the note Dad left outside our door still left us time to run, shower, and meet him to watch the ship go through Tracy Arm Fjord. Which I'd never heard of, but indications were that we should be prepared with cameras.

I would have called it a river, with spectacular mountains on both sides. We took hundreds of pictures, T enjoyed his spiffy binoculars. The ship lingered to give us time to take the pictures. We even saw bald eagles! Dad was in picture-taking heaven. I think I caught a few of him in his element.

Then we anchored in Juneau. Surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Dad had bought us all tram tickets to the top of one of those mountains. More spectacular views! Clearly Dad's happy place.

My only complaint on this trip is that we are not getting to meet other people at meals. Our fancy class cabin lets us eat at a table (just the three of us) any time in the breakfast or dinner hours... But I miss the conversation with strangers. I know, it seems unlikely with anti-social me! But I want to meet strangers in a conversational environment in which we are not competing for something, which meals serve nicely.

I love sleeping on cruise ships... Our first day is a sea day. So we got time to acclimate to an unfamiliar cruise ship and line.

We are paying more for healthy food and some perks. I like the bottles of water and fruit in the cabin, the clearly healthy meals. Live the shower. Both of us like the variety of pillows-we each choose a favorite that works for us(a change from most hotels and ships!). I do have to wonder how small the other cabin classes are... if this is how tiny ours is!

It is after lunch. We went to our cabin, changed into warm layers, I acquired a glass of fresh OJ, and we cracked open the welcome bottle of champagne while sitting on our balcony. I'm reading a book, and T is trying out his spiffy new binoculars in search for whales. I saw the blowhole he pointed out, but I did not see the color of the back of the whale as it went back down (he did. Good binoculars.).

We are really, truly on vacation.