Alaskan Dolphins!

Pods and pods and pods of them! Here are two -

In Search of Bears in Alaska

Alpaca's love of bears is well-documented, notwithstanding the warnings from Stephen Colbert that bears are "The Number One Threat to America" and that bears are "Godless Killing Machines" (http://www.threatdowngenerator.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Notice). So naturally, when Alpaca's cruise ship was docked in Icy Straight Point (http://www.icystraitpoint.com/), he booked an excursion that virtually guaranteed that he would get prime bear viewing (http://www.icystraitpoint.com/excursions_bush_bear.html).

First up was a tour of the town. Ten seconds later, we had a tour of the dock. Ten seconds after that, we were on unpaved roads... not because we were going off into the wilderness, but because the town only has a few miles of unpaved roads, and it is between the "town" (using the term very loosely here, because it consists of 4 souvenir shops) and the docks (an additional 2 shops, including a grocery / general / clothing / hardware store). Then it was off to see the bears.

Alpaca was thrilled to have seen two bears while at Icy Straight Point, one snacking on salmon sashimi (see above - he dipped his little head in the water, came up with a fish and took it to the island in the middle of the frame to eat it), and the other rolling around on his back and playing in the middle of a field, next to where two bald eagles were perched. Very cute.

Correction: Hubbbbbrrrrrrd Glacier

I'm cold just looking at this. The little white chunks are chunks of ice. And the glassy area you see closer to the glacier is a sheet of glacial ice. Do you know how COLD it has to be for the ice to just sit there?! And this is summer! Brrrr.

Hubba, Hubba, Look at Hubbard Glacier!

Hubbard Glacier is huge (http://ak.water.usgs.gov/glaciology/hubbard/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbard_Glacier)! And we got very close to it. This was the view from our table in the dining room when we were parked in front of Hubbard Glacier for dinner. To ensure that all passengers got a chance to see Hubbard up close and personal, the captain parked the ship, then rotated the ship around slowly so that we could all get a 360-degree view of the area. Wow.

We even froze our bum(!) off standing outside to listen for the crashing sound of ice breaking off (a process called calving). While we did not get pictures of the calving (very dramatic!), there are many available on the internet (http://images.google.com/images?q=calving%20ice&hl=en&lr=&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-36,RNWE:en&sa=N&tab=wi).

Dropping Anchor in Anchorage

The Alpaca was very eager to cruise aboard Holland America's (http://www.hollandamerica.com/) lovely ms Statendam (http://www.hollandamerica.com/cruiseships/Statendam)!

To get on his way, Alpaca woke up bright and early to fly to Anchorage, then boarded a bus for a beautiful two and a half hour ride down to Seward to board the ship. The first portion of the bus ride feautred portions of the lovely city of Anchorage (above), where he snapped a few pictures through the window (note the reflection). Anchorage was very green, and the mountains in the background really added to the "wilderness" feel of the city. En route to Seward, we saw Beluga whales swimming in the water next to the road. That was pretty amazing. We also saw big horned sheep and a deer.

The ship was very pretty. In use since 1993, the ship had some wear, but was generally well-maintained. The cabins were large by comparison to other lines and the beds were more comfortable. Common areas were plentiful despite the relatively small size (55,000 tons) of the ship, and despite the 1200 passengers and 600 crew, rarely crowded. The main theater, called the Van Gogh Theater, is themed to Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh's paintings "The Starry Night" and "Irises," and even has replicas of the famous paintings set in tiny mosaic tiles across the sides of the theater. Lovely. The shows were mediocre, as the ship had only one night of comedy. On two nights, a ventriloquist and singer performed. The remaining nights' entertainment consisted of the ship's singers and dancers butchering old Broadway musicals. Alpaca's ears are still bleeding. They were just BAD. The line is definitely known for its older crowd, and the ship's activities (golf chipping, trivia featuring questions about the 1920s through 1940s) reflected that. We won at trivia once, when the questions were a little more timely (don't get too excited - I mean 1960s-1970s). The portions in the restaurant were small - husband joked that they were "Senior Citizen-sized" (but it was great - less waste, and you could try a greater variety of items) and, except for a few nights, not particularly good. All in all, the cruise was very mellow and relaxing.

Alpaca was particularly amused that the Statendam staff wore shirts and caps bearing the words "dam ships" as a nod to the -dam suffix of the line's fleet of ships.

Fight On!

And the tradition continues.

We bought season tickets, then promptly booked a vacation that would cause us to miss the home opener (http://usctrojans.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/usc-m-footbl-sched.html). And yes, we're sure that we really do both hold graduate degrees.