What to do on a ferry when it doesn't stop all day

AlaskaFest 2005 - Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Inside Passage
1: Bellingham - Queen Charlotte
2: QC to S of Ketchikan
3: Ketchikan to Petersburg
4: Sitka to Juneau

Our first full day at sea - and it was literally a complete day at sea

Well, we woke up and realized that we hadn't sank and that we had to be somewhere along the coast of Canada. Pretty cool to realize you're out in the middle of nowhere, and definitely someplace I had never thought I'd get to. That's one thing I'd like to say, somewhat off the Alaska topic: Traveling rules! I highly recommend that any and all of you get your ass out of your home and go see the parts of the world that interest you. You've got one shot at life, why not make it full of interesting memories in crazy weird places? Anyways, </end tangent>.

So Jason and I realized that we had an entire day to kill, and on a boat, which while it had some basic creature comforts, didn't exactly have a karoake bar full of fun inside. We began the day off okay, walking around the outside deck and taking in the amazing scenery in that part of the world. Basically, you're surrounded by mountains that plunge into the ocean and lots of trees covering said mountains. As you progress further north, the scenery only gets more dramatic. It really is breathtaking. I heard a guy in the dining hall one evening say that trying to describe what you've seen on the cruise really is beyond words. I'm sure there are words that could adequately and accurately convey what you've seen, but they probably wouldn't do the scenery justice. The pictures on this page only hint at what is to come as the ferry got further north, but already by this time, it was easy to just lean against the rail and just stare out at the scenery. Which is what we did for quite a while, until it got too windy and cold and we had to go indoors.

Other things we did to make the time go by: write in journals that never got written in again; dominoes (I won, I think); more scenery watching; devour Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies (unfortunately no microwave was around for heating up of said cookies); red wine drinking in the middle of the day from plastic cups (oh yes, we're classy) - I know that the Baroness would be proud, wherever she was at the moment. Amazingly, the time did go by, and fairly quickly at that. The treat was the completely incredible sunset that evening - it attracted quite a crowd at the bow of the ship as the sky was relatively clear and the scenery was quite dramatic, as you can see below in the pictures. After that extravaganza arranged by the Alaskan Committee for Tourism, Jason and I settled in to the bar for a few pitchers of glorious Alaskan Amber beer and cutthroat Yahtzee. He had kicked my ass earlier that day in Yahtzee (using his travel version, in which you actually don't roll the dice - you spin them in this weird Iron Maiden-esque contraption - I think that's why I lost), so we played again that evening at the bar, with actual dice. And let me tell you, Jason went down. We were playing Triple Yahtzee, and I scored 1000 points exactly on one game. I ended up getting five Yahtzees in one session. I rock. And I also managed to get completely smashed by the end of the evening, once again passing out quite effectively that night.

The next day, we were going to wake up and find ourselves at our first port of call: Ketchikan!

Inside Passage - Day 2 photos

Hey, it's me!

Picture of Jason taking a picture

Looking back

Not gonna jump, not gonna jump

Oh, look, trees!

Me and Jason

I did NOT pose for this - I just happened to be staring majestically in the distance

Me and Jason in his patented self-picture-taking skills

So, how big IS the Tongass? (Have you all figured out how to say that word yet?)

Oh yes, it IS time for red wine in plastic cups.

Red wine makes my two front teeth all yellow - yuck

What an alkie.

The beginning of the awesome sunset

More of it

Wait for it

Shoot me an email if you have any comments!