Hippo Birdie

... two ewe! Happy 3rd, Ganzoo!

Alaska: Part II

You know, it's hard not to think that a cruise ship surfaces on the water just in time for you and your family to enjoy all its pleasures, then when the trip's over it just sinks right back into the ocean again. The time on the ship is so unreal and pleasant: everything is free (until you get the bill at the end!) and everyone is so nice (on the off-chance that you'll tip!).

It's when you start talking to the people who work on cruise ships that you realize real-life is pretty hard for the ones you leave behind when you're vacation's done. There are children and spouses left far away for months at a time, very low wages, and loooong hours of trying to be nice to everyone no matter how tired you are and how rude they've been. Then again, as sad as it is, there is not a whole lot of opportunity where many of these workers came from (lots of Eastern Europeans, Filipinos, Indonesians) so I guess this would be nice work if you can get it.

Anyway, didn't mean to get depressing... on to more pictures!

Sawyer Glacier

Icebergs! Um, didn't those sink the Titanic?

The train ride in Skagway

View from the train ride in Skagway

There was a Chocaholic Buffet at midnight on the last
night of the cruise... ahhh, indulgence!

And finally... Chameans, all sugared-out & loving it

Alaska: Part I

Alaskan wildflowers

Soooo. We went on a cruise to Alaska last week! Talk about relaxation. I don't think I did anything but eat and sleep. (Maybe that's why I don't have very many pictures of our trip, either.) There were 13 restaurants on the USS Gluttony, and of course, we had to try all of them. (Of course!) Thank goodness for the fitness center, although I probably should've visited it more often than its neighbor, the ice cream shop. Why, why would you put an ice-cream shop right next to the gym?

We also made lots of new friends on the ship, mainly because mostly all the service workers were either Filipino or Indonesian. Our stateroom steward, the ice-cream lady, our waiters and waitresses, the youth counselor at the daycare, and on and on. Nonna and Poppy were popular with the waitstaff in particular, because they'd speak Tagalog (or Cebuano, or Ilocano) to the Filipinos, then turn around and speak bahasa to the Indonesians. It was like a parlor game after awhile... can you speak Croatian? How about Russian?

As for Alaska itself: I wish I was a better photographer, because the shots I took don't do any kind of justice to the amazing wilderness. Here are some from our first couple of ports in Ketchikan and Juneau:

This totem pole stands near an entrance to the
Tongass National Forest in Ketchikan

There's a teacher read-aloud story in the third grade anthology about Tlingit Native Americans from Ketchikan and their totem pole traditions. My students and I (both years I taught 3rd) loved that passage about "talking trees", and we'd hunt for images of totem poles and find out stories behind some of them. I was thrilled to see the poles up close and personal, and wished I could've brought all my students with me!

Staying cheerful in the rain (it looks like it stopped, but
30 seconds after I took this, it started up again.)

The bald eagle, baddest m*f*kin bird in the world
(I'm not fond of birds anyway, but these ones are hella scary.)

There are bears where?

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau