Well we are back from Tahoe. It is hard to believe we've been married for two years now! We had a very nice anniversary weekend. The weather was very pleasant (not as hot as on our honeymoon). We discovered a bar/restaurant that looks like a total cavern dive but actually had pretty good food. It was originally a gas station and has had many incarnations since. A very British waiter tried to get us to stay for karaoke. They make their fries with tempura batter and are more like potato slices than fries. And the cole slaw had no mayonnaise which is always a plus with us. In fact this is how it's described in tahoe.com

Rojos Tavern
Highway 50 & San Francisco Ave, South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
"Roadhouse Grotto meets Mafia Speakeasy is the best way to describe this peculiar stop on south shore’s main drag. A small labyrinth of coved booths wind in and out of the restaurant, which serves a menu of BBQ grub. Come before 6 p.m. for early bird dining specials, or later for karaoke, which takes over the place on Sunday and Tuesday evenings and features the largest legal songbook in the Tahoe area. Specialty Sketch Factor: Where else can you sit in a cave and eat ribs whilst listening to an elderly Mexican dude in lizard-skin cowboy boots sing Ring of Fire? "

Guess we missed out on that last part...

Alaska Cruise Day 7

Our last day, and really a transport day. A couple of nights earlier we took the photo together at a dining room. We disembarked the ship at 6:30 AM on Sat. We were docked at Whittier, AK and driven from there to Anchorage. It was actually an interesting drive. Whittier can get up to 30 ft a snow some years as opposed to Anchorage's average of 5 ft. And Anchorage is north of Whittier. We had to drive through a long tunnel and saw more glaciers on the other side. Our bus driver told us that once a year they close the tunnel to vehicle traffic and people are allowed to walk/run through it. People often wear crazy costumes. But they have to wear a hard hat because the tunnel has rock walls! Too funny. Anyway, we drove past Turnagain Arm in the Cook Inlet, the water you see in the photo. The first whites to explore the inlet were Captain Cook's expedition. So the inlet was named after Cook. He hoped to find a Northwest Passage to Great Britain. Due to the massive run off of glacial silt the arm is not navigable, meaning Cook's ship constantly had to turn around. That is why Cook named it Turnagain Arm. The sandy area is called the mudflats. The mudflats are made up of glacial silt carried to the inlet by rivers. Our driver told us the sand is very deceptive and that people walk out there every year. When the high tide comes in they get stuck in it similar to quicksand. There were a lot of forests along the way as we drove and it is an area frequented by moose. Flocks of moosen for those Brian Regan fans... we did pass one but I didn't see it. :( But we did see a black bear (that is a picture of a stuffed one from the Anchorage airport because I could not get one of the live bear we saw). We got a really good view of this bear. He turned and looked right at our bus. He was so cute.

So then we got to Anchorage and waited a couple of hours for our flight. Apparently, Drew's hands set off an alarm. Yeah. They couldn't explain that but of course held him up even longer than at SFO. He was talking to a airport security guard later (not part of the security process) and he said maybe residue from the metal on his wheelchair got on his hands. Or something...

Alaska Cruise Day 6

So after cruising in Glacier Bay we sailed into the College Fjord. A fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. It's called the College Fjord because the Harriman expedition that explored the area in 1889 included students from many of the major East Coast universities of the time. So each glacier was named after a university represented. At that time colleges and universities were still segregated by gender as well as race, so they named some of the glaciers after men's colleges (Harvard, Yale, etc) and some after women's colleges (Vasser, Wellesley, Brown). Funny thing is they named all the glaciers after men on the sunny side of the fjord and all the women's on the shady side. All the men's glaciers have since melted while the women's are still there. I'm pretty sure that's the Wellesley glacier on the left. We could only get a view of the whole fjord of glaciers from the top walkways of the top deck. So, unfortunately, Drew could not see the full panorama. But I went up and stood in line to take pictures before we pulled out of the fjord. We saw even more wildlife here. There was a bald eagle on a small iceberg pretty close to the ship. There were tons of sea otters and even a couple of orcas (killer whales). Of course it was still impossible to get a decent photo without a massive camera lens. That top photo of us was taken at 10 pm! It was still light out!

Alaska Cruise Day 5

Here they are. What you've all been waiting for: the glaciers. Make sure you click on them to see the full detail. So after Skagway we did not dock anywhere until Whittier on the way home. We cruised through Glacier Bay on Day 5. This is where we could see those most dramatic glaciers that have calved so much they are like tall walls of ice. The main one we saw in Glacier Bay is Marjorie Glacier. We felt like we were really close to the glacier on the ship but actually we were miles from it. It's an optical illusion that we were so close. Just like when it looks blue, that's just the way the light reflects in the ice. When the sunlight tries to go through the solid glacier ice crystals the sun gets broken up into lots of colors. Red and yellow have very little energy and the thick ice soaks up the red light more than it soaks up the blue light. The blue light has enough extra energy to get away from the solid ice crystals without getting absorbed or soaked up. This is why the only color people see is the blue color that escaped. The blue light has enough energy to escape the ice so that you can see it. That is why glacial ice is often a deep blue color. The black part is silt and dirt. We did get to see some calving but only small pieces fell from the very bottom so it wasn't too dramatic. Here is a YouTube video of Marjorie calving really dramatically.
We also saw humpback whales in Glacier Bay. Just their tail fins though. Well, everyone but Drew saw them. He managed to miss all the whales.

Alaska Cruise Day 4

Day 4 we were in Skagway (or Skaguay as I also saw it spelled). Skagway was about the size of my hand. It's very small but it was the first place we went that didn't rain the whole time! The first place since Vancouver, that is. It only rained part of the time in Skagway. We took a train to the White Pass and Yukon Route that left right from where the ship was docked. You can see how close it was in that top left photo. The train had one car with a wheelchair lift so all the people in wheelchairs were on one car. Drew called it the cripple car. Most of the other passengers had thick New York accents. We heard many different accents on the cruise: Southern, Midwestern/Central Canadian, Australian, British, the captain of the boat was Irish and the servers in the dining rooms were from all over but mostly Eastern Europe and Asia. Anyway, the White Pass train took 1.5 hrs each way all the way to the top of the trail the gold miners took in 1898. It was a refurbished vintage train for the total effect. The route was often called the White Pass because it was so covered in snow. I think the guide said we ascended over 1200 ft (and about 20 miles straight up) in an hour going from Skagway to the top. The very top is actually on British Columbian soil. We saw the miner's graveyard where so many who died along the way were buried. We crossed a creek known as Dead Horse Creek because so many horses died in it. Apparently, Yosemite is not the only place with a Bridal Veil Falls. We saw a waterfall with the same name along the way. Perhaps because John Muir spent a lot of time exploring Alaska. So the bulk of our day was spent on the train. It was a little boring on the way back because the guide went over all the same info. I could not sit next to Drew so I kind of bounced from one side of the car to the other to stand and talk to him, take pictures, and to sit. When I was sitting I sat next to an older lady from FL who was freezing. Yes, Alaska is pretty cold. So I saw both sides on the way up whereas everyone else really got a new view when we did the Summit Shuffle (shifting seats to the other side of the car). It was pretty cool to be near the top and see our ship docked off in the distance between 2 mountains. Oh and we saw a grizzly bear right next to the tracks! He was too fast for me to get a photo though.

Alaska Cruise Day 3.

The next day we docked in Juneau. Juneau is bigger than Ketchikan (it's AK's capital). This was where we did the dog sledding. Drew did not sit this excursion out! The dog sledding was awesome! The guys at Dog Sled Summer Camp were so nice. They were young guys and one had run the Ititarod. They gave us some history on the Ititarod, showed us a real sled, etc... then they take you out to do the dog sled (more of a off-road, 4 wheeler cart) on the dirt track. It was pretty high up to where the seats were. So it took a couple of people to help hoist Drew up into the seat. But it was worth it because he enjoyed it so much. We would ride for a bit and then they would rest the dogs and tell us a little bit about the routine when running the Ititarod. And the dogs were so well trained. "Gee" means go and "Ha" means stop. They would stop and go so perfectly. And there were commands for veer right and left. These commands actually come from mule driving. Apparently there is another excursion where they can take people on the dog sled on a glacier. We did not do that. But the dogs were great, they loved the run. They were a little thinner than we thought they'd be. And they didn't look like Siberian Huskies. They aren't but they are Alaskan Huskies. I think we had 12 dogs pull us around a 1.5 mi track. Then we got to play with some puppies that were born a few weeks earlier. After that we went to Mendenhall glacier a few miles outside Juneau. That was very cool, too. The visitor center there is up a hill with a great view.

Alaska Cruise Day 2

Our first port stop was Ketchikan, AK. Here is a map to show you where each place was. Click on it to see it full size. Drew opted not to get off the boat that day. We took a taxi from the port there. We had a great cabbie, named Gar, who was very nice about telling us where the local stuff was. Ketchikan is where the totem center is. Alaska was originally inhabited by Tlingit Indians who made these and the tradition is carried on here. It was really cool because we got to watch the totem carvers work in their workshop. We got to see close up some final projects like a painted bent box. And then you can walk around the grounds and take pictures of the standing totems. There is also a guide but we didn't catch her presentation. Mary and Brian snuck into a native dance ceremony reenactment, too. They didn't know they were supposed to pay for it. If you go to the gift shop on site you can arrange to go see the carvers with a group. I got a very informative book about the totems with some native poems, too. Also we saw a bald eagle and a nest. My camera batteries died just in time for me to not get a photo of that though. Then we went to the town of Ketchikan to Fat Stan's pub and the fish market attached. They had yummy clam chowder bread bowls and halibut fish and chips. Oh and Mary and Amy went shopping at the many jewelry shops... and I had $4.20 mocha...

Alaska Cruise Day 1:

So we are on the Diamond Princess with Princess cruises. We flew from SFO to Vancouver (so yes we had to go through customs). That was peachy. No, not really. This is the first time I've ever flown with Drew. In fact we've never gone out of state together, let alone to another country. Of course, we were in Vancouver for all of an hour before getting on the boat. Let's just say, going through security for us bi-peds is annoying. If you are in a wheelchair it's a thousand times worse. I think Drew will be traumatized by his "pat down" for awhile. Since you can't go through the metal detectors they put you in what they call "the cage" (yes, I'm serious) and touch close to every part of you. Drew said he didn't know he'd ordered the deep tissue massage. It is really pretty shameful the way they do things. Also it was not easy getting Drew on and off the airplane. Most of the seat rests do not go up so he had to "jump" pretty far over to get into his seat. It's really annoying that they don't make the aisles just a little wider so he could take his own chair on the plane. They have to take him off his chair and put him on this skinny aisle chair and store his chair during the flight.

The ship picked us up at the Vancouver harbor so we had to take a taxi (paid for and arranged by Princess once they discovered that Drew could not stand since the buses did not have lifts) from the airport to the harbor. We boarded about 1pm and left port at about 5pm. When we left the harbor (that building with the white sails) we had a nice view of Vancouver. Last night and all today we were at sea and did not dock. It was not a scenic area and the conditions were rocky there. So that was a good day to explore the ship. If you've never been on a cruise ship, they are huge!! We were on the 12th floor and there were 14 floors (the top one being open air and the place to go to get the best photos of glaciers). There are several shops on board, a casino, an art gallery (don't get too excited not much is good), a library with internet access (but it was expensive), 4 dining rooms where the food was included in the cruise package (with very similar fine dining menus), a steakhouse (extra $ to eat here), a buffet and several stands (ice cream-extra $, pizza, grills). We have found the Princess staff to be very nice on the whole. Very attentive and helpful with Drew.

Things that are good for people in wheelchairs on our cruise ship:

1) Drew could pretty much get everywhere on the boat except the very top walkway look-outs on the top deck. He could still be on the top deck though.
2) When you're docked at port there are lots of people to assist you getting off the boat. This is important since the ramps to get off the boat are super steep.
3) elevators to every part of the ship passengers can go
4) widened doorways to most places
5) Our room was twice the size of normal rooms
6) Our bathroom had a roll-in shower
7) Our bathroom was big
8) Drew was able to go out on our balcony

Things that are bad for people in wheelchairs on our cruise ship:

1) Heavy doors onto most of the decks
2) Only a couple of automatic doors and no buttons to open doors automatically for the disabled.
3) Having to wait for buses to excursions with lifts
4) They didn't keep track of who could get out of their chairs so everyday they had us fill out a paper saying that he could not and would need assistance getting off the boat or would require a lift on the transport vehicle.
5) They blocked off a ramp on one of the ship's floors one day when we were docked. They refused to open it up. So in order for Drew to disembark we had to go up and down the elevator and through a few floors. Very annoying.
6) The ramp out to the balcony of our room was not fixed so it would slide around when Drew rolled on it.
7) Severe lips to go over in important doorways that meant Drew had to be pushed over them most of the time instead of doing it himself. Usu there was someone nearby who did it but it would not have taken much to level off those lips more.

Back from Alaska! And we're exhausted... and Drew is still mad he didn't see any whales. The rest of us did (both humpbacks and orcas). We had a great time. I will do a write up for each of our days there later but for now here are my favorite photos.