The Geek

And that's why I was gone this past week. It was a 7 day cruise starting in Seattle and going up the Canadian coast. I'm not a picture taking kind of guy, so I'll just leave some synopses of each individual day.

Sunday: Departure

Had to get up at 6:30 to make our way up to Seattle. We boarded the boat around noon and by 4:00 we were off. Spent most of the day on deck looking at the water, didn't see much. That night's entertainment was a preview of the entertainment for all the future nights; it wasn't promising.

Monday: Day at sea

I'm usually pretty resistant to getting motion sick, car sick, or sea sick, but I was feeling pretty bad later on that day. Luckily, it was the only day in open water. There honestly wasn't much to do on the cruise ship aside from eat, especially since I was too old for the teen centered stuff and am still too young for stuff like the casino. Therefore I spent most of the day asleep. Night's entertainment was a Tina Turner cover artist; it was okay.

Tuesday: Juneau

So many salmons. We skipped over staying in the city of Juneau and instead went to a nearby state park to see the glacier. The streams were all chock full of salmon making their way to their breeding grounds and there were warnings about bears everywhere. The glacier itself was sort of interesting, though unlike my sister and parents I wasn't much one for staring at one thing for hours on end. When we got back on the ship the night's entertainment was a Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons cover band; they were pretty good.

Wednesday: Skagway

I thought I was done learning about US history when I got out of high school, but since we were unwilling to spend the $120 a head to do the train excursion (which was the only thing to do in Skagway) we just went around learning about the Klondike Gold Rush and how this town only exists because of cruise ships. It's really sad, actually. The night's entertainment was a sketch comedy troupe, and they were really funny, the one really good thing about this cruise.

Thursday: Glacier Bay

Another day spent entirely on the ship. The morning was used to stare at glaciers, an activity my thoughts on which I have posted above. Like before, I spent most of this day asleep. The night's entertainment was a magician, who had some really good tricks.

Friday: Ketchikan

The one place that I wished we had spent more time in. They had a trail that I wanted to hike, but we were only there in the morning, so all we had time to do was visit the cultural center, where they had a very large collection of totem poles and other pieces of native art, very interesting stuff. That night there were two things going on: the comedy sketch group returned with an all-ages comedy improv session in one of the lounges, and there was also a performance of songs from popular musicals from the last 10 years.

Saturday: Victoria, BC

Aside from a short stop in Victoria, this was another day at sea, though instead of sleeping like I normally do I did a crossword puzzle that was clearly made for people far older than I am so I enlisted the help of my dad's archaic (read: 1960's and 70's) knowledge. Our time in Victoria was short, just between 6 and 10 at night, so we stuck to visiting the waterfront and dropping by the Empress Hotel. Later on, there was another improv show, though this one was adults only.

Sunday: Disembarkation

I was glad to be off the ship.

General opinion: I'd love to visit Alaska again, but if I did then I would either go on another cruise line (since this one sucked) or not as part of a cruise at all.