Sea Legs

Alaska! A boat! Good times!

The Quinlens are finally on a boat in the ocean. Hooray!

Don't get me wrong- Denali and Anchorage were great- but I think we are all happy to be done with buses and trains (even ones as nice as those in which Holland America has been shuttling us to and fro) for a while.

Mutti wakes up Addie to point out something awesome no doubt

Speaking of- the train from Anchorage to Denali was pretty darn great. Holland America has its own cars with glass domed tops that offer a "360" view. I'm not sure it's exactly 360 since you have cars in front of and behind you plus plenty of people to see over and around, but the view is outstanding. Additionally, the cars are double deckers with the dining area downstairs and the seating area upstairs. We ate well and saw lots of cool stuff: moose, a black bear, salmon, and, (we are told) most fortunately, Denali itself. Apparently the train staff had not been able to view Denali in several weeks, and we got to see it from several different vantage points. Very cool!

Denali! At least . . . as far as you know.

The view from our dinner table at the McKinley Chalet

As I said, we had a great tour through Denali National Park on Saturday and saw lots and lots of critters (Mutti may have written down everything we saw). What we didn't see in in the park we got to see at an animal refuge yesterday at a stop between Anchorage and Seward. Highlights included a very adorable orphaned moose calf, a black bear munching leaves in a tree, and some enormous bull moose lounging lazily under a tree. Oh! And a young grizzly bear that seemed to enjoy coming up to the edge of its enclosure to check out all the visitors (including Addie!).

Greetings taco lovers!

We set sail around 10:30 or 11:00 PM last night, so we probably spent 5 or 6 hours on the ship puttering around, orienting ourselves, and eating dinner prior to takeoff. We saw a sea otter paddling around in the Seward port during dinner, and s/he was super cute.

Seward. Not the loveliest port from the ground, but pretty darn nice from the boat!


Close quarters? Not so bad, as it turns out.

Today we have been power cruisers since we have a day at sea and nothing in particular to do. We've been to the gym, the pool, the hot tub, the buffet, the ice cream place, the laundry room, the library, and, briefly, the promenade deck for a lifeboat drill. We passed with flying colors, and Doodah made some Kiwi friends in the process.

Seward: really kinda pretty!

For fear of this turning into a play-by-play (what- you don't want to know what we're doing every single second?), I'm going to stop now. I will force Mutti to write something soon, and Addie will have a post coming shortly.