Island to Alaska with Pictures

[Joy2Day]

Personally I believe it was Tee who arrived bearing fantastic weather, but that's another story for another time.

 

 

 

Tee,

How was that weather in College Fjords? And crossing the Gulf of Alaska? Just curious. :-)

[judynorth]

Happy to announce that ALL the pics are posted on the website which is fully functional. (FINALLY....bad web monkey...bad monkey)

 

 

Wonderful pictures tee_wrecks! They brought back some wonderful memories. I enjoyed your commentary too and the essays. Too bad you didn't know about the choices in Skagway. We rented a car and had a great trip into the Yukon. See, you have a good reason to go back.

 

Cworld, I am really enjoying your commentary also. It gives me a chance to relive our cruise. Keep it coming.

[cworld]

Ok Cworld. Since you are the bearer of such beautiful weather everywhere you travel would you mind booking a cabin on the January 15th Star Princess to the Western Caribbean. We would really like some nice weather at that time of year. We will be leaving the cold and icky Kansas weather and you and Mrs. CWorld could arrange to leave the icky dreary January Oklahoma weather and come with! Think about it and talk it over with the Mrs.

 

P.S. we are making a stop at mouseland prior to our cruise. We just have to have a dose of mouse ears and fireworks since we will be in Florida!

 

dear luv, I'm game, you just have to raise the money. If we could just get cruisebie in gear for that screenplay... or, I never did hear back from Princess on that job application I sent them. Maybe I should add the weather thingy to my resume. But thanks for the invite.

 

I've fallen a little behind on some of your responses.

 

Jeannieq - Welcome, and thanks for your kind words.

 

FloridaTourist - Welcome back. Yeah, at the rate I'm going it may be June of 2006. But I hope not. Maybe we'll all find something else to discuss. (See luv2travel2beaches post)

 

Gayle2 - I can't promise anything. This is a lot of work. But as long as you all keep coming back, I'll probably keep going.

 

tee_wrecks - Great pic's, but 82 degrees. That's too hot. As hard as we work getting these great pho-to-graphs, we'd break out in a total sweat. Nope, I'll stick with 74 and cloudless any day. For tee only (anymore cracks about the nubbies (horns) and you might be suspended for a while. Ha, Ha)_

 

judynorth - thanks, I'll try.

[cworld]

We were up early, because the plan for the day was more what we usually do on vacation. No boredom creeping in today. We were going to be busy pretty much all day. We had scheduled our first shore excursion was at 7:30 am in the morning. This meant an early alarm, an early breakfast, and getting off of the ship as soon as possible.

 

Here is the outline of today’s scheduled activities –

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

 

Alarm 5:30

Breakfast 6:30

Gold Panning leave at 7:15

Back to ship 11:30

Lunch

Best of Juneau 1:00

Back to ship 7:30

Tribute show 8:45

 

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about.” This is what a vacation schedule should look like. This is a schedule every RodentWorldLover could be proud of. Finally, we get a full day. A full day of doing a multitude of different stuff. There’s eating, and touring, and history, and eating, and whales, and seals, and boats, and eating, and glaciers, and whales, and salmon eating, a show, and on and on and on. From 5:30 in the morning until at least 10:30 in the evening there is something to fill almost every minute of the whole day. Now this is what I’m talking about. A vacation with no extra time for anything except maybe, just maybe, if we can squeeze in a half an hour or so for in a little (insert the S word here).

 

So now we know what we’re going to do, and when we’re going to do it, so let’s proceed. We finished breakfast and walked down to the gangway to go on our first excursion. The “Gold Panning and History Tour”. Here’s what Princess says about the “Gold Panning and History Tour”.

 

Relive Juneau’s gold rush history and pan for gold beneath the ruins of a gold mine.

 

Follow the route taken by Joe Juneau and Richard Harris as they searched for gold over a century ago. Travel by minibus to Gold Creek, the site of the original gold discovery. Try your hand at panning, with a promise of “guaranteed gold in every pan.” Don’t forget to pick up your Gold Claim Certificate before you leave. See the remains of the Alaska-Juneau Mine and learn about the area’s mining history before returning to town.

 

Now doesn’t that just sound like the greatest adventure a person could ever have. I just can’t wait to board a minibus (I’m thinking Scooby Doo here) and spend a couple of days traveling the routes taken by Joe Juneau and Richard Harris. (Richard Harris, wasn’t he the guy from The Waltons? Maybe not.) Well anyway, we’re bounding down the stairthingy again to get in line for our marvy adventure.

 

We get to the bottom of the stairs and look around. The dock area where the magnificent Island Princess is parked is nothing like the dock in Ketchikan. I still get the feeling that this is an area where either oil or gasoline is offloaded. Up the road one way you can see the town of Juneau, the other way there is not a whole lot, just a couple of buildings. Right across from the ship is a metal building that looks a little like a strip mall. We can see through the back windows that there might be a little opportunity for shopping. We need to find a magnet and some Alaska shirts, and this might be the best opportunity. Our minibus is not here yet, so we wonder over and do a little window-shopping. Yep, looks like a tourist trap shopping area. Just the ticket. It’ll only take about 10 minutes to totally case this joint, and our shopping will be over for the day, and maybe for the whole trip, whohoo. We’ll probably have time to get it done at lunch. (Don’t want to waste any time today.)

 

About that time a small bus thingy pulls in, I wouldn’t call it a mini bus. It’s one of those 20 passenger buslet things, and out of the buslet, steps this homeless looking guy. He doesn’t come over to the Princess kids that are working the excursions. He just gets out and starts walking around. We find the Princess kid that is holding the clipboard for our tour, and she takes us over to the homeless guys buslet. Oh, ra. This is getting off to a good start. We are probably going to end up at some homeless shelter before this is all over. About 10 minutes or so later the homeless guy comes back and opens up the buslet. We hop on. The homeless guy doesn’t say much as we are waiting for everybody to board. The buslet is OK. It’s not anywhere near new, but it’s clean. Finally the last couple arrives and us, 6 passengers and one homeless guy are ready to go on our exciting history and panning for gold adventure. Led by a homeless guy, yuck.

 

The homeless guy gets up and introduced himself. He speaks pretty well for a homeless guy. He didn’t stink for a homeless guy. I didn’t see any evidence of liquor. He had a name. A closer look at him, with these priceless eyes that see everything, led me to believe my first impression might have been a little off. (Doesn’t happen often, but sometimes even I make a mistake.) After just a couple of minutes I decide that this is not a homeless guy. This guy just looks like a homeless guy, because that’s what most prospectors looked like. Hmmmm.

 

So after the mandatory safety briefing by the not a homeless guy, we pulled out of the parking lot, on our way to our great history and gold panning adventure. Boy I just can’t wait.

 

Until tomorrow.

 

Pic of not a homeless guy -

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/349017044/351537305vIocnD

 

Whoa there! Stop, Carl! Whoa! You can’t quit there. You better not leave those dirty-minded people, like tee_wrecks, with the wrong impression.

 

What? You mean the S word thing?

 

Yeah, the S word thing?

 

Hey, guys, don’t you know anything about me yet?

 

Not really.

 

Have I said anything in the last couple of months that even remotely makes you think I’d talk that way?

 

Maybe.

 

Well… (huff) You should know that I’m not that kind of guy!

 

Right.

 

The S word is “SHOPPING”.

 

What’d you think I meant?

 

Don’t answer that.

[tee_wrecks]

Tee,

How was that weather in College Fjords? And crossing the Gulf of Alaska? Just curious. :-)

 

Note to self....."No more photo tips for Joy." Pfffffffffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttt:p

 

Cworld....My mind isn't really dirty, merely a bit soiled. Musta been all the time I spent visiting Holdenville, OK after my parents retired and moved back there. Your comment does, however, bring to mind perhaps the most famous speech by Dashing Dan Quayle. "....What a waste it is to lose one's mind....or to never have a mind is being very wasteful..." This from a man who was a heartbeat away from being YOUR president.

 

With Colorado picked to win the Big 12 North, the OU/TU game takes on a whole new meaning. We gotta watch the Texas State fair to see who CU will be playing.

 

War Buffs!!!!! Peace, Out

[cworld]

So off we go. Mr. not a homeless guy in the lead, droning on about the history of Juneau, Alaska. Just how much history is there in Juneau, Alaska? I certainly didn’t think there was much. I think I was right.

 

We headed down the main drag. McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, yep those qualify as history. The historic movie theater had just closed. All of the buildings looked fairly new. One building Mr. not a homeless guy pointed out used to be a brothel, (Is that all they did up here?) but now was a clothing store or something. At the end of main street (or somewhere near abouts) we saw the CAPITOL OF ALASKA. THE CAPITOL of ALL of ALASKA. Now, am I crazy, (that’s a rhetorical question and doesn’t require an answer) or isn’t Alaska the biggest state in the whole U S of A? It’s even bigger than Texas (Yes it is dear.) There are more acres in Alaska than in Texas and Californ-i-a put together, or somethin like that. You’duh thunk that the biggest state in the whole U S of A would have the biggest CAPITOL right? But NOOOO. Not Alaska. If Mr. not a homeless guy wouldn’t have pointed out the capitol building to us, we wouldn’t have known what it was.

 

Pic of Alaska Capitol building here:

 

http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/students/capitol.htm

 

See, See. Just another office building. Nothing special. Now in Oklahoma we have a REAL Capitol. It’s right in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. The biggest city in Oklahoma. Almost one million people live in the vicinity of Oklahoma City. Two years ago they finally after 50 years finished the capitol building and now we have a REAL capitol. Let me show you what a REAL capitol looks like.

 

pic of REAL Capitol building

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/416381918OtWAAf

 

I’ve been to a few other capitols, Tallahassee, Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Denver, austin, and maybe even a few others. These places are almost like real cities, with real capitols. Not just little fishing villages like Juneau with office buildings for capitols.

 

I guess I wasn’t prepared for Juneau. Juneau was a lot smaller that I anticipated. It has only about 30,000 residents. Good grief, Charlie Brown, we get almost 3 times that many people at a football game every Saturday. Shout, in texas they’ll get that may at a high school football game. I guess I expected Juneau to be bigger. I expected a modern, robust, growing, contemporary, metropolitan area. What I found was something very different

 

Needless to say, my lack of preparation again led me to have some false impressions. I was expecting THE CAPITOL OF ALASKA to be a real city not just a small little town.

 

OK, enough beating up on Juneau. Mr. not a homeless guy kept droning on about this and that. I didn’t pay much attention. Mrs c probably did cause she’s a history buff. But me I didn’t care.

 

After driving for about 2 days, (30 minutes tops) we came to this place the Mr. not a homeless guy said was where we were going to pan for gold. We turned down this old trail and drove for another day (5 minutes). We came to this opening where there was a gorgeous stream.

 

I’ll talk about the stream and panning for gold tomorrow.

 

For tonight, good night, and see you in the funny papers.

[Mrs. cworld]

Remember, DH, that the Governor's Mansion was just a few blocks down OR up the mountain from the capital and we wouldn't have noticed it unless Prospector Bob had pointed it out to us. I might even say that it wasn't surrounded by a fence and state troopers. I might even also say that I bet it didn't have a swimming pool in the shape of the state--like the one the Henrys are enjoying here in Sooner land.

 

You also forgot that one of the streets was named "Married Man's Trail" or something like that because it led to one of the infamous brothels.

[ricktalcott]

Now, am I crazy, (that’s a rhetorical question and doesn’t require an answer) or isn’t Alaska the biggest state in the whole U S of A? It’s even bigger than Texas (Yes it is dear.) There are more acres in Alaska than in Texas and Californ-i-a put together, or somethin like that. You’duh thunk that the biggest state in the whole U S of A would have the biggest CAPITOL right?

 

If my memory is correct from the tour I went on, Juneau's city limits do occupy more acres than any other city in the US. Los Angeles is 465.9 square miles, while Juneau is twice the size of Rhode Island or 3,248 square miles. So, they might not have the biggest building, but they do have the biggest CAPITOL.

 

Rick

[margord]

Carl,

 

Just want you to know I am still with you and enjoying each post.

 

Marilee

[cruisingbug]

You also forgot that one of the streets was named "Married Man's Trail" or something like that because it led to one of the infamous brothels.

 

We passed a Married Man's Trail in Ketchikan, too - ran behind the brothels. Probably every town in Alaska had one...

[zachnlucy]

I'm still here too, and love this thread.

[flashdog_1]

No, of course I'm not rubbing it in that I'm still waiting to hear about your doggie experience! i know, patience.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=12200

[cworld]

My dear wife is correct about the Married Man thing, I guess. Told ya she’d remember that stuff. I didn’t really pay that much attention, but the Married Man’s thing kinda rang a bell. Now that you mention it crusinbug, I kinda remember it from Ketchikan too. Hmmm… I don’t know if I really want to open this can of worms, but why do married men always such a bum… Nope. Better not.

 

Anyway, Mr. not a homeless guy, jumps out of the buslet, and tells us to wait in the buslet for a couple of minutes. What do you mean wait? I’ve been waiting for days. I’m pumped, I’m synched, I’m riled up, I’m ready to go. (I’ve got songs wafting through my head again. For you Dr. Demento fans, this is to the tune of Monte Python’s Spam, spam…) Gold, gold, gold, gold. Gold, gold, gold, gold, wonderful gold it’s wonderful gold… (O Shut up!) We’re here and we’re ready to mine/pan for gold or something like that. Let’s go. I’m getting bored. Cameras are out. Hey, Mr. not a homeless guy, where’d you go? Your passengers are getting restless. (Maybe that’s because one of them is about to explode.) For me, Gold fever had officially set in. (Maybe it was just a fever. I don’t remember now.)

 

Mr. not a homeless guy had laid out some pans with some sand stuff in them, on a table thingy. He called us out of the buslet, and he proceeded to wade into the water and show us how to work the pan around to get to the gold. He rambled on about how gold is heavier that other materials so if you move the stuff around just right the gold will cling to the bottom of the pan. He made it look so easy. Mr. not a homeless guy could get to the gold in a minute or so.

 

Here he is at work

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351537305/351537305vIocnD

 

No problems. I’ve got this licked. Don’t tell me how to do it, just give me a pan and let me at it. OK, Mr. know-it-all, said the not a homeless guy, here’s your pan go forth and return only when you have separated the gold. GOLD, can you believe it, I’m gonna find GOLD. The only gold I’ve ever seen has been in teeth, or fakeish jewelry, or on that old building on NW 23rd. I’m gonna get gold.

 

Here I go. Hey youse guys come on, we’re gonna find gold. Oh, what? I need what? Oh, yeah, a pan. OK. Grab a pan and run down to the creek. Dump the pan in the creek and BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! That water’s FREEZING COLD. You want me to stick my hands in that freezing cold water, for how long, and do what? And for what? A few flecks of stinkin’ gold. My brother-in-law is a jeweler he can get me all the gold I want. I’m not putting my hands in that cold stuff again. OK, well maybe just a little bit. After all it is GOLD. So I sloshed, and I banged, Hey, Mr. not a homeless guy, how long is this supposed to take? Slosh, bang, bang. Slosh, bang, bang. Hey, looky here, That looks like gold. Yep, that’s gold all right. Took you long enough.

 

Me getting gold

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/349017044/351537428mFEecS

 

Cold stream

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351537458/351537458AtpWOp

http://community.webshots.com/photo/349017044/351537259BdgtnJ

 

Source of cold stream

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351537510/351537510yWacuW

 

The Motherload

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351537351/351537351JoYQnU

 

 

Hey, Mr. not a homeless guy, how do we get this gold out of this pan? What? An eyedropper? How’s that supposed to work? Oh, I see. Suck the gold and spew out the water. Not too hard or the gold goes with the water. I get it. No I don’t. Try again. Suck in the gold, tilt the dropper just so, and pour out the water. Oh, now I see. Cool. Hey everybody. I got GOLD. I’m rich. You can touch me. (Well maybe you can’t actually touch me, but you know what I mean.) Gold, the maker of Kings. And it’s mine, all mine.

 

What? What did you say, dear? Huh? Oh, why, yes dear, I’d love to combine mine with yours. What a marvelous idea. Growl.

 

We played around in the water and with the gold for a while until I got bored, and started wandering around snapping pictures. There were some great pictures of scenery and the stream was just beautiful. Oh, yes, it was a beautiful, blue sky, day in Juneau. (I almost wrote Ketchikan there, bad habit)

 

I’ve added some of the other pics I took to the Juneau site here

 

http://homepage.mac.com/cktrent2/PhotoAlbum14.html

 

This site is being a little balky tonight, so you might have to try again tomorrow.

 

Rating for the gold panning experience - A-

 

Rating for Mr. not a homeless guy – A

 

By the way his name was Keith Weathesomethingorother. I couldn’t quite read his signature on my official Gold Claim Certificate. Woohoo. But he was very good.

 

One quick note.

 

I’m not sure where we got our wires crossed. But both Mrs. c and I had gotten it in our brain pans that we were going to a gold mine. Mr. homeless guy kept talking about the mine, but we never got to see it. I don’t know if we read about a mine tour somewhere and got confused (us?, Naah) or what but we were expecting a mine tour and gold panning, but all we got was gold panning. Don’t get me wrong, the gold panning was interesting, and I’d do it again, but I would have liked to see a mine.

 

More about that later…

 

Mr. you gotta have Patience is making a comeback.

[Mrs. cworld]

And, DH, aren't you glad on that cool morning; putting your hands in that cold, very cold water, that we spent some of our insurance money and bought those nice Princess jackets with those nice warm pockets since your gloves were still in the lost suitcase and I had my gloves--HA!HA!

 

To all of my DH's readers, he is wearing the jacket in the picture of him working the gold pan. I think that is the only picture I took during our whole trip. Actually, it was the only time the camera was out of his hands. :) Well, maybe he did drop the camera for some "do not disturb" time in our cabin. ;)

[cworld]

Thanks everybody for the encouragment. It really helps. Looks like the extra photos are up and working.

 

Might have more tonight, then again might not.

 

Ha Ha

 

PS. To DW. You just think I put the camera down during the "Do not disturb time"

[cworld]

Chapter 17, The Building

 

I watched as she slipped quietly away from the group. The diversion had worked, and it would just be a matter of time before she came back with the pictures. We both knew how vital the pictures would be if we were going to be able to pull off this caper. One hundred billion dollars. $100,000,000,000.00 in pure, unpolished, untraceable, GOLD, just waiting for us to waltz in and take it. I can remember the first time Calvin proposed the job to us. Gin’s reaction was “It all sounds too easy.” Maybe it was. That’s what we were determined to find out.

 

About that time a horn sounded. My first thoughts were “what has that girl gone and done now.” I checked the trail. (Easy.) No Gin. (Relax, she’s a big girl.) Come on girl. (Breathe.) Where are you, Gin? (She’s all right.) She’s going to be OK.

 

I knew it sounded too easy. The guide said, “Ah, it’s just an electrical generating station for the city, and it’s automated, there’s never anyone up there.” We knew better. We knew that this was The Place. We had scouted it from the air for weeks, but now Gin decided it was time to get a closer look. We had never seen any activity up here, but we knew that there had to be some kind of security.

 

The horn stopped. Nothing. Not a sound. I could hear the birds chirping, the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. But no Gin. Come on girl!

 

The guide hollered it was time to go back to the ship. I waved at him and looked around again for her. Still nothing. I walked slowly back to the overgrown minibus and got on. And there she was sitting on the back seat, calm, cool, collected. I wanted to run up to her and plant a giant kiss right on her lips, then strangle her neck, but we were traveling incognito, so I couldn’t even acknowledge her presence. I started breathing again.

 

OOPS. There’s that pesky other book sneaking in again. Sorry. I don’t know how that keeps happening. (Probably because you type it.) Well, let’s see, where did we leave our ambitious couple? Oh, yeah, in the middle of nowhere, putting there hands in ICE COLD WATER. Yeah, now I remember, I had just wandered away to take some pictures.

 

One thing I came across as I took the pictures was a building that Mr. not a homeless guy said was an electrical generating station. I’m still wondering about that building. My spydar (spy radar) went haywire when he said it generated all the electricity for the whole town. I’ve seen electrical generating plants before. One of my best friends from high school, (yes there was more than one) worked at an electricity generating station. It is huge. It puts out steam, and noise, and light. You know that something major is going on. This little building wasn’t big enough for anything like that. It didn’t put out any noise. It didn’t put out any steam. It was not very big. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone, but I think it was an experimental govment facility. One of them “black ops” places that no one talks about. Me, being an important high govment official, I know about sum of these things. And my nose tells me that this place had the odor of an “electrical” (wink, wink) station. Yeah, right. Probably houses some nuclear testing station or something. Who knows, I certainly don’t.

 

Picture of secret govment building is here.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/419328125/419410747cHnFPf

 

I fired off all of my pictures, and after we both put our 10 flecks of GOLD into plastic vials, we got in the buslet and drove back to the ship. Mr. not a homeless guy kept pointing out things that I didn’t pay any attention to all the way back to the ship. (We did get up awful early. Wake me when we get to the ship, will you dear?) When we got back he filled out our Official Gold Claim Certificate. Yawn.

 

As we were driving back to the ship, one of us noticed that there was a tip jar in the front of the bus, and it got us to thinking. Are we supposed to tip bus drivers? Hmmm. How about naturalists? I hadn’t read anything about tipping bus drivers on shore excursions. I didn’t have a clue. I gladly tipped Mr. not a homeless guy. He did a great job. By the way, how much should you tip bus drivers, tour guides, naturalists? Huh?

 

Can somebody help me?

 

Tomorrow or the next day, the Elixir of Life.

[cruisingbug]

Hi -

We usually tip bus drivers $1 - if they give a talk while we're driving, $1 each.

 

Good tour guides get $5, great ones get $10. Naturalists - about the same I guess.

[cworld]

Sorry for the interruption, but Thursday’s are pretty draining at work. Just a warning, I probably won’t post anything again tomorrow. I’m tied up pretty much all day. So you gotta have Patience.

 

By the way, thanks cruisingbug, for the tipping thing. Anyone else out there do anything different?

 

When we got back to the ship, we decided to go over and do our little shopping at the metal mall-let there by the dock. There were only a couple of stores, so it shouldn’t take too long. Neither one of us was dying to eat, so off we went. We went into the first store. This was no rundown t-shirt joint. It was really a pretty nice place. Kinda like a mall store that specializes in nicer shirts and stuff. It had nice carpet and nice wood paneling on the walls. Inside was an upscale coffee area, something like a Starbucks knockoff.

 

The merchandise in this store wasn’t just thrown all over like you see at most t-shirt places. Shirts and sweatshirts were on hung racks (and not the cheapy, circular, slam them all together Wal Mart kind of racks, but the kind you see in Jaques Penne or something). And the best thing was the racks hadn’t taken the whole store over. Two people side by side could actually walk through this store. A lot of the merchandise was in bins and stacked on those plant holder thingys. You know, the kind that are about 6 foot tall and have the wide shelves. The merchandise included a bunch of nice, quality sweatshirts that were folded up and neatly stacked on the shelves. The tshirts and sweatshirts were good quality, and they had some nice designs on them. All in all, this store was pretty cool. We sniffed around for a few minutes and then moved on to the next shop.

 

The next store was a small convenience store type place. There were magazines, phone cards, chips, pharmaceuticals, you know, grocery store type stuff. Again this was a nice looking place clean, and newish. The staff was pretty helpful. I was looking for something they didn’t have displayed, and they found it in the back for me.

 

After we looked around for a while something caught my eye. Could it be? Is it really? Here, in Juneau Alaska. NO… But yes, it was. I looked up and there behind the door, right there… I mean, right there. There was the love of my life. My heart pounded, my breath stopped, I froze in my tracks. I shouted to the heavens “YES, YES, YES!!!” People started backing away from me, but I wasn’t phased. I walked over toward the door and…

 

For as long as I can remember I have had an intense, ongoing love affair. This affair started long before I met my Mrs. c, and it lasts even until today. And yes, before you ask, Mrs. c knows about it, and accepts it. Sometimes she even encourages it, and helps me with it. Mrs. C has known ever since we met, that she alone can’t fulfill all of my desires. It’s sad but true. I can’t help it, I’m obsessed. When I see the way that sweat beads on that perfect body, then rolls down slowly, gracefully over those incredible curves, I’m sunk. Then there is that wonderful (Sniff) aromatic fragrance that comes daintily off that phenomenal frame … Oooo, that smell, I can smell it even now, the smell sometimes makes me crazy. Almost every night I dream about my love’s beautiful rich dark color. That color that separates my love from all others. What else can I say?

 

...I reached in the refrigerated case and pulled out several 20 oz. bottles of Dr. Pepper.

 

What? Did you think I was talking about a person? No... right there next to the door was a case that had soft drinks in it. And on the second shelf was the Elixir of Life, the Drink of Kings, that Nectar of the Gods. It was even in my favorite, 20 oz. bottles of DR. PEPPER. I went nuts. Life once again had meaning. It was kinda like that song “Love Potion Number 9”.

 

“I didn’t know if it was day or night”

“I started kissing everything in sight”

 

Well, maybe I wasn’t quite that bad, but almost. It had been over 72 hours since I had tasted my obsession. Yeah, I know “I’d had about 20 Cokes”. It’s just not the same. I drink 4 to 6 Dr. Peppers every day. It is a serious addiction. It’s probably unhealthy, but it tastes so good. I tried one time to quit, I really did. I couldn’t. I went in to carbonated shock. I had mood swings. I couldn’t stay awake. Finally after about a month I gave up, right back to the bottle. And here I was, in the big middle of Juneau Alaska craving, begging, crying for the stupid cashier to hurry up and ring up my Dr. Pepper so I can rip it open and satisfy my habit. I’m so pitiful. I did buy a couple of extras to take back on the ship. (Should have bought more.)

 

OK, I’m ready to head back to the ship. Are we through shopping yet? What? One more store? (Heavy sigh)

 

We walked looked in the next window, there was something under construction, but it wasn’t open yet. So we had seen all of the stores in the metal mall-let. Mrs. c decided that we would go back to the first store and buy some our t-shirts and sweat shirts there. We picked out several items for us and the kids. When I looked at the pile, I didn’t know how we would get it back home in our suitcases. There was a sign on the store that said something about shipping. So I asked the clerk and she said it was not problem. A little paperwork, a little money and off our stuff went. It arrived home before we did. Pretty cool.

 

Rating for the metal mall-let by the dock where the Island Princess parked – A+

[camperhawk]

Just had to Post! I have been reading you thread since the beginning, and my outbursts of laughter have my family wondering, Is she okay? I am loving your review/NOVEL.

 

I didn't think I would ever want to cruise to Alaska, until now.

 

Mrs.C: God Bless Ya!, you obviously have all the PATIENCE!;)

[cruisingbug]

Ah, Dr. Pepper! That was hilarious! I had my hubby read up to that part, and he said, What is it, chocolate?? Then I scrolled down. So funny, we think you should quit your job and be a full time writer!

[Joy2Day]

cworld,

 

Yup. We were southbound, so we stocked up on Diet Dr. Pepper in Skagway. I bought some DDP in Nova Scotia once -- it tasted different. Good enough to get my fix, but not "right".

[WeBeGone]

cworld:

 

Just read this whole thread (nothing else to do, it's raining and cold) and I'm amused, inpressed, and ready for more. We go on the Sapphire on Sept 18 so your writing is just adding to the anticipation. We spent 3 months in Alaska with our RV but this will be our first cruise to Alaska. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[alwalaska]

Hi! Carl. Thanks for the continuing saga. Like the anal Rodent planner that I am, I was wondering why when Princess lists the “Gold Panning and History Tour” as a 1 ½ hour tour, did you leave from 7:15 – 11:30 in your schedule. We will only have until 3:30 or 4pm in Juneau on our Southbound cruise and I want to see what we can fit into that shorter day.

 

 

Keep writing and we’ll keep trying to have patience. I am really enjoying the story.

PS - It is getting very difficult to post to this thread. Do you think you should start a part two thread and just tell us all the title so we can subscribe?

[mmo]

Carl--what a great post, have been following it from the 1st!! But, do you think it will be done before Oklahoma starts it's season? I'm worried we'll miss a few months of posts! Thanks for the laughs.

[cworld]

camperhawk,

 

Thanks for the encouragement. My family wonders at pretty much everything I do. And by the way Mrs. c is lucky to have me, seeing as how I’m practically perfect in every way.

 

crusingbug,

 

I like my job. But if anyone ever comes up with enough dinero, I’ll give it a try.

 

Joy,

 

I’ve noticed a couple of places that it comes out tasting funky. But it still beats the alternatives.

 

WeBeGone,

 

Welcome to our party. Glad to give you something to do on a cold and rainy day. I hope you have as much fun as we did next month. We’ll probably still be cruising whenever you get back.

 

alwalaska,

 

I’m not exactly sure about our times for the Gold Tour thing. I think our actual departure time was 8:00, but I’m not sure. We just scheduled 1 excursion in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. I think we were back to the ship by 10:00 and maybe a little earlier.

 

About the other thread… Hmm, what could we call it?

 

mmo,

 

Thanks for posting to our little shindig. I will try to work during football season, however, there won’t be anything on Saturdays. So there might have to be a little more Patience.

 

I’m beginning to think this is never gonna end.

 

heavy sigh