We headed out to Seattle a day early and spent Saturday wandering around Pike Place Market and some of the downtown area. Seattle is a great place to visit and the Market is a lot of fun. We took the mono rail to the Space Needle, but passed on the Space Needle as we had both been up before. After a good dinner we spent the night at the Warwick hotel. Nice hotel and they let us park are car there for the week for free.
Next morning we had oatmeal and coffee at Starbucks and then took a taxi down to Pier 66 on Alaskan Way. While checking in we were given ID badges and cards that are used to pay for everything on the ship. We found our stateroom, unpacked and then headed out for a little tour of the ship. The stateroom was decent size for seven days, with plenty for storage, nice size flat screen TV and very nice bathroom. Of course the best part was the balcony with chairs and table. Promptly at 4:00 we were off, heading down Elliott Bay for our first cruise.
First day was a sea day, which meant we spent most of the time out on the balcony watching the world go by. Balcony time and wandering around the ship were pretty much our things to do when not in port. As far as eating there were at least a dozen choices. We found the Teppanyaki and Cagney’s Steakhouse to be the best. Every night we slept with the slider to the balcony open so we could hear the waves.
The first port was Juneau, which is the capital and other than the thousands of Alaska t-shirts for sale resembles any other town. We did put in the mandatory appearance at the Red Dog Saloon for an adult beverage and eventually made it back to the ship without a single purchase.
Overnight the ship headed to Skagway, where we spent the day. With not a lot to do, we signed up for a trip on an old narrow gage railroad train to the Canadian border. While very scenic, the old railroad bridges we crossed did not instill a lot of confidence. Once again we escaped without a t-shirt.
The next morning we woke up to Glacier Bay. That was easily the highlight of the trip. The ship would park off a glacier and just to 360’s giving everybody great view. After a while we would move onto another glacier. Only disappointment was not seeing any great chunks of glacier dropping into the sea.
After another overnight move we woke up in Ketchikan, which turned out to be our favorite Alaskan port. Billed as the Salmon capital of the world, it lives up to its name in the number of places to buy smoked salmon. And we did. There is a nice boardwalk up along the Ketchikan River, where there are more t-shirts. There is also Dolly’s, a bordello from another era, but still open for tours.
The next day we got into Victoria, BC late-afternoon. With not much time ashore, we headed straight for the Irish Times Pub on Government Street. For many years this has been our favorite place for fish and chips and it did fail us this time.
The next morning we were back in Seattle of our first cruise was over. Before we were off the ship we knew it would not be out last.
