I was reading through my Mom's travel journal this morning and thought some of the entries would make for a good post. So that's what I'm going to do.

Warning: this is long!


Hi guys. Mona here. It's 1.30 pm in this Airport. This stinky schedule is the result of my frugal husband wanting to cut 50 bucks off of our airfare. I'm beginning to think that he made the wrong choice in ticket purchasing.

The reason I'm currently suffering at the airport is that we're trying to get home after finishing a 7 day Princess cruise to the great state of Alaska and our neighborhood friendly Canadian city of Victoria onboard the beautiful and virginal Sapphire Princess ship!! The trip was wonderful! It's just what I needed to de-stress and be pumped up for work and the accompanying stress all over again afterwards :o). I've always regretted being lazy and not documenting my travels publicly. But this time, I have 10 hours to kill so you guys are in for a treat ... or I guess no one may care and I'll just be talking to myself. No worries, I love talking :o). The following is my stream of consciousness so be warned that it may not make sense at times and my spelling has always been awful!

I like to start by saying that the trip far exceeded my expectations. When my lovely husband asked me to cruise with him, I was a bit hesitent because I thought the ship would sink, or it would be full of boring old people, sipping wine and telling old war stories or something. Well, there were definitely lots of old people, more than I have ever seen in one setting other than my volunteering at the convalescent home. And I talked with many many of them and with a couple of exceptions, they were all really sweet people! I met an American guy who goes to Beijing every other month for business and has been getting free drinks from a hotel for the past two years because he punched out an Oklahoman who was drunk and scaring all the Chinese people at the bar. I met a very strong woman who survived breast cancer through her strength of belief that she would conquer the illness despite a late diagnosis. She seems very capable and wants to start a consultant and support group for those about to undergo or are already under treatment. I met an old couple, maybe in their 80s who met five years ago at a singles dance! They danced all night long and eventually he walked her to her car. Phone numbers were exchanged and the rest is history. So cute!!!! And of course there are the three ladies who looked older and way more out of shape than me who braved a nature hike in Juneau. I admit that I was sort of judgemental about their ability to do the hike at the beginning, but they were real troopers! And one of the old ladies was telling me about her old motorcycle riding days :o). Makes me want to get the Vespa more and more.

The activities on the cruise ship was kind of boring save the art auctions (more about that later), trivia, reading on the decks (and falling asleep under the sun), being surrounded in the beautiful scenery and watching Alastar and Scott (the cruise directors) make jokes. I guess the vegetable carving was kind of neat, but it was just demonstrations nothing hands on. It would have been cool to make my own owl and take it back home (my grandbaby loves owls). Most of the music we heard on the boat was pretty sappy. Lots of 'adult contemporary' stuff, blah. One of the piano players, can't recall his name, was pretty good. I was not too impressed with the onboard dance shows, probably because I just saw Cirque du Soleil Varekai prior to the trip and few shows will ever compare to C du S. C du S was such a mesmerizing mix of dance, acrobatics, song and art. I seriously got dizzy (the good kind) and could not walk during intermission because I was so engrossed in the show. Anyway, back to Alaska.

There were a couple things I didn't do on the ship that may have been fun. There was a spa that would have been nice to try, but my husband wasn't too excited about the idea and since I was not relunctant to pay 50 dollars for a better plane ticket, I was not about to shell out 150 dollars for a facial or massage. I did learn about this treatment called Isothermiso (i've butchered the spelling) where they literally melt the fat and water off of you!! There was this advertisement picture of an ass before the treatment, after 1 treatment and after 3 treatment and I must say the results are impressive. And apparently it's a favorite of the art auctioneer and despite his praise for the treatment, he's not a very good walking advertisement from the looks of his stomach. I don't feel bad critizing him because he said some awful homophobic things to the boys who move the art in front of everyone. It was just mean and wrong and I felt sick when I heard it. I have no complaints about the trip other than his attitude. Besides his derogatory remarks, his demeanor was so fake when he promotes the art. He's definitely a salesman. I really enjoyed looking at some of the paintings around the ship and the gallery, but whenever the auctioneer talked about them I just don't like it as much because he pushed too hard. Another thing I didn't really check out was the night club. I totally like shaking it on the dance floor, but my hubby isn't exactly the 'get down and dance' kind of man.

The ship is soooo beautiful that it was pretty nice to just sit and daydream and read, or walk around with my shiny new ipod that my son (Yes you, Matty!) let me borrow for the trip.

The single activity that consumed more of my time than anything else is eating ... oh man, I never thought I would say that eating is hard, but when you sit in the dining room for 4 hours a day ... geez! eating becomes more of a job than a leisure. Each meal was multiple courses and served by these nice waiters, many of whom are very handsome and charismatic. At first I felt great with the food. I mean, it sure beats the broccoli, bread and coffee which are the core of my normal diet. Oh yeah, let's not forget my obssession with eggs and cookies. Then hubby became a prisoner to the food and meal times and lost his appetite. Anyway, so much seafood! I've probably accumulated a huge quantity of heavy metal poisoning from the amount the fish and shellfish I have consumed in the past 7 days. Apparently, the boat loads 150tons (no, that is not a typo) of food per 7 day Alaskan cruise. Oh right, the boat contained very roughly 2000 passengers and 1000 crew members. So that's 1/20 tons
(100 lbs) of food per person!! Goodness, it's amazing that people are still able to walk off the boat when faced with that much food. We tend to have different opinions on what are fun activities onboard and on shore.

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that this 10 hour airport wait is good for preparing myself mentally and physically for the return to my real life. I need to get over not cooking and not yelling at my husband and teenage son and prepare my body to accept my normal diet.

Now, that I've blabbed endlessly about my life on the ship, let me say a bit more about my favorite portion of the trip: the scenery. Being on top of the water made me feel so small and insignificant. It's hard to describe but the experience is very humbling. I've always loved convertibles. My favorite car is the volkswagen cabrio, but the breeze on the ship deck and on top of the mountains totally beat any convertible experience on land. I'm not good with words, so I'll let my pictures speak for the scenery. I became slightly camera happy on the trip because I really wanted to capture the moment all the time. I really need to learn more about how to take better photos. Another thing to add to my list. So much to learn, so little time ...

S was our cabin steward. I thought I was crazy getting up at between 6.30 and 7am on a regular basis, but S gets us up at 5.30am! He works so hard to keep the staterooms clean and passengers comfortable. Princess policy is two cleanings a day, which I think is just stupid. the rooms do not get dirty fast enough. It's only there to make the passengers feel more pampered when there are plenty of other onboard amentities which do that already. Anyway, I saw S every day because he's always working. I thought he was very genuine, friendly and humble. He's so young, hardworking with big hopes for the future. There was something very admirable about his nature. I think it's because he possessed qualities that I wish I had myself at his young age.

Anyway, now, about Alaska! There were 5 distinct regions of interest during the cruise: Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Tracy Arm and Victoria. We did not disembark for Tracy Arm. The ship sailed through it for the glacier viewings ...amazing! Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway are Alaskan cities, while Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, Canada.

Ketchikan city was puny and horribly touristy. I generally hate being among tourists even though I am a tourist because I don't feel like I get a good impression of the actual city. But in Ketchikan, it seems that tourist attractions are almost the whole of the city. So many diamond and gem shops and mini totem poles and keychains in the gift shops! I've seen enough totem poles to last a lifetime. We did manage to walk enough to be away from all the tourist shops, which is not hard considering how small the city is, to sit on some rocks and soak up some sun.

Juneau was beautiful! We went on a hike and no words can capture the majesty of the scenery. My amateur pictures also do not do Juneau justice, but that's I've got for you.

In Skagway, we explored the city with the new friends. We sat on a train which drove around the mountains offering more peaceful imagery, but I was tired from not sleeping much the night before and prompty fell asleep...that was one expensive nap ... the train ticket was 97 dollars. Skagway city was also small but very quaint. The buildings had these super interesting facades and it was fun walking around, but very windy (my eyeballs and contacts were not happy) and cold.

In Victoria, we got swept up with a local tour guide who took us to the famous Buchart Gardens and around the city for 4 hours. Buchart was so beautiful! I can see myself being very creative in such a venue. My allergies got fired up a bit, but nothing major.

... many hours and airplane mileage later ...

Now, I'm at home on my bed. We got back at 4.30 this afternoon and other than the airline losing one of my bags (which they just delivered), the trip was pretty easy-going. On the bus home from the airport and even right now after work and stupid house chores, I have a slight empty feeling. For a short week I was living a different life, taking in the most beautiful scenery I've yet to see, meeting new people, and sharing it with my wonderful husband. And now, I'm back to my life. back to my house, and away from the Sapphire Princess, which is now sailing towards Ketchikan with another batch of passengers. It's such a change that I guess i'm still adjusting and processing the trip. I got an email from the group saying that i'm in charge of food for this week's lunch meeting. I guess that means i'll be giving the lunch talk next week ... back to work! it's interesting how great vacations are. They totally relax me, give me opportunity to learn while still having fun and they make me more excited about my own life. It was a wonderful way of celebrating 25 years of marriage! :0)


**********

I'll be posting some of my Mom's Alaskan pictures in the next post.