Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Expiration Date


                       Expiration Date


Thanksgiving this year was a good one for our family.  Everyone living in this household was in decent health for their age, the wife and I were enjoying our retirement and my son was happy in his job and in his life as a whole.  We’d invited good friends to share our Thanksgiving feast with us and it was a good one.  My wife outdid herself once again with the turkey, the mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy, two vegetable casseroles, fresh rolls with butter, etc and etc.  Our family and our guests were happily full after eating and all was right with the world, at least for that day.  We all were appropriately thankful for the blessings we had enjoyed and it was, everything considered and all in all, a nice day.

But that Thanksgiving had a deeper meaning this year, which I wasn’t aware of until just recently.  Come along and let me explain.

It’s always a good thing, at least in my book, when a city doesn’t demolish an old building with all its interesting history and make a new parking lot.  Don’t get me wrong, parking lots are needed and it’s occasionally necessary to bid adieu to an older building to create one, but it’s a wonderful thing when an old building can be repaired, repurposed and given a new life. 

One instance of this occurring happened recently in my small town.  A semi-derelict building down by the railroad tracks on South Street, whom most figured was destined for the wrecking ball and the landfill was purchased, repaired and now is being used as a brand-new micro-distillery.  Two local entrepreneurs with several going businesses under their belts formed a partnership, saw the potential, bought and fixed up the building and started making rye whiskey and other handcrafted spirits.

Its name was and still is Minglewood.

This particular company has a long history.  It was started in 1921 when the building was erected to serve as a coal delivery company.  The following year they expanded and started also making and delivering ice in 25 to 100 pound blocks.  They would deliver this ice and coal in horse-drawn wagons in those early days.  Minglewood served my hometown and many surrounding communities with ice and coal for 38 years until modern refrigeration and heating changed the industry and closed the business.  The two entrepreneurs recently saw the history and potential in the building in 2016 when they purchased it and started their new enterprise.

How all is this connected to my family you may ask?  Well, to answer ya, my grandfather worked at Minglewood from the mid-1920’s through the end of World War II as an iceman!  He was one of the gentlemen who loaded up the truck with ice in the mornings and delivered it to businesses and homes far and wide.  His particular route was to the outlying communities beyond the city limits of our hometown.  He would run his route looking at the homes and businesses along the way and when he saw the placard in the window requesting ice, he would stop and deliver the requested size block for the home’s icebox.  He was a man of smaller stature, but very strong from the work he performed each day.

And, again, how does this tie into last Thanksgiving?  Well, sometime during my grandfather’s employment at Minglewood, there were several pictures taken of him and his fellow workers – the icemen and the coal men.  Through some means, which I don’t really remember, I have several of these photographs in my possession.  Actually I have three of them right in front of me.  There is a fourth one also, of that I’m positive, and that is the one I’ve been recently trying to find.  I thought it might be a great idea to donate these pictures to the new Minglewood and possibly get them hung up on their walls!  And grandpa would be back at the old place again!

But up to now I’ve been unable to find that pesky fourth photo.

I’ve gone through ALL of my photos the last couple days looking and I’ve got THOUSANDS of the darn things.  I can kind of visualize a small packet of the 3 or 4 photos and maybe even the negatives also. 

Tucked in somewhere…

So I’m now looking in places where there shouldn’t be photos.  And finding the occasional one hiding here and there.  But not the darn target I’m seeking.

But that still doesn’t lead us to last Thanksgiving, does it?  We’re getting there.  Be patient.

While perusing those multitudes of photos from bygone days, I ran across the packet that had the clippings and sympathy cards from when my father and brother had passed away.  It was sobering seeing those items again and it was hard not to remember how sad it was when those events happened.  And while I was looking at my dad’s obituary from the local paper in that packet of photos it occurred to me that I was close to being the same age as he was when he passed.

And I wondered how close.

I took his date of birth and date of death from the obit and put them into a program online that calculates elapsed time.  It showed me that my dad lived 70 years, 8 months and 13 days.  Then I inputted my birthday and calculated forward 70 years, 8 months and 13 days.  The date I attained my dad’s length of life was Thanksgiving.  Just a week or so ago.

Now isn’t that something!  I’m presently older than my dad ever was!  I suppose it’s some sort of a grand milestone in the larger scheme of things.  Beating your father in the game of life.  I’d already beat my mom in that contest as she passed away very young at 51.  I also passed my next younger brother who died in his early 40’s.  And of course my next youngest brother – the one that’s still with us  - well I’ll always be older than him.  I guess that makes me kind of the patriarch of my family, the old man.

It wasn’t hard achieving this honor.  I just kept breathing.

And life goes on and every day I’m one day older than my dad ever was.

Every.  Single.  Day.

And it makes it hard not to wonder when this old bag of bones’ expiration date might be.

Or where that miserable fourth photo might be hiding…

Sunday, November 19, 2017

The Old Hard Sell




                        The Old Hard Sell



I suppose I should have known better and not have been so naive.  Surely.  Ok, if truth was to be told, I probably did know better.  I am a man of three score and ten, so I should have been dubious and refused the request.  Doggone it, I should have been a whole lot smarter.  But…  For a moment there my resolve weakened and said OK.  And the groundwork for the “incident” was laid.

I guess a little background is in order: We get a lot of phone calls here at the house from unknown (to us) callers.  The caller id said various things, none of which were names of people we know or stores we do business with – doctors, dentists, business places, etc.  So we usually let the answering machine pick up and usually the caller hangs up without a message.  I figure most were sales calls.  Unless, of course, it’s political in nature and those critters ALWAYS have something to say.  So when we got a call from someone who purported to be an insurance agent from a company we HAD done business with in the past, we listened to their message a bit closer.  Actually this was about the third or fourth call leaving us a message from this company (we’re fast on the delete key) and was the first one we really listened closely to.  It was from a life insurance company that we had a policy or two with and they wanted to “update their records” on us.

Uh-huh, the ol’ “update your records” ploy.

In retrospect, of course it was a bit fishy.  We hadn’t moved our residence or changed our phone number in decades.  

They should have known that.  Obviously.  

In any event, they apparently caught us in a weak moment and we called them back.  They didn’t want to update their records about us over the phone and, of course, that was another red flag.  They wanted to come to our house.

Living possibly still in that weak moment, I agreed and set up an appointment to talk with them a few days later.

To speak well of this company, which in all fairness I feel compelled to do, we had dealt with one of their representatives a few years ago and were more than happy with her.  This saleslady was upbeat, friendly, more than happy to go over all our life insurance policies and especially over our policy with her company.  When she patiently explained some facts to us, we changed some things and gave her more business.  It was a fine interaction and it left a good impression of the company.  And a good taste in our mouth.  I’ve sold stuff in the past and have studied in college what makes a good salesman.  She was one of the good ones.

A few days later the doorbell rang and we opened it to the new representative of this company and he was DEFINITELY not one of the good ones.  

Please bear with me as I’m going to try to remain calm for the rest of this blog although it isn’t going to be easy.  Here we go…

Salesman X came into the house and with him was Trainee Y.  The salesman was pudgy and irritated looking with wrinkled business clothes with a sour aura of peevishness.  I got the impression that his being in my home was not his idea of a pleasant thing to do on this glorious day.  They swept in like Captain Bligh upon his quarterdeck with his lieutenant and barked a question about where he could plug in his laptop.  I led them to our dining room, turned on the main lights and helped him power his computer.  

He did not look friendly in any aspect and the scowl on his face never left for the duration of their stay.  

It reminded me of someone who smelled something foul.  

I laid our policy with his company next to him on the dining room table and attempted to make some small talk while he booted up his laptop.  He mostly ignored my attempts at conversation.  Finally he must have reached our records on his computer when he started into a sales pitch.  I stopped him soon enough and politely asked what updates they needed from us.  I reminded him that was what he was there for.  Apparently (I’m sure you saw this coming) they really didn’t need an update, this was a sales call.  He ignored my query and started on with the sales pitch and then asked something about “neither one of you has been sick recently, right?” and he glared at us.  I told him I had a heart attack about two years ago followed by bypass surgery. This would have been a good time for any decent salesman to offer some words of sympathy and compassion.  Instead he looked at me like I’d crawled out from under a rock and flatly said “we couldn’t do anything for you”, then turned his attention to my wife, utterly ignoring me.  He stated that for X number of dollars, which amounted to about 3 times what we were paying for her present policy, he could cover her “nicely” and her final expenses would be fully covered.  

My wife and I looked at each other.  Her face was red and she was struggling to speak.  I told Salesman X that this was not anything we wanted and that we were retired, living on a fixed income and just couldn’t afford it.  He snorted and did some recalculations.  He then said, “for this new amount she could get mostly covered.”  I think he referred to the insurance as the “silver -level” coverage where the previous quote was for the “gold-level”.  This number was still about double what we were paying.

My wife was still shaking her head no and I could feel her vibes for me to get rid of this toad when I said to the salesman that we were OK with what we had and that we would not be interested in any upgrades that day.  I suggested that perhaps we were done with this visit.  

He then grunted some more, did some more calculations on his scratch sheet and said for this new lesser amount, the “bronze-level” or something like that she could… and then he went on and on with more of the high pressure pitch.  My face was then as red as my wife’s when I finally said “Enough!  This visit is OVER!  Pack up your crap and get out!”

Yes, I yelled at him.  I yelled at him to leave my house immediately, called him a few choice expletives then walked to the door and held it open.  I told him as he left to NEVER call us or come to the house again.

I’ve only been angrier a couple other times in my life.  I literally wanted to kick him as he was leaving and only JUST held back.  He was SUCH a loathsome example of a human being.  So smug and condescending to us “little folks” it seemed.  We were SO stupid not to want his largess.

I definitely wanted to report him to his company for his disgusting visit.  When I looked out on the internet to find who to gripe to I began to read in the Better Business site all the other remarks from all the other people who had the same sort of interaction with this  company’s salesmen.  There were even many stories of people who tried to sell for this company and how they got shafted and belittled themselves.  I figured my little message would just get lost in the clutter of the dozens (hundreds?) of other tales of misery.

I still find it difficult to recall that visit without muttering curses under my breath.  That bastard was SUCH a prime example of the disgusting hard-sell S.O.B.

And kicking him out of my house while yelling at him felt SO DAMN GOOD!

If it weren’t for the dynamite sales girl who had visited us earlier and treated us so well, I’d tell you the name of the insurance company right now.  But, if the impossible is still possible and she is still working for them, I think I’ll let the name go.  She needs all the help she can get.

Just a hint though.  This company is NOT represented on TV by a duck or a gecko.





Monday, October 2, 2017

Fun in the Sun


                    Fun in the Sun


If you ask me, I think autumn is probably the nicest time to go.  Many of the tourists are gone, the weather (barring the occasional hurricane) is still beautiful and the majority of the kids are back in school.  The hotels have also lowered their rates by a substantial amount and most of the attractions and restaurants are still open.  All these items are definitely pluses.

Of course I’m talking about Myrtle Beach in case you might be still wondering. 

My wife and I drove down there recently for a few days to soak up the sun, look around at a few attractions that we might have missed in our many previous trips down there and to enjoy a few days away from the same old, same old of home life.  Yes, this is another “what we did on summer vacation” type of blog.  Follow along if you’re curious. 

Since Myrtle Beach is, per Mapquest, all of 700 miles away and 10 ½ driving hours down the road, we left early on our travel Sunday – around 6 am.  It’s dark then this time of year, late September, so we carefully made our way down the highway, following the light from our headlights and munching on a few doughnuts to satisfy our vacation sweet tooth.  I was smart and had borrowed a talking book from our local library the day before and we listened to it while driving. It’s amazing how the sound of a voice reading a book can make the miles melt away on those long road trips.  All the familiar waypoints were achieved and then were soon lost in our rear view mirror.  Marietta, Charleston, Bluefield, Wytheville, Pilot Rock, Winston-Salem and finally the long flat run across the Tidewater Plain to the Grand Strand.  It was a long day for two old birds like my better half and me, but the payoff was the sight of the wide Atlantic and our roomy ocean-view hotel room. 

We stayed at a place we’d vacationed at before, one of the many Best Western hotels, and a place we’d really enjoyed.  This particular trip was going to be for five nights.  We slept snugly Sunday night in our hotel room after the long day driving, listening to the quiet sounds of the ocean lapping on the sandy beach.

That Monday started out somewhat gray.  There was a hurricane, as you may recall, still sitting out at sea, northeast from our vantage point, and it was still affecting our weather a bit.  Luckily it was moving away from us and the proverbial Carolina blue sky would be returning later on in the afternoon.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and it was quite decent for hotel breakfasts with scrambled eggs, a variety of meats, breads, waffles, cereals, juices, coffee, etc.  We hit the place most mornings we were there and it was quite handy.  In the early afternoon that day we headed down to Myrtle Beach proper (we were staying in North Myrtle Beach), parked the car and wandered around a bit.  We noticed some subtle (and some not-so-subtle) damage around town from the near miss Myrtle Beach had suffered from the latest hurricane – some business sign and tree damage here and there along with some minor damage to some buildings.  We rode the new Ferris Wheel they’ve erected there which is called the Skywheel and which extends almost 200 feet up into the now plentiful sunshine.  The view from the top was quite extensive and we enjoyed taking many pictures from up there.  Then it was lunchtime on the boardwalk at one of the local eateries.  We also made time to shop at one of Myrtle Beach’s most venerable souvenir shops, the Gay Dolphin, where we helped support the local economy by getting the usual tee-shirts and a few other “must haves” from this multi-level institution on the main drag.  We returned to the hotel then and I did some metal detecting on the beach.  I’d looked forward to doing that for months, but was disappointed on how little I found out there.  The beach seemed mostly devoid of any metallic “treasures” this trip.  Not really sure why.  I know they groom the beaches at night with machinery, to pick up the trash, so most of the dropped “goodies” might have been already scooped up.  Supper was at a newer Mexican place.  Very hip and contemporary, but the food was nothing to write home about.

Tuesday I’d booked us on a boat tour on the Waccamaw River.  The boat we cruised on was of the pontoon variety, seated about 30 folks, two crewmen and a friendly Rottweiler dog named, appropriately, River!  We motored down the Waccamaw and through parts of the Intercoastal Waterway, seeing various examples of the local wildlife and plant life and enjoying a very pleasant boat ride through some very nice scenery.  The dog had obviously been on this trip many, many times and Judy enjoyed petting her as she walked up and down the boat checking out the passengers.  The river area we cruised in is home to a lot of ospreys and we saw many of their nests.  The majority of the birds themselves, however, had already flown south for the winter.  We did however, see one osprey flying around and the guide on the boat said it was probably from somewhere “up north” and was itself, heading south.  We looked hard for some alligators and did see a smallish one (six feet) from a distance swimming.  The day was picture perfect, blue skies and puffy cumulus clouds, as were all the following days we were in South Carolina.

Wednesday was our “trip to Charleston” day.  We ate breakfast at the hotel again not long after they opened at 6 a.m., then drove down the hundred-plus miles to Charleston for the first of two tours I had scheduled.  It was a horse-drawn carriage ride around downtown.  Our carriage carried about 10 of us and was pulled by two spotted horses named Yogi and Boo-boo!  They weren’t full draft horses but were bigger than just standard horses.  Our guide told us many stories about the city as we clip-clopped around.  It was quite interesting seeing the things she was talking about and hearing about the history of the area.  We also noticed evidence of some hurricane damage – a lot of construction going on at some of the residences and also some plywood sheets still on the windows that hadn’t been removed yet.  After that we drove to the Ft. Sumter pier and caught a ferry out to the island.  The fort and the pier are both U.S. National Parks.  We ambled around the old fort for a hour or so and checked out the little museum and the gift shop they had there.  Lots of history in those crumbly brick walls and old cannons and the great view from the top encompassed most of Charleston Harbor.  We were hot and thirsty when we returned to the ferry, so we bought some VERY welcome soft drinks for the run back to the mainland.  After returning back to North Myrtle Beach and our hotel, we ate at a local restaurant we remembered from a previous trip and it was just as good as we recalled.  (Remember the name “Hoskins” if you’re ever in the area.)  Fresh seafood was their specialty and, since it was kind of a local hangout but still serving lots of tourists, not too expensive!  Flounder for me and shrimp for Judy.  Yumm!  Myrtle Beach and South Carolina really showed their stuff today!

We had nothing formal planned for Thursday, so we woke a bit later than normal and had breakfast at a “real” restaurant for a change.  After eggs and pancakes and bacon we drove down to Broadway at the Beach – a big shopping/restaurant/entertainment complex some miles south of where we were staying.  We walked around there for a while, but it was REALLY hot that early afternoon, so we spent most of the time in the stores where the a/c was very welcome.  We ended up just getting some fudge and taffy to take home with us and then adjourned back to the coolness of the hotel.  We enjoyed watching some parasailors floating behind their towboat out in the ocean from our balcony.  And also some banana boat riders being bounced around on the Atlantic.  I hopped down to the hotel’s pool for a while, cooling off mainly, and then lay out in the sun to dry off.  And to get a bit sunburned as I discovered when I returned to our room!  Myrtle Beach is semi-tropical and the sun is quite strong there.  We had Sonic for a late lunch and when we returned to the hotel, we saw someone was setting up a flowered alter on the beach for a wedding!  We watched from the balcony as the ceremony progressed and when the minister finally pronounced the happy couple man and wife, everyone applauded and hollered including most of the folks staying at our hotel who’d been watching from their balconies!  It was a nice finish to a sweet week on the beach.  Supper was at the K&W Cafeteria, a local chain we’d been eating at since the mid-70’s.  Then we did some packing for tomorrow’s departure.

Friday was another early day for us.  Checking out in the humid semi-darkness of a beachside morning and back on the road again, north this time.  We listened to the rest of the talking book driving back and it was very instrumental in making the many miles go by quickly. 

Going to Myrtle Beach was a bit of a pilgrimage for us.  We’d started going there not long after we got married, in the mid-70’s, and probably had a dozen or more trips under our belts over the years.  We drove around one day this time and kept remembering places where we’d stayed, restaurants we’d eaten at, how this and that had changed, how much this sort of sleepy seaside town of 40-some years ago had grown and grown over the intervening years.  It was nice to see it again and to enjoy the welcoming of the people and of the place itself.    

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

North to Alaska!





                    North to Alaska!

The idea behind the recent journey my wife and I have just completed actually had its genesis about six months ago.  We were eating at a restaurant on Friday night, like we usually do. This time, along with some other friends, my ex-boss (we’re both retired) and his wife had joined us.  Larry and Sally, the aforementioned boss and wife were chitchatting with my wife and I and the subject of cruises came up.  He said that they were contemplating sailing again some time soon.  Since my wife and I were also thinking along those lines, I asked where in particular they might be going.  He said they were probably heading back to Alaska.  They had been there before, loved most everything about that region and felt like going back.  I said, half in jest and half in earnest, that we might be persuaded to head that way also if they didn’t mind us joining them.  We agreed that, if they did book a cruise up that way, they’d let us know and yes, they said they would of course enjoy our company. 

Not too long after that I received a call from Larry telling us that they had booked the cruise they’d been talking about for the upcoming summer.  Furthermore, their whole family would be accompanying them.  This would consist of six more people plus them and plus us.  There would be ten sitting at the dinner table onboard ship.  We got the information as to the ship name, where we would be cruising from and what date it would be leaving. 

We went to our travel agent that week and booked it.

Our ship would be the Coral Princess, out of Vancouver, British Columbia on June 10th.   We were going to Alaska!

So time passed, payments were made on the cruise and many pleasant hours were spent online studying the ship we would be on, the ports she would stop in while we were onboard and all other aspects of the upcoming cruise we could think of.  Plus buying some appropriate clothing and gear for the cruise.  We’d never cruised to a cold area before, always the warm Caribbean, so a different plan of attack had to be formulated.  New waterproof winter coats, of course, (it rains a lot in southeast Alaska) were bought along with some other warmer clothes to wear during the daytime both on the ship and at the ports.  Along with a new camera, some binoculars, and a few other this-and-thats.  Soon we were as well equipped as we could figure out we had to be and then it was the night before we were to leave home.

Once again, dear reader, if you don’t like travelogues, I’ll kindly say goodbye now, as that’s what the rest of this blog is.  Thanks for joining us this far and hopefully I’ll start blogging more in the upcoming days.  Adios!

So are we alone now?  Good.  Let’s get started!

As usual, Judy and I were pretty excited by this time and had a hard time getting any sleep at all.  Besides the fact that we had to be up and out our door by 3:30 am to drive to Columbus for our westbound flight.  There were many reasons why we usually flew out of Columbus, but the main one was that it was that the flights were cheaper and so was the parking.  Not sure exactly why, but Cleveland and Akron-Canton airports were usually more expensive.  So in the darkness of a too early Ohio day we grabbed some McDonalds and pointed the Toyota southward.  Please note that this travel day was NOT the day we would sail, but the day before - Friday.  We’ve heard so many horror stories about people missing their boats due to travel misadventures that we always traveled a day early and stayed at a hotel.  Then it’s usually a short cab ride to the docks.  Smart, eh?

Our first layover was in Los Angeles.  That’s a semi-long flight from Columbus, especially since our plane had a bit of an overabundance of infants.  Loud, crying infants.  Even one “opera singer in training” who liked to scream for the apparent joy of screaming, or so that’s what her sheepish parents said.  Los Angeles couldn’t come soon enough!  Finally we bid adieu to our younger flight companions, enjoyed (!?!?) the comforts (!?!?) of LAX and after some hours found ourselves on a Vancouver-bound flight.  That leg of the journey was a little shorter than the first and soon we found ourselves in beautiful British Columbia.

Our cab driver from the YVR airport to downtown was “interesting” to say the least.  He was a Sikh – I assumed this due to his turban and beard – and seemed to be on a quest to get us to our hotel in the shortest possible time.  I bravely muffled my moans of terror as he narrowly missed killing all of us multiple times during the journey downtown.  Judy was smiling the whole ride knowing the anguish I was going through. 

She was serene the whole trip, dammit!

Finally we arrived at our upscale downtown hotel.  I wanted to sort of live it up that night, so I used Priceline to get us a “4-star or better” place to stay.  It was called the Pinnacle Harbor Front and it was a hum-dinger!  Very nice.  After arrival, I walked on down to the building on the waterfront called Canada Place.  This would be where we would catch our ship tomorrow and was also a place where a geocache was hidden that I wanted to find.  It wasn’t a terribly long walk and soon I had the geocache in hand and British Columbia was in my geocaching logbook as a “new place”.  I wandered back to the hotel then, admiring this clean, cosmopolitan city.  I woke Judy from a nap and we enjoyed supper at a restaurant across the street.  Not long after we were catching some zzz’s as the previous night had been very short and our travels long.

Our breakfast Saturday morning was across the street again and before long we hailed a cab and traveled to the dock for embarkation.  We experienced long lines, but they moved along fairly rapidly and we were soon onboard the ship.  Our stateroom was clean and ready for us and we eagerly checked it out.  Our luggage wouldn’t arrive for some hours, so our unpacking was postponed until later that day.  We had an enjoyable lunch at the buffet on the Lido deck and chatted with our room steward soon afterward.  He would “take care” of us quite well for the upcoming week with made beds, a cleaned room and ice in our ‘fridge daily.  Nice guy.  By the way, Princess still puts a chocolate on your pillow every evening.  Carnival has apparently stopped this practice.  While we were in the room we happily checked out our own private balcony.  This was so very cool!  We’d never sailed in a balcony room before, but we’ll probably make sure to do so in the future.  We were amidships and on deck 10, so we had good views of the whole portside panorama.  We did some ship exploring then and enjoyed a sail-away drink as we watched Vancouver grow smaller and smaller in our wake.  Larry and Sally had arrived sometime after we came aboard. They had flown in the same day and we met for supper in “our” dining room.  Their kids and grandkids had elected to eat in the buffet rather than join us for more formal dining, so it was just the four of us plus six strangers at a 10-top table.  Supper was prime rib – excellent by the way – and the six strangers soon became shipboard friends.  Most of them were New Yorkers.  We went to the Princess Theater after eating to watch an impressionist comedian and to hear some ship info from our Cruise Director Lexi.  She was a stunning slim blond Aussie and we’d see her all over the ship during the coming week.  She was a true asset to our cruise.  As a note, this was Lexi’s last cruise for this contract.  She left the ship with us on completion of the cruise.  We stopped at the shipboard casino on the way back to our cabin and dropped a few dollars.  They allow smoking there and the smell was quite noticeable.  We hit the hay around eleven to a gently rocking bed and a quite enjoyable sleep.

Sunday was a sea day.  Our ship was traversing the southern part of the inland waterway system on its way to Ketchikan, Alaska.  This is a path for ships that keeps islands between the ship and the Pacific Ocean and provides a smoother waterway for them to travel.  After breakfast we attended a talk in the theater about the upcoming ports.  I’d read up on them online the previous months, so knew a lot of what Lexi was talking about.  The talk also was encouraging the passengers to purchase an upcoming cruise.  We’ve been cruising before and pretty much know how the system works.  There is always something that the cruise line would like you to buy and you have to decide whether you want to or not.  It’s just the way cruises work.  The cruise fares apparently are not enough to support the line, so they have to promote things onboard.  The shops, the casino, the drinks, future cruises, photos they take, what shops to buy stuff at the ports and on and on.  It is what it is and its up to you how you let it make you feel.  We know how it works and are able to pick and choose what we want to purchase.

On Sunday the sun popped out of the clouds in the early morning, so we grabbed some time on our balcony, which was fairly comfortable as long as we stayed out of the wind.  That night was our first formal dinner.  Larry and Sally were going to eat early, so Judy and I went later.  We put on our good duds and headed out.  We had a couple formal pictures taken of us by the onboard photographers and ate at another 10-top table with more strangers.  Most of them were Ohio folks (Cincinnati and Mansfield) along with three Aussies on a 24-day tour of Canada and Alaska.  We chatted a lot and enjoyed our dinners and our new friends.  We also got a kick out of watching our captain and cruise director fooling around by sneaking into the formal photos being taken of other cruisers and making funny faces.  They seemed to be having a ball!  The captain’s first name was Michele, but, being Italian, was pronounced Mik-kel-ay.  He and Lexi were around the ship a lot during the week. 

We went to the theater again and watched a production with the staff singers and dancers.  Pretty talented folks!  Not long afterward we were snug in our little cabin and fast asleep.

Monday was our first port, Ketchikan.  After a quick breakfast we were off the ship around 7:30.  Judy went souvenir shopping at a nearby shop as I walked down the waterfront about a half-mile to collect a geocache, our first for Alaska!  We’d worn our heavier jackets that morning and actually were a bit warm at times.  We found our duck tour and were pleased to see that Larry and Sally were also on that same tour.  The driver and commentator were funny and knew their stuff about their interesting hometown.  We were driven around and shown the sights, then down the ramp into the water.  We putted around the harbor for a while, seeing this and that.  Along the way we saw some eagles, which are very common around there and a few harbor seals.  After this tour we jumped on a shuttle bus which took us to the Creek Street area of Ketchikan.  This is the part of the town that was the “red light” district back in the gold rush days.  It even had a back entrance to the street called “married man’s trail”, where the aforementioned men would sneak in, take care of business then sneak out supposedly without their spouses knowing.  Supposedly.  At least that was the tale told nowadays.  The area now is an eclectic mix of souvenir shops and other crafty-kind of businesses.  One of the bordellos, Dolly’s House, has even been left very close to how it looked back “in the day” and you can tour it.  Very interesting! 

We returned to the ship soon after as it was leaving in the early afternoon.  The captain made an announcement for us to watch for the whales when the ship traveled through a particular stretch of water, but I didn’t see any at that time.  A number of folks did see some a bit later though. 

While we were at dinner, of course.  Bummer! 

Larry’s entire family joined us that evening and there were ten of us around the table.  His three young granddaughters were perfect ladies during our meal and would remain so for the rest of the cruise.  Judy and I later talked about what a nice family they were.  We attended another show in the theater then stopped for a while in a lounge to have a drink and listen to the singers and musicians performing there.  We were constantly amazed at the talented folks sailing with us!  Back in the cabin we could see another cruise ship sailing near us looking like a fabulous Christmas tree ornament all lit up in the deep Alaskan night. 

Tuesday was Juneau, the state capitol, and our time for whale watching!  The Coral docked around 8 am.  I walked to the buffet to grab a cup of coffee and bring back to the room to drink it.  On the way back I ran into Captain Michele in the elevator.  We chatted for a minute or two – a very nice gentleman.  Soon it was time to get off the boat and catch our whale-watching tour.  That day in the capitol city it was cold and somewhat rainy and windy.  We were wearing all we had brought with us and it was just barely enough.  Had a nice bus ride to where the whale-watching boat was waiting, listening to the lady bus driver and laughing at her stories and jokes.  The boat took 50 or maybe a bit more passengers on two decks.  The lower one was enclosed, warm and had a snack bar!  The upper was mostly exposed to the wind and the off-and-on again rain.  Guess which one we stayed on?  Soon we saw our first humpback whale while it was blowing (thar she blows I thought!).  Took scads of pictures, but was slow on the draw most of the time.  I did end up with a number of halfway decent pictures though, considering.  Some humpback whale facts: these whales would winter in the ocean near Hawaii, eating nothing, mating and losing about a third of their body weight.  When they returned to Alaskan waters in the summer they would eat 20 hours a day, approximately one million calories daily.  For being so huge, the throat on these giants is only the size of a basketball, so their food is small fish and krill.  We also observed eagles and sea lions.  The local scenery – the snow-covered mountain and evergreen-covered islands and teeming wildlife were very picturesque. 

We were back on the ship around 5 and supper was at 7 with the Baileys.  This was king crab night and it was wonderful!  The kitchen staff had even opened up each crab leg so no one had to crack them themselves, just pop the meat out and enjoy.  I introduced Larry to Fireball whiskey for our after-dinner drink, then we adjourned to the theater for a comedy magician who worked with a little white dog.  They put on quite a good show and he had a full house to see him.  The ship departed Juneau around 9 p.m.

Wednesday was Skagway, the jumping off point for the gold miners of the late 1890’s and our last real port where we would be able to exit the ship.  We were booked on a tour of the Yukon highway and the White Pass.  This was the trail the gold miners had to traverse to get to the gold fields in Dawson.  First up and over the White Pass (or Chilcoot Pass) and down to the Yukon River then a long way down to Dawson.  Canada would not let the prospectors in unless they had enough gear to survive there, so many of the men had to make 50 trips or more carrying the gear they would need on their backs.  Then they had to fell their own trees and build their own boat.  Those guys who made it were tough! 

We caught our small 24-passenger bus outside on the dock and soon were on the road with our driver.  He was a younger fellow and boy did he have stories to tell, some about the gold rush days and others about how things were thereabouts now.  He soon was driving upward and onward toward the White Pass.  He stopped a number of times for us to get out and take pictures of the stunning mountainous landscape.  We were required to bring our passports along with us, as this tour would enter Canada.  The formalities at the Canadian border were pretty much non-existent and we were then in the Yukon Territory of Canada.  Hurray, another province to color in on my maps!  Soon he turned around and headed for U.S. Customs.  The procedure for getting back into the United States was to stop at a drive-through window of the U.S. customs station, smile at the border guard and motor on our way.  Our guide says this is kind of normal, but occasionally they would actually enter the bus and check passports.  You just never knew.  Our driver dropped us off in town, which was actually about a half-mile from the ship.  Judy and I walked a bit then stopped at a bar and grill for some lunch.  Had three fish tacos (very good) and a local brew (Alaska Amber).  Pretty good!  We ambled on to the end of the main drag, bought some stuff then caught a shuttle bus to take us back to the ship.  Skagway was very interesting and just chock full of tourists.  There were I believe 4 ships in port that day!  10,000 to 12,000 people.  Wowser!  Called Larry around suppertime and they were waiting on some of their family to return to the ship, so Judy and I went by ourselves.  We sat at a 2-top.  The show that night after dinner was New Orleans-themed and was in the big lounge instead of the theater.  Great show!  Stopped in the casino after the show and was lucky enough to win some money on the roulette table!  Back to the cabin then and took a few pictures from the balcony.  It was around 11 and since we were getting pretty far north by then, there was still quite a bit of light out.  I took some very cool pictures of the mountains passing by in the northern twilight.  Very surrealistic.

Thursday would see us in Glacier Bay National Park.  We were blessed with absolutely perfect weather, sunny with some decorative cumulus clouds.  Chilly though… but that’s normal.  When we entered the bay, a small boat came alongside and three park rangers came aboard.  They would be there the entire time we were in the bay to talk about the park, the glaciers and the wildlife.  They used the loudspeakers, the television and were all over the ship talking to the cruisers and answering questions.  We cruised up to a very pretty glacier named Margery Glacier and spent some time there looking at it.  And it was very impressive – about 250 feet high, a mile wide and about 20 miles long.  We watched some ice fall – that’s called calving – and listened to the groans and booms as the giant ice river moved its 10 feet a day.  We also saw some wildlife along the shores of the bay – a trio of moose, a lone wolf and three bears – a mama and two cubs.  Plus eagles and seals of course.  And whales too!  We left the rangers off the ship on our way out of the bay.  We would be sailing in the open Gulf of Alaska tonight. 

The day had started to cloud up then and there was a mist in the air.  Weather changes quickly up there.  Supper tonight was lobster or Beef Wellington.  I also had escargot for an appetizer.  Didn’t care for them as much this time as I did some years ago when I first tried ‘em.  The show tonight was Motown based and had a lot of the old favorites performed.  Had another nightcap at one of the ship’s lounges and then went back to the cabin.  We were only getting about four hours of darkness in the evenings then, so the days seemed very, very long!  We received our written instructions for disembarkation today in our mailbox.  Hard to believe we only had one more day aboard our Coral Princess.

Friday we sailed up College Fjord, another gorgeous slice of Alaska.  We were up early thanks to the aforementioned lack of night.  While we were cruising the fjord we attended a cooking demonstration put on by the head chef and head maitre d’.  They cooked a few things and made a lot of jokes.  When they were done, they led us through a tour of the galley onboard.  Lots and lots of spotless stainless steel!  The galley is huge and I think I actually could have got lost in there!  Since the two main dining rooms are on separate decks, they even had an escalator in the galley to move from floor to floor.  Afterward we stopped by the photo shop and bought some pictures of us and a DVD of our voyage.  Got burgers and fries for lunch and that tasted pretty good.  We stopped at the big glacier at the head of the fjord and it was also very majestic.  Huge walls and lots of floating ice that had calved off the glacier.  The captain stopped the ship and we just drifted there quietly listening to the voice of the glacier as it boomed and groaned and rumbled.  It was creepy and spectacular all at once!  The captain spun the ship so both sides could see the glacier easily.  It was an incredible sight and a wonderful capper for the week’s cruise.  We had eaten supper earlier tonight as we all wanted to be finished so we could watch the glaciers.  The cooks and the servers had a parade through the dining room after the meal and it was very reminiscent of how Carnival does it every night.  We said our good-byes to the Baileys after dinner as they would be continuing their vacation the next morning by catching a train up to Denali National Park and we would be flying home.  It was nice having friends to share this voyage with.  To tell the truth, we were about ready to return home.  We were tiring of the fancy food and such.  We placed our homeward-bound suitcases out in the hall that evening and they disappeared soon afterward.  We docked at Whittier, Alaska around midnight. 

It was still light out.

Disembarkation in Whittier went quite smoothly.  Up early, last breakfast in the buffet then we grabbed our carry-ons and went to our disembarkation staging area, one of the main dining rooms.  Soon our group was called and we made our way off the ship for the last time.  We entered a large barn-like structure and saw all our luggage lined up on the floor.  We retrieved ours and then joined a long line of folks who were going to the Anchorage airport with us.  We eventually were loaded onto busses and headed off on the 65-mile trip to Anchorage.  We rode through the longest tunnel in North America when we were leaving Whittier.  It’s 2.7 miles long and only one lane.  They take turns traveling the tunnel northbound and southbound.  It was a bit creepy in the big tunnel, but soon we were out of it and on the beautiful Seward Highway heading to Anchorage.

The rest of the journey home was long flights and long waits in the airports for our next long flight.  Anchorage to San Francisco to Chicago to Columbus.  We eventually arrived home about 12:30 on Sunday afternoon. 

And napped most of the rest of the day.

A parting thought:
If you can, make time and save money for a trip to our beautiful 49th state.  It should be on everyone’s bucket list.  You’ll never regret it!