Saturday, August 20, 2016
I’ll start with last night. We didn’t see anything exciting
at the sailaway wildlife watch. We did see 2 more sea otters. Mostly there were
a half-dozen kinds of birds. Our area’s naturalist was a birder. We saw puffins
on both sides. This ship is so huge and even our deck 7 is so high that you
need good binoculars to see something that small while it is even close to the
ship. Photography is out of the question at this point. We can only hope when
we get further north that they would stop or slow down the ship for sightings.
According to the whale guy aboard during his lecture today, last night during
the sighting hour 8 whales were seen feeding surrounded by a flock of birds. We
never saw them. We had a 6pm dinner reservation at Silk Road though and were
changing at 5:56pm when the rather vague whale sighting e-notification came
through. I ran back out to the starboard side where we were told to look, but I
didn’t see any sign nor did I see the aft group with the naturalist looking at
anything. Oh well.
I didn’t not enjoy Silk Road and they had only a couple of
dishes that didn’t contain fish. I liked the chocolate soufflé cake with sesame
ice cream. Clay has dishes at Prego and Silk Road that he’d like to return for.
Our cruise fare entitles us to 8 “free” reservations. Clay waited until we’d
been to both before trying to make the extra reservations. When he called today
to make them he was offered all 9pm times except I think he said one 7:30pm, so
he didn’t make any. I’ll keep you posted on this. Neither of us liked the 2
specialty restaurants very well, but Clay did want to return. After dinner last
night we came back to the cabin briefly. I changed clothes and shoes and got a
peppermint tea bag. We went to Bistro that Reflections says is open from 6:30am
to 9:30pm and found it unstaffed from 7:45pm to 8pm. We went on to the movie theater and got
seated with popcorn. As it started, a man carrying a Bistro to go cup walked
past. I ran back out and quickly got a cup of hot water and later enjoyed my
hot peppermint tea.
The seas got rough again overnight and this morning. I
wanted to go to gentle yoga on deck 12 forward in the Palm Court at 9am. So we
went to breakfast at Lido on 12 so I could acclimate. I struggled but made it
through. I sat and watched the last half of energetic yoga and I don’t know if
it was because of the rough seas, but what I saw was all on the floor and I
could have done it, but it would have meant a half hour earlier start.
Clay sat up in Palm Court because they were doing wildlife
watch again for an hour with the naturalists. I was in the center of the room
on a mat and they never put any animals on the TV screens so I guess they
didn’t spot anything of note. The birder was near me again and he was pointing
out lots but birds is all we had seen at breakfast too. We went back to the
cabin and I took a nap. Clay went to the whale lecture. He came and got me for
lunch. It seemed calmer so we went to the main dining room downstairs. I
enjoyed everything I ate except dessert. We both had aubergine, sprout and
noodle salad with peanut dressing. I had huevos rancheros. It was made with a
corn tortilla, black beans puree, corn tortilla, black beans, corn tortilla,
black beans, 2 fried eggs topped with tomatilla sauce and cheddar cheese. I had
a Gateau St. Honore. It was not a cake. Clay and I both tried it and didn’t
like it. Clay had Chubby Hubby ice cream. It’s banana?!?
The captain said in his noon briefing that we have a
surprising shadow. He said 8 miles off our port side and pacing us is US Coast
Guard ice breaker Healy. He said it was docked near us and we recall seeing it
in Seward. He said he was surprised to see it so far south as it is an
icebreaker and even more surprised to be called by them this morning and asked
to identify himself as they let him know they were shadowing him. Weird. I saw
a ship distant to us but parallel when I looked out the window this morning. I
couldn’t see it clearly even with binoculars. But it was pretty big and since it
was still mostly dark out, I could tell it was there because it was lit up on
the horizon. I haven’t seen it since, but it has rained steadily to heavily all
day. The swells are calmer than in the morning.
In the room now with a movie on TV. I’m typing and Clay is
asleep. We watched all today’s lecture on TV this afternoon. At 5:15pm today we
have the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle. At 6:30pm we have reservations at
Tastes. It is described as an international tapas type place that is always
informal. You have to have reservations but there is no set limit to the number
or charge for extra reservations. Clay didn’t try to get any extra reservations
at Tastes yet, so it isn’t clear yet whether we’d like to or will be able to
return.
Notes about our cabin 7042. Clay has gone outside while I’ve
been at the desk with the lights on and he couldn’t see me. The promenade deck
is busy, so that’s good news. We still keep at least the sheers closed when
changing clothes. There is one 110 American-style outlet in the room. It is at
the desk. Bring a power strip! There is a 110 outlet for shavers built in to
the built-in hair dryer in the bathroom but it has a sliding door and a raised
lip around it so you might not be able to get a plug seated in there. I
couldn’t. Also, there is no power to that outlet when the bathroom lights are
turned off. So there is no need to bring a nightlight. The good news is that
there is a dim yellow light that emanates from below the full length mirror at
the foot of the bed by the closet side. It seems to always be on and if you
leave the bathroom door open at night there is enough light to manage. The
bedside clock is also very bright on the other side of the bed and thus serves
as another nightlight.
We got an extra 6pm reservation once each in Prego and Silk
Road by showing up to talk to the Maître d’ in person about it. It would have
been easier if the person handling reservations over the phone today could have
done that. Tastes was OK. We will probably return and order other things. We
ordered the Taco Duo not realizing it was one tiny chicken taco and one veggie.
It was hard to each have a bite of a half taco. I liked the veggie and Clay
liked the chicken so next time we’d ordered 2 and each have 4 bites of the taco
we like. Clay also had some other dishes he wanted to try. After dinner we went
to the 1974 movie White Dawn in the theater. We’d never seen it or heard of it.
It said it was filmed entirely on Baffin Island. We have to sail around it to
get to Greenland. After dinner we went to the Bistro to check out the chocolate
fountain I had seen set up there last night when I got my hot water. It was
there again tonight and since there were handmade marshmallows, I had to try
it. Clay had to try the macarons and other cookies. I had 2 marshmallows and 1
strawberry in chocolate. Yum! There was a string quartet playing in the lobby.
This is pretty much all wasted on us!
We got firm pillows tonight. Clay likes his. I asked for 2
so he can have one. Peace left the 4 soft, flat pillows so now we have too
many. Hopefully she will take some away tomorrow. Tomorrow we are in Nome, our
last US port. We have 2 excursions tomorrow.
We booked the complimentary visit here since it is a tender port and we
thought we might need a tour ticket to get ashore. That for us is 10am to 1pm.
Clay decided 2 days ago we should also have the Tundra Wilderness Tour at $200 each.
He got us on a waitlist. Tonight we got our tickets for 4pm to 6:30pm. I am
afraid that may mean 2 roundtrip tender trips. I hate that. I’ll let you know
how it goes and I hope we see amazing wildlife for the trouble and cost!
