back to life, back to reality

We arrived home on Wednesday night and hit the ground running on Thursday. Dave and I have been singing THAT SONG for the last couple of days now.

I have enough photos and stories from our Alaskan adventures to fill days and days of blog posts – but of course, this IS a cooking/food blog, NOT a travel log – so this will be my last Alaskan entry. A pictorial really, which much to Dave’s dismay, is not necessarily in chronological order – I hope you enjoy it…

The photos above and below were taken in Ketchikan, and they just caught my fancy.

While in port in Ketchikan, Dave and I went on a “Cruise George Inlet and Crab Feast” excursion. I was one of the lucky two chosen to haul up a crab trap.

Here is Dave holding the largest Dungeness crab of the day.

And below is the pile of crab shells our table of four amassed at the feast! There was a competition between tables for the tallest tower.

We did not win – not by a long shot! And trust me, we tried. This was the sweetest, most succulent, all-around best crab I’ve had in my entire life!

The beautiful marina…

…and downtown in Sitka.

There is no cruise ship dock in Sitka, so we used that little orange boat you see on the far right to get ashore and then back on board.

While in port in Sitka, we went on an ATV Expedition on a nearby island. Just as with everywhere we were, we saw the salmon running.

And as usual, there really aren’t enough words to describe the sheer beauty of Alaska.

The black sand beaches, the land, the ocean, the wildlife… all spectacular!

You may recall that before we left for the trip, I said that the thing I was most looking forward to was the Klondike Adventure Park & Zip Lines excursion. It did not disappoint!  Since Dave did not come along on this side trip, I don’t have pictures of me… but this will give you a taste of what I thoroughly enjoyed.

These three handsome guys; Sam, Bob, and Andrew, were our awesome guides.

Well, turns out I do have a little video that I attempted to take with my camera, as I was zipping along… hard to tell which end is up, but still proof that I did it!

Skagway Zip Line

I believe (hope, actually) that I have figured out how to streamline the movie inserting/watching process here. Just click those three highlighted words above and it should take you directly to the video… fingers are crossed.

My actual “zipping” begins at about the 00:41 second marker. Don’t expect too much, it’s the best I could do while holding onto the cable with one hand and the camera with the other.

Now I’m going to share with you a couple of pictures all about proportion and perspective. Alaska is huge and it’s really difficult to get a handle on the size of everything, almost impossible to wrap your brain around it. Here are two little examples. The first is of an iceberg out near Hubbard Glacier.

It looks so inconsequential in the big ocean and up against the gigantic cloud-covered mountains.

But stick a 50+ passenger site-seeing vessel near it and…. yeah, pretty wild!

Then there is our lovely cruise ship. The Regent Seven Seas Navigator holds 490 guests and 345 crew members. The suites are very generous (with walk-in closets, a tub, a shower, a sitting room, etc.) and completely luxurious. And the all-inclusive food and beverage… out of this world! I may have to put up just one more post… in a few days… telling you about our kitchen tour with the executive sous chef – along with a few photos of the glorious food. Really, I can not recommend the Regent Cruise Line highly enough!

And it looks very large and lovely while it was docked here in Skagway, even though you’re only seeing levels 9 through 12 of the ship. But stick it next to some of the seriously huge ships…

… and you can barely make it out… it’s way over there in the far left of the photo.  It’s all in the perspective.

The Carnival Spirit is the massive center ship with the red fin on top. It holds 2,680 guests and 961 crew members (yep, you read that right, 126 more crew members than we had bodies on our entire ship!) and it too has 12 decks.  The large blue ship on the far right is the Island Princess, it has 16 decks (12 for passengers) holding 1,970 guests and 900 crew members.

Well, as I said, I could share with you so much more, but I’m going to leave you with this little treat. This occurred on the last night of our cruise and what a lucky and blessed surprise it was. (Click on the four words below to play the video)

dolphins in our wake

Dolphins playing in the wake of our ship! I’ve completely taken out the audio because otherwise, you would have to hear how so very annoying I am with my consistent and constant oohs and aahs.

This beautiful final photo is credited to Erik Roper