DAY 6…BOOT CAMP PART 3 :)

I guess on a “glass half full” note having your bags outside your room at 6:00 a.m. so when you arrive at the ship they will be sitting in your room wasn’t so bad after all.  At 8:00 we boarded our  “coach” (phew…this 9 hours included a bathroom) for the loooooong ride to Whittier.  Now, I know a few people that have that gift for gab but Dave, our “coach” driver and tour guide literally talked for a solid 9 hours on the trip from Denali to Whittier😳🤪 My family always used to kid about how I would know EVERYTHING about a stranger I met in no time flat.  Well, even though CTM and I were on the front seat of the bus (making it impossible to sleep so as not to insult Dave) and I still had to ask Dave a few questions to fill in the gaps we know EVERYTHING about Dave!  All kidding aside, he was extremely knowledgeable about Alaska even though he retired here only 17 years ago.  Wait…don’t most people retire down south where the sun shines most of the time and you don’t get several feet of snow in the winter and it isn’t dark 20 hours a day in the winter? 🤔. Even though we were on a “coach” Dave stopped for a couple of breaks and lunch on the way.  Again, the scenery was breathtaking.  Once we got south of Anchorage we ran along the Seward Highway, a narrow two lane road that literally ran along the edge and I mean EDGE of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  So envision this…Dave telling one of his long winded stories while piloting the “coach” with one hand because he had to use his right hand to gesture and point to things to see while he was alternating crossing the center line with an oncoming gasoline tanker screaming toward us and weaving off the road with a huge icy body of water inches from the road on our right. In other words, CTM has scratch marks on his arm and if you ever have the pleasure of being a passenger on Dave’s “coach” in Alaska look for the indentions in the armrest of the seat immediately behind Dave! 😬😉

Not really any opportunity for photos from the “coach”.  Right before we reached Whittier we had to go through a 2 1/2 mile tunnel under the mountain.  It is a one lane tunnel and every 15 minutes they alternate traffic patterns…south bound vehicles, then south bound trains, then north bound vehicles, then north bound trains.  If you miss your window then you could have up to an hour wait.  We only had to wait about 15 minutes before it was our turn and Dave continued his narrative (surprise surprise) while we were waiting.  He told us it was built BEFORE the Great 1964 Alaskan Earthquake and survived quite nicely.   Wait…WHAT???  We survived the Seward Highway but now all I could think was, “Could there be another earthquake while we are passing through the tunnel?  Could there be cracks there that they don’t know about?  Could we be buried alive?”   

Phew… there was FINALLY light at the end of the tunnel…

Within 5 minutes we were clearing security and boarding the ship!  🛳💃🕺🏼🍻🍹. Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 5 - BOOT CAMP PART 2

Up at 5:30 and on the “bus” for our Tundra Tour at 7:00 🤪.  Wait…since we were going on a “bus” were there bathrooms in the Tundra?  The Tundra Tour was a guided trip into Denali National Park.  It was WELL worth the early rise as we were surrounded by amazing scenery the entire day.  We saw five bears…not just plain ole bears but GRIZZLY BEARS, skads of caribou, ground squirrels, Dall sheep, a wolf, and a host of other animals and birds.  Here are some pics…

The park rule is that the tour buses cannot let passengers off within 1/2 mile of a grizzly bear.  There was one instance when our tour bus driver told us all to hurry up and get back in the bus as a bear ambled down the hill toward us 😳.   We, thankfully, never go up close and personal with a grizzly but then again I didn’t get a very good pic of one either…

Interesting kind of “over the top” hairdo…. Guess the only way to duplicate this would be to stand in 40 knot winds and have the photographer NOT tell you to do something with your hair 😬

Or maybe I should wear a hat…



Oh, and here is that kind of “beachy” look….  And CTM trying to act like he doesn’t know who I am…

The moral to this story is look at the scenery…not the subjects! 

As if we hadn’t had enough CTM and I had booked a self-guided jeep tour of Denali National Park at 4:30 not knowing we were going to spend 6 hours on a bus touring the park earlier.  That being said, after a lot of “where are we going to go in this freaking jeep at 4:30” the answer became clear very fast!  Let’s drive to Healy (only a 15 minute drive) and go to the 49th State Brewing! Hurry up…let’s go! 

 After all, now that my stretch pants are on the top of my suitcase I can have another yummo bowl of that seafood chowder! 

Fresh halibut tacos for CTM…



Fresh salmon bowl for L & L…

And…a bonus…the actual prop from the movie “Into The Wild”, the true story of Christopher McCandless living in the Alaskan wilderness, was outside the 49th State Brewery…

Headed back south to the lodge for an early to bed as we were headed to Whittier to board the ship on Sunday and you know what that means…BOOT CAMP AGAIN!! Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 4 - BOOT CAMP

Friday was the official start day of our tour…AKA BOOT CAMP!  Our bags had to be outside our room at 6:00 a.m. and we were to board a “coach” to the train depot at 8:00.  Just a quick note about the “coach.”  On the way to the train depot our driver clarified the difference between a “bus” and a “coach.”  A “coach” has a bathroom and a “bus” does not.  I was relieved to know that in case I needed to relieve myself while we were being taken there we were on a “coach.”  Five minutes later we arrived 😎   We boarded and settled in for our 8 hour trip from Anchorage to Denali National Park. 

CTM thinks we are headed to the mall shopping…😉

First order of business was to check out the menus.  Larry pointed out that we were only this far from a “Moose Mary!” 

Obviously not far…

The view (although I was looking through “Moose Mary” colored glasses) was unbelievable…

Remember…it was cloudy and rainy when we left Anchorage but the closer we got the skies began to clear and it was a crazy beautiful day!  We finally got that wide open shot of Denali (the tallest mountain in North America) we had waited on for two days! 

More pics on the train…

And of course no trip would be complete without a pic of Sarah Palin’s childhood home 🤭

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

PS - Did I mention that we had to have ANOTHER negative covid test within 72 hours of boarding the ship?  Hopefully this is the last time we all have to have that swizzle stick shoved up our nose this go around…negative, negative, negative, negative…⛔️⛔️⛔️⛔️✅✅✅✅😎😎😎😎

DAY 3 - ANCHORAGE

No trip would be complete without a trolly/bus tour 🚌. So…at noon we boarded the Anchorage Trolly for a 2 hour tour of the city. 

We learned about the March 27, 1964 Good Friday Great Alaska earthquake.  It lasted 4 1/2 minutes, 9 people lost their lives (which is truly amazing), it was the largest most powerful earthquake in U. S. history and the second largest most powerful earthquake in the world.  We visited Turnagain Heights where the ground shook so violently that homes literally slid into the ocean.  

Main street in downtown Anchorage after the earthquake…

I was only 11 years old and all I had on my mind was boys so don’t remember anything.  CTM was 13 and all he had on his mind was girls and he doesn’t remember anything.  Larry was 15 and insists he remembers all about it so we aren’t really sure what he had on his mind 😉

We learned that Anchorage has the largest seaplane base in the world…

It was cloudy and rainy all day and Kris, our tour guide, told us that on a clear day we could see Denali standing right here.  So if you use your imagination here is a pic of L & L with Denali in the background 😬

OK…tour done so what time is it now?  Of course it is time to search out a brewery. BINGO! 

Since we were all FREEZING when we got there a couple of beers sitting around this toasty fire warmed our innards pretty quickly…

CTM sampled all of their brews…

Oh…did I mention that we had more seafood chowder?  And later we had a few more drinks and ANOTHER bowl of seafood chowder at Humpy’s.  Jeans are getting tighter…those stretch pants are getting closer to the top of my suitcase every day! 

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

SUNRISE…SUNSET…

Here is the view from our hotel window at 9:51 PM 😳. Weird to still need 😎 at past my normal bedtime! 

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 2 - WHAT ONCE WAS LOST NOW IS FOUND….

The 7 hour flight from Dallas to Anchorage was uneventful until time to land.  I had the pleasure of sitting by a retired flight attendant for American Airlines.  We visited a LOT and I pretty much know EVERYTHING about her, her family, and her life in general.  We had a wonderfully smooth flight until time to land.  The captain came on right beforehand and said he expected some turbulence landing so would have the flight attendants prepare the cabin for landing in advance and then be seated.  That always gives  me sweaty palms when he tells the flight attendants to sit down and buckle up.  When I expressed my concern to my new BFF her reply was, “Oh, honey, don’t you worry about that.  Back when I was working and we had a long flight and were tired of messing with the passengers we would ask the Captain to make that announcement so we could sit down and relax for a little while before landing.”    WHAAAAT??? Now I know their dirty little secret!  However, when the plane was pitching and rolling on the approach she mentioned, more than once, that the wind shear was really really strong.  WHAAAAT????  WIND SHEAR????  Isn’t that something that causes planes to flip over and crash on landing?  Death grip, sweaty palms, and a few Hail Mary’s later we landed safe and sound.  

Once we retrieved our bags we put the bright yellow tags on them that we were given by the cruise line we were told to stand over by the big table next to the luggage carousel and wait for our marching orders. We were soon told that our “coach” had arrived and we were ready for transfer to the hotel.  “Coach” they said????  Soon we found that “coach” was a fancy name for a big ole bus!  Just like kindergarten kids we followed our leader over to the “coach.” 

 So those of you who have been to Schooner Wharf Bar  know Michael McCloud and have heard his song “I Love This Bar.”  The entire time we were dragging our bags with the bright yellow tags over to the “coach” the words to that song kept going through my head… “bus load of blue hairs, dirt bags, and sailors”.  I didn’t think we were “dirt bags or sailors” so there was only one thing left…WE WERE THE BUS LOAD OF BLUE HAIRS MICHAEL MCCLOUD ALWAYS SANG ABOUT (Larry continues to insist that “blue hair” does not apply to him.  “WHATEVER”, I say…). 

We finally reached our hotel and when we asked about our bags they told us that as long as our names were on our bags they would be delivered to our room.  We were in room 1115 and Larry said their room was 1111.   We checked into our room and soon our bags arrived.  When we checked with Larry and Laurie he told us that their room keys did not work and that the bellman showed up with their bags about the time they were trying to get into their room and opened the door for them. The bellman suggested they go downstairs and resolve the key issue with the front desk and that he would leave their bags in their room.  When they returned with the new keys and went into their room the bags were not there.  By this time is was WAY past happy hour so I suggested that we check with the front desk and tell them the bags had not been delivered.  On our way out we did just that and were assured that they had a LOT of bags that they were trying to get delivered and were sure they would be in the room once we returned from happy hour and dinner.  So off we went!  

The food was AMAZING!  We started out with smoked salmon dip and had a bowl of seafood chowder…best since Ireland!   When we were told the halibut and salmon were fresh so CTM and I  split the halibut and L & L split the salmon.  TO DIE FOR!!!  

I have three pairs of blue jeans in my suitcase.  After that meal I now know that I need to wear them all immediately as I won’t be able to button them in a couple of days and I will need to move on to the stretch pants VERY soon!  

1st night in town, bellies full, time for bed…

We returned to our hotel to find that L & L’s bag STILL had not been delivered.  That being said, Larry was headed down to try to resolve the issue.  I knew he needed an “alpha” female to take charge of this situation so I graciously volunteered 😬.  After several conversations with the tour folks and bellman they all assured us that the bag would be found and delivered promptly.  I assured THEM that they WOULD find their bags and that this was THEIR fault!  After several back and forths and heated exchanges the bellman said, “You ARE in room 1110…right?”  WHAAAAT?  NO he is in room 1111 (the room that they tried to go into that the key did not work…the room that was NEXT DOOR to room 1110!  It was all beginning to make sense to me.  Their room was actually 1110 and this is why the key did not work in 1111.  Even  though when asked if he was sure that his key jacket said 1111 he insisted rather snottily that, “YES, IT SAID 1111, NOT 1110!”. Guess what….we went upstairs with the bellman and the bags were in the room next door…1110.  And…here is the key jacket AFTER the new keys were made. 😉. Is it just me or did it say 1110 before someone marked it out and changed it to 1111?????

Larry actually had the audacity to suggest that I owed the staff an apology for my behavior last night.  Who owes who an apology I ask?  

Catch you on the flip flop…

CJM 

DAY 1 - HERE WE GO!!!

For those of you who don’t know…this being our 49th anniversary we decided to visit the 49th state to celebrate.  So does that mean the 50th state next year? 🤷‍♀️ Stay tuned for that one!  I will have to give credit to Shane and Joann Barbagallo, our neighbors in Pontiac, for planting the cruise seed.   After the Wing Ding in April and after them volunteering to help us work we suggested that we go to Jackie’s afterwards for dinner.  They casually mentioned that they were going on an Alaskan cruise in August and before we had gotten to the main course we all decided that we were going with them.  Oh, the “we” included Larry and Laurie. I think that there was probably a little alcohol involved in that decision.  The next morning when we all sobered up I had a text from Larry and he said, “Book us on an Alaskan cruise!”  I told CTM that Shane and Joann were probably scratching their heads trying to figure out what they were going to do with 4 “blue hairs” that invited themselves along on their adventure!  So as to not “rain on their parade” a call to Cousin Joyce was in order.  For those of you who don’t know…our cousin Joyce has been coordinating cruises her whole life.  Mother and I actually went on one with her and sister Jody many many many years ago.  I made a call to Joyce, our cruise coordinator, and after many many many many many more calls and a gadzillion texts to Joyce and a LOT of shopping we are finally on our way!  This is Joyce now that we are “on the road” so to speak 💃🍻🤪🎉🎊🎼🥂🍹 We love her dearly and thank her from the bottom of our hearts for her help.  We could NOT have done it without her!  

Since this blog is all about “Cruising with Captain Morgan and Captain Morgan I thought it would be o.k./appropriate to post here in order to keep you all up to speed with our adventure.  CTM and I are not really big cruise ship “cruisers” but after much investigation it seemed to be the absolute best way to do it since the Feeding Frenzy is exactly 5029 miles from here (that came from Google maps just now!).  There are very few roads in Alaska and there are areas where you can’t go except by water. For example, did you now that Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is the only U.S. capital city that has no road to it?  The only way to get to Juneau is by ship/ferry/boat.  😳  

First order of business…negative Covid tests within 72 hours of staring the tour. ✅.  And another one before boarding the ship 🛳.  (Stay tuned for that 😷)

(You didn’t really think you were going to see how much I weigh did you 😬)

We drove to Springfield on Tuesday and on Wednesday boarded an American flight to Anchorage via Dallas 🤔. Anyway…only a short 11 hours and 3 time zones later 😳 we landed in Anchorage!

Catch you on the flip flop! 

CJM