Icy Point Straight and Mom and Dad's Anniversery

When you live your life following a paycheck, it's sad that you don't get to spend much time with your family.  Luckily we were able to have our folks onboard and were also able to catch up with anniversaries.  My folks, Don and Marlene Blanchard, are very humble unassuming people and they really didn't want any kind of notice for their 50th, or 55th wedding anniversary.  So we did the next best thing, a piece of cheesecake with a candle and a song.  My wonderful husband spent so much time taking pictures of the cruise while the rest of us played a lot.  But, the one we missed was the crew surrounding our folks and singing a cornball anniversary song.  It was so nice sharing this with them.  

 The Radiance has everything a bigger boat has, just on a smaller scale.  This is the Centrum.  There were extra restaurants.  Bob and I really enjoyed the Izumi Japanese restaurant.  The Windjammer was the big buffet for breakfast and lunch.  Then for dinner, we had reservations for 7:15 every night.  This turned out to be too late.  My father did the best he could to stay on Tulsa time and that meant he would have been fast asleep at 10:15.  So, we only did the dinner with them twice, then we did our own thing and they went to the Windjammer buffet.

One of our stops was at Icy Point Straight.  Next time we go there we need to take the whale watching cruise, I heard they sighted the bubble net feedings that we got to see on our last Alaska cruise, in 2005.    The other thing the city is famous for is having the world's longest zip line.  I had no takers in my group for that activity.  Plus, it seemed that we had a pretty loaded schedule of excursions, later on. 

What must it be like to live in a picture postcard, 3 months out of the year?

Ketchikan is a picture postcard city.  Alaska has strict guidelines when it comes to building or rebuilding the streets.  They must resemble the old time facades and it looks authentic, I guess...smile

The Lumberjack show had lots of dangerous tricks!

The totem of shame.  (below) Seward himself was considered a cheapskate by the tribes and he was placed atop a pole with nothing adorning it,  

Onboard ship, there were all kinds of things to do for entertainment.  My folks, being the grand gamblers that they are, won 600.00 (mom) and dad, undisclosed amounts.  I guess that's why I'm such a risk taker, it's part of my genes...smile. 

Then on to another beauty beyond belief destination, all the while relaxing in our room watching the new elegant world roll by.  

Alaska Cruise, Last time it was about the whales, this time it was about the Puffins...smile

So here it is, our cruise with Royal Caribbean.  It was a cruise for the Puffins.  Last time we went we saw hump back whales do bubble jet feeding, up close and personal.  This time it was a quest for the Puffins.  We began our cruise with a night in Vancouver, on Thursday, August 16th.  This was the skinniest I ever was...smile.  Before the buffet barrage of food.

When we arrived in VC, there was an anime convention, these were some of the characters we saw.

 The flowers were beautiful.

My mom thought she would just like to stay right there in Vancouver.  It's really like a small NYC to me, very busy, artsy and eclectic.  The ships come into town and lots of the passengers were from VC, riding up and turning around and riding back to VC.

Then, it was onto the boat.  Day 2 will be uploaded tomorrow!

Janome repair

http://youtu.be/LjNvMhMtgCY

Today I travel from Feasterville, New Jersey to Midtown, Manhattan

This is the beginning. I start to travel into NYC with my husband and my bike. Last night we consolidated our clothes and gear into a semi manageable blue milk crate which holds my transition gear and serves as a chair for changing shoes and easy lift off, and one suitcase. Now I have to remove my Vita Wildcat from the backseat and put the tire on her to make the trek to Manhattan and the athlete hotel, the Hilton. This is a culmination I'd a year long goal. If lost a lot of inches and everyone keeps telling me how good I look. I'm 53 years old and I started training a year ago. I've "competed" in 5 sprint Triathlons, the first in Oldham County and 4 in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Now I'm doing my longest race in NYC. I am so glad I did this. If you want to get in shape and meet some pretty interesting people, start participating in triathlons! There are lots of young people and people that are young at heart. It easy to talk to them, because there is instant conversations all around a sport we enjoy.