It was a good thing I packed on Sunday, because I worked until 1:45am, with no stop for dinner.   I just made another egg, peanut butter and milk shake and had it at my desk around 9pm.  I am glad I can still work like that when I have to, but it’s not all that much fun.  I turned out my light at 2:30am and was up again at six to catch my plane to Vancouver.  They had a business class breakfast for sale for $17.95 and I was in a preferred seat in economy, so I hoped they would have one for me, but no such luck.  I had a bowl of not very good oatmeal. I was starving by the time I got off the plane.  

My good friend, Pat Harrold, picked me up, settled me in to their apartment in Yaletown and we went out searching for lunch.  It was after 4pm EST by then.  I had a super fried chicken and jalapeno sandwich, and a nap until 6pm PT, when we watched the debate.   

Then we went out to dinner.  We found a nearby Taiwanese restaurant.  It was interesting and quite good, especially the beer:

You had to love the presentation.  The food was pretty good too.  Here’s Pat, enjoying.

By the time we had walked the kilometer or so back, I was ready for bed again and slept well and soundly, with the window open to the downtown traffic. 

I got up when I woke up, which was none too early, and set about making my Welcome Packets for the cruise.  It’s not a trivial operation.  Distinctive Voyages sends me nice cardboard folders and letterhead and links to assorted files.  I do a mail merge with my manifest and print up four pages to be stuffed into the folders.  This time there were 22 of them for a total of 44 people.  My apologies to all the Vancouver friends I never even called.  It’s a good thing we saw each other last year, because this was just a work stop.  Pat and I did get to Granville Island by ferry and enjoyed some very eclectic food at Tap & Barrel, like good tourists.  It helped that the ferry to the island was a very short walk from the apartment.  

September 12 was boarding day.  Andrea Terni, my co-host this cruise, had arrived in Vancouver the night before and we elected not to bother trying to meet up, but just to board.  Paul drove me to the dock, less than 10 minutes from the apartment, around one-thirty.  SilverSea was ready for me in the person of Oleksandr, the Front Desk guy assigned to my case.  We had soon matched our manifests, and I was able to report back to DV that all was as we had expected it to be and I had cabin numbers for everyone, including the guarantee status suites.  Andrea and I had one of those, and our ship came in.  It turned out to be a Medallion Suite, with a separate living room and my desk in the hall.  We have both a tub and a shower, a separate bedroom, free premium WiFi and free laundry.  It’s probably about 500 sq.ft. with its balcony, which I wish we could use, but it’s chilly.

Andrea delivered the packets, and I phoned all the cabins.  We had had a change in our expected shore excursion date and the new one was in Ketchikan – the day after tomorrow.  SilverSea’s shore excursion desk wanted to know tonight, who was coming to ours and who was taking a ship’s tour.  A free shore excursion is no big deal on SilverSea, as they have plenty of those on offer to all passengers, as well as some pretty good tours with a smaller uptick.  But everybody needed to know the numbers, our tour operator and SilverSea’s. 

I couldn’t reach everyone, of course, but promised to have the info as soon as I could next morning.  For maybe the first time ever, we made it to dinner in time to eat and see the show.  It was a sampler production show and the sample told us that the singers and dancers are very good.  We’ll be going to all their shows. 

Having our shore excursion in the first port makes for a real scramble the first and only day at sea.  That was September 13.  I had to get a newsletter out as fast as I could and be on the phone even before my 11am official office hour.  That was almost a disruption to my shore excursion verification activities, as there is no phone at the desk.  Ten people came by though, so there were that many, whose shore excursion plans I knew.  By the end of the afternoon, both the shore excursion department and I knew which end was up, after all, and I was able to email the count to Project Expedition.  I hope I never again have our shore excursion in the first port, on the second day.  It’s way too stressful. 

All that communication worked to drive people to our Welcome Reception, though, and 33 out of 44 people were present in the Observation Lounge at 5:00PM.  SilverSea had set it up well, in a nice big circle and it was easy to talk to all the guests and get a little info on everyone.  It’s a very nice group.  Our cocktail reception led right into the Captain’s Welcome Reception, and I invited anyone who wished to join us for dinner, afterwards, to please do.

Six people did.  It was a lively dinner in Atlantide with the Rands, Pherwanis, and Mitchells.  Atlantide is the Main dining room, where the food is delicious, the attention, solicitous, and the china, absolutely gorgeous.

We were late for the show, which was Marc Paul, a mentalist.  It was just as well.

September 14, the day of our shore excursion in Ketchikan, Alaska, came around soon enough and we were up at six.  It was a good, punctual group and we were dockside at 8:15am.  We were met there and escorted our bus, and our Driver-Guide, Thomas.  He looked like a typical Alaskan, a big teddy bear of a guy.  Thomas is married to a Tlingit, so he understands the culture.  Despite the competition from SilverSea’s free tours, we had a respectable 21 out of 44 on ours.  It did not disappoint.  First we went to the clan Eagle-Bear house for a traditional ceremonial dance:

Then Thomas took us out to the Saxman Totem Park and explained the difference between poles that honor and poles that shame.

And what happens to totem poles when they rot and fall over.  There is much respect.  It was a lovely setting

But the best was yet to come.  Our crab feast was fabulous.  We arrived to four flavours of Mimosas, or you could just drink champagne.  Then came more wine to accompany a most delicious crab and brie casserole, with all kinds of salads and breads, and a nice spicy salmon dip, too.  We all thought that was it, and then, they brought out the crab.  It was Dungeness Crab, too, the best.  It came with a short lecture on how to eat this west coast delicacy.  I thought I knew, after 25 years in Northern California, but even I learned a lot.  And was it good!   Just when we thought we couldn’t manage another bite, out come the cheesecakes.  Oh, my.  I did not get one single ghost of a complaint about this tour. 

We were back on board in the early afternoon as the ship sailed for Juneau at 2:30PM.  After a nice little nap, Andrea and I had dinner in the Italian Restaurant “La Terrazza” without reservations, but were put on warning that we would only get that indulgence once and would have to book next time.  It was very good food, so we will.  The singers and dancers were on board again at 9:30pm, with a new production show.  Wonderful.  We enjoyed the show and slept very well.