A Sailing we will go, A sailing we will go

TOP: The welcoming buffet, complete with carver watermellons

2nd: Jan (AKA Gopher) in her sailing whites on the red carpet

3rd: OK, so perhaps posting this may be a bad idea, but hey, if you know how to accessorize, you just HAVE to flaunt it!

BOTTOM: the entire crew at the Captain's dinner. Just like we eat at home every night...

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As soon as we (finally) onboarded, we made a mad dash to the topside bar. The view from the, oh, 20th floor as we exited Vancouver harbor was priceless, with the skyscrapers, the mountains, and the bridges in full glory. We ordered up a round of drinks, including a bunch of deep blue, glacial ice and curaco"Blue Alaskans", to which Koz asked (I swear) "Which one is the Blue Alaskan?".

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We did a long walkabout to acquaint ourselves with the ship, and then decided to get a workout in. Thankfully, they had a decent workout room (treadmills, spin bikes, some weight machines) otherwise I think tom and I were going to go nuts. Koz signed us all up for a spin class, and then showed up 15 minutes late totally smashed; seems his mixology class included 2 hours of tasting their creations. The instructor wouldn't even let him on the bike.

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We had decided to vastly scale down our Internet usage, which was pretty easy with it costing $30/hour for access. So, we'd just have to focus on the onboard activities, including food, gambling, BINGO, food, sauna, spa, food, bars, shows, and, oh, did I mention food (In the end, I was up 10 POUNDS from this vacation, a first for me). The buffets started at 5 am, and continued on to about 10pm. We just ate non-stop, and for those who know me, having a "food governor" is not way up my list...if it's in front of me, I just keep eating. I did make a point to have a salad every day, but that paled next to the endless cookie and ice cream bar, fresh omlettes, 8 or so main dishes including italian, indian, and asian, and pretty reasonable booze, the only thing that we really had to pay for on the cruise.

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Unfortunately, I got a bit seasick (if you can believe that) the first day out on the open water, and basically slept for 24 hours. Not sure what all happened, as I'm an experienced seaman (go ahead, have fun with that), and kayak a great deal. I just totally lost my equilibrium...everything was in motion when a sat or stood up. So, I totally crashed and just slept it off, finally coming around after a day or so. Then, I was fine for the rest of the trip.

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Every night we did a show or game, did some gaming, walked the deck in the moonlight, and played cards topside. Soon we would be in Alaska, our 50th state!

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"Roling, rolling, rolling" Lumpy out