First port - Ketchikan

Another day another beautiful sunrise. We saw whales from our balcony Saturday morning. Hard to photograph though.

Arriving in Ketchikan we saw the U.S. Coast Guard station.

This eagle totem pole is in downtown Ketchikan. From Google: Located at the entrance to the famous tunnel, alongside Cruise Ship Dock 3, is a gorgeous, stylistic Eagle totem pole that was carved by Nathan Jackson of Ketchikan. The name "Ketchikan" is believed to come from the Tlingit word "Kitschk-Hin" which means "thundering wings of an Eagle".

Cindy and I did the Ketchikan City Highlights Tour on a trolley. It was a beautiful day and apparently a rare one without rain. We were dressed a bit too warm. I think it was around 75 degrees. The tour guide joked that they issued a heat advisory for the residents.

This was the workshop at Saxman Totem Park where we stopped. The man in the picture is the artist who made the eagle totem pole. He's 88 years old and can get paid $5,000 to carve a linear foot. We were a little disappointed he didn't talk to our group.

This is the Seward totem pole in the park.

This totem pole we're standing in front of has Lincoln at the top. It's an interesting story.

One of the colorful totem poles.

After the totem park we were taken to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center. It was kind of boring but we got to paint Christmas ornaments.

My finished eagle ornament. Kind of pretty. One woman asked if I was an artist. Not quite.

With the tour over, it was time to shop! I bought two T-shirts and an Alaska magnet. How funny that we ran into our Houston friends, Julie and Nathan, in one of the shops and asked if we'd be back on the ship in time for the afternoon puzzle race.

We did make it back in time to team up again ... and we won! We each got a free drink ticket ...

so Cindy and I celebrated with glasses of champagne. Mine was at the $15 "free drink" price limit.

Leaving Ketchikan a bit after 5 p.m.

Cindy and I had dinner at the Mecican restaurant, Pink Agave. We split these chocolate tacos for dessert. Delicious.

Sea day

Pretty sunrise Friday morning.

Here comes the sun. We had to go to Sailor Services to get Cindy's purchases linked to my account. I found out the $40 "premium" wi-fi a week I paid for was a glitch in the app. It should have been $40 a day (definitely not worth it) but since it was their mistake they're honoring the $40 for the entire cruise price. Woke up this morning and found I can't open any email, don't know my password, so I'll have hundreds to swift through when the cruise ends. Annoying.

Cindy's breakfast mimosa.

We played geography trivia and actually did better than I thought we would.

Our next activity was speed ouzzling. We teamed up with two couples, Charles and Marion in the back, New Jersey-to-Arizona snowbirds, and Julie and Nathan from Houston, to put together a 300-piece puzzle. We came in a respectable second place out of maybe a dozen teams. (We also met up with them later for movie trivia and then the Houston couple along with E and D in the afternoon for music trivia). Never winners.

Just before lunch we found the newlyweds sitting on the deck watching for whales. They did some.

We had pizza for lunch. I tried the limited edition Virgin English pale ale. The beer was ok. I took two slices of the pizza back to the room but the wouldn't fit in the fridge. It's a ridiculously small refrigerator.

We met E and D for dinner at The Wake, the ship's steak restaurant.

We all had steak except for D who had venison. E wasn't feeling well so she left early and went to her room. Dinner was good and the three of us left full.

Starting to cruise

First order of business was to find coffee. We got to the pier around 12:30.

Cindy and I got in line to get on the ship at 2. It was a long process.

Our room 14th floor.

Sail away party. Free champagne!

Me and E.

Bye, Seattle.

Cindy and D.

Sunset.

Before dinner we saw a comedian from Ireland, Sean Finnerty.

We had dinner with E and D at Gumbae, a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was interesting.

Kudos for L

Our girl won fifth place in the quarterly awards today for being great at her job.

L and her friend J. Pretty dress she wore.

The award. She can wear it like an Olympic medal.

Can we leave?

Trying to get out town Wednesday and the weather wouldn't stop. Here Cindy and I are sitting in a downpour picking up Andy's prescriptions at CVS. Our flight to Seattle was scheduled to leave at 4:20 p.m. got pushed to 6:10 then shortly therafter moved to 7:42 p.m.

With time to kill we went to Costco so Cindy could but Peanut M&Ms for the trip. Then she found Reeses Pieces, sweatpants for Austin, chocolate-covered cherries, a Harry Potter hot chocolate kit, cashews and a Chicka Chicka Halloween board book for the grandkid. That's what happens when you go to Costco for one thing.

Andy drove Cindy and me to O'Hare yesterday afternoon for our flight to Seattle. The United Club wasn't accepting any passes so we sat at the gate and had overpriced McDonald's. The plane finally pushed away from the gate at 8:45 p.m. and were in the air a half-hour later.

We leave Thursday (today) on our Virgin cruise to Alaska. I'm not sure how much wifi access I'll have on the boat but will post what I can. Of course, I'll take travel notes along the way. I might be able to post a picture or two each day - maybe not - and will add more when I can. We'll see how that goes.

Sister in town

Andy and I went downtown Monday night to pick Cindy up from the train station. Yesterday we did the Goodwill circuit, starting in North Riverside and ending in Melrose Park (that's five stores lol). We stopped for lunch at Lou Malnati's because when you're in Chicago you should have deep-dish pizza.

We were at Westchester when heavy thunderstorms rolled through. There were tornado warnings and I wasn't going to drive in that so we browsed ... a lot. Andy's office had to shelter in the hallway. We spent so much time there lunch was our next stop.

Shopping, shopping. She got some good bargains - a big wicker sled, a Ruggable holiday runner for $3.19 (they retail for $200 and they had so many designs and shapes), some puzzles, a Disney T-shirt, a Creative Memories album with pages, a set of four "Christmas Story" pint glasses and a Vera Bradley medium duffle she'll take on the cruise in case she needs souvenir space.

I found a few things - two Creative Memories storage bags, a Kitchen Aid juicer attachment for $2 which should make margaritas a bit easier to make, and a Chicago Metallic brownie pan with dividers B had asked for ($5 but retails for $30-something. It's really heavy).

How cute is this? The longer you look, the more things you find.

D has a stocking

I've been searching all year for a Christmas stocking for D. The one I had been using was a bit too small. When I saw this one - and noticed that it had a D on it - it seemed like it was meant to be. And that Longaberger basket I don't need was $2.09.

Ruby loves it. I may have just purchased a fancy cat bed.

Western ‘burbs adventure

With nothing pressing to do Sunday, Andy and I took a drive out west. We were still in the suburbs but you know you're pretty far from the city when there's a horse crossing sign ... and corn and soybean fields.

It started raining and looked like it was going to storm (it did) so we stopped at this brewery, Tangled Roots. We were in South Barrington. Nice restaurant but a bit odd that it was part of an outdoor shopping mall.

Cheese curds for lunch.

The rain cleared up on our drive home and what a cool cloud. If you look closely you can see the flat bottom on it.