Alaska, Part 1: Vancouver and Cruising Through the Inside Passage (July 7–10)

For the minute few who do not know, I went to Alaska this summer. I chronicled the why and how over on The Widow's Peek, along with all the sad things about the trip (first real vacation without Vic, lots of stuff I think he would have loved, all the indignities of traveling alone, etc.). This is not that. This is a celebration of my trip to Alaska. I've been planning on writing these posts since August, but my 1 million five-minute chores always took precedence. Now I have Christmas cards filled with pictures of Alaska (and Bella, of course), and I wrote on the back that if you wanted to know more, you could go to my blog. So now I gotta get a move on!

For those who don't want to click over, the long and short of it is that I've wanted to go to Alaska since I was 12, and Vic didn't. I had a little extra money squirreled away, so I decided to go. My friend Mary booked us on an expedition cruise and a train from Anchorage to Fairbanks with her friend (now my friend also) Sue, and then I drove down to Denali National Park and Preserve.

A three-week trip isn't a friendly story for a single blog post, so I broke it down into six parts. (I know, I know, that isn't friendly either, but at least this way, you could read one blog post every time you go to the bathroom or are waiting in line at the DMV. Oh, who are we kidding? You can read all six parts and the latest Avatar movie while waiting in line at the DMV.)

So let's get started! As soon as I found out the trip started in Vancouver, I contacted my friend Jeff. He moved there quite a number of years ago, and I haven't seen him in a really long time. But this is one of those friendships that just picks up right where it left off, and he enthusiastically said, "YES! Let's get together!"

This is me and Jeff at his home. Check out that gorgeous view in the background!

Jeff's husband, Pierre, picked me up at the hotel while Jeff made dinner. Instead of taking me right to their home, Pierre took me on a tour of the city, including its crown jewel, Stanley Park. We had so much fun driving through town, and you'd never have known that we only just met that day! The three of us talked and laughed all through a yummy dinner of roast chicken and potatoes that Jeff said was super easy to make and then talked me through the 47-step process of making it, which was when I realized I was never going to have that meal again unless I came back to Vancouver. The next thing I knew, it was late, and the guys drove me back to the hotel. It was a phenomenal start to my trip.

Pierre, Jeff and me

The cruise didn't leave until 4 p.m. the next day, so I took the opportunity to see some of the sights of Vancouver. Oh, who are we kidding? I went to the yarn store. Stores, plural, actually. I got some fantastic Canadian-dyed yarn (at killer prices) as well as some European yarns that I don't see in my local yarn shop. Because I am afraid of Uber and Lyft (I don't even have the apps on my phone), and because I am a cheapskate, and because Verizon said my phone would work in Canada but it didn't so I probably couldn't have contacted Uber or Lyft anyway, I took the bus! It was really pretty fun! I got a selfie at the first shop, but I totally forgot at the second. (I said this wasn't gonna be the sad post, but come on. I gotta remember to take pictures of myself? What a kick in the teeth!)

When I got back to the hotel, I found this dreamboat waiting in the harbor:

What, you can't see the logo? Fine:

It's the Love Boat, people! The actual Pacific Princess like the one on the show! What, you don't remember that episode of The Love Boat where Mark Harmon and Lisa Hartman were going to get married but there was a problem and hilarity ensued? Well, I do—it's part of the reason I wanted to go to Alaska!

So it was pretty exciting to see the ship.

Of course, that wasn't my ship. This is my ship:

And just to give you some context, this is a picture of my ship next to one of the larger cruise ships (what I like to call floating apartment complexes):

Still, mine was a really nice ship. These are pictures of our room and our veranda:

We weren't too far above the water, and this would come in really handy on the day we cruised through a pod of humpback whales. You'll see that in a later post.

This part of the cruise was fairly uneventful. We got accustomed to the ship, started meeting the crew and other passengers, got a tour of the bridge. And this is the only part of the trip where I saw an orca. And by "orca," I mean a tiny hump and a little bit of a fin. Still, I SAW ONE! Our ship's photographer, Jeremy, saw a lot more of this whale as well as orcas on several other days, but this was the only one I saw:

Vic used to say if he saw even the tip of an ear of some animal, it was a successful day. So I count this as a success. Next stop, Ketchikan!