CRUISING INSIDE PASSAGE

Yellow arrow in red circle denotes our position at noon today.  It is an overcast and cool day with chance of rain this afternoon.  Smooth sailing today as we are in protected waters off Canadian coast. Around 6:00pm we will enter the narrow channel between Vancouver Island and mainland Canada. There will be possible whale activity there so we will keep our eyes pealed.  Our naturalist, Terry Breen, will be narrating from the bridge so this "scenic cruising".

 Chef Dino (he's from Germany) did a German themed pool-side lunch today.  This poor pig took part.

                                                      This small pot is goulash.

This is last night's dinner menu.  The beef Wellington was perfectly prepared and very tasty.

At 5:00pm every day our butler brings us some canopes.  These are our two favorites:  cheese stuffed jalapeno peppers and barbeque hot dogs.  We had just returned from the all-you-could-eat crab feast so could not eat these.  Had to save room for our beef Wellington.

                                              Our great butler, Suresh, from India.

One nice thing about Regent is you request and they deliver.  Had this bottle of bourbon to keep me company.

This is our favorite chardonnay.  We requested Regent put on two cases of it just for us.  Our butler kept a couple bottles stocked in our refrigerator.  I also ask him for some cashews.  The bars and restaurants around the ship would only serve this wine to us.  Yes, we are very spoiled by Regent.
A couple commented to us the other night that the dining room staff always ran to take care of us.

Our butler would bring fresh fruit every day and the bananas would never get ripe.  So I left a message on this one.  Suresh is very serious but I bet he smiled when he saw this.   

This is Olga, my "doctor".  Every evening we would go to the Stars Lounge for cocktails.  Olga is our bartender there.  She is from the Ukraine (Russian).

I packed this morning while Rebecca was working out.  She is packing this afternoon.  This is our least favorite day of any cruise.  Packing and saying good bye to all our crew member family.  This nine night cruise has gone by way to fast.  This is why we like to take long cruises.  Our next cruise will be in January 2016--72 nights, "Circle South America".  Yesterday I booked another cruise for November 2016.  It is a 54 night cruise from Barcelona to Singapore.  It will stop in Israel, go through the Suez Canal, stopping in the Middle Eastern countries along the way.  It will also stop in Myanmar and India plus many other places.  We saw these places in 2013 with the exception of Myanmar.

Tonight we will be dining with Goran again.  He will also be leaving the ship tomorrow and flying to Europe so as to join another Regent ship, the Mariner.  His wife and two lovely daughters will be joining him on the ship in June for 21 days so we know they are all very excited about that.

Tomorrow morning at 7:00 am we will be docking in Vancouver, BC.  We should be disembarking the Navigator shortly after 8:00.  After collecting our luggage on the pier we will clear Canadian customs and board a bus to be transferred to the Vancouver airport.  I believe we will clear US customs at the airport also.  Our flight is not until 1:40 pm.  We fly on an American Eagle plane to Los Angeles then connect to an American Airlines  flight on to DFW.  Dallas weather tomorrow says 80% chance of heavy thunderstorms.  We are scheduled to arrive DFW at 11:00 pm but just hoping we get there sometime tomorrow night.  We are booked in first class for our flights so that will help make a long day a little nicer.

Here are some of our crew member friends:

                                              Our stewardess, Rosemarie, on left.

                                                                    Marlene, bar waitress

                                                              "Skinny", dining room waiter

                                                             Von, bartender

                                                    Hendra, dining room waiter

                                           Ali, head waiter, and Arthur, head sommelier

                                                        Ivan, dining room waiter

                                                         Erkin, head waiter

                                                         Ari, wine steward

                                                         Donald, head waiter

                                                                Siena, bartender

                                                       Redha, our steward

               Alin, Prime 7 mgr--Dino Schwager, executive chef--Goran, F&B Director

                                                  Suresh, our amazing butler.

There will be at least one more posting made after we get back home.  This evening we will be doing some scenic cruising and may see some more whales.  I have my camera with telephoto at the ready.  We did see two small dolphins playing this morning.

                       

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

                                                Our position today--Ketchikan

Ketchikan Info

Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska, located on the southern part of its panhandle, and has a population of 8,000.  Oddly enough this makes it the 6^th largest city in Alaska.  When you include the borough, the population is 13,000.  The city is known as “the Salmon Capital of the World” and Ketchikan Creek flows right through downtown where you can see plenty of salmon swimming upstream.  

Ketchikan is located on Revillagigedo Island was established in 1885.  It is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, 700 miles north of Seattle and 235 miles south of Juneau.  The Tongass National Forest stretches the length of Alaska's coastline.  It's the world's largest temperate rain forest.  Air service and ferries are the  only way to get here.  As you might suspect cruise ship passengers fill the small town during the summer months.  Ketchikan’s economy is based on government services, tourism, and commercial fishing.  Their lumber industry was basically shut down by the Clinton Administration in 1996.  Is that Federal government getting involved in a State’s rights??  Ok, off my soapbox.  More trivia for you:  Ketchikan has the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles.  

          Sailing Inside Passage into Ketchikan.  Waterfalls coming down mountainside.

                                        Photos taken from our balcony upon arrival at dock

                                           This mountain reminds me of a hump back whale.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

We woke up to sunshine this morning.  This was a very rare sunny day here in Ketchikan.  We went to the fitness center for our normal workout after having some cereal for breakfast.  We could not do the workout yesterday due to our long whale watching excursion.  We arrived at the dock in Ketchikan at noon (1 hour late due to currents).  At 12:30 we headed off the ship for our excursion, "Cruise George Inlet & Crab Feast".  Our bus took us along the scenic coastline with our guide giving us information about Ketchikan and the area surrounding it.  We passed by canneries, an old sawmill, totem poles, and waterfalls on our way to the George Inlet Lodge.  Here we boarded a 36 foot, fully enclosed pontoon boat. We then departed for a cruise along Alaska's Inside Passage and the beautiful George Inlet.  Once again we lucked out by having such a beautiful day for this.  We crossed the fjord to a remote estuary where they pulled some crab pots to show us some crabs up close and personal.  They showed us how they measure the crabs.

                                                     Our excursion for today

                                                 Waterfalls along road on way to lodge

                                                 

                                                     Heading down ramp to board our boat

                                                                    Our boat

                                                Lodge where we later ate crabs.

                                                         2000 foot water falls

                                 Bald eagles next in center of this photo near top of the tree.

 After cruising for about 20 minutes we arrived at the estuary where we would be pulling up a crab pot (trap).  The red buoy was attached via rope to mark the pot location.  The pot rested on the bottom of the water.

Kate, our guide, pulled up this pot with about 7 crabs in it.  It was baited with a salmon head and other fish parts.  She demonstrated how to handle the crabs without being pinched.

 

 One brave soul held one.  Kate also showed us how crabs were measured.  They only keep male crabs and ones that at least 6 1/2 inches across their backs.  There was a special tool used for this measurement.

         One the way back to the lodge we passed this old Libby salmon cannery.  It closed in the 70's.

Then we returned to the Lodge where they demonstrated the art of crab cracking.  Next we feasted on the crabs.  Love this excursion.  We did the same one back in 2009 when on another Regent cruise up here.           

       Back at the lodge they showed us the art of cracking Dungeness crabs.

 We were then served all the crab we could eat.  The tables had a contest on who's pile of shells was the highest.  Dungeness crab is not nearly as large as King crab but the crab meat is a lot sweeter.

                                      Back in the early 1900's these were brothels and bars.

The old brothels and river where salmon swim upstream to spawn taken from our balcony with telephoto lens.  The salmon are not spawning yet but we saw that when we were here in 2009.  Thousands of salmon swimming up the stream.  Amazing sight!

We arrived back at the ship at 5:00 pm.  Tomorrow we will spend the day cruising the Inside Passage.  Tomorrow is the last day of our cruise as we arrive in Vancouver Sunday morning.

Tonight is the Captain's Farewell Dinner and crew show.  We will miss the show due to me writing and putting photos on this post.  Still full from the crab but will be having our favorite, beef Wellington tonight in Compass rose.  At 9:30 tonight's headline entertainer is Jade Milan again.  This time she will be singing soul classics.  She is very talented.