We made it

SLOP - smells like old people
Saturday was a very long day of travel.  We were up at 4am to start our adventure.  From Calgary to Seattle to Anchorage to Whittier Alaska we finally made our way onto the Diamond Princess....a small little boat with 2800 passengers...average age 88

Traveling from Anchorage to Whittier by coach we saw an amazing abundance of color as the trees were all in different stages of preparing for fall.  We passed through Turnaway Bay which ran alongside the highway for miles.  The tide was out and all you could see if the silt along the edge of the bay.  If you walk on this silt you will be sucked in worse than quicksand.  Beluga whales are often seen in is area as they follow the salmon and gobble them up.  The bay will freeze over in the winter and the whales we smash the ice with their heads so that they can come up for air.  There are an incredible amount of waterfalls and glaciers along this highway but it was pouring rain so no photo ops available.

The drive from Anchorage to Whittier is about 45 minutes, but it can be much longer if you miss the schedule for the tunnel.  There is a one way tunnel, through a mountain that goes into Whittier, but if you are not there on time you have to sit in your car for an hour waiting for it to go your way.  Inside the tunnel they have emergency safe houses in the event of an emergency.  You can get out of the vehicle and hunker down to a fine meal of freeze dried meat until it is safe to leave the tunnel.  The total length of the tunnel is 2.5 miles long and you can only go 25 mph in there.  It was originally used for locomotives but within the last 10 years they drilled it out and created the safe houses so that vehicles could drive through as well.  The trains still run through the tunnel and it is an eerie feeling driving over the tracks......and it is pitch black! 

The ship is beautiful, our room is huge.....the bathroom is bigger than the one we had at the Delta airport in Calgary.  The weather......well we will ignore that for now.  

I hope neither of us need medical attention while we are on here.  A gummer wiped out on the deck and it took 10 minutes for a medical person to show up.  Poor girl was last seen with a big sling on her arm, lousy way to start the trip.

There is a huge outdoor screen where they show movies and sports.  If it wasn't freezing outside we would be watching NFL football today on a lounged with a cool beverage.  As itis, we are sitting inside, with our jackets just chilling (literally)

Dar's faux pas # one - Kevin says no more sitting with other people during meals and I have to agree.  Watching the old girl next to him eating her boiled prunes and talking about her thyroid being removed....twice, was enough for both of us........ROOM SERVICE:)