As I mentioned last week, I’ve been traveling a lot. All of the rooms have been nice and the beds comfortable (unlike one bed I slept on during a summer trip), but I do appreciate sleeping in my own bed, competing with my cats for space.
An array of plushies on a king-size bed in Madison.
A spacious room in downtown San Diego, featuring a large work desk, a king-size bed, and a small table with a chair by the window.
Not much room to spare in this downtown Chicago hotel room with a full-size bed.
A double at the hotel in Oakbrook with a plush on each bed.
This corner room in Philadelphia had beautiful wall art on the wall behind the king-size bed.
I had the good fortune of traveling to San Diego for work recently, including a sunset cruise on the Bella Luna. This is a case where I’ll let the pictures paint the words (though there are some in the ALT text, of course).
Our Alaska cruise involved a day at sea, three port days, and another two days at sea – including one passing through Glacier Bay National Park – before ending in Whittier, which is near Anchorage. Most of the movement between the ports was done at night, giving us a reasonable amount of daytime in each port for shore excursions if we wanted.
We wanted. In fact, we managed to schedule four excursions across the three ports, without having to feel like we were rushing from one thing to another. In each port, we had some time to explore the area (mostly shopping) near the ship, including finding lunch twice. The photos below are from our shore excursions, grouped by port: Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway.
Ultimate Saxman Experience: Cultural Showcase, Native Crafts & Culinary Tasting
An eagle ornament and paint near the beginning of the painting process.
Alaska Craft Soda from Forty-Ninth State Brewing – a root beer can stacked on a spruce tip soda can
A trio of eagles carved onto branches of a pole
Tlingit dancers displaying the back of their capes, identifying their family affiliations.
The decorated front of the building where we saw the Tlingit dancers.
View of the water from the Saxman Village.
A totem pole in progress.
D&D Mammoth Ivory Dice at the Saxman Village store. It’s a standard set of 7 dice, priced at $1000.
Best of Juneau: Whale Watching, Mendenhall Glacier & Orca Point Lodge Meal (yes, we saw whales, but they don’t show up well on the photos I took)
A mountain view near Mendenhall Glacier.
Mendenhall Glacier across the water.
Mendenhall Glacier across the water with some green between us and the glacier.
Mendenhall Glacier across the water with some people for scale.
Wandering the path near Mendenhall Glacier, alternating between talking and singing because continuous noise alerts bears of your presence.
St. Yakov, the boat we took on our whale watching excursion.
Orca Point Lodge, where we stopped for an early dinner during our whale watching excursion.
A land bridge outside the Orca Point Lodge. We were warned that the land bridge would be underwater by the time we finished dinner. (It was.)
Sea lions lounging on a buoy with raindrops on the windows.
A great view of mountains and water on our whale watching excursion.
Kitchen Science Alaska: Garden-to-Table Skagway and Musher’s Camp & Sled Dog Experience
Alaska Kitchen Science excursion, the science part which involved beakers of mystery liquid and testing for acidity.
Alaska Kitchen Science excursion, where we saw a Big Green Egg and another smoker.
Alaska Kitchen Science excursion, raised garden beds growing mostly salad greens, which don’t travel to remote areas well.
Alaska Kitchen Science excursion, feeding the sourdough.
Alaska Kitchen Science excursion, assembling our own Baked Alaska desserts.
Holland America’s Noordam in Skagway with a mountain in the background.
Mountain views behind the Noordam while docked in Skagway.
Amazing views near Skagway on our way up to the Musher’s Camp to meet sled dogs.
Amazing views near Skagway on our way up to the Musher’s Camp to meet sled dogs.
Me in front of an amazing view on our way up to the Musher’s Camp to meet sled dogs.
A passenger view of the vehicle – a Unimog – we rode at Musher’s Camp to go up the mountain to see the sled dogs.
An action shot of the sled dogs, just starting their run, from the front seat of the wheeled sled at Musher’s Camp near Skagway.
An action shot of the sled dogs from the front seat of the wheeled sled at Musher’s Camp near Skagway.
I’ll let the photos do most of the work this week. One key thing to keep in mind about the Vancouver airport is that our flight was delayed by three hours, so we landed shortly after midnight in that time zone – 2am in our home time – on little sleep. Despite that, the airport was distinctive enough that we stopped repeatedly to admire it and take photos. On top of that, when we stumbled into the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront at wee hours of the morning, they moved us to a port view room with a stunning view.
A pair of woven hangings featuring native designs hanging in the Vancouver airport.
A native wood carving hanging in the Vancouver airport.
Two wood carved people at the Vancouver airport.
The view of the Port of Vancouver from our hotel room, including a gas station in the middle of the water and a line of sea planes.
The view of nearby buildings from our hotel room, with many trees around and on the buildings.
A giant crab in a fountain outside the Museum of Vancouver, with our visiting plush: a light green bear with brown spots and a blue-footed booby.
An awesome tree that we passed after visiting the Museum of Vancouver.
A duck that approached us as we left the Museum of Vancouver.
A colorful Canada Post box that we saw near the Museum of Vancouver.
A sea plane landing in the water at the Port of Vancouver.
Yes, we took photos in the Museum of Vancouver, but I feel most of those would require extensive explanations as to the lovely exhibits we visited. The plush are named Menta and Henrique (I’ve been told that the H is sometimes silent).
At the end of May, we took a cruise past a small part of Alaska on Holland America. This was our third cruise together, and only our second since the cruise that helped launch this blog. This ship is significantly larger than our last cruise was, with 11 levels and the capacity for almost 2,000 passengers. I’ll have follow-up posts about the amazing excursions we selected and the sights we saw.
If you plan a cruise, there are certainly budgeting items you need to consider. We live nowhere near Alaska, which meant in addition to the cruise price (per passenger) and taxes, we needed to account for flights into one airport (Vancouver, BC) and out of another (Anchorage). (I met a retired couple who realized it was cheaper to stay on the ship for the return journey instead of taking a longer flight home from Anchorage to southern California.)
We opted out of the Have-It-All package, which includes most beverages, Wi-Fi, and “crew appreciation”. Crew Appreciation refers to built-in tips, itemized on a daily basis, which is a nice way to account for the variety of cultures – and different tipping practices – that guests may be coming from. On this cruise, that was $17 per day per passenger, which can add up quickly, so it’s worth doing the calculations to see if the upgraded ticket is offset just by that. The shore excursions can add up pretty quickly too. We added a hotel room for a couple nights before the cruise, partially to offset the risk of flight delays (which turned out to be an excellent plan) and for the opportunity to briefly explore Vancouver.
The photos below are all of, on, or from the ship, showing off our tiny inside cabin, some highlights that stand out (like elevator rugs with the day of the week that get changed daily), and a lovely sunrise photo on the one day when I was up and moving for the 4am sunrise.
A subsection of the Noordam in port, showing some of the floors, an elevator shaft, some lifeboats, and a gangplank for exiting the ship.
Artwork depicting the style of cruise ship.
Two twin beds in an inside cabin. There’s a curtain behind the beds hiding a wall. There’s a stuffed bear on the left bed and a stuffed blue footed booby on the right bed. Each nightstand has a water bottle.
An early morning view of the outside pool on the Noordam. There are no people visible on the deck due to the early hour the photo was taken. (Not that there were many people using that pool when it was open, it was a bit cold outside.)
Sunrise in Alaska from a cruise ship
A rug in the elevator that reads “Wednesday”. The rug was updated daily.
Decorated glass doors to an elevator with windows out to the deck, water is visible through the windows.
A view of most of the Noordam in port, with a smaller boat, Bravest, in front.
Last Friday, we attended C2E2 for the first time as volunteers for the Science Fiction Outreach Project, which gives away free books (mostly science fiction and fantasy) to promote literacy. Given limited time and the size of the exhibit hall, we took a focused approach of visiting just the Writers’ Block and Artist Alley (13 rows!), looking for people who may be interested in space in next year’s dealers hall at Capricon. We hit Chicago traffic coming & going, which is always not fun, though ultimately worth it for attending the event.
On Saturday, we drove a different direction, hosting MarindaCon at a forest preserve to celebrate our dearly departed friend. We gathered with assorted friends – including people who drove from Michigan and Wisconsin as day trips, and some who joined via Zoom – for geeky conversations and a delicious cake (as well as other food). It turned out to be a beautiful day, except for the occasional gust of wind that moved some food and drinks around.
And then, before the crack of dawn on Sunday, I drove through a rainstorm to the airport’s remote parking garage and flew to Washington, DC, for a work-related conference. I took the opportunity to meet up with my cousin and his partner for lunch and some wandering along the National Mall in what was at that point the hottest day of the year. (The next day may have been warmer, but I didn’t make it outside until a late dinner time.) The sheer quantity of food trucks selling ice cream was amazing.
Had I realized that my conference days were 10-11 hour days, I might have taken the time for a nap after our wanderings. As it happens, I’ll be spending the next couple of days trying to catch up on sleep.
If you don’t speak French (I don’t), today’s title refers to Montreal’s Convention Center. Having visited there recently for a work trip, I checked into my hotel room and looked out the window to see a brilliant array of colorful windows. I wondered what the building was – maybe a museum? – until I opened Pokemon Go and realized that’s where our convention was being held. I didn’t capture the evening photo, when the colored windows projected their colors onto the office building across the park, making it appear that the offices had colored lights.
In addition to the colored windows, there was a clear effort to include some unusual seating in the public areas. The exhibit hall and session rooms themselves were fairly standard for a convention center (and they need more bathrooms), but someone made a clear effort to include cozy seating. In addition to what’s pictured below, I noted one table with six swing chairs attached to it, and several other colors of the blue table set-up.
I was traveling for work this week and have learned over the years that it’s useful to bring an element of home when staying in a hotel room, especially if it’s for more than one night. And while the hotel does allow pets, I doubted my cats would be enamored of flying or being stuck in a hotel room while I’m at a conference all day. I opted for other comforts instead.
For my hotel room, I packed a small teddy bear (named Kane) and a travel Wiccan altar. The miniature altar fits in an empty Altoids tin, and includes symbols for earth, air, fire, water, as well as man and woman, with the bonus of a cat. While the layout of the elements is directional, the cat goes wherever it wants. Both of those items are in my checked luggage, while a lotion bar and its tin – screw top, so it’s won’t randomly flip open in my bag – travel in my backpack. Airplanes, convention centers, and hotels all tend to be fairly dry.
In addition to these pictured items, I also have a travel nightlight and mini-humidifier for hotel rooms. I loathe stumbling to an unfamiliar bathroom in the middle of the night and having to turn on a garishly bright overhead light simply because I’m unfamiliar with the layout. The humidifier stayed home this time since the weather was warm; I find it more necessary when the heat is running.
And that’s how I almost make up for having to sleep without my cats.
