The Sister-In-Law Cruise Event - Days 1 through 3

24 to 26 August 2024 – Days 1, 2 & 3

My sister-in-law J called me in the late spring/early summer, and said she wanted to go on a trip to Alaska.  And thought it would be fun to do this together.  She knows I’m pretty much up for any adventure.  So we looked at various cruise options, she picked the best dates for her work schedule, and we booked it – another Holland America cruise (because I’m already a something-star Mariner, so I could get us a reasonable discount). 

 

We set sail from Seattle on Saturday 24 August.  It was grey, cold, and rainy, sort of an early end to summer which is all too often typical of the Pacific Northwest.  And also the reason I don’t live here full time any longer.

 

Most cruise lines plan the trips with a sail to the northernmost point they will go to in Alaska, and then schedule port calls as the ship slowly heads back to the point of origin (Seattle or Vancouver).  Actually, on Day 4 we’ll be a bit more north than our stop in Juneau on Day 3, but that’s another half-day of cruising before another land stop, so I suspect that was the plan.

 

At any rate, heading to that northernmost point means roughly two full days of “at sea” time – cruising up through Puget Sound, around the Olympic Peninsula and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and then north along the west coast of Vancouver Island.  Onward along the west coast of British Columbia, and then through Stephens Passage to Juneau.  Basically, winding our way through the various waterways that comprise the Salish Sea before heading up to Alaska.

 

That first day, I like to get familiar with the ship’s layout.  A lot of walking back and forth on the non-stateroom decks to figure out what is where, and what things there are to do with all this free time.  Also meeting our room steward, unpacking, all those settling in sorts of things.

 

Day 2 (Sunday) was more exciting.  I always take time to walk through each and every deck, checking out the artwork.  I call it a photo safari, even though there are never any animals.  But I take photos of the artwork and other displays.  This is one of the reasons I really like Holland America, they have wonderful artwork on their ships.  Other cruise lines try to create a more party kind of atmosphere, but HAL has sort of an old world European vibe that I find more relaxing.  (I’ve never really been a party girl.)

 

I found one staircase, from Deck 1 through to 9, dedicated to Rembrandt!  You KNOW I was in retired art teacher Heaven or Nirvana or whatever you’d like to call it.  My idea of the perfect stairway decoration!

 

So I walked ALL over the ship.  Well, I haven’t gone through all of Decks 1 and 2, and there were some closed rooms near the dining rooms on 2 and 3, so I have yet to complete my rounds.  But I have photos of most of the art, and one of these days will do an art blog focusing on all of the wonderful and gorgeous real and reproduction art on HAL ships.

 

J and I wanted to attend a watercolor painting workshop at 1:30.  Turned out it was insanely crowded and there wasn’t a free seat, so we went to the buffet for a quick lunch and returned early to ensure we had seats at the 3 PM reprisal of the workshop.  Yes, I know how to use watercolor.   I’ve taught how to use watercolor.  But I will likely never ever turn down a chance to PAINT!  Well, or to play with any kind of art medium, if I’m being honest.

 

We had a lovely young man instructor, Justin, and we’ll have a series of watercolor workshops throughout the cruise.  Today we learned basic paint techniques (wet-in-wet, dry brush, changing brush pressure, and the fancy word for using salt to create texture – of course, I never remember the word, but the salt crystals draw in the water and create a mottled textured look wherever you sprinkle them).

 

Once everyone experimented with these techniques, we then painted a jellyfish!  Fun!  Lots of experimenting, changing the color intensity to create a look of depth and making our jellyfish more three-dimensional.  Adding mini fish to create movement.  I added a bit of color splash to give some underwater look to my jelly.  It really was fun.

 

So we plan to continue with these workshops.  Justin is also teaching origami at other workshops, as well as other simple one-hour one-and-done sorts of activities.  I’m really pleased to see art workshops onboard the ship – there rarely are such activities, so you know I’m having fun with this!  (And of course, I have my own sketching supplies, so who knows, I might have some artwork to post in these blogs.)

 

Day 3, our morning was spent cruising through Stephens Passage.  We were told this is one of the best places to see whales from the ship, but alas, we only had mysterious islands and mainland wrapped in atmospheric fog, hiding the tops of the rugged hills and mountains.  Grey-green-bluish seas, seagulls, and that has been it.  Lovely and very scenic, but no sea mammals.  And no eagles.  Oh well.

 

As I write this, we’re arriving in Juneau.  Juneau is only accessible by air or sea.  There are roads within Juneau, and out to Mendenhall Glacier.  And a bridge across to another small town, or maybe West Juneau.  But it really is a very small town, and it’s very easy to wander around without getting lost.

 

I’m going to stay aboard the ship this afternoon.  I’ve either walked too much, or maybe it’s just having reached that 70^th birthday at the beginning of the month, but I did something to one hip joint and it is unhappy and complaining loudly.  Rather than limping around Juneau and exacerbating whatever is going on, I’m going to be smart about it (for a change) and try to rest things so I can enjoy the other ports on our trip.  I might try a gentle walk to get some photos, but it will be minimal.  I had a great time wandering through Juneau on our cruise here three years ago, so I’m okay giving it a pass if it means I can continue port wandering in our other docking locations.

 

But really, what’s the point of a blog without photos, right?