Dropped the Ball, Again

Here I am busily preparing for my trip to Atlanta then LA and I realize that I have yet to finish my Alaska trip (which believe me, is more of a record for myself than necessarily written for all of you nice people). When I think about working on the blog, more interesting things happen to me. For instance, my friend, Ken, came over and we ate pizza and I made him watch weird anime as I am wont to do. Then we flip around cable channels because he doesn't have cable and he strangely enjoys the commercials. Anyway, on IFC, I notice that Dead Alive has just started and it's just about up to the custard scene. So, I said, "Ken, you have to see this because it's the most disgusting scene and when I first saw it, I was eating at the time." Why not share the delightful agony of stomach churning?

Well, we watched it and then he wanted to finish the movie, which is a fine, funny, gross film if you have not caught it (early Peter Jackson -- I wonder if the people who handed him all those millions to film Lord of the Rings caught this flick and said "that's our man!"). I am sincerely glad that we had finished the pizza beforehand (Ken even said that he didn't want to take his share of the leftovers home because the film was so gross and pulpy but I made him). I had completely forgotten about the zombie guts that chased after the hero. You get a sense that the make-up guys and Jackson laughed their butts off through the entire thing. Thanks, Kate for another gem (now if I could only get this film out of my memory, but I digress).

Okay, back to the boat and to the pictures. To answer Kate's question, "did we even feel that we are in a boat?" Yes, I could feel the motion. That first night we sped our way up the coast and I could feel myself slowly sliding in the bed. Thankfully the fam has strong stomachs (see above). Perhaps the coolest sensation of cruising is when one wakes up to the boat docked in a different world.
You will see a lot of pics off this back deck (and yes, they had a smoking area there). Since we opted for cheap accommodations (inside cabin), we were fortunate enough to be at the rear of the boat and one flight up was this wonderful deck. In the morning I woke up to green mountains to gaze at over coffee and smokes (and all the coffee you can drink. This deck was also home to the 24 hour buffet). You can see a pic of the back of the boat here. Look for the flag to see where I was standing.


It seems like all these Alaskan port cities are mostly accessible from air and sea. Not so much by car (how absolutely un-American). Our tour off boat was the cheapest and the most wheelchair friendly, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. I know you are all amused by the picturing me in a place where I am actually witnessing outdoor sports like log rolling and various chainsaw events but you will get no such pics. Here's one of my sister, freezing her patootie off.
As the above link tells you, watch and marvel at "rugged professional timber athletes." Indeed.



Too bad I couldn't take one of them home for a souvenir. [insert obligatory sex joke here]