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Vacation recap, birthday
12 years ago
General
Got back from our honeymoon trip to Alaska on Saturday morning...could have gone better. The highlights:
We mainly went on the cruise for the food, because we were told how great it was. The food was terrible, the buffet was 99% canned or pre-packaged food, to the point I could tell you the brand name of most of it.
The bed was so overly soft that my back was a wreck for the entire trip. You've not had a bad morning until you've had to crawl to the shower on a rocking ship.
As a whole, the passengers were great, sweet, whole bunch of older folks eager to tell new cruisers all about what there was to do, especially after learning we were on our honeymoon. The crew, though...most of the ones I encountered were rude or seemed to be bothered by small requests.
Port #1: Juneau. I brought all of Athena's meds, except for Sudafed, thinking it wasn't needed. IT WAS NEEDED. There was a shuttle that would take you to Walmart, Costco, and Fred Meyer at the port, and we decided to take it and get meds, and hopefully some good food. Apparently, however, there is nothing in Juneau except for jewelry stores and the three places I mentioned. Oh, and Athena got hit by a car...no seriously, a woman was backing up at about 30 miles an hour without looking in her mirror. The only reason she stopped and merely bumped my wife, without plowing her under, was the fact I can be very, very loud when I need to be. We got back to downtown(where the 19 jewelry stores are) and found some food, served by a surly line cook. It was alright, but something I could have made.
Port #2: Skagway. This was actually pretty neat, it is a tiny little frontier town with the old style buildings that I love, a highlight of the trip. Had venison burgers for lunch, but not a lot of flavor to them. The Bavarian nuts were delicious, though, brown sugar coated cashews and almonds, roasted.
Day #3: Glacier Bay. Great views, got a whole lot of pictures. I got to see the glaciers calving off, with giant blocks falling into the water. The gulls wait around the glacier for the blocks to drop, because it stirs up the food for them.
Port #3: Ketchikan. Another little town, and we had scheduled an excursion to see the lumberjack show. Since the food on ship was so bad, we decided to get breakfast in town. We waited 45 minutes to get a simple breakfast of biscuits and gravy and eggs for Athena...but the lumberjack show was cool.
Port #4: Victoria. We pulled in at night, only in port for 3 hours. Met our friends for dinner, went to an Irish pub that had good food and live music. Unfortunately, I started having severe back pain and so we went back to the ship early, I'd say 10:30pm.
At about 10:45pm I was in such pain that I'd thrown up everything I'd eaten for two days, and was in tears. Athena convinced me to go to the emergency medical bay, and it's a good thing. They got me in, dosed me with enough morphine to stun a yak, and started trying to diagnose me. After all that morphine, I was still in so much pain I couldn't sit still, so the nurses were getting upset with me as they tried to take an EKG. Doctor kept saying things it might be...like heart problems, but 'you'd have been dead in an hour, so I don't think it's this...' putting Athena into a state of panic. Finally he decides I have gall stones.
We land in Seattle at 7am on Saturday, and they stick me in an ambulance to be taken to Swedish. Once there, they confirm I do have gall stones, and need to have my gall bladder removed. I'm having surgery on Tuesday to remove my gall bladder, and until then I'm in considerable pain.
So all in all, I've had better trips, but without the last minute medical issues, it still would have been a nice trip, I got lots of rest, got to relax with my wife, and see some pretty sights. I wouldn't have paid as much as I did, but still...
Today is my birthday, so I've taken the day off from work. After I take Athena to a doctor's appointment, I get to be lazy, so hopefully that will make me feel better.
We mainly went on the cruise for the food, because we were told how great it was. The food was terrible, the buffet was 99% canned or pre-packaged food, to the point I could tell you the brand name of most of it.
The bed was so overly soft that my back was a wreck for the entire trip. You've not had a bad morning until you've had to crawl to the shower on a rocking ship.
As a whole, the passengers were great, sweet, whole bunch of older folks eager to tell new cruisers all about what there was to do, especially after learning we were on our honeymoon. The crew, though...most of the ones I encountered were rude or seemed to be bothered by small requests.
Port #1: Juneau. I brought all of Athena's meds, except for Sudafed, thinking it wasn't needed. IT WAS NEEDED. There was a shuttle that would take you to Walmart, Costco, and Fred Meyer at the port, and we decided to take it and get meds, and hopefully some good food. Apparently, however, there is nothing in Juneau except for jewelry stores and the three places I mentioned. Oh, and Athena got hit by a car...no seriously, a woman was backing up at about 30 miles an hour without looking in her mirror. The only reason she stopped and merely bumped my wife, without plowing her under, was the fact I can be very, very loud when I need to be. We got back to downtown(where the 19 jewelry stores are) and found some food, served by a surly line cook. It was alright, but something I could have made.
Port #2: Skagway. This was actually pretty neat, it is a tiny little frontier town with the old style buildings that I love, a highlight of the trip. Had venison burgers for lunch, but not a lot of flavor to them. The Bavarian nuts were delicious, though, brown sugar coated cashews and almonds, roasted.
Day #3: Glacier Bay. Great views, got a whole lot of pictures. I got to see the glaciers calving off, with giant blocks falling into the water. The gulls wait around the glacier for the blocks to drop, because it stirs up the food for them.
Port #3: Ketchikan. Another little town, and we had scheduled an excursion to see the lumberjack show. Since the food on ship was so bad, we decided to get breakfast in town. We waited 45 minutes to get a simple breakfast of biscuits and gravy and eggs for Athena...but the lumberjack show was cool.
Port #4: Victoria. We pulled in at night, only in port for 3 hours. Met our friends for dinner, went to an Irish pub that had good food and live music. Unfortunately, I started having severe back pain and so we went back to the ship early, I'd say 10:30pm.
At about 10:45pm I was in such pain that I'd thrown up everything I'd eaten for two days, and was in tears. Athena convinced me to go to the emergency medical bay, and it's a good thing. They got me in, dosed me with enough morphine to stun a yak, and started trying to diagnose me. After all that morphine, I was still in so much pain I couldn't sit still, so the nurses were getting upset with me as they tried to take an EKG. Doctor kept saying things it might be...like heart problems, but 'you'd have been dead in an hour, so I don't think it's this...' putting Athena into a state of panic. Finally he decides I have gall stones.
We land in Seattle at 7am on Saturday, and they stick me in an ambulance to be taken to Swedish. Once there, they confirm I do have gall stones, and need to have my gall bladder removed. I'm having surgery on Tuesday to remove my gall bladder, and until then I'm in considerable pain.
So all in all, I've had better trips, but without the last minute medical issues, it still would have been a nice trip, I got lots of rest, got to relax with my wife, and see some pretty sights. I wouldn't have paid as much as I did, but still...
Today is my birthday, so I've taken the day off from work. After I take Athena to a doctor's appointment, I get to be lazy, so hopefully that will make me feel better.
And don't worry, gallbladder removal is quick and easy, and you'll recover fast thanks to modern laproscopy techniques.