Anchorage

Today we pulled into Anchorage pretty early. It was around 10 till 6am this morning when I was awakened by my lovely mother :) The room service was early today. Normally it's delivered around 6am. Yes it is early, but we are both morning people. It gives us time to lounge a bit before getting ready and going about our day. This morning we had to meet in the Queens Lounge at 9:15 to make our tour. We were there early…..anyone surprised, haha! So we checked in and they gave us our sticker which would indicate which tour bus to get on when we got off the boat. We also got our assigned train seats. Let me add that in Anchorage you are not allowed to leave the port by foot. You can only leave by taxi, free shuttle to downtown, or by tour bus. It is an industrial area and very unsafe for you to walk around. So when they called our tour we went down to the gangway and exited and made our way to our tour bus that would take us to the train station. Of course, 2 obnoxious kids were on our bus which also meant they were on our tour. They were so rowdy and uncontrolled by their parents. Their mom would tell them to stop doing something and the kids would not. She would tell them that they were embarrassing her but then would do nothing to enforce their horrible behavior. Once we got on our tour bus, we drove to the train station which was not far at all. We got on the train and found our seats. The train wasn't bad at all. Definitely different than the White Pass Railway. The seats were big and comfortable and we had a decent amount of legroom. The one unfortunate thing about the ride was that the kids were right behind us….ugh! The girl, who was probably about 10, was a brat….wait, no, she was a spoiled brat. I love kids and all, but if they are bad and their parents do nothing, it makes me want to give them and their parents a big spanking with a big leather belt, haha! Anyways, they were rowdy on the train ride and their dad didn't really do anything to help with their behavior. They ran wild on the train. We made a few stops before actually getting to our tour spot. When we stopped in Portage, our tour guides go on to debrief us on what would be taking place. They didn't actually fill us in until we made our 45 minute stop in Whittier. Once we were in Whittier, they fitted us with our boots. Wait, let me back up a little bit. We signed up for a scenic float. We didn't know what to expect. Well we were in white water rapids type boats. I was ok with that, but I think mom was a little worried..not so much at first, but once they started giving safety instructions on what to do if you fall out of the boat. So anyways, in Whittier that got our boot sizes and started having us fill out waivers. The first thing they said when they got to my row was, "Now, are you over 18?" Of course, I wasn't surprised. No matter what I do, I cannot look my age. Which I guess I will appreciate that one day, but it gets really annoying sometimes. Anyways, I assured her that I was almost 30…yikes, I'm getting old! She apologized, but I wasn't offended. I'm used to it :) Ok, so now we had another 1.5 hours left on the train before getting to Spencer. Once we were there, we got off the train and got on a big blue school bus (yes I did take a picture) and that took us to Spencer Lake where we would load our raft. When we got to the lake, we had deli style lunches. We made our sandwiches and had some delicious tomato soup and brownies. It was a pretty tasty lunch. Then they did some safety briefings down by the water. This was where mom started to get concerned. It really was nothing to worry about. No on had ever fallen out of the boat on our tour and it was pretty calm. We did not hit any rapids. There was some water that flowed a little faster than the rest but it was fine. Before we heard the safety briefing, one of the guides had asked if there were certain groups that had come together. We said that we didn't want to be with any kids. I'm glad we said that, because they had us on the obnoxious kids boat. Instead we were on the boat with 2 men and a lady. There were just 5 of us on our boat plus our guide. Some of the other boats had 9 people, so it was nice to be in a boat with a smaller number of people. Anyways, we floated down the river, saw some pretty amazing scenery, saw some icebergs and glaciers. It was a really neat tour. Once we made it back to our place that we would get back on, everyone got off their rafts and we caught the train. One little dilemma that they didn't tell us about before we left our ship, was that we would not be able to take anything on the float with us. Of course, had I known what type of float trip it was, I would have realized that and left my nice expensive camera on the ship. Well, I did not know, so I brought it with me. Well they said I needed to leave it on the train. I was not about to leave my expensive camera on the train while I got off for 2 hours. No one new would be getting on, but I didn't know those people. I wasn't about to let anything happen to it. So, I was asking the guide what to do, and she said there was a safe on the train. So, lucky me, I got to lock it up in the safe. The only one with the key was the conductor of the train. So, I knew it would be safe. After our train ride and my seat being kicked quite often when the kids were in their seat, we made it back to portage and got off to get back on a tour bus. For some reason those kids thought it was necessary to sit behind me once again. I'm on summer vacation for crying out loud. I need a break! Well I finally gave the girl my "teacher look" and she knew I meant business. She settled down and so did the brother. Actually I think he moved seats. So we finally made it back to the ship around 7pm after leaving the ship around 9am this morning. It was a long day, and we NEEDED to go to the spa. We soaked in the hot tub and rested on the heated beds. Then we came back to get ready for our 8:30 Pinnacle dinner reservations. It was just as good as it was last time if not better. We ordered chocolate souffle for dessert which needed to be ordered with dinner so that it would be ready in time. It was delicious. Now I'm stuffed and we are waiting for sail away. It's around 10:45pm and it looks like its about 7pm. It's so bright outside. It's crazy the way it is here. So that is our day. I'd say we made the most of our longest day of the year! :)