a short pause...

i am sorry to say i will have to take temporary leave of my blog, and, indeed, of this voyage with bob to go home and tend to an unforeseen family emergency and that bob will remain here to continue working.  i have faith that everyone will ultimately be ok, though your well wishes and prayers are appreciated for my son’s dad in his recovery.  i will know more about when and where my journey will again proceed soon, so stay tuned, and i will keep you all posted.  for the next few weeks however, i will be focusing my attention on being home with nino and being a supportive presence for him and for johnny.  i am choosing to take the unexpected bonus of a few weeks at home with nino as a surprise gift since he will soon be off to college and time at home with him is a precious and dwindling thing… thank you for understanding and for your kind thoughts for johnny and our entire family at this time.  i will be back! 

hello from icy strait point!

greetings from icy strait point.  this is an area about 40 mile out of juneau where the ancient peoples of glacier bay went when the ice advanced and forced them from their homes and includes the little nearby village of hoonah as well.  today bob and i both had IPM (in-port manning) which we have decided to call IPS (in-port snuggling).  way to transmute an obligation into a reward!  so, tho we didn’t get to leave the ship, bob did get a few snaps off the deck, and we took some as we sailed away in the early evening… even with a few good pics now and again, to me, they always pale in comparison to the actual place and being there.  i think that’s why i never took too many pics in my life as i always preferred the version in my mind to the actual photos…  still, on the world voyage this year, i did begin to enjoy taking pics with the idea in mind of letting others see what we were seeing, and i get that… i guess i am just missing the inborn chipset that my mom and sister have, whipping out the camera at every occasion – bob is a good photographer and is more interested in it, tho i have recently become more grabby with the camera, wanting to get my own framing of something, so i think my photog muscles are developing a little. 

my theme tonight was ‘come rain or come shine,’ and i was surprised with two busy port days in a row and swoopy seas last night that i kept a bar full of people til after 11… we ended up doing another round of american pie by demand, and that lasted at leat 40 minutes… lots of nice people on this cruise so far!

pics coming tomorrow when i am in anchorage with free and speedy internet!  ciao!

hello from juneau!

here we are in the the capitol city of juneau… another beautiful gray day, and we walked around and enjoyed it.  i have been trying to pick up the little cruiser freebies here and there, the freshwater pearl earrings, the free gemstone pendant (super teeny…), the free polished rocks, i always forget these are out there.  you do usually have to let them show you the $6,000 rings and stuff for the trouble, but it’s fun to look! 

my theme was ‘showtime!’ which includes songs from the big screen, the broadway stage and television themes, even a few commercials… we then have requests til the night is over… i have been lucky enough the last couple of nights to have a few friends drop by and sit in – the guitar player, our friend, dan, from seattle, who is great, a french Canadian sax player named kevan, who is also great, and last night two of the singers from the showroom singers and dancers dropped a few tunes… lots of fun!  the guests really enjoy those impromptu moments, and i am grateful our entertainment leadership allows this – i have been with others who don’t, and i feel they rob the guests of some singular moments that will not happen again… good stuff!

i will be putting my alaskan port song lyrics together on one blog entry at the end of the alaska season with pictures… it has taken me a couple of alaskan summers to get together all the best stuff for each place we go, and i think i have enough now to do an alaskan- themed cruise ship cd to bring with me next time i do the alaska season.  the cd i have now is down to the last few copies, so i will be making a couple of new cd’s when i get home over the holidays to take out with me for the 2012 season.  new stuff is good!  original new stuff is better!  i think bob and i will also throw a duo cd down as well to have when we play together on the home front…

pics of juneau i will have to upload in anchorage - bandwidth out here is tiny, slow, and expensive...  ciao for now!

hello from tracy arm!

tracy arm from promenade deck

yesterday we traveled up the beautiful alaskan fjord of tracy arm.  frequently, we won’t always get really far because of ice or fog, but we made it all the way back in today which was lovely.  bob and i took a few pictures outside and then another few from our window so you could see what a sweet view we have from our room in the sky.

pretty!

from our room

one half of the window... nice!

i have met a few characters on board… one lady (not a piano bar patron) i met in the lido commented wryly how cheerful i was while standing in line at lunch.  she is from, well, a warmer state, and when i asked how she was enjoying her cruise, she kind of harrumphed and said, “all these trees… hmph! you can shove ‘em all!  and it’s cold!”  i reminded her it was alaska, and coming on fall… she harrumphed again and mumbled away.  i was left wondering why she hadn’t stayed in her warm, dry, presumably treeless environment.  i hope when i get older, i will not look for things to be wrong in the day… if i do turn out like that, nino, you can stick me on an iceberg somewhere…

like this one, bean...

my theme last night was moon and stars, not that you could see any… i did robert service’s “ballad of the ice worm cocktail” behind which i throw in some music.  i love the grey weather, and have decided that grey (in all it’s variety, especially the dark stuff) might actually be my favorite color.  i tried to tell my piano bar patrons that the clouds make the ice more blue, so they shouldn’t fret if it’s overcast on glacier days… i’m not sure they were convinced, and even my pictures don’t quite capture the depth of blue in the ice we saw today… lovely!  

ooooooh!

aaaaaaaaaaaah!

more soon... cheers!

greeting from ketchikan!

cruise ships lined up like sentries in ketchikan

so i got my bob back on friday in seattle!  that morning i was able to have a happy 50^th anniversary celebration with my folks while bob got re-situated – we had a really nice visit and got to catch up on each other’s situations before they get ready to move while we are away… (when i was younger my pop always said that someday when i left they would move and leave no forwarding address… hee hee)

it was a whirl getting bob in the door and catching up on some lost time this year… we are now comfortably settled in in our new digs (swanky!) and we will be settling into our comfortable, tho busy, at sea routine.  everything is far easier and happier when he is here!

our first day was at sea going through the inside passage.  quite lovely… my first night’s theme in the piano bar was ‘getting to know you,’ which is where i just chat with people, getting their names, asking where they are from, what kind of music they like, and is pretty much an all request night.  people are often tired from traveling, so they will either not want to sing or clap along, or they draw a blank when it is their turn to request a song.  this is when we fall back on the artist request, so they don’t have to come up with a particular song… i don’t make them work too hard on their first night!  the second night was the genre-stump-the band game ‘american pie’, and was a formal night.  on these shorter cruises, i am usually working 9-close, so my themed set is from 9-10, happy hour is from 10-11, and after that we might go til anywhere from 11:30 til 1, depending on how much activity, how many port days in a row, etc. the guest have had.   

yesterday was ketchikan day, and my theme was ‘let’s be frank!’ featuring the music of frank sinatra.  it was fairly well attended, and i had a good, steady crowd for the rest of the evening, tapering at 12:15… nice folks, and i think with my wits back around me, i am doing better this cruise in terms of getting people’s names down, etc.  i have a few guests who i have met on other cruises, and one gal who even said she booked this particular run because i am on it.  that felt good!  i’m never too aware of what day of the week it is, only whether it is a sea day or which port we are in.  i am firmly fixed in knowing that anchorage and seattle are both on fridays, tho…

nino has started his senior year (hard to believe!) and has some great senior pics (which he hates) coming soon… our summer boarder, uncle larry, moved out, and with me and bob taking off, the mascorella boys and the dog are bachelors in a quieter home… we will be back in time for christmas holidays taking december and january off, and we may take a little family trip out to the winter-stormy coast.  that would be fun!

in ketchikan, bob and i went out to walk and get some good coffee… we took the married man’s trail through the woods ( back when, the fellows could visit the fancy houses on creek street this way without being seen…)… lovely day!  hope everyone is well, and here are a few pics to get current… cheers!

sasquatch in downtown ketchikan

dogs of creek street

historic and colorful creek street

view from funicula going up deer mountain

many real totem poles in parks of ketchikan

high bush cranberries

ginormous slug atop forest fungus on married man's trail

view of dolly's house through the forest on married man's trail