Friday - August 17, 2012
Morning number 2 onboard the Holland America Volendam! Lucky me, my roommate (Roy) is an early riser so I was awake by 7am again…I thought this was vacation?! I figured I might as well make the most of the morning before we port in Juneau so I set off for the Greenhouse Fitness Center. Again, the view from the bicycle and elliptical didn’t disappoint and this morning was a little different since we were getting close to civilization. After the gym, I enjoyed a hot breakfast in the Lido Restaurant. Roy set off for the Digital Workshop again for a Photo Editing class and I went back to the Culinary Arts Center for a class called, For the Love of Chocolate. With a name like that it had to be a good class! The on board Party Planner, Rebecca, and the Head Pastry Chef showed us how to decorate dessert plates and martini glasses with chocolate. They then taught us how to make ganache. Apparently, you can add any flavor to the dark chocolate and heavy cream so Rebecca took a vote and we added orange flavor, Triple Sec, to our recipe. Rebecca poured a bit much into the bowl so our ganache wouldn’t set so we had a liquid tasting. The best parts of the Culinary Art Center demonstrations are the tastings and you get a copy of all of the recipes! Roy and I met in the Rotterdam Dining Room for lunch. With only 3 days on board the Volendam, we wanted to try out all of the dining locations so this was our first time eating in the main dining room. We sat with four other people who were all from California. I enjoyed Halibut Fish & Chips while Roy stuck to the classic American burger.
While we were eating, the ship docked in Juneau. Land! We were so excited to step off the boat to solid ground! As much as I love being on the water, it was so nice to be off the ship and breathe in the fresh Alaskan air!
Roy and I parted ways once we got off the ship since Roy’s Whale Watching and Mendenhall Glacier excursion began as soon as we got to port. I’ll prove my age when I say another exciting thing of finally being on land in Juneau was that I could finally turn off the “airplane mode” of my iPhone! I was finally connected to the world again! Go ahead and shake your head, its ok. I set off on foot to explore the four streets that make up the city of Juneau. There were countless gift shops and a few restaurants. As I walked up Franklin Street (a little different from the famous Chapel Hill road) I saw a store that lured me in, the Alaskan Brewing Company. I wandered around the store and overheard a man talking about tours to the brewery which was only 10 minutes up the road. I did enough eavesdropping to learn that there was a tour leaving for the brewery in 5 minutes and it was only $15 for an hour tour and tasting. I marched up to the man, admitted my eavesdropping, and asked to join the tour! We loaded up in the Liquid Tours shuttle van and drove to the outskirts of Juneau to the original location of the first brewery of Alaska.
We enjoyed samples of the craft ales and listened to the history company that began as a hobby for a husband and wife and has turned into a statewide favorite beer. The Alaskan beer varieties are now sold all over the state and even to the Lower 48 as far East as Colorado. We headed back to the main streets of Juneau and I found a local coffee spot with free Wi-Fi and caught up on the important things of life, you know, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
I wandered back to the pier to meet m y excursion group. Twelve of us set off for a Native Canoe Mendenhall Lake Adventure. We had a great guide named Jocelyn, from Colorado. She was very interactive with the group and encouraged everyone to get to know each other. Come to find out, I was the only American on the excursion aside from our guide. We arrived at the lake and got our first glimpse of the majestic blue Mendenhall Glacier. Jocelyn recommended we wear the rain gear provided for us even though the pants were 2 sizes too big and the jacket went past my knees. Better dry than cute, I guess. We paddled toward the glacier for about 2 ½ miles until we were within 250 meters of the Mendenhall Glacier. It was simply beautiful! The shades of blue and the magnitude of the glacier were astounding. Snack was provided for us so we munched on reindeer sausage and salmon dip and apple cider as we took in the beauty of Mendenhall Glacier. We paddled toward Nugget Falls on our way back to shore and went through the Falls mist and I touched a broken off piece of glacier…it was very cold but I can check that off my bucket list! The views from Mendenhall Lake were absolutely breathtaking! I’ll never forget the shades of blue in the ice or the feeling of being so small next to the glacier.
I made a friend on trip named Justin. Justin was from the UK but now lives in Vancouver. He was traveling with his parents as well so I think we were both excited to meet someone close in age! When we got back to the pier, Justin and I asked for Jocelyn’s recommendations for a fun local place to hang out before we had to be back on the ship. Jocelyn recommended the Alaskan Bar located next to the Alaskan Hotel on Franklin Street. It was a great recommendation as it was definitely a local joint with live music.
We sampled some local ale and laughed about the differences in Vancouver and the UK and North Carolina. Anyone who knows me knows I love football and I couldn’t hide my excitement when NFL highlights were on the tv in the Alaskan Bar. Justin, being from the UK, is new to American football but when he mentioned that he picked CJ Spiller for his Fantasy Football team last season I knew we would be fast friends! I explained the differences of NFL and college football to him and told him all about Clemson…even though he laughed at the idea of orange tiger paws on the highway simply in the name of school spirit. We wandered back to the Volendam for dinner and we made it to the Lido Restaurant as they were closing so we didn’t have many options for dinner. Justin tried to get me to eat cauliflower and I tried to convince him that in the South mac & cheese is a vegetable. We spent the evening laughing and talking about the amazing differences of our worlds, but it was a lot of fun to find a friend even for a short while.
No comments:
Post a Comment