Our day at sea was spent very simply. We read a lot, and we looked at Hubbard Glacier, which looked pretty much just like it did the last time I saw it. It was nice to have a balcony this time though; I was able to enjoy it from my own room rather than out on deck with a million other people. I don’t think we got as close as I did back in September 2005, though - I heard something about there being baby seals around so we couldn’t get any closer than a certain point. In addition to the weather, greater snowmelt, and better sales (end of season), that’s another reason to go in September if we go again. I think also, if we go again, I won’t do any shore excursions in some places because I still haven’t fully explored them myself. (The White Pass railway is still a must-do, though.)

We pulled into Skagway today at 7:00am. Our tour met at 8:00am and we hadn’t had any caffeine yet, so we were sleepy as we piled onto the White Pass railroad train. In fact, we were sleepy for a lot of the trip, especially on the way back. But the ride was just as amazing as it was the first time - I would probably do it a third time if I ever go back to Alaska. The views are just outstanding. I don’t theink there are any scenes in the continental U.S. that are so beautiful, with the possible exception of the Grand Canyon.

After we returned to downtown Skagway, we got some lunch and then split up - A went shopping and I went caching. The first one I tried for was a virtual that was easy to get, and the next one I attempted was downtown. After about an hour looking around in the cold and the rain, I gave up. I found a very likely spot but it just wasn’t there. There was another one about a mile away, but after walking a quarter-mile in the nasty weather, I gave up on that one as well.

I had a couple of hours before our afternoon tour, so I wandered through a few shops and the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park’s visitor center. There was an exhibit there about Jack London, which inspired me to go buy a $5 copy of Call of the Wild at the locally owned bookstore.

Our afternoon tour was very cute, it started wtih a show at Liarsville, where we also panned for gold - it had been planted, of course. We then went back to downtown Skagway and the Red Onion Saloon, where we had a tour of the brothel rooms upstairs. I thought the whole tour was a rather good deal at $40, but one woman said she was going to get her money back because it was overpriced and she didn’t like it. I was tempted to say “good luck with that” but I didn’t.

We spent today seeing sights around Juneau. We were a bit late getting into port, and we were delayed further by a lunch that took too long in the Summer Palace restaurant, but we made it outside in time for our tour. Our first stop was the State Museum, which really should combine forces with the nearby City Museum - it would enhance both their collections.

Our next stop was a salmon hatchery, which utterly horrified me. It might have been better if the description hadn’t been so tarted up. The guide said the sexually mature salmon go into a “dream box” where they are touched with “a DC current” that “makes them go to sleep” and “they don’t ever wake up from that sleep.” Translation: we zap ‘em dead.

I enjoyed the Glacier Gardens much more than the salmon hatchery. There are no roller coasters in Alaska, but the ride up and down the mountain was pretty damn close! I really enjoyed the rain forest and the view from the top.

Our final stop was the Mendenhall Glacier. We walked out on the mud flat and took some pictures before heading back into the visitor center. Unfortunately, we were only in there for five minutes when they announced it would be closing shortly. Our driver didn’t come back for another 30 minutes, by which point everybody was waiting and we all piled onto the bus.

I asked the driver to drop me off in town because I had some errands to run; several other people got off the bus with me. My first stop was the Patsy Ann waymark, which I created after my first trip to Alaska a year and a half ago. I recorded the proper coordinates - I’d guessed wrong using a map, which resulted in running a quarter-mile the wrong way to find my own waymark! Fortunately someone in a jewelry shop got me headed the right way and I was able to take a couple of pictures and record the proper coordinates. Then I set off running for my next stop, the Alaskan Fudge Company. Time was short because our tour was so long, but I had time to buy fudge and race over to the shuttle pickup point. (We were parked at the AJ Dock, unfortunately.) But with a lot of running, I got all my errands done and made it back to the ship a full 30 minutes before all-aboard time.

The first time I went to Alaska, my excursion options were pretty limited. I was planning to do a kayaking trip in Juneau but that was cancelled so I did nothing, I had to interpret in Skagway, and in Ketchikan I got to do some kayaking but missed everything else.

We are going to Alaska with my mom in May, and excursions must be ordered two weeks before, so I am looking over the list. Unfortunately the one tour I want to do more than any other, the White Pass Railway & Glacier Lake Kayak trip in Skagway, isn’t being offered on our particular sailing. (I can’t imagine why, we are in that port from 7am to 8pm, it’s not a timing issue.)

I am pretty sure I want to see the Mendenhall Glacier while we’re in Juneau. I missed glaciers altogether last time, except for the stop at Hubbard Glacier where we had to stay on the ship. I think the most appealing tour in Juneau is probably the Deluxe Mendenhall Glacier & City Tour which includes the Alaska State Museum and everything.

In Skagway, the White Pass Railway is a must-do, that’s the tour I interpreted last time and it was just beautiful. Yes, I’ve heard you can get the same experience on a bus tour or self-driving, but I like trains, so there. I also think I want to do the Red Light Delight or Ghosts and Good Time Girls tours there…I don’t know which.

As for Ketchikan, I have no idea!

I finally got my last two Alaska pictures scanned! They cost a total of $30, which is really expensive for a couple of sheets of photo paper, but at least I got them scanned so they can be seen by everybody instead of just sitting in a frame at home.

	The first one is from the Black and White Party; I am second from the right. The people around me are all deaf clients from the trip, and the woman in the black jacket was my ASL teacher at Gallaudet. The other woman is her partner, and they were the only deaf women on board. Click to enlarge!
	This one is the only formal portrait of me that came out any good, and even then I had them Photoshop out a lock of hair that was on my face. The dress really looks so much better in person, and A tells me I don’t really look like a linebacker in real life - I guess my arms just came out kind of big! Again, click the picture to enlarge.

There! It took me almost an entire workday, but I have gotten all the journal entries set up and the pictures posted. Upgrading Gallery was a little tough, and I haven’t figured out how to customize the style, but it’ll do for now.

If you have already read all of the journal entries, you can just jump to the pictures and browse through those. If you haven’t already read the journal, though, or you’d like to look back, here’s a set of links to the relevant entries. (Note: LiveJournal users, you’re getting the entries that are tagged with “alaska” - if you’d like to see the entries on my own journal, go to the Alaska category.)

Friday, 2 September - I’ve Set Out - From Minneapolis - Seattle
Saturday, 3 September - Underway - Sailing From Seattle
Sunday, 4 September - At Sea
Monday, 5 September - A Disappointment in Juneau - Lunch in Juneau - The Rest of Juneau
Tuesday, 6 September - Hubbard Glacier
Wednesday, 7 September - White Pass Railroad
Thursday, 8 September - Femme Invisibility - Ketchikan
Friday, 9 September - Victoria
Saturday, 10 September - Back in Seattle

My day in Ketchikan was very nice. We were a bit late arriving because we’d been late departing from Haines yesterday. But I disembarked, learned no single kayaks could be used, and followed the guide down the main drag to the little marina. I didn’t bother mimicking the stroke the guide demonstrated, and once somebody volunteered to be my partner, I hopped in the back cockpit of a Wilderness Systems Northstar. Early on I noticed the guy in front of me was trying to help steer by doing multiple strokes on one side. I counseled him on it; not only does the person in the back seat steer, but I had control of the rudder! The guide overheard and agreed with me 100%. We paddled across the channel as seaplanes landed over our heads - it was a fairly noisy paddle the whole time. After spotting some bald eagles (which I didn’t know are no longer endangered), we paddled around an island and into Whiskey Cove itself. It was at this point that I started wanting to chop off my partner’s head with my paddle.

The current was not strong, but if one stopped paddling, one would drift a little bit. I had already endured the guy freaking out anytime we got near another kayak (even though the guide said early on not to worry about it), so what he said next almost made me want to see if he could do a wet exit. The guide was paddling lazily, so he drifted a bit, and we bumped him lightly. The guy actually turned around and said “Nice steering” to me, sarcastically, implying that I couldn’t do the job. I was so annoyed that I didn’t say anything for a few moments, and then I finally said “do consider that it wasn’t my fault.” Which he ignored, of course.

So after looking at an abandoned research boat and some starfish, we headed back to port. The whole way I had to steer not only to follow our route, but to avoid hitting anybody else, which meant I was doing more steering than sightseeing. At the final channel crossing, we were to aim for a tower on the opposite shore. I got us across the main shipping lanes (which I guess would actually be called the runway there) with the bow dead-on for the tower, and then I let us go a bit in the direction we’d end up going anyway. Also, once we were mostly across, the guide told us to aim for the rocks (that is, get as close to the shoreline as possible). So we pulled up at about a 45° angle to the tower, and quite a few yards away (but toward where we’d eventually have to go). What does my lovely partner do? He points to the tower and says I should “steer us over there.” I said something about being okay where we were, and I left it at that. We were almost back and then I could leave him behind. Which I did.

Once back on the streets of Ketchikan, I was accosted by a passenger who’d seen my RSVP name tag and apparently thought I was able to give some bonus prize to him. (I later found out this had to do with the RSViP frequent traveler program.) I shook him off and went to do the last of my Alaska shopping. I’d heard Ketchikan described as the Disneyland of Alaska, but I think Skagway fits that better. I rather liked Ketchikan, actually, even if I only saw it briefly. Before going back on board I bought a bit of rum which J helped me smuggle in with no problems.

After a late lunch, I interpreted for the “dating game” and the final round of bingo. The last prize was over $8400, and it all went to one very lucky guy! In the evening, M and I interpreted for the very funny Paul J. Williams. He’s a professional comedian and I liked him much better than Leslie Jordan. After his performance was the much-ballyhooed leather party. I hadn’t brought any leather so with my blue jeans and silver pumps I wore my ABW shirt. When asked where my leather was, I pointed out that ABW is the largest gay leather organization (might have made that up…) and so my shirt counted. After that I had the previously-described encounter with misogyny, and then I went to bed. (If I’ve used the word misogyny a lot this week, there’s a reason for that. Paul Williams was great though - he encouraged gay men to be friends with lesbians, and to support us and breast cancer the way we supported them and AIDS so many years ago.)

Sometimes I am amazed at how much sign language I know. I think this is mostly influenced by outsiders - people who see that we are communicating, but don’t understand. I am amazed that I get through meetings and such - amazed that my clients understand me. It’s all very odd.

This morning I woke up at 6am and had breakfast on the Lido deck. I had planned to eat in the dining room but it wasn’t ready when I was. I went inside anyway and gave my dinner order to a supervisor, then left for my trip. We were docked in Haines, but our excursion left from Skagway, so we had to take a “fast ferry” across the water. It wasn’t too fast, though - it took us an hour even though the trip isn’t supposed to be more than 15 miles. (By the way, the reason we needed to dock in Haines was that the Skagway port was filled with the Serenade of the Seas, the Coral Princess, the Norwegian Star, and the Norwegian Spirit.) I saw all of my deaf clients on the ferry, but four of them got separated from me. Once we boarded the railcar, I went from car to car looking for them to no avail. So I only interpreted for six clients instead of ten. I feel bad that they missed out on the narration, but I’m an interpreter, not a babysitter! And anyway, they could have come looking for me!

The train ride was actually really cool. I took bunch of pictures, and some of them might even come out okay! We had really great weather; our bus driver (between the ferry and the train) said it was the nicest day Skagway had seen in three weeks! We passed a number of notable sights, for which I interpreted the narration - although most of the time it was goofy stories like gold-seeking gophers and gold lotion that would make gold stick to you if you rubbed it on your naked body and then rolled on the ground! And of course, the people who made the most money from the Alaskan gold rush were not the prospectors - but rather merchants who helped keep them supplied during their adventure.

The trip back down from the summit was only marginally less interesting than the way up. I managed to snap a picture of the Class VI rapids along the Skagway River, and as we pulled into the depot I finally saw some wildlife - a little squirrel. Apparently there are animals in the area, but for the most part the five trains running simultaneously scare them away from the tracks.

Back in Skagway proper (total tourist village) I only had half an hour to look around before I had to catch the bus back to the ferry. I managed to grab gifts for A and my mom. Now I’m actually on the ferry, and I am so tired.

Oh, by the way, there’s a fair bit of misogyny on this cruise. Apparently a deaf person complained that RSVP had hired straight interpreters, so I had to suffer the indignity of being asked by the terp coordinator “you guys are lesbians, right?” I have also gotten some weird looks from many other passengers, and I heard someone express outright disgust at Amy Armstrong’s song about pussy - which she does totally tongue in cheek anyway. So all the misogyny gets me down a bit, or at least annoyed.

Today was another sea day even though our “destination” was listed as Hubbard Glacier. After breakfast I went to a presentation by a native Yaakwdaat tribesman (you can find his home an a map by looking for the Anglicized word Yakutat), which was short but interesting. I sat where deaf people would notice me if they came in, but nobody showed so I just enjoyed the talk. My next stop was the bow of the ship, where many passengers were already gawking at the glacier. I took a few photos, but taking many would have been pointless because it looked pretty similar all the way across. I heard some of the naturalist’s comments; the ice we were looking at was 150 years old (!) and 300 feet were above the water with another 250 feet below the waterline. Someone took my picture for me, and then one of the deaf clients took my picture, too. When I went back inside, the crew member who had been offering pea soup was gone, so I went to the Lido deck and had some hot chocolate.

I took a little nap, and then at 1:30 I went to the main auditorium to watch the rehearsal of Rockin’ Road, the medley performed by the Oosterdam’s singers and dancers. I can’t remember what I did after that! Oh yes, I did interpret bingo again. Apparently the prize on Thursday may be between $6,000 and $10,000!! Perhaps I should buy a card for that.

I had dinner on my own on the Lido deck and I rehearsed my set of songs for the show. I changed into a nice top and trousers and put on some eye makeup and lipstick. I was nervous before the show began, but as soon as the music started I really got into it! I interpreted Old Time Rock & Roll/Burning Love, Drift Away, Southern Nights (as a pre-recorded segue), Tennessee Waltz, Georgia On My Mind, Sweet Home Alabama, You Needed Me, Wild Wild West (segue), King of the Road, and Born to Be Wild. The only one I didn’t know and couldn’t memorize in time was Sweet Home Alabama, but J knew it and she gave me feeds throughout the verses. When I was done and I sat down I felt really good! I’m not a good musical interpreter but I think I did an awesome job - I moved to the beat, I signed well, etc. I went to bed early (well, after midnight technically) because I had to get up at 6am to interpret an excursion!

(PS: I made it into the Whiskey Cove Kayaking trip in Ketchikan!)

My afternoon was fine; I did a lot of shopping. I covered most of the main tourist drag in Juneau at least twice, and bought gifts for almost everybody. I highly suspect I won’t have time or inclination to shop in Haines because I’ll be working there, and I don’t want to plan to shop in Ketchikan just in case I do get onto a kayaking trip. I was surprised to find the stores closest to the pier in Juneau had the best prices.

When I got back I was feeling antisocial, so I had dinner delivered so I wouldn’t have to eat around other people. Afterward I interpreted for the very funny Amy Armstrong; I struggled a lot in the beginning but after I took a break (during which M replaced me) I got more into the groove. I think tonight I will probably stay in. I have a bottle of hard lemonade I could work on. Maybe I will peek in at the PJ party briefly, we’ll see. I don’t especially care to see lots of men in their underwear.

Oh, another think that bothers me about J is how often she gloats about having lost 42 pounds recently. Yes, it’s an awesome achievement. Yes, she looks great. But I’d rather not hear about it five times a day.