Alaska Marine Highway-Day 2

Disclaimer: I cannot find my USB cord, so I'll have to post pics later. Sorry :-(

This is a copy of my (Olivia's) journal entry.

Well, today is our second day aboard the Malaspina ferry. As part of the Alaska Marine Highway system, it runs from Haines, Alaska, to Bellingham, Washington. Emily keeps asking when we can drive our car off of the boat. She’s also been asking to go see the “cathin”. We keep telling her it’s pronounced “CAP-ten”, and she’ll pronounce it correctly if she repeats it after us, but she goes right back to pronouncing it wrong. She thinks the captain is playing in his room though we keep telling her that he's probably driving the ship.

I think everyone but me got up today around 7 am. I think I rolled out of bed a little later. Seven thirty, maybe. Oooh, just felt a swell. How fun :-P

Pop and GG took the kids down to eat some breakfast while I finished getting ready. They chowed on blueberry pancakes, hashed browns, and biscuits and gravy. I decided to eat cheap, so I put some oatmeal in a bowl, grabbed a bagel and o.j., and headed down to join them after I got dressed. Emily’s been wearing her winter boots because I couldn’t remember where I put her tennis shoes. Anyway, the only microwave available to the public is at the extreme other end of the boat in the cafeteria. I ended up feeding half of my oatmeal to Josias, ate half the bagel, and devoured the rest of GG’s hashed browns and ¾ of a blueberry pancake. Pretty good eats.

After breakfast, I figured it’d be kind of nice to take Emily to see a movie. Bolt was supposed to be playing at 9 am, so we trekked down the hall to go see it. It sounded like the movie was playing, but the door was locked, so we knocked on the door. No answer, so we asked around to see what the deal was. The Purser’s desk person acted all bothered because the door was locked and was freaking out a little because she thought they’d have to start the movie over. I explained that it wasn’t necessary because we’d already seen it twice and that Emily didn’t know any different anyway. It was only about 15 minutes in when they finally let us into the room. She really seemed to enjoy it (i.e. she stared at the screen as if she were in a trance).

Following the movie, we headed back to our cabin. It’s a 4 berth cabin with 4 bunk beds and a sitting room. It’s pretty small, but at least it has a bathroom and sink of its own. Josias keeps trying to eat the soap and escape through the door. Emily likes trying to climb up the ladders to the upper bunks. She likes just sitting up there playing like she’s going to sleep. (Mona’s snoring like a freight train right now.)

Josias took a nap shortly after we returned to the cabin. GG took Emily to go watch movies on the laptop, so I decided to read a book. Haven’t been able to do that forever. I only got through about 8 pages, but it was fun while it lasted. I ate a sandwich, some chips, an apple, and some crackers and cheese for lunch.

At some point in the day, I took Josias upstairs to the forward viewing deck. He had a blast walking up and down the ramp that goes up to the room. What a view-180 degrees. We passed by two lighthouses today on our journey. Talk about secluded. They were out on little islands in the middle of nowhere. I thought of my aunt, Linda, when I saw them. She likes lighthouses and is pretty much a hermit.

We ate in Ketchikan this evening at the Best Western. The food was alright. I ordered two kids platters for me and the kids. Shane had chicken fried steak, Mona had some Mexican dish, and I’m not sure what Larry had. It was smoky in there, which did not help my almost-headache I had before departing the boat. Josias was being silly at the restaurant as he asked for food. He kept squealing “Bi!” for food (meaning "bite"). He would squint his eyes really tight as he was saying it. He started signing “Please” as rubbing his tummy with both of his hands. I guess it works since 99% of the time he would use “please” because he’s asking for food. Ha!

Drugged everyone this evening with Benadryl or Dramamine. Baby had the former, Emily & I had the latter. Shane took nothing, so I hope he’s not barfing on me at midnight. I’m hoping the rest of our ferry voyage goes smoothly.