Alaskan cruise part 2: Juneau

Thanks for all of the broken ankle sympathy. Orthopedics appointment is tomorrow, but I'm getting more used to the boot and the pain is virtually gone unless I walk too much.

I've decided to talk about Juneau next and leave Glacier Bay (the best part) for the third post. The drawback of an Alaskan cruise at the end of the season means you are likely to hit rough water. Our original itinerary had us going out in the open ocean to head up to Sitka for Day 2. Unfortunately, the evening/night of day 1 saw 30 foot swells! The captain wisely decided to switch course at 2am and go up the inside passage. I was grateful for a smoother ride, but that meant no Sitka, an entirely changed itinerary, and 3 days at sea before our first stop. We were certainly happy to see Juneau when we got there!

As if on cue when we got off the boat, this eagle swooped down and landed right in front of us.


We didn't have any tours planned (they were crazy expensive), so we wandered around for a bit in the tacky shops and along the water.



It turns out that not paying for the expensive cruise arranged tour is a really smart idea. We found a local tour that was usually $50 (compared to the $120 the boat wanted), but they only charged us $30 each since we were the last group of the year. It was a 2-3 hour van tour, and we learned a ton about Juneau and saw some beautiful sites.
This church (the Shrine of St. Therese), hidden on a former island in the trees.

It was raining like crazy and super cold, but it was a very peaceful spot. They also had a prayer labyrinth.

I think this photo speaks for itself (and how irreverent we are!)


Next up was a stop at a lake fed by Mendenhall glacier (in the back left of the photos). It was just gorgeous.

Love this family photo :)

My dad picking up a large chunk of glacier ice:



It was a bummer that it was so cold and rainy, but the stop was nice and learning about Juneau was really interesting. Our guide was funny and entertaining, and it was a well-spent $30. It was a beautiful place, although I'm not sure I'd like living in a town that is only accessible by boat or plane.

Broken

That sprained ankle I mentioned in the last post? It's now housed in a large, clunky black boot. While the PA that read the X-ray said it was just a sprain, the radiologist that looked at it 3 days later clearly saw a distal lateral malleolar fracture. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I broke my ankle playing ping pong. I'm that talented. So for the last 3 days I've been hobbling around in a boot.

It's a pain in more ways than one. My hips hurt because my gait is now uneven. The outside of my ankle hurts because of the rubbing of the flat brace. I can't walk well due to the broken ankle (I usually walk to work). I can't drive easily because it's my right foot, and the brace doesn't bend to allow for driving. Each time I get in the car I have to undo the 5 velcros and put on a shoe. Each time I get out I have to put the brace back on. Chasing after my friend's toddler yesterday wasn't easy. Sleeping with a boot is uncomfortable. Needless to say all of this has made me kind of cranky.

I still don't even really know what's wrong. I have to wait for a call from the orthopedist, then set up an appointment, then find out how long I have to wear the boot. Thankfully they didn't force me to take the crutches (I'd been walking on it for almost 2 weeks), but the boot is still hard to deal with.

Enough with the whining! More Alaska this week.

Alaskan cruise part 1: the food

Last Friday we returned from our week long Alaskan cruise. We both came home with colds, and I have a sprained ankle from a rockin' game of cruise ping pong, so I'm a bit slow with the blogging. I'll post about the trip in parts, and today is all about the food.

Anyone who has been on a cruise knows that it's an eating fest 24/7. Buffets, 3 course meals, afternoon tea, midnight buffets, room service - it's neverending.

This was my breakfast from the morning we did the sit down breakfast. What was innocently titled "breakfast sandwich" showed up as this enormous platter of food! What a way to start the day!


Bryan's English breakfast the same day. They also had Swedish, Irish, and Japanese breakfasts.


One of the appetizers one night:


Afternoon tea:


Shrimp cocktail appetizer:


Bryan's lamb chops one night in the dining room:


My surf and turf in the main dining room:


The ship had a formal, reservations-only restaurant that was a $20 surcharge. We were given 2 dinners for free with our cruise, so we went one night. At almost 3 hours, it sure was an experience! It started with 4 kinds of breads, 3 flavored butters, and 3 kinds of sea salt that were "good for your immune system." After the main meal (no photos - lobster for me, filet mignon for him), they gave us this pretty tray with our coffee accouterments and some delicious chocolate wafer things.


We ended the fancy meal with these (3 kinds of creme brulee - chocolate, mocha, and regular; grand marnier lava cake:



All in all, the cruise food was decent, but it was SO SO rich. By about day 3 I was sick of looking at food and always feeling awful after eating. I made a decision to stop eating so much (do I really need a 3-course meal for lunch AND dinner??) and I felt tons better. Eating less, coupled with even a few days at the on-board gym, meant no weight gain for me. After the whopping +10lbs on our honeymoon cruise, I was quite please.

Part 2: Glacier Bay.....coming soon.

Random bulleted updates

- On Friday night we went to dinner with the Groupawn. Josh is living off of Groupon (and the kindness of strangers) for a year. In case you haven't heard of it: The premise is simple: No cash. The Groupawn (customer chosen to Live Off Groupon) has nothing but a year’s supply of Groupons good for the best things to eat, do, see and buy across the country. From skydiving and upscale cuisine to body waxing and foreign language classes, Groupon deals will shape the Groupawn’s daily life. He will need to rely on the kindness of strangers for social niceties (like tax and tip) and basic human needs (like somewhere to sleep and a ride to any of Groupon’s 60 cities.). Josh was in Portland for a few days, so we met up with him, our friend/former realtor, and 4 strangers for dinner. It was really fun, although the service was horrific and the waitress a bitch. Josh is 4 months in, and if he makes it the year he'll get $100,000.

- We're headed on a cruise to Alaska in 2 weeks. In preparation for the cold, we each got new jackets. Said jackets came in a paper bag with handles, and our cats have gone CRAZY over that bag. Ruby loves to dash into it, and Dexter runs after her and thus begins the great bag battle. It's hysterical, and they are doing it as I'm writing this.

- Finally tried out Five Guys Burger and Fries. It was delicious, albeit gluttonous.


- Living in the city is still awesome. We have plans many nights of the week because everything is so close and/or our friends are willing to come to our new location.

- We're trying to get back into exercising, and it is REALLY painful. I've never liked to exercise, even when I was a competitive athlete. It's frustrating that the results are so slow in coming, although our penchant for eating out probably isn't helping ;)

- Speaking of eating out, at happy hour last week we had bourbon chocolate chip ice cream. The alcohol makes it really smooth and creamy. It was delicious.


- I have to go to the dentist tomorrow for TWO HOURS of drilling to start a bridge. I am dreading it.

- Over Labor Day we went to a friend's house and finally tried Rock Band. It was much harder than I expected, but it was really fun. I was too chicken to try singing in front of many people I didn't know, but maybe next time. They had a projector and a huge space. B is now obsessed with wanting Rock Band, even though our living room is tiny.

- And most exciting...2 weeks until we're on a boat, not thinking about work. We haven't had a week-long vacation in over a year, so we're both well overdue.

- Most exciting #2...we decided not to wait another year before we take a long vacation, so we just booked a 9 day Mexican cruise for the end of February.

Packed weekend

Wow, what a fun and packed weekend we had!

It started off with a visit from my BBF Stacey on Friday. We've been friends since we were 6 years old, and she's that kind of friend that we can lose touch for a year, yet catch right back up. She's on her way to new adventures in grad school in NY, and it was awesome to see her before she headed off. We enjoyed a new restaurant with her and capped off the night with some unique ice cream (thai chili for B, ginger cookies and cream for me, coconut and hazelnut for Stacey).

Saturday we were going to go test drive a car we were interested in (the Ford Fusion) and then a trip to a Sake place that we had a groupon for. Weeeelllll, we got a little sidetracked when we learned there were a few different car dealerships out by the Ford one (we hated the Fusion by the way). We wandered over to Mazda/Subaru/Nissan. That little "why not, since we're here" detour led us to trade in this:

and this:

for this (not our actual car):
It's a Mazda 3 hatchback, and ours is dark grey. Since we're a 1-car household now, we decided to get the top-of-the-line model (leather, sunroof, dual climate, 6 disc CD, etc). So far we love it, although it sits in the garage more often than we drive it!

The car shopping/buying ended up taking the entire afternoon/early evening, and we quickly headed off to a BBQ at my sister's. It was mostly people that we didn't know, but they all knew each other from meeting at a bar! Really! I have no idea why I think that's so cool, but I do (since everyone was in their 30's and 40's). They are all real life friends now because they drink at the same watering hole. It was fun, but we were tired and headed home for some much needed sleep.

Sunday we had to head back to the dealership (almost an hour away) to give them my car, and we then headed on to the Sake tasting. Our Groupon was for a shock flight, which was 5 Sakes paired with food.

Obviously the "food" was a bit sparse, but it was interesting (see menu above).

We had a good time and tried 2 additional sakes. Admittedly I didn't really like any but the really sweet ones, but it was fun to try something new. We also got a tour of the sakery and learned all about making sake (basically rice, koji mold, and water).

We bought a few bottles (plum sake and coconut lemongrass that we thought would be fantastic with thai food).

After getting home, I turned around and went to my parent's house to get my mom for a volunteer appreciation picnic. We are both involved in a local cat rescue, and every summer they have a picnic for the volunteers. It was nice to catch up with some of the volunteers we haven't seen in awhile, although the picnic was a little boring. Cat trivia just isn't my thing! My mom enjoyed it though, and it was a feel-good event for her.

I got home about 7pm and then barely moved for the rest of the night :) We watched The Food Cart Challenge (or whatever it's called) and called it a night. It was a packed weekend, but so much fun!

Summertime and the livin's easy

It's always a good idea to blog while slightly tipsy, right? Right? It is when you're bragging about living in a place where you can walk to at least 2 dozen happy hours! We live diagonally across the street from a brewpub with a fantastic happy hour. They have 15-20 items on their menu, and so far everything we've tried has been good.

Although I frequently use my blog as a venting space, things are going really well. The weather has been great, so I've stopped driving to work. Instead, I walk the .62 miles to our light rail and take that into work (it stops 1 block from my office). It's delightful to start my day off with a walk in the fresh morning air. While I can't promise I'll continue when the rainy season starts, it's great for now. Once they finish repairing the bridge near our place I might ride my bike as well.

In my entire life I've never lived in a place where I could walk everywhere. I'm totally loving it. The closest grocery store is 1 block away, Whole Foods is just a few blocks, Trader Joe's is a few more blocks, and the restaurants are too numerous to count. We lived in our house for almost a year and only really knew one neighbor, yet already in our apartment we know several people and we've been invited for wine around the fire pit. We've enjoyed fresh cookies while sitting in the courtyard, and we've wandered the neighborhood in the evening after work. We feel a new-found sense of freedom with an extra hour after work since we have short commutes. Bored and want a movie to watch? Just walk across the street to the Blockbuster box or take the mile walk to one of THREE local theaters. It's ideal in these warm summer days.

In an ironic twist to the rant about Comcast, our "free" wireless they promised doesn't work at all on my computer, and intermittently on Bryan's computer. While they are "actively working on it" and appreciated me letting them know it didn't work, it's really hard to live without internet (or TV). We can't have any type of dish due to other buildings, and the rabbit ears only got 1 channel well (CBS - unless you count the Jesus stations that came in perfectly clear!). We had to cave and get Comcast again. The bright side is we got a great deal ($59.99 for cable and internet) and no contract. We hope our building gets everything figured out before our promo deal ends in 6 months so we can cancel. It sucked to have to give them our money again, but we're paying less than half of what we paid before, so we're still "saving" money.

City life

I've never been able to be a consistent blogger, and moving sure isn't helping. It's been so long since I've stopped to write, but every night between packing to move and unpacking from the move it's all I can do to stay awake until 10pm.

We're finally out from our house, but not without a few snags. First off, the closing estimate said we'd get ~$1,800 back. Now I know this is just an estimate, but these people do estimates for a living. You can imagine our shock when we got the final closing statement and we owed $750. We certainly were NOT expecting to have to write a check to get out. It turns out they "forgot" about 2 months of interest. We will get about $700 of it back, plus the $485 for homeowners insurance the bank decided to pay 3 weeks early, but it was still frustrating.

The second snag was the movers forgetting about us. What follows is my Yelp review:

I made the moving appointment a month in advance, and I got a confirmation number. I scheduled for 9am. At 9:15am on move day, I called to see where they were. Without asking who I was, the woman said "they are on their way." I told her she didn't know who I was, and when I told her, she starts flipping through paper and I hear an "uh oh." That is NOT what you want to hear on move-out day for a house that is closing that day.

She then tells me she "forgot to transfer me from her notebook to the wall," which was her way of saying "I forgot about you, and you have no movers coming." She assures me she'll get someone to my house by 11am at the latest, and that a crew is on their way in. 11:30am comes, and no movers. I call her back, and she says she is still waiting on a mover, and when he gets there they are still at least 30 minutes away. She apologizes profusely and says we "won't be charges for any drive time," since this was her fault and she knows this is a huge problem for us. 12:15 the mover calls and says they are on their way.

2pm STILL no movers, and we have to leave to sign on the sale of the house. The move is supposed to be long over by now, and still nothing. I had to beg my mom to come wait for them. 2:15 they finally show up. The 2 movers are kind, and they are the good guys since they came in on our day off. However, one of them is only in his 3rd day of the job, so he needs lots of coaching and direction from the lead mover. This significantly slows them down.

To make a long story less long, they arrive over 5 hours late and take a whopping 5.5 hours to move things that are all within one room of our house (we were super organized). They got stuck in an hour of rush hour traffic, which we were charged for, despite her saying we wouldn't be. She was rude when I called her, and made herself sound like the hero that "hadn't charged me for 2 hours of driving, or the overtime since it went past 7pm." Um, they had overtime and all of that driving because of an accident and rush hour traffic that wouldn't have happened IF YOU HAD PUT US ON THE SCHEDULE. Needless to say, we'd rather throw all of my stuff away rather than use Thunder Movers again.
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So yeah, it was stressful. In the end the owner did wave the hour of drive time, although we still feel overcharged. The happy part of the story is we are moved, mostly unpacked, and loving city life. Work is super close, and we've been able to explore the new neighborhood some. We can walk to things like the farmer's market, which we did tonight. It feels lovely to have simplified, and once we got things unpacked we realized this is plenty of space for us. While we don't think this is where we will be long-term (the 2 months free made it affordable, but we're unlikely to get that if we re-sign in a year), we're looking forward to what this year of urban life has to bring.