Island to Alaska with Pictures (part 2)

[camperhawk]

Carl, sorry some of us fans have been remiss about talking to you:( However after reading your novel (soon to be on Oprah's list) (soon to be a nobel prize winner in literature) (soon to be made into a movie) Soon to be a weekly reality TV show) What could possibly be left to say?;)

 

Still with you and have never gone to one art auction!

[cworld]

OK, I see your point. But I still like to hear from all of you.

 

I've been busy for the last couple of days trying to get the webpage back up , and up for good. I've revamped the whole thing, mostly, and it's back up at it's permanent address HERE. And yes for you Disneyophiles, I've started the Disney thingy. I promise not to neglect you all, after all it's you that have created me.

 

Thanks again for your support.

 

PS. I figured how to get the picture up with the song.

[cworld]

Just to prove I'm not going to neglect you.

 

It was 3 o’clock so we stopped by the Universal Lounge, but the Newlywed Game was still going on. So we (The New Jersey’s, Mrs. C and I, in case you’d forgotten who the players were) went out on the deck to watch the Island Princess enter College Fjord. Never before in the annuals of seafolk lore has such a grand entrance been accomplished. (What?) OK, it’s a little hokey (ya think?) but it got your attention didn’t it?

 

The lovely Island Princess seemed to be a little early entering College Fjord, but that was all right with us. We listened as Carol our extremely interesting, captivating, helpful naturalist started telling us about the glaciers in College Fjord. Hmmm, College Fjord... Sounds majestic. Sounds cultured. Sounds erudite. (like that word? I’m not using it correctly, but it sounds good. It’s pronounced air-y-u-dite. Just rolls so sleekly off of the tongue. airyudite. He’s smart. Not really, just sounds like it occasionally.) Glaciers named after a bunch of colleges. Just what will they think of next.

 

More of other peoples pictures on the blog/book HERE.

[Sea Fan]

Wow, this is so amazing not only do we get to hear these wonderful Alaska stories but we also get a volcabulary lesson. Carl your a well rounded man.

 

BTW I clicked on your "picture with the song" and got an error message..

Page cannot be found. The others worked fine so I don't know if it's your page or my computer.

 

WEB page looks great I hope to have more time to check it out later.

 

Dianne

[cworld]

Thanks,

 

It's my bad. I didn't put the full site in the link. Try THIS.

 

Might have to break out the spelling stick too. But that's kinda dicey.

[cworld]

I can't get the edit thingy to work so I'll just add another post.

 

Camperhawk, what's up with the round thing. Is that a slap at my lack of height? Mmmm. That's just wrong.

 

Am I getting a little too touchy?

[Sea Fan]

My computer is running so slow tonight, so if I don't get back to you that's why.

 

When I clicked on try THIS. It pulled up Carls Travels. Com The page was Carls pictures with spots for future pictures. Whose playing baseball on the picture you have there?

 

Dianne

[cworld]

My computer is running so slow tonight, so if I don't get back to you that's why.

 

When I clicked on try THIS. It pulled up Carls Travels. Com The page was Carls pictures with spots for future pictures. Whose playing baseball on the picture you have there?

 

Dianne

 

I think all of CruiseCritic is running slow. I'm sure it's my fault again. Probably time for the fairy to come raining down on us again.

 

As for whose playing baseball... I could tell you, but then I'd have to... you know the rest.

[Sea Fan]

Your right, I hadn't thought of it but of couse it's your fault the whole system is bogged down. Sounds like you need Mrs C to work some magic and straighten you out! :D How is Mrs C we haven't heard from her for awhile.

 

Dianne

[cworld]

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,

A beautiful day for a neighbor.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?...

 

It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,

A neighborly day for a beauty.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?...

 

Man, where did that come from? I was sitting here trying in vain (vain - without success, not the other meaning) to come up with witty to say about the glaciers in College Fjord. I guess I’ll just tell the truth. I didn’t pay much attention to College Fjord. It was cold, it was cloudy, it was cold... You get my drift. We (The New Jerseys, Mrs. C and I) went down, or was it up, to Deck 7 where we could walk around and have access to both sides of the ship, to see what we could see.

 

Carol our extremely interesting, captivating, helpful naturalist, was droning on and on about what we were seeing, which wasn’t much. She talked about all of these colleges... gotta say them correctly with the snooty pooty, upper crust, Charles Emerson Winchester accent... Barrrr-narrrddd, Wellsssleeee, H,H,Haaa-vaaahhhrrrD, Vahsaa. I’m not saying that Carol was talking like that, it is just what comes to my mind when I think about those colleges. We moved from side to side looking for something interesting. (Map of College Fjord on the blog/book site.)

 

A few minutes into College Fjord we started hearing a strange noise. Kinda sounded like a herd of whales when they surface (or at least what I imagine a herd of whales would sound like when they surface). We got all of our long range eyeball booster devices out and started looking for the whale herd. (We heard a herd of whales, how funny is that. Not very.) We looked up (now just why would you look up for a whale?). We looked down. We looked east. We looked west. No whale herd. A minute later we saw this. (Ha, ha, now you’ll have to go to the blog/book to see what I’m talking about.) It was making a noise that sounded like a whale when it blows air out. Weird.

[cruzluvr2]

cworld - You've convinced me, your camera really is a "wonder camera." I took pictures same day, same ship as you and your photos are much better. Okay, I'm jealous; but I have to admit I still enjoy looking at your photos. I found a photo today in a post by Yukon on the Alaska board that shows College Fjord from a view I've not seen before. It is quite amazing, I'll post a link. http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/alaskacruises2006/4483.html

 

To anyone that may be reading this and plan to sail on the Island Princess in the future I'll give a little hint about an area we didn't find until near the end of the week. Many of the decks have an open area at the back of the ship that is covered. We were able to go there while in College Fjord and not get wet in the drizzly rain.

 

I'm still enjoying your posts and your blog.

 

Gail

[cworld]

Sorry, I was going to try to post something tonight, but it's too late. I promise to have something tomorrow.

 

We may be getting back to the PATIENCE era.

[cworld]

We kept moving deeper and deeper into College Fjord.

 

A few random thoughts.

 

Fjord – now that’s a weird word. Why do you think we call it a Fjord? Me I’m partial to Dodges not Fjords. And why isn’t it pronounced FFJJJ – ord instead of Fee – ord? Huh? Isn’t it about time we Americanize our words? We should quit using words with foreign roots, and use only American words. Throw the foreigners (silly foreign word) out. Only Americans allowed.

 

(I’m sorry but there is a little war going on in my head and it’s spilling out onto the keyboard.)

 

Hey, Carl, did you take history in school.

 

Oh, yeah man. I’m a great historian.

 

Then just who is an American, and who’s a foreigner?

 

Hmmm. That’s pretty easy Americans are Americans, and the other people are foreigners.

 

That’s pretty good answer for you. But just who are you going to throw out? Yourself? Your family hasn’t always been in America.

 

Yeah but,

 

You gonna get the yeahbuts again?

 

Yeah.... But... We’ve been here as long as I can remember.

 

So it that your criteria, just to be here as long as you can remember? What’s that, about a week?

 

That hurts. No, oh, I dunno. Maybe we should just move on and forget this little conversation.

 

If you had any brains you’d erase it and never let it see the light of day.

 

You’re probably right, but I’ve worked so hard on it. But I’m still upset about the foreign word thing.

 

We passed several interesting geological formations on our way into College Fjord. There were the frozen waterfalls, the areas where there was no snow, and there were a couple of glaciers.

 

I’ve made an executive decision and stuck a few of the pictures HERE. They’re not as good as some of the others, but they are MY pictures.

 

Blog post with pictures HERE.

[cworld]

I'm sorry. That was just bad. I admit it. It wasn't good. It was bad. I've been thinking about nothing else ever since I sent tha Sumbit Reply button. That was bad. I feel so bad about it that I'm just going to sit here and bang out another post live and in black and white. So if I mispell a wrod or tow you'll know that it's because I feel so bad about the bad post that I'm writing without using Word's spelling tools. Ahhhh I'm feeling better already.

 

Glaciers kept passing us by, Carol our extremely interesting, captivating, helpful naturalist kept droning on, and we kept getting colder. All of the sudden Mr. New Jersey said Carl, you've got to see that cave over there. I looked and saw a black spot on the waterline, but it didn't look like a cave. Mr. New Jersey insisted. It's a cave. He had some high powered binoculars, you know, the kind that can see an ant's beak at 100 yards. I think they were 10000X1000000 power or something. I couldn't see the black spot very well with the small lens so I decided to put on the uber lens. That's when it happened.

 

I dropped the Wonder Camera. TRADGEY. Oh, no. Deep Breath. I'm dead now. I've broken the brand new $1800.00 Wonder Camera. What am I going to do.

 

Needless to say panic immediately set in. I snatched the Wonder Camera up off of the deck, put the neck strap around the neck (why I had taken it off I'll never really know, I know better than that) and started to look it over very, very, carefully. The flash cover was broken and a plastic piece that covers the area where you look to see how many pictures you have left was off. I was able to snap that piece back into place, but the flash cover was broken good.

 

This is just wonderful. Here I've had this beautiful piece of machinery 1 week, and I've busted it up good. I wonder if the Wonder Camera still works. Probably doesn't. I turned it on, and much to my suprise everything came back on. I snapped a couple of pictures of the Bat Cave and everything seemed to be fine. I was still nervous about using it, so I put it up for a while. (Very, very, very carefully.)

 

But before I did I took a couple of picture of Mr. New Jersey's Bat Cave.

 

I feel better now.

[msweeble1]

Hi Carl,

 

I just saw the picture you had of the faucet at our swimming pool in Stinnett. I was wondering if you have family here.

 

I've enjoyed your writing. I leave for Alaska Aug. 8th. Do you think you might be through by then?

 

Debbie

[Sea Fan]

Okay so your Iceberg made Whale noises????? Yes I'm way behind....My Iceberg didn't make whale noises.

 

Oh and now I get it!!! Yes I should be a blond instead of a redhead. They name the area's after college's? How wierd is that, why yes it's College Fjord.

 

Moving on, I need to read Gails reply now.

 

Dianne

[Sea Fan]

cworld - You've convinced me, your camera really is a "wonder camera." I took pictures same day, same ship as you and your photos are much better. Okay, I'm jealous; but I have to admit I still enjoy looking at your photos. I found a photo today in a post by Yukon on the Alaska board that shows College Fjord from a view I've not seen before. It is quite amazing, I'll post a link. http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/alaskacruises2006/4483.html

I'm still enjoying your posts and your blog.

Gail

 

Gail, Your picture is great. Just so Carl doesn't think I'm a total ditz, we went to Tracy Arm instead of College Fjord. I had no idea how beauitful it is.

 

Dianne

[Sea Fan]

Me again 3 posts in a row, SCARY! Okay I want to see Mr. New Jersy's Bat Cave, but when I click on it I get alot of other pics from flicka (I think) why can't I see the cave???

 

I do love your Frozen Water pics in College Fjord!!!!

 

Hi Carl!:)

 

Dianne

[Mrs. cworld]

...Stinnett. I was wondering if you have family here.

 

Debbie,

I'll answer that one for you. YES, I used to have family in Stinnett. I spent many a summer at my grandparents. In fact, they are buried in Stinnett's lovely cemetary. My granny taught 3rd grade for many, many years. My grandad worked for Conoco. My uncle graduated from Stinnett High in 1959. They first lived in a little 3 bedroom white and green house across the street and across a field from the railroad tracks east of town and then when I was in first grade they moved to a brick house on the north end of town--across the highway and across a field from the Baptist church and close to the church of Christ. There was a girl a little older than me that lived next door to them. Her name was Debbie. Is that you????? Their names were Russell and Zora Herring. My DH drove to see his grandma in Colorado for spring break and my mom asked him to check on the family plot and that's when he took the picture of your pool's facuet. Small world!!!!!

[msweeble1]

Debbie,

I'll answer that one for you. YES, I used to have family in Stinnett. I spent many a summer at my grandparents. In fact, they are buried in Stinnett's lovely cemetary. My granny taught 3rd grade for many, many years. My grandad worked for Conoco. My uncle graduated from Stinnett High in 1959. They first lived in a little 3 bedroom white and green house across the street and across a field from the railroad tracks east of town and then when I was in first grade they moved to a brick house on the north end of town--across the highway and across a field from the Baptist church and close to the church of Christ. There was a girl a little older than me that lived next door to them. Her name was Debbie. Is that you????? Their names were Russell and Zora Herring. My DH drove to see his grandma in Colorado for spring break and my mom asked him to check on the family plot and that's when he took the picture of your pool's facuet. Small world!!!!!

 

Ye sit is a small world!!

 

No I wasn't the Debbie you knew. I guess my kids didn't have your granny because I don't recognise the name as a teacher. Of course we moved here in 1975 . My daughter would have been in 3rd grade in 1979. Was she teaching then?

 

Have a good day!

 

Debbie

[cworld]

Me again 3 posts in a row, SCARY! Okay I want to see Mr. New Jersy's Bat Cave, but when I click on it I get alot of other pics from flicka (I think) why can't I see the cave???

 

Dianne

 

Dianne,

 

Did you ever see the Bat Cave? I've tried the links on all of the computers I have access too and they all seem to work correctly. I dunno, maybe you've got a virus. Probably a Windows PC. If you just had a Mac...

[cworld]

We were all (me, Mrs. C and the New Jerseys) getting cold. The ladies had wrapped themselves in blankets. They were a pretty site. (NOT) And NO, I’m not going to publish the pictures. Kinda like 2 multi colored polar bears.

 

Oh, yeah I forgot to tell about the blankets. On Thursday, while we were in Glacier Bay there was one table in the heated pool area where the crew were distributing blankets, which I thought was very thoughtful on their part. It was a little cool, (temperature wise, not Fonzie wise) and misty and the blankets were being handed out in droves... or almost. It seems that when we got up to the one table all of the blankets were gone. Oh, well. They did tell us that there would be plenty available on Friday. On Friday it was COLD, and rainy. But true to their words there were crew stationed at strategic places all over giving out blankets. The blankets were pretty neat. They looked like a shirt for Paul Bunyon. They were made out of the same materials that the Lumberjacks shirts were made out of at the Lumberjack show. But they were warm.

 

The girls had their blankets. And Mr. New Jersey and I being real men, didn’t. We were bear chested, wearing shorts, with our faces and chest painted in war paint. It was a very pretty site, and for some reason I can't find a picture of it. Mr. New Jersey and I are Real MEN. And don’t you forget it.

 

The International Hot Chocolate Incident Next.

 

Book page with picture HERE.

[Mrs. cworld]

Debbie,

My granny retired in the early '70s. I have very fond memories of Stinnett.

[cworld]

The International Hot Chocolate Incident

 

Like I said, we were cold. Our hands were cold, our feet were cold. I even think our brains were cold. That’s the only explanation for what transpired. It was almost an international incident.

 

Another very thoughtful thing that Princess was doing was having a roving drink cart come around every 15 minutes or so. This cart had all kinds of hot and alcoholic type drinks. It had passed us several times, and Mr. New Jersey and I had always been able to direct our wives attention elsewhere whenever they came around. This time though, we failed. I’m sad to say it was probably my fault. I’m probably the one responsible for the near International Hot Chocolate Incident.

 

I’ve replayed it over and over in my head, and I still don’t know quite how it happened. But here’s my story and I’m sticking too it until right up to the point where Mrs. C tells me it’s wrong.

 

It was a dark and stormy night... (How many times are you going to use that silly cliché? Who knows?) The drink cart came by again. Just before it got to the girls, a lady stopped the nice Central American looking lady pushing the cart and asked if she had Hot Chocolate. Mr. New Jersey and I jumped up simultaneously. We tried to reach our wives to cover their ears, but alas we were too late. They heard the answer. It’s really a shame that such an innocent question could cause such a catastrophic episode.

 

“JYes I has hot coco” the nice lady pushing the drink cart said. Such an innocent answer. But I knew we were all in big trouble. “HON-eee did you hear that? The nice lady has Hot Chocolate, can I have some?” Big eyelashes batted. Why do you women do that? Do you think we guys are so dense that if you just bat your eyes at us we’ll roll up and do whatever it is you want? (Don’t answer that. That’s a ree-tor-ick-col question,) I better interject here that since I’m immune to that kind of thing Mrs. C doesn’t do the batting the eyelids thing. She knows that it doesn’t work. She just said “Hot Chocolate sound good” after I gently asked her if she wanted some. She’s such a good wife. So over to the drink cart we all went.

 

That was just the beginning...

 

No pics, told you, the Wonder Camera was in the bag. Blog post it HERE.

[cworld]

I need your help.

 

Probably should insert the old Beatles song here...

 

"Won't you pleeeeaaaasssseee help me?"

 

I need a title for my book, and I'm not having any luck coming up with anything that strikes my fancy.

 

So, I guess it's contest time again. Enter as often as you like. I'm looking for a title for my Alaska Book. Be as creative as you like, just remember words that your 5 year old shouldn't say are probably not a good idea.

 

The prize will be a 1 year free subscription to my website. Or something.

 

Really I would appreciate some ideas.

 

Thanks.