Alaska - Day Four

Woke up a little late this morning as the alarm was set for PM but Alberto made it in time. We went out for our tour, and took the bus about 20 minutes to the dog musher’s camp. The road was crazy, it was more of a little dirt trail with precipitous cliffs than a road. The bus just made it in. They said Juneau is a town of 30,000 people with a million people coming through on cruise ships each year. Anyway, the dog camp was amazing, the dogs were smaller than the huskies I was expecting. They were all very excited and cute. One of the most amazing things was the dogs obeyed the very slightest command of our musher leader. She’d say this quiet tiny word and the dogs way in the front would turn left, it was crazy. They stopped for a small break after pulling the 7 of us and I asked as we were in the back if we could switch for the front and they let us. Very cool.

Back at the camp we got to pet all the dogs, who smelled a bit like wet dog, but were all very charming. After that a little talk in camp and then the puppies! Loved them! I had one puppy who was antsy, but the next one I got fell asleep on my shoulder! I loved it, I wanted to take it home.

I really wanted to take it home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to leave it there and went back to the boat. We bought a ticket to the Mendenhall Glacier for $16 return which was a good deal. The woman who drove the shuttle was crazy. Once we got there we saw salmon swimming upstream. Off to the glacier in the rain, only a 2 mile walk. It was very wet and starting to get cold but amazing views, very glad I went. We got to touch glacier ice back at the visitor’s centre and on the way back to the bus we saw a bear family eating the salmon in the stream, it was a mother and her 2 cubs. She was very close and didn’t care about us at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got the shuttle back and still had just over an hour so we paid $31 to take the tram to the top of the mountain. Well, I thought it was the top, but once you get there it’s just more climbing, I thought it would never end. Was very tired but there was stunning vistas, very glad we did it. Started running out of time to come back but we made it with about 15 minutes to spare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had a shower to wash off rain and the scent of dog, then to dinner and a show, Amy and Freddie. They were cute for a taste. Tonight is the desert extravaganza. Another photo opportunity to see my friend Mark.

Tomorrow is Sitka and drag at night!

There was a rainbow outside our restaurant window.

 

 

Alaska - Day Three

Woke up and had a quick breakfast, then off to the screening room for a 10 am screening of the movie Kinky Boots. I had seen it years ago but forgot most of it. It was really fun, loved it.

Scenic cruising was advertised next and was it ever. We went through a fiord, then another fiord, and we were right in front of a glacier! We couldn`t get too close as it was pouring rain and the place was full of icebergs. I was like “Thank you Alberto, for booking me on the Titanic!” but although we ran into some small icebergs we never crashed. It was nice, beautiful scenery, we saw a whale and they served pea soup on the deck and it was amazing. We spent hours there, and I did manage to buy a jacket that was waterproof. Why didn’t they tell me it would be cold and rainy??? Maybe they did but it was in Fahrenheit. Who knows what any of those numbers mean. I did get the idea to head down where the lifeboats were.  There was far less people and we didn’t have to stand in the rain. Same amazing views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back inside for a quick warm up and off to Til Death Do Us Part (The Newlywed Game). Always good for a few laughs. Over to dinner, and Alberto sat beside this annoying old man who wouldn’t shut up. He was like “Kill me!” It was quite amusing. On my side I had a charming couple from New York, they went to a lot of theatre and one had written an off-Broadway play, so we chatted happily about that. Alberto kept trying to kill me.

Drag show with Varla Jean Merman. A little more gross-out than I like and no replacement for the incomparable Miss Richfield. Still it was enough fun.

Final event of the evening was Bearaoke. A ship friend of ours was singing so we wanted to see him, the actor from Next to Normal. After an eternity of bad singers he came up. I don’t understand this whole karaoke thing, these people who went up were flipping terrible. They forgot the words, couldn’t sing in key, didn’t seem to know any of the words, they wouldn’t look at the audience. An abomination. I don’t understand. Our friend was pretty good, then off to bed.

 

Alaska - Day Two

Woke up around 10 and Alberto did the country two step.  Off to brunch with Caster and John.  It seems like everyone’s name here is John. They and another couple were great fun, much amusement was had over the fact that I didn’t bring a sweater or jacket. There was talk of knitting me one.

Over to the closed in pool deck. It’s about 15 degrees here so no sun bathing. Drag games for an hour or so, followed by a nap and reading.  Alberto and I are both reading Death in Key West by Jeffrey Round. I can’t put it down!

A walk through the Lumberjack tea dance, everyone was dressed so manly it was a bear festival! Not too much dancing again, off to dinner. Alberto is eating this desert with wine on the bottom and he says “Ask the guy beside you if he can taste the wine on the bottom.” So I said to the guy beside me “Alberto wants to know if you’re a bottom.”

Michael and Andy do it was next.  A super couple show with an actor from Smash and another from the movie Source Code (I asked, he was the bomber), among other things.  A super singing sensation, backed by Our Lady J, who performed next with a Dolly Parton tribute show. It kicked ass, love her.

 We walked through the Lumberjack party but it was scary. Music from Satan`s playlist and lots of bears with no deodorant. Ugh.  Off to bed.

Alaska - Day One

First day on ship. Very happy to meet Alberto and lots of hugs. The thing we really notice on this ship is the age difference.  I would say on all the other gay Atlantis cruises we’ve done, the average age has been 35-40.  Here it’s more like 55. There’s a lot more white hair than I’m used to seeing on a gay vacation. The atmosphere is more laid back it seems.

The sail away party for example, no one was dancing. On the other cruises it was immediate dancing, but not here.  We talked to some people, everyone seems so nice, less attitude than Atlantis perhaps, though there wasn’t really attitude there. I do remember occasionally watching the cute boys dance and hang out and feel left out. Less of that here. I feel like the young chicken.

We went to the Tom Judson show with five other people. Judson is former porn star Gus Maddox, I saw him in Provincetown previously. Here he played piano and the dialogue and song selection was not on point. He’s like “There were a lot of movie theme songs in the 1930’s that were not popular. Here’s two of them written about flowers.” I think every song he played was written before my grandmother was born. People were leaving in droves.

We ran out and over to see Frenchie Davis from American Idol and The Voice.  She was amazing and burned the house down. Loved her, true diva. A fierce queen. She could sing fast songs, like “When Love Takes Over” and slow like “When You’re Good To Mama” from Chicago.

Went up to eat and met Mark, an actor working here with his partner Mike. Charming amazing guy with really cool hair. He recently played the father in Next to Normal. We talked and had a good time, then off to sleep.

Seattle - Day Three

A little less good today. I generally try not to write negative things in the blog because I don't want to remember them.  Like I'm at McDonalds here having their new egg white breakfast sandwich, and I get to almost the last bite and notice some mould on the bun.  Was it a good moment?  No.  But I don't need to relive it again later.

Today was a bit like that.  

There's loads of duck tour buses driving around here, and yesterday one passed me playing One Direction and they seemed to be having fun, and Zayn from 1D is one of my reasons for living, so I went on the tour today.

First off I woke up a bit late, like noon.  When I bought the ticket, they only had one for 2 hours in the future so I had to go home and come back.  When I got there it was a bit unorganized, in that it said where the waiting area was for the tour and their was a big sign there saying "Construction, Do Not Enter" so I just hung around and climbed on last just before the thing left.  It was also over $30 for a 1.5 hour tour.

I sit down beside the world's largest man.  He was filling both seats before I got there and during the ride parts of him kept oozing into me.  He was balding, sweaty, and to top it off, no fun.  While everyone is cheering and singing, he's on his phone reading the newspaper.  And oozing onto me.

Here's our boat going in the water. 

This is a house boat, or floating house thing they have here.  It seems awesome to me.  I guess we don't have that due to the lake freezing?

And here's another shot of the market as we drove past it at 70 miles an hour.

See this is another problem with the tour.  They hire some escaped mental patient who has 75 different hats to drive you around at 70 mph while everyone practices their duck calls in the back. Seriously.
So lots of songs from the 80's or the 40's, or whenever this guy thought he was cool.  Less information about Seattle. And my bus didn't even play One Direction!

Came back home for an hour, then off to my video game theatre festival.
This was also a bust.  The door man was the rudest person I've ever seen.  The woman at the bar didn't have Coke Zero, didn't even have Coke, but had a "Cola" and she said "most people think it tastes weird."  When the thing started it was a couple playing a concertina and singing the worst song I'd ever heard, followed by a 300 pound woman doing a strip tease and some girl mumbling something I couldn't hear. I left at intermission.

The good news is the cruise is tomorrow.  It sounds like there's a Justin Bieber concert outside my window here with all the shrieking so that should make it easy to get to sleep.  I have to put my computer away.  Last night I left it beside me and fell asleep and kicked it off in the night.  Good times!

Will blog about the cruise when I get off on the 29th.  Radio silence for now, ciao!

Seattle - Day Two

The weather is very nice here.  Perhaps being so close to the ocean, it's cooler?  There's an overcast haze every morning so far that burns off around noon.  Days are nice with a breeze, nights a little cool.

This is my room, this place is really nice.  All the beds have their own four plug outlet, lots of places you have to fight to the death for a plug.  All the beds have their own lights and fans and you can pull the curtain around the bed for privacy.  It's a sweet set-up.

Started the day at the Columbia Centre Sky View Observatory.  There was a lot of haze and I had time to kill so I sat and read my book for an hour and a half while the haze burned off.  These are the after photos.

I had the place pretty much to myself for a while, it was nice and quiet.

Went to Chinatown for lunch.  It's kind of small and crappy.  The most spaced out Chinatown I've ever been to and not that big, I was expecting more really.  One BBQ pork restaurant is not enough!  Although it was good.
This is a public square area, but even still, not too many people.

The pinball museum was the best thing so far, loved it.  I remember my mom getting all excited about playing pinball and wondering if she had been dropped on her head as a child, but it's mostly fun.  The bad part is of course when you launch the ball and it goes around and immediately in the gutter.  But lots of the machines have their own kicks and with so many in the museum, it took me over 2 hours just to have one game on each of them.  Well worth the $13 admission, very fun, I just played, not a care in the world.
This was was a retro 1960's game:

This one was my favourite of all of them, Scared Stiff by Elvira.  It had a mystery box and when you hit it enough times it would open and the dialogue was really good.

This one was fun.  I like fans, I usually always have one on, and this game had it's own fan built in.  It's called Whirlwind and as things get hairy in the game the fan comes on from the top and blows you around in real life.  A cool gimick.

The museum had a 2nd floor, here the view of the main floor from there.

Dinner and a quick nap, then off to see Hairspray the movie in the park in the dark with Clark.  The original Divine version which I had never seen.  Loads more people there than I thought there would be.

A great atmosphere in the crowd and I really enjoyed the movie.  A quick walk home and I'm done.

12:30, sleepy now.  Art gallery tomorrow.