Cruise to Alaska Day 9: Cruising the Outside Passage

When I looked at my photos after we were home, I thought, "Huh. Did we do nothing but eat on this day?"

And then I came to these photos:

The wind was blowing at 40 knots, and you couldn't breathe when you faced into it.

Oh, that's right! It's cold and windy on the ocean off of the coast of Alaska! Best stay inside, eat stuff, drink champagne, listen to the string quartet, etc.

Life can be tough, yo.

You won't get any photos of breakfast, on account of Matt and I slept until 10:30 (tough life, remember?). Thank goodness for the coffee bar, so that we could sustain ourselves on caffeine, sugar, and carbs while lying in bed and watching Iron Man 3 on DVD. We were lounging so hard that we even missed the cooking demonstration that Matt had been looking forward to--it was just too much effort. Pants. Shoes. Better stay with pastries and caffeine and movies...

We did eventually find something important enough to get us out of bed: lunch! Here's my Very Important Lunch--

It is formally known as A Taste of Italy. Lots of nice cheesy things, and prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe. Nom.

--and here's Matt's:

You can act like he has less food than me, but he also had, like, sixteen more courses than me!

Later that afternoon Matt went to work out, and I was going to meet him there, I swear, but then a pod of white-sided dolphins began to swim alongside the cruise ship, leaping and playing right outside our window, so I sat and watched them, enraptured. I don't know how long they swam with us, but Matt got back in time to see them for a few minutes before they swam off, so it was a long time.

We DID go to the lecture on the Deepwater Horizon, and then later, just before the string quartet concert, some random guy called me over to sit by him, said that he'd seen me taking notes during the lecture, and then engaged me in happy conversation about it. Interestingly, he'd taken a cruise to Valdez just prior to their oil spill, so we had a lot to discuss.

I forced Matt to attend the string quartet concert with me, and then he forced me to fulfill our reservation at the super-fancy steak restaurant. I hadn't been looking forward to it, because after my comfy day I dreaded the exercise of conversing with a large table of strangers, but instead we were placed at a cozy table for two, exactly centered on the giant picture window looking out the aft of the ship:

Best view on the ship, especially over a nice steak and lobster dinner.

Matt had oysters Rockefeller, and then the Kobe beef and crab mini burgers, and greatly amused me when he asked the waiter if he should use a knife and fork or his hands to eat them.

We weren't even necessarily hungry for dessert, but somehow we made do:

It's funny, because at the time I was a little disappointed that we didn't have any high adventures to experience on this day. I didn't even realize at the time, but I see it now: it was the perfect vacation day.