Day 7 “Still Going…”
Where did I leave off…
Oh yeah, Gerard Butler-look-alike and I did become friends. He’s pretty cool. His name is Sean, but I call him Hawaii, because that’s where he’s from. He’s the same age as me and he’s moving from New Orleans to Anchorage for a girl. Hawaii and Fox and I have pretty much become the Three Amigos on the ship. We play games, we joke, we laugh, we cry. Ok, maybe not cry, but we are having a smashing time. Hawaii looks out for us too. He hooked us up with the air mattress, pillows, and blankets. He pretty much has our backs. He would make the perfect big brother. He’s also driving the same route to Anchorage as us, so it will be nice to know some one out there on the road through Canada. I think we amuse him quite a bit.



Hanging out on the ship has been so much fun! The time has gone surprisingly fast. Lights go out in our lounge at 9pm so Fox and I have been going to bed at that time. I’ve been getting up around 6am and hanging out with Hawaii, drinking some coffee and watching the sunrise over the mountains. Its extremely beautiful. This morning we docked at our first port, Ketchikan, AK. The three of us walked into town , got some coffee, then went looking for an internet connection. After several tries Hawaii found us one and we were good to go. We stopped at a local supermarket and got some delicious goodness for lunch, then Hawaii got us a cab ride back because we were all too cold to walk the two miles back to the ferry. The scenery has been amazing. I’ve been surprised how close we’ve gotten to the land at points. They keep telling us to be on the lookout for wildlife. I haven’t seen anything on the land, but we did spot a bunch of Orca whales and some porpoises swimming along side the ship. Pretty cool stuff….



Ciao,
Mouse

P.S. Word on the water is that we may get to see the Northern Lights soon… I really hope so!





AKRT
Day 8
“…and going”

We have been having such a fun time on this ferry, I think we’re making people jealous! Last night Fox, Hawaii, and I found New Jersey Nick and a bottle of wine and had the most hilarious time playing cards. We played poker for awhile, but the boys kept having to give us their chips because Fox and I went all wild with our betting (since we weren’t playing for money). I think the boys got tired of that so they taught us how to play spades. But we were laughing and talking so much each round took about an hour! The boys nicknamed me “Ginger” (because of my hair) and Fox “Hot to Trot” because she gets a bit sassy . Finally around midnight we gave up and went to sleep.



In addition to making friends with half the passengers we also had the ferry crew quite fond of us. Which works in our favor because we got a lot of stuff for free….the guys in the kitchen hooked us up with some breakfast… our galley guy ”Bert” (named because of his crazy eyebrows) went and got me a blanket (for free) from the blanket rental because I was cold playing poker…we even managed to get ourselves a stateroom to sleep in for the night. Dang we’re good. I mean nice.

In the morning the four of us met for breakfast and then hung out and talked until we docked at the port we were all departing from. As it turns out there are several people we met on the ferry that are making the same trip as us so we are all kind of caravanning through Canada. We have about a 4 hour drive ahead of us through the Yukon wilderness until we get to our stop for the night in Haines Junction, Canada. This drive is AMAZING. Its all snowy and frosted over. Pure wilderness, which looks a bit like Narnia, if you can imagine. We drove through a bald eagle preserve and saw TONS of bald eagles. It was awesome. Some were even perched along the side of the road. The boys are ahead of us on the road and we are thankful that we have them to follow. We made it to the Canadian boarder crossing after about an hour. It wasn’t to hard to get through. They asked us a bunch of questions and took our passports. They were going to make us open the car but Fox convinced them that would be a terrible idea. They took one look at the packed pruis and agrees. But I am kind of ticked, I don’t think they stamped my passport!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We are now crossing the pass. The pass is what we were told was the most dangerous part of the journey. Its basically a narrow road that crosses over the summit of the mountain. If the pass isn’t clear you can’t go on. Its going to start getting dark soon, but the border guard said it was pretty clear, so Hawaii in his white Grand Am, Jersey in his white Silverado, and Fox and I in our silver prius disappear into the snowy distance. This is one of the craziest drives I’ve done. The ground is white, the tree are white, the mountain peaks around us are pure white, the sky is white, the air is even white, and we are trying to follow two white cars. By this point Fox’s knuckles are white. We have about 3 hours now till we get to our destination for the night. The four of us are going to find a place to eat and call it a day.

See ya in the morning, eh!
Canadian Mouse