Trip to Angel Island

Kevin and I have a list of goals to do this year… we haven’t made too much head way on the list, but, one of them (pulled over from last year’s list) was to visit Angel Island. We finally did it last weekend after only 7+ years of living in SF. We took the Blue and Gold Ferry to Tiburon and then Angel Island. Then, we hiked around the island visiting the immigration station which was the Ellis Island of the West. Here are some photos from the trip.

That US Weekly subscription was no help

Yesterday we spent the evening with some friends and played the Pop Culture edition of Trivial Pursuit. I had only played the classic version many, many years ago which is absolutely impossibly for anyone born after 1970. With the newer Pop Culture edition, I figured that all my years of watching way too much TV, reading ‘The Daily Dish’, reading US Weekly and listening to music 24/7 would finally pay off. All of that useless knowledge would finally benefit me. Well… it didn’t. I realized that all of those bits of information came in one ear and out the other (probably because my brain was already fried from these forms of media). I couldn’t answer questions like “What was Madonna’s first top ten single?”, “What two cities did Frasier live in?”, “What clothing line of the 80’s made a comeback with their palm tree logo?”… huh? The most obscure question that I did get was “What show was once referred to as ‘The Jesus of Malibu’”… ‘Highway to Heaven’! I have to admit, I watched many of these goodie two shoes shows like “7th Heaven’ and ‘Touched By An Angel’ a while back. I had hoped for more American Idol trivia. Kevin was much better at the game. For some reason, he can’t remember any of the toys that he played with when he was a kid, but, he remembers the actress who played Wonder Woman, the face of Downtown Julie Brown, the 80’s show that the character ‘Arnold’ was on (Different Strokes). His team did much better than ours except that they screwed up and gave up a few points here and there.

One thing very good did come out of our evening last night (besides some good laughs and food). In chatting with our friends, we heard about a good triple play Comcast deal (because we apparently need to be watching more TV). This deal would get us internet, phone and cable with a year free of HBO! We are currently obsessed with the show Entourage, so, we REALLY wanted HBO.  Kevin called up Comcast this morning and somehow convinced them to give us a new customer special which includes internet, phone, and cable… plus a year of HBO for just over $100. And we get the price for a year!!! Yipee…. I can’t wait to fry my brain with more TV. This time… it will be PREMIUM TV.

The best food from our Alaska trip

I have 800+ photos from Alaska, so, I have no idea when I’ll get through them all. However, I did want to start by showcasing some of the amazing food we had on this trip. Not all the cruise food was excellent, but, a lot of it was above and beyond anything we could have expected. Our best meals, however, were the Alaskan King Crab from Tracy’s Crab Shack and the Smoked Salmon that we randomly got during our kayaking trip inKetchikan.

Smoked Salmon eaten on crackers with cucumber, capers, and cream cheese at the end of our kayaking trip in Ketchikan.

The salmon plate

Brunch at "The Fish House" in Vancouver. I had a crab omelette. My favorite part were my buttery potatoes.

Kevin's corn flake encrusted french toast at the Fish House

Huge, and I mean HUGE Alaskan King Crab legs. For only $20, Kevin and I shared three small crab cakes, crab bisque and one of these beautiful crab legs in Juneau.

The leg is bigger than my face!

CRUISE FOOD:

Beet and Goat Cheese Appetizer

Baked Alaska Dessert (which I must admit to having about 4 times in various flavors)

Lobster on formal dress night!

Dessert of white chocolate surrounding chocolate mouse, a brownie and “macerated” berries

Brie with brown sugar and berries wrapped in Philo

Kevin's beef tenderloin entree on our last night.

Would you believe that both Kevin and I didn’t gain any weight on this cruise? We tried to restrain our eating to the times when there was GOOD food. And, there was a good amount of it.

Back from cruising Alaska

Kevin and I arrived late last night at the San Francisco from a week cruising Alaska that started in Vancouver last Sunday.  I was hoping to upload pictures to my blog and chronicle our daily adventures for the one or two of you who actually follow me. However, there was no free internet on the Holland America ship. Instead, they had internet access for 0.75/minute. Ah!!! Therefore, Kevin’s new netbook that both of us hoped to use on the trip never left his back pack.

Since, I don’t want to bore you with pages and pages detailing each of our seven days, I’ll bring up the highlights.

Day 1-2: Vancouver

1) We walked along the sea wall. This really displayed how beautiful Vancouver was. We saw some new buildings that were built for the 2010 Winter Olympics and watched the float planes and ships along the various marinas.

2) We ate brunch at the “Fish House” near Stanley Park. I highly recommend this place. I found it as one of the top 3 places on tripadvisor. But, I was a little scared seeing how they showed it on tourist maps. I thought it would be a cheesy tourist trap, but, it ended up being a very pleasnt restaurant where we didn’t have to wait to get a seat outside overlooking the park. The apple muffins and the rest of our food were delicious. (Average dish price was only about $10-15).

3) We had dinner with Kevin’s mom and her husband at a Gastro Pub near Gastown. Again, this area has tons of tourists, but, this pub, “The Irish Heather” was recommended in a book that Phil had. It was delicious! Kevin and I shared a salad with candied ginger and poached pears and a unique grilled cheese sandwich.

4) On Sunday, we toured Vancouver for 3 hours in a bus. The driver was a native and did an entertaining narration of the city. We had excellent chinese pastries in Chinatown. Again, the Chinatown is a bit of a tourist trap, but, this bakery was fantastic! We also went all around Stanley Park and took in the beautiful views.

5) Once we boarded the ship, we were really happy with the size of our room with a view. We expected it to be much smaller, but, it was really nice and included an area with a couch, small table and TV.

Day 3 – Sailing on the high seas from Vancouver to Alaska.

1) This was a full day on the water. We tried to discover all there was to do on the cruise by taking a very bad yoga class (:p), attending a mediocre class on the health benefits of tea. However, we did enjoy some down time of just reading our books and planning for our adventures in the upcoming port cities.

Day 4 – Ketchikan

1) We went kayaking with SouthEast Sea Kayaks. Again, I got them as a recommendation from tripadvisor and it was loads of fun.

2) On our trip (of only 2 other people and our guide), we saw sea stars, clams, crabs, mussels, bald eagles, a seal (just a foot from our kayak) and some other jellyfish and birds.

3) I had my first taste of fillet smoked salmon that we snacked on with cream cheese, crackers and capers. This was one of the tastiest things of the entire trip. I’ll remember the meal forever! Seriously! We ended up buying several jars of smoked salmon fillets. I hope they are close to as good as the fillets we had on the kayak trip.

Day 5 – Juneau

1) We went on a whale watching tour with Orca Enterprises. I wanted to get on a tour with “Harv and Marv” who was recommended by our Ketchikan Kayak guide, but, they were full for the day   We saw lots of humpback whales on this trip. However, the nature guide’s sour attitude sort of ruined my impressions of this adventure. I would probably have chosen to do something else that day.

2) We took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Our guide, Sonny, was fantastic! He is an Alaska native from the Tlinket tribe. We were also amazed at the beauty of the glacier and the HUGE waterfall that came down next to it. I’m not sure I’ve seen such a powerful waterfall before. We also heard the glacier caving, which was pretty neat.

3) We had our best meal of the trip at Tracy’s King Crab Shack which I would recommend to everyone going to Juneau. It is just a small stall with some plastic seats set up next to it. But, for $20, Kevin and I shared a bowl of crab bisque, a couple of small crab cakes and a huge king crab leg. It was so delicious. I had no idea crab could be so good. Kevin’s mom also agreed that this was our best meal of the trip. Three of us ended up buying more of the bisque because it was so delicious. Each crab leg as at least a foot long. I’ve got photos to prove it!

2) That evening, we watched a Filipino Crew Show on the boat. The crew of the boat is 50% filipino and they ended up putting together a cultural dance show that I thought was great. It was great to see some of your waiters, front desk staff, and bartenders showing off their singing and dancing talents.

Day 6) Skagway

1) We took the historic train up through the “White Pass”. This is pretty much what everyone does in Skagway. Lucky for us, the day was beautiful and sunny. So, I think my pictures will be great. The scenery was stupendous.

2) We spent the evening listening to Piano Man James who Phil had discovered a few nights before. He was a great entertainer and could play almost anything you requested on his piano.

Day 7 – Glacier Bay

1) The boat drove into Glacier Bay which was freezing, but, absolutely beautiful. We spent most of the morning taking in the view and looking for wildlife. The tour through Glacier Bay was narrated by a park ranger. This was great. He often pointed out wildlife like sea otters, puffin birds and seal.

2) We also attended a talk from a native Tlinket. He gave background on their culture and history in that area. This was one of the best programs of the cruise.

Day 8 – Sailing to Anchorage and College Fjord.

1) Most of this day was uneventful. It was a sea day. Kevin did a 5K walk with his mom to support the Susan B. Komen foundation. I thought this was great for the boat to promote this. I went to a fun towel folding workshop taught by some of our room stewards who had been leaving us towel animal creations throughout the cruise.

2) The chef’s dinner that final night was very fun. The staff at the dining room sang and did some dances while presenting our food. It was a really fun experience that I haven’t done while dining. The food was also really good. I took pictures of everything!

Throughout the trip, Holland America did a great job. Other than missed room service once and the poor fitness classes, we loved the experience! The crew which is about 1 for every 2 passengers is amazing. We got to know quite a few of them including our waiter, Jay, our wine stewards, Elmer and Charlie, the woman at the coffee stand and the Ocean Bar, Daye, as well as our room attendants Rio and Buddy. They were all top notch. Kevin and I came back relaxed and with great memories.