Splash Travel

Remember the previous post. The one about the sun and the rain and the way I had just jinx myself.

Totally happen, because that same afternoon, it started to rain and sweet Jesus, it has come back in full force and it has not stopped.  Someone JUST wants to make my life hell – I.HEAR.YOU.. now TURN.IT.OFF.

See, I TOLD YOU SO. (To bad my odds in guessing the lotto number is not as strong as me guessing the weather patters.)

And with the rain, the mood went south, and for the past 2 days I been in a funk.  Thoroughly irritated about everything around me: house, work, co-workers, baggers at the grocery store (I mean how hard is to put the Egg carton ON TOP of the bag, because REALLY, scrambled eggs is not what I bargain for) family, Tom, the cats, the dogs… EVERYTHING.

Yeah, everyone has paid a little. (or a lot – I’m looking at you supermarket bagger)

But, yesterday, well yesterday someone taught me a lesson, and it came from the most unlikely source too, because you know those lesson always come down the pipeline unexpectedly.

As I was driving home, and thinking who I can pissed off, and utterly bitching about the rain, I came to the red light and as I looked up, this was in front of me:

Peek-a-boo

I totally did a double take, thinking oh, its just a dog.. the light changed and as the car speed ahead of me, this happen:

weeeeeeeee, can I stick out my tongue? Can I? Can I?

Opps! And as I sat there picking up the phone camera and trying to snap away, and not have an accident at the same time, I laughed – HARD, the funny just rolled out of me.  And I laughed and laughed, until tears came out of me.  And the light bulb went ON in my head.  Here I was, ALL pissed about something that is beyond my control and instead of making the best of it, I was letting it ruin my mood for days.  Because, really would this be SO HARD TO DO?

Dude, you need to go faster, so I can get soaked!

And as I came to the next stop light, the happy dog, looked back at me and I could totally hear him in my head:

Looking at me?

“Hello it’s just WATER, and if there is nothing we can do about it, we may as well PLAY”

Lesson learned buddy, lesson learned.

Tuesday, you are doing well so far, don’t you make me sad

The good news: The sun has COME OUT! It has been a beautiful day, one that just cries out for soaking by the pool, with a drink full of alcohol and pretty umbrella on top, while your skin smells of coconut suntan lotion and your iPod plays your favorite song over and over again.

The bad news: Instead of above scenario. I’m at work, inside a poor lighted office, with 4 more ours of work ahead of me and fighting a bit of indigestion from the Crab Rangoon that I had for lunch.

The very bad news: I probably just jinx myself and the rain will be imminent by the time I’m out of here.

Just.you.watch.

Hoping, begging and praying

With only 3 days in, June is just misbehaving I’m here hoping and praying that things will just get better on all fronts soon, because the next thing for me to do is to go certifiable or slip into an alcohol-induce stupor and sit in a corner rocking back and forth.

The saga continues. Last night, we had a bit of rain (because, of course, THIS move cannot be easy at all, we need to have DRAMA all around it) and had to delay the plan of moving some of our stuff from the old house to the new house.

We got it done, but under very wet conditions. Picture: poor Tom running back and forth between the car and the front of the house, trying (and failing), to protect the boxes from getting soaking wet.

But the icing on the cake?

While we were emptying the room that has been my closet for the past 10 month, we notice that a corner of the carpet was wet. As in “a drowned rat” wet. We first thought that Rufus, the 150 pound dog, had taken upon itself to show us a bit of defiant behavior and peed just to be naughty. While Tom yelled at the dog and pretty much freaked him out, I proceeded to clean up the mess. And during the clean up, I realized that it was not pee, but water, plain, water. After feeling the joy that the dog was not being rebellious and I was not cleaning PEE, panic set in.

Where in the hell was the water coming from?

Cue in the “tragic music”…

I looked up… and holy shit, the ceiling was leaking! As in very slow and painful leaking – it was like the house was fucking crying people!

Cue in the “you crazy” music.

More panic set in… and the “what if’s” started:

… the ceiling cave in?
… It fell on my clothes?
… The whole house can collapse!

Then the praying:

… Please don’t let anything happen until we are out of here.
… Hold off 3 more days!
… Holy shit, we are screwed!

This morning as I was getting my clothes for work, I looked up and the ceiling was bent – as in, its just straining under whatever is there (Tom and I refuse to even considered going up the attic to see what is up there) pushing it downward. We have completely cut off any feelings we may have on the old house and we want nothing more to do with it. We just want out.

I yelled at the house:

“3 MORE DAYS…THEN YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!” JUST GIVES US 3 MORE.DAYS!

I tell you… someone up there is just asking for me to give them the finger.

Poles and Lumberjacks!

We arrived at our last port of call in Alaska to .. try to guess???

Yes…. RAIN!!! The rain would just not go away, but this time, it was worse than any other port of call, it was really coming down and to top of it it was cold and windy, so it made it more COLD and MISERABLE.

The town of Ketchikan awaited us. This was the first Alaska city (according to the guide book and the big sign as soon as you walked into town) , it was actually the biggest of all the ports we had been thus far, something that all of us were very happy about. We were starting to feel a bit isolated and part of extras in a movie set. But like the towns before it, it had its small town look….what we liked best was the fisherman look was all around us:

The town is heavy gear toward the indian ancestors and all you could see were evidence of the many references to the Totem poles. After much deliberation, we decided the only thing to do in the weather was take cover and we headed to the end of the pier to purchase tickets to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. The girls in the group decided that we needed a bit of man looking and if they were the rugged kind, even better… the show did not disappoint. If you are ever in Alaska, go to it. Its funny, great audience participation and they almost made you forget that you were sitting under a cold, raining and windy day.

This was our team above (the theater was divided unto 2 groups – each behind 2 lumberjack team the US and the Canadians). Wonder if I could bring home someone that could do this:

That is 50 feet up!

After this we walked a bit more and took some of these:

Part of a totem pole with my sister at the end (each portion of the pole has a specific meaning) and the actual constructions of one is labor intensive and done by a native carver.

We had to sample their smoke salmon and my sister and I bough enough cans of the stuff to keep us happy for the rest of the year. We then hunted for food, and ended up in this place:

It was recommended by a local, so a MACA tip: always ask the local were they eat, and don’t follow the tourist anywhere! If you are ever there, order the calamari, which toss in a oriental sweet and sour dressing and OMG, they are delicious. Of course we had to try the chowder, since we are in the hunt to see who has the best one (this place moved up on the rankings)

While there we saw a sight we thought we were not going to see ever: THE SUN.. it came out! the blasted rain had finally stopped! We all could not put our coats fast enough to get out of there and out to the open air without the umbrellas.

We obviously went click happy:

All Aboard… cho-cho!!

On to Day 4 of our adventure… on this day we hit our second port of call: Skagway, with a cloudy, 57 degree weather we were pretty much guarantee another wet day. Apparently the thing to do is mark your territory:

We originally had set a tour to bike down the glacier, stopping to take pictures of waterfalls, and scenery that would take your breath away. It was raining by the time we finish our breakfast and none of us felt secure in the knowledge that even our expertise in using hand break would save us from sliding down the wet train in our butts. So we did what sane people do: We opted for the nice, HEATED, ride aboard the world-famous White Pass and Yukon Railroad tour.

A bit of history: The White Pass & Yukon route was designated an international Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994. And after riding it, you realized that these men who were part of building this famous route had to account for many difficult and hazardous obstacles: design challenges, granite mountains, steep grades, cliff hanging turns and unimaginable weather conditions.

We first made a quick walked over to the town, which encompasses 455 sq miles of land and 11 sq. miles of water. It is the home of 850 year-round residents and you can pretty much see it in under an hour. We say about 1/2 of the town in 20 minutes. Were else in North America you find views like this:

Yes, its a toilet, right in the middle of the seaside walk into town. My sister made sure to check for its authenticity:

Then while walking into town we found the mother load people:

Do I need to say more?

Then we walked a bit more, and found a local internet cafe, were we plucked the bargain price of $5 for 1 hour of internet service… I checked email and then I tried to post… and was unable to … (hence the late posts).

After picking up the bus back to the ship, we boared up the train and off we chu-chu up the mountain (to the tune of 2,888 feet!), we we saw a bit of this:

And some of this… which unfortunately pictures do not do them justice

Tomorrow we hit another port of call…. but last night we found this in our cabin, apparently housekeeping crew has a great sense of humor around here:

Wondering what its in store for us tonight.