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The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Seven

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September 2 (Thursday, Day 12, Cruising Hubbard Glacier) -

Approaching Disenchantment Bay

Snookums and Filbert ordered room service breakfast of a bowl of mixed berries, a bowl of mixed fruit and two raisin buns for Snookums and hot water and coffee for Filbert. Then it was time to go out on deck and watch our approach to Hubbard Glacier. At its widest point, it is six miles wide and towers 500 feet about Disenchantment Bay. It is 75 miles long! We bundled up and headed for the bow of the ship.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Six

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September 1 (Wednesday, Day 11, Kodiak, Alaska) -

Fishing boat in Kodiak Harbor

Filbert, Snookums and Judy left the ship around 9 AM to explore Kodiak, population 6,000. The day started kind of overcast and probably in the mid-50s. Alaskans layer their clothes and so did we. We walked about a mile into town. Kodiak is known as the “Fishing Capital of Alaska”. On the way to town we saw the Kodiak Island Brewing Company but it was closed until noon. We had to be back on the ship by 12:30 so Filbert and Judy weren’t sure they were going to be able to get any of Kodiak’s beer.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Five

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August 29 (Sunday, Day 8, At Sea) -

Galley Tour

Snookums must be getting over her cold since this was the first time on the cruise that she woke up before Filbert did. She showered, went to breakfast and did a few errands (going to Mom and Dad’s room, getting an updated invoice from the Front Desk, checking out Neptune Lounge, etc.). When she returned to the room Filbert had just gotten up. She left him to attend the 10:30 Galley Tour. The ms Amsterdam has 1380 guests on it and 620 crew. The galley consists of 96 people under the Executive Chef and there are also 122 service staff. Snookums thought the soup cook was chopping the vegetables rather slowly, but she figured he knew his timing. He makes the soup in 80 gallon pans. After the galley tour Snookums went to the “Future Cruise” lecture but she didn’t learn anything.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Four

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August 27 (Friday, Day 6, Skagway, Alaska) -

Amsterdam at Skagway

We didn’t have any excursions planned in Skagway and it was just as well. Had it been a sea day Snookums would not have gotten out of bed due to her cold. She was just exhausted. However, she did get up and went off the ship with Filbert to explore the town of Skagway which is home to 860 year-round residents. Skagway is historically significant since it was the last stop for prospectors beginning their long trek into Canada’s Yukon Territory. Today its main street is home to boardwalk sidewalks and fake-front buildings that house Diamonds International and other Caribbean jewelry store chains. Filbert and Snookums quickly got off the beaten path.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America ms Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

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August 26 (Thursday, Day 5, Sitka, Alaska) -

Welcome to Sitka

Today we did the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest with Gary and Charlotte. Sitka is a tender port but our tour catamaran picked us up at our ship. Snookums wore many layers, including tights and two pairs of socks. We knew that the catamaran had indoor seating, but you have to be outside to really experience wildlife viewing. Within five minutes our boat’s captain said that three orca whales had been seen so he was going to try to find them. The naturalist onboard had been doing this tour for thirteen years and had only seen orcas in Sitka one other time. We did see three of them and watched them for probably 30 minutes. This was a big deal!! Then it was on to seeing if we could find other wildlife.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

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August 25 (Wednesday, Day 4, Ketchikan, Alaska) -

Ketchikan

We docked early and didn’t have an excursion until 11:30 so after breakfast Filbert and Snookums ventured off the ship. We immediately saw the Time Bandit docked next to us. This is one of the boats featured on the “Deadliest Catch” television show on the Discovery Channel. We weren't sure why it was in Ketchikan, but it was.

More after the jump . . .

The 14-Day Alaskan Adventurer Cruise, August 22-September 6, 2010, Holland America Amsterdam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

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August 22 (Sunday, Day 1, Flying to Seattle, Washington) -

Mount Rainier from the air

Matt was our chauffeur at 7:30 AM and we enjoyed a leisurely Midwest Airlines check-in process. Our flight even took off a few minutes early and we were fine with that. Mom, Dad and Judy enjoyed the extra legroom that they were given when the gate agent upgraded them to Midwest’s SuperStretch seating for free (at a savings of $35 per person!) and Filbert and Snookums liked the exit rows they were given. Midwest’s chocolate chip cookies were as gooey and melty as always and the ~4-hour flight was uneventful. We piled into a large van taxi and got to the Comfort Suites Downtown/Seattle Center with no problems. Filbert and Judy had to do all of the heavy lifting since Snookums is still recovering from her July 12 right elbow surgery. We were too early for check-in and had to wait for our rooms for about an hour, but that was okay. When our rooms were ready, we quickly got settled in and then Filbert, Snookums and Judy went exploring.

More after the jump . . .

The indispensable Doctor Zero, John Hayward writes:

Here’s the deal, Democrats: you don’t get any more billions to spend. You don’t get to pick the next group of winners and losers in the free market. You don’t get to decide who “deserves” a tax cut. You don’t get to hand us the invoice for this bloated government and tell us we need to figure out a way to pay for it. You don’t get to blame deficits on the people who haven’t surrendered enough of their livelihood to you. You do not get to insist every piece of this government’s sprawling machinery is indispensable, while every slice of our lives is negotiable.

We own our lives. We own the State. The future is ours to discover. The solutions that will forever evade the political class are already humming through our eager minds. To be controlled is to spend eternity at each other’s throats, for free people must accept their own inferiority before they can accept domination… and they will always prefer to be told someone else is inferior, and deserves domination. The control of a free society requires strategic infusions of sin and condemnation. It also calls for controlling the information free people use to make their decisions, transforming the command economy into an endless con job. The State survives by managing expectations, while free people compete to exceed them.

This is the voice of the people speaking--this is the hard, clear-seeing core of the tea party movement. The plain folks of the United States have had enough. They are boiling mad at their incompetent political "leadership" and their feckless lapdog media enablers who excuse away all of the failures of the Ruling Class, and attack anyone who threatens the statist gravy train that the Media-Government Complex has built.

What the Democrats have done appall many Americans. What the Republicans did before, and have done since, have enraged many of those who naively believed the Republican's cant recitations of small-government, "conservative" rhetoric.

Rhetoric won't cut it any more. It is time for action. It is time for a new way.

It is time for a restoration of the true American philosophy: personal responsibility, individual freedom, political liberty, free enterprise, and neighborly kindness. All of those depend on all of the rest of them to work. You weaken one, and you weaken all of the rest of them.

The tea party people understand this. The Republican establishment, the Obama "progressive" Democrats, and the major media still think that those things are independent variables. They're not.

It's time for The Restoration.

How's this for a theory:

Christine O'Donnell's primary win in Delaware is a potential win-win for conservatives, the Tea Party, pretty much everybody in the pro-liberty, back-to-the-founding-principles movement.

If she wins the general election--and the Republicans take both the House and Senate as a result, the shockwaves throughout the entire political world will be approximately 10 on the Richter scale. As Don Surber noted: "The boss is on the premises. The boss is looking for people to lay off." But the Republicans will have to follow through in a big way--they can't play defense at all in the next Congress. They need to be aggressive--something like passing basically all of the Heritage Foundation's policy proposals (or even better, all of Cato Institute's policy proposals), or as much of those as they can manage to get through the House and the Senate, and make Obama veto everything in sight.

If she loses the Delaware Senate race, and the Republicans don't control the Senate as a result, it doesn't really change the above legislative strategy--IF the Republicans win the House and be legislatively aggressive, as noted above.

Either way, the Republicans can then run their Presidential and Congressional races in 2012 on "hey, we're trying to fix things but the DEMOCRATS (or Obama, or both) SAID NO--Who's the real 'Party of No?'"

I'm not holding my breath that the establishment Republicans in Washington are actually smart enough to do this. I suspect the new-wave Tea Party Republicans are, but they've got two uphill climbs ahead of them--first, the Republican Party, then the Democrats in Congress and the President.

I'm pretty sure Christine O'Donnell is not my favorite candidate--I'd prefer somebody with a (much) less--er--colorful backstory. But if you're a Democrat--let me just tell you: before you come complaining to me about O'Donnell, first go do something significant about Charlie Rangel and Chris Dodd and the other corrupt Democrats already in Congress (like voting them out of office, or throwing them out of Congress)--pull the plank out of your own eye first, OK?