We make the appointment for glass blowing and look at all our options for what to make. We watched the reality series Blown Away back at home, in preparation for this, so I find it fascinating that this ship has a 2500 degree furnace, a glory hole, and an annealer. Plus we can make one of dozens of items including a fluted bowl, a tall vase, a jellyfish paperweight, a hanging goldfish ornament, or a a simple round bubble to hang on a window.
We wander around on the shopping decks and I, of course, find a jewelry store. We meet a darling young woman named Sandra who looked way more like a Monique or something, and a young man named Desi. They are salespeople. She is tiny and tan and has long chocolate colored hair and smart eyes. He is young and dark and fit with big arms and his eyes are wide open and not at all hooded.
They show us natural Alexandrite stones in 18k gold. I literally weep at one point. See, having worked for a fine jeweler, I know a lot about jewelry. I have taken 2 out of the 5 courses to become a gemologist, but it would cost tens of thousands of dollars for me to finish those courses. What I know about most rocks relates very closely to gemstones and fine jewelry, but it also relates to geology and geography, as well. It's a passion of mine.
Alexandrite was found in the Ural mountains in Russia, before the Revolution. It was named after the young Czar, who was not yet 16, if memory serves. But the miners of these stones thought they'd found some unusual rubies, and they hot all excited! Until they took them outside the mines into daylight! When, lo and behold, the stones turned green and looked like emeralds! That's the beauty of natural Alexandrite. They change color.
99% of the old people who swear they have one, really have a synthetic. They've been making synthetic stones since Ceasar's era. The thing about Alexandrite is that it was such a hopeful stone. Then after the revolution it became somewhat synonymous with the Czar and tragedy. In my mind, it signifies the blood of Russian history but also the resilience of the Russian people. The stone is hard, nearly as hard as a diamond. It's also Robert's birthstone for June.
I wear on my finger a $60,000 natural Alexandrite, set in a stunning design with a diamond halo and a diamond gallery that would have made Michaelangelo weep. The rarity and beauty of the stone evokes something for me and I weep. It is so so beautiful. They let us take it out on deck, but the security guard hovers. Like we could go anywhere with it? But to see the color change with our own eyes is magical. Robert doesn't "get" jewelry, but even he was impressed. The salespeople know we are not capable of buying. But they love my appreciation and Sandra is moved that the stones move me so.
We thank them for indulging us and move on. Not one of the shops has the perfume I've been looking for over the past few years: Valentino. They also don't have any allergy medication. We go to a presentation by the historian, Mary Amanda, all about Ketchikan. We learn the town was pretty much founded and sustained by Dolly, a prostitute who ran everything well into her 70's, in 1945. It cracked me up. 80 cents of every dollar spent in that town by gold rushers was spent on Creek Street at her brothels.
We also learn a ton about totem poles. You can Google it so I won't bore you. But what we didn't know, was that there are two Shame Poles here. One for Seward, who was involved in the sale of Alaska, and one for Lincoln, who emancipated slaves. All Tlingit (kling-kit) natives had slaves. So they weren't really happy about having to give up their slaves. The shame poles depict Seward and Lincoln with bright red lips, which signifies a liar to the Tlingit. I will wear chapstick only into Ketchikan!
We play bingo in the theater that costs us $100 to play, and Robert ends up 1 space away from winning $40,000. It stays like that for ten minutes. Someone else won, but Robert was such a good sport. We go to the art auction at the gallery. The art is incredible, but there's quite a lot of modern art. One painting of butterflies comes with an app that allows you to hold your phone up to the piece and see it move. The butterflies turn into living creatures and frolic on the screen. I can't decide if it's amazing or kitschy.
We win a bottle of champagne, a bottle of white wine, a bottle of red wine, and some cute stuff like a linen bag with what the young auctioneer calls "questionable" headphones and a very nice quality dry bag for our cell phone for excursions where there's water. It was fun and considering we don't drink much, it likely paid for all the alcohol we need for the cruise.
We finally dress for dinner and Robert and I head to Murano for our second specialty meal. Oleg meets us at the door to the restaurant and is warm and gracious. He remembers our names. He seats us at a nice table for two by a window. The view would have been of the lifeboats but they have it covered with lovely sheers with purple swirls and purple drapes. The waiter scoots my chair in, as I sit, including the second little scoot we women tend to do once we first sit down. He lays the napkin on my lap, but only after asking if I would prefer a black napkin that better matches my black dress. I tell him white is just fine.
He offers wine and we explain we have our red wine with us that we won at the auction. there's a flurry of talking between him and Robert, and Oleg has such a heavy Ukranian accent, I honestly get only about 75% of what he says, even though I pride myself on understanding accents very well. It's a theater person thing.
We choose to eat a la carte tonight, and eat the 6 course meal tomorrow night at 8. Robert starts with a scallop Wellington and I get something I dont know what it is but I love it. Then we have a cooked pear with roquefort in a pastry shell and candied pecans, all with reduced balsamic glaze. I die and go to heaven. Robert chooses lamb with an herbed crust and I choose venison with lingonberries and pickled red cabbage. I die again. Seriously it's the best thing I've ever eaten and nothing else is even close.
The domes on our meals are removed all at the same time, which I've had before, but this food is just exquisite. Robert has pea pods that are so tender, they burst in his mouth like caviar, but they come arranged on his plate as opened pods in tiny twists and swirls with something drizzled over the top. I've eaten like this before but it's never been this good. Never. Not in Vienna, not in Prague, not at the Couerdalene hotel rooftop, not anywhere.
They bring these little dishes, too, in between everything. And Oleg keeps adding silverware every time we use some. It's like silverware keeps mating and resupplying itself at our table. Oleg pours more of our red wine whenever we get our glass low, as well. They bring me a chocolate cake that says happy birthday that is so good, Robert's steals half of it. It's cakey and light but frothy and has a hardened ganache frosting that's paper thin. It's not too sweet but not unsweetened like the Austrian desserts I hated, either. Robert has a plate of 6 desserts, including a pink macaron, (NOT a macaroon, for those who don't know) and 3 chocolate truffles that are delicate and messy and thoroughly joyous. We both feel like we are about to explode by the time were done.
We waddle home and fall into bed, exhausted. The next morning, we get up early and shower. We dress in jeans and head up to the buffet to eat breakfast. It's quite busy and the food is pretty good, but it's hard to find seating. We head into Ketchikan when we dock. We are off the ship in no time and walking up the gangplank. We take photos at the town square with some bronze statues. Then we walk the streets with all the shopping. I get gifts for friends, and a full pound of smoked sockeye salmon for Xavier, along with a Del Sol tshirt for Axel with a wolf on it. Del Sol is a fun place we found in Mexico on my first cruise. Everything changes color in the sun.
I get suckered into buying some retinol anti-aging cream that made the lines on my face dissapear. Robert doesn't make fun of me for that, thank god. I also find my Valentino parfum at the same shop. Robert buys it for me. We wander the shops, looking for somewhere that would ship crab legs to Robert's parents. No such luck. We decide since we did that already in Seattle, it would be silly to do it again here because it's a lot of work for his folks to cook it. I try to convince Robert to ship them some smoked salmon but he refuses to do it.
We take pictures of very little, since the native Alaskans don't allow photos of their artwork, even scrimshaw. I do get photos of the largest woolly mammoth tusks in Alaska and of the coolest giant raw gemstone geodes I've ever seen. I do not get pictures of the Oosik, the scrimshawed whale penis bones. We wander a couple hours then head back to the ship. Getting on is slower because they scan everyone.
We get to our room and change for our excursion. We dress warmly and bring a backpack with us, full of duck shoes and water bottles and raincoats. We leave the ship again and find our tour guide on the pier, holding a sign. We get loaded on a bus and our bus driver tells stories along our trip to the excursion site.
Apparently it's a big deal that there's a Walmart and a McDonalds and a Safeway, now, in Ketchikan. She also talks about how they are in a drought right now, and explains how bad that is for the locals, who use rainwater for everything. She explains the long winding stairways up the hill to the houses are maintained by the city, as long as they go from each house to the sidewalk. Otherwise, each house owner would have to maintain the stairs themselves. None of the stairs look maintained to me.
Next up, I'll talk about our excursion which is sea kayaking!
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