Icy Point Strait

No golf courses on our cruise, weather not great for mini golf, so we start a pool contest.  Chicks vs Dicks - The pool table is a gyro table which is supposed to be self levelling.  It does sometimes go on strike, this maybe to your advantage and at times it is not.  The baddies won the first game - even with 3 ladies to the 2 gentlemen.  But that is where their victories ended.  There were a lot of hysterics and help from the wavy seas, as the balls never stopped rolling - sometimes you had to chase the white ball down the table, even after it had come to rest.  To bed with sore bellies from laughing, one game each.

Gyro table - my arse , says John.

The walks from the ship to the dock are sometimes very long and are hard for mum.  Jen had previously tried to hire a wheelchair but the person she spoke to in guest services said that they did not hire them - I think what he meant was they were already hired out and they had Scooters available.  When Aunty Fi enquired, they said that they had scooters.  So we hired one for mum - talk about giving a kid a box of matches.  Mum is a "hoon" (aka Sterling Moss, Maniac) on this scooter.  We started her off in tortoise mode and whenever I looked the dial was on full Hare mode!  This was much easier for her and she no longer felt like she was holding the group back.  You judge from the photo below whether she liked the scooter for the walk!

After sorting out the scooter and mum has a few laps around the centrum, we are ready to disembark.  This is really easy and well organised for mobility challenged patrons.  Not sure the world was prepared for Nicky Lauda though.  We are going on a gondola, there are two stages.  We advise mum to reverse in, they stop the gondola whilst this happens, but you do not have rear view mirrors and mum just reverses.  I am stressed about this so offer to do it and proceed to reverse into the gondola door.  The gondola man then offers to do it and does a beautiful job.  So up the first level we go.  Then next level, they stop the gondola and mum goes in forward, perfectly central, taking up the entire gondola with her scooter.  Jen and I squeeze by and ride the journey with her.  The gondola ride is spectacular with the ever changing landscape, in clouds our of clouds, rain, mist - what you expect of Alaska.  We then sit out a heavy downpour, and do the ride back down.  Mum is getting good at the in and out of the gondola - we are proud of her.  But with success comes a bit of over confidence.  On the last exit of the gondola mum reversed out and turned a fraction too early and removed the seal of the gondola door with the basket.  Jen and I looked the other way and mum drove off oblivious of the damage she had done.

Then a lovely walk along the promenade, past the quaint fishing cottages.  

The weather starts to turn so back on board we go.  Mum on her way into one of the lifts, reversed in at such a speed and hit the column of the lift - in serious danger of whiplash.  The lifts are glass frames, I do envision mum caterpaulting through them at some point on the trip - hopefully whilst she is on a lower deck!!!

We were all in the room having a coffee and a chat and Sue says - look at the dolphins.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  Suzies great spotting were Orcas - they look and move like dolphins but were blowing like whales - then we saw the white underbelly.  Killer Whales, tick that off the bucket list.  They moved majestically through the water - just incredible.  Made my day - thanks Suzie.  below is a video of a very short version of what we saw.  

We then go off to Trivia, it is jam packed - I think everyone had the same idea as us.  But after hearing the first question; "what is the purpose of a CPU in a computer".  Then the second question ; "who wrote Hamlet".  We thought maybe the trivia wasn't for us - so we played pool instead.  Boys won the first game, then girls won the second game - very close.  Dinner is in the same place at the same time, we hear all about Suzie's day she has been off kayaking.  Manuelito is entertaining and the dinner is superb.  Off to catch the 9pm show, Alyssia Harris paying tribute to the greatest Divas - she was brilliant.  Then it was 70's disco night and that was so much fun - the cast or crew I am not sure which - because it was very well choreographed.  We danced the night away, stripping off layers as we heated up with our disco moves.

To bed now, early start tomorrow as we dock at Juneau at 7:30am.