A Week to Remember

Well, I should've finished and posted this blog the week after my family came, because two weeks later, mom and dad Bernard came!  We are so spoiled by our wonderful families. I've written in detail about the week my mom, Dan and Laura were here and I would write another detailed blog about our Bernard family cruise, but I'm afraid it would be very repetitive. So here you have a written oration of my family's cruise that I've been working on since they came.  As soon as I can get on my husband's computer to upload pictures to my blog, you'll have a narrated pictorial Bernard family cruise!  Enjoy:

Wednesday, July 13th:
At 11:00am, I sat in the Vancouver Port building reading "The Help" and eagerly awaiting the arrival of my family!  After three months on board the Volendam and this alternate reality Jeremy and I have settled into, nothing made me happier than hugging my mom, sister and Dan as they walked into the port lobby from their airport shuttle. Now, we've taken a lot of vacations together, usually to visit my family spread out across the country, but I've never shared the luxurious extravagance of a cruise with my mom and I couldn't wait!  Let me just preface this blog by saying two things. First, anyone of faith reading this blog, I'm asking for your prayers for my mom.  She is having a knee replacement surgery on August 18th  and because of her bad knee, and arthritis, her hip is also causing her trouble.  I tried to plan our cruise activities so she wouldn't have to walk much, but getting around in port and just walking down the LONG Deck 3 hallway to their room at the very aft of the ship (!) was exhausting.  If you think of it, please pray for a complication-free surgery and a speedy recovery.  Preface number two: this blog is going to be very detailed and, by nature of cruising, especially with my family, it's going to be almost entirely centered around food!  They say the average cruise passenger gains 7 pounds in one week. I never believed it until my family came on board and I lived like a passenger for a week. My skinny jeans are now my "I'm not that skinny" jeans and are a witness to the truth of the latter statement.  
       Our vacation began by checking mom, Laura and Dan onto the ship, and then heading right back into Vancouver for a few hours.  As I've shared, I've been on a mission to find the best Vancouver cafes within close proximity to the waterfront.  We caught a taxi to a place I found on Yelp, and went to a few weeks ago, called "Finch's coffee and tea house."  Their pear, blue brie, prosciutto, roasted walnut and balsamic baguette is on a local's list of "100 things to try in Vancouver before you die" so of course I had to take my foodie family and we all ordered one, along with one of their famous chocolate chip cookies.  After Finch's, we caught another cab to Vancouver's famous Chinatown. We stopped by a Chinese garden and then walked around a bit. Then, we cabbed it to yet another foodie delight, the Mink Chocolate Cafe.  Mom ordered the best drinking chocolate any of us had ever tasted - basically pure creamy melted dark chocolate - Dan had a dark chocolate mocha, and Laura, Jeremy and I had their outstanding coffee and chocolates.  Once we were properly caffeinated and sugared, as if we weren't about to embark on an eating frenzy, we got back on the Volendam and the cruise began!  I saw mom and Dan into their beautiful room and then checked Laura into her special room...since this is a public online blog, let's just say I'm happy I'm close with our cruise director so Laura didn't have to sleep on a couch bed...  After a quick safety briefing, we had our typical and beloved "mom's share time" where she gives us all the things she brought from home that she's been collecting for months.  Usually it involves newspaper and magazine clippings, but this time I was the one bringing stacks of paper to read :)  I saved different reading materials from our Asian adventure, like the Singapore Airlines menu, maps, brochures from museums, etc.  I also brought over the ridiculously detailed schedule I made for the week so we could all be sure we knew where we were eating and what we were doing!  After chatting and laughing, the way we always do when we've been apart for so long, we got ready for our first dinner and the embarkation show. After a delicious 5 course meal, Jeremy and I performed in our opening night show called "Listen to the Music."  It's a short introduction show to acquaint the new passengers with all of the different entertainment on the ship.  I then gave Laura a tour of the ship and, as you can imagine, our heads hit the pillow to prepare for a busy sea day on Thursday.

Thursday, July 14th:
This day cracks me up because it is so indicative of what it's like on a Holland America cruise for a "foodie" family like ours. This was our itinerary:

9am - Breakfast buffet in the Lido (Every breakfast food you could want including six different kinds of "Eggs Benedict")
11:00am-Cooking Demo in the Culinary Arts Center (Halibut Caddy Ganty and Chocolate bread pudding - we got samples)
1:00pm - Lunch buffet in the Lido
2:00pm - Wine Tasting (Four different wines: Danzante Italian Pinot Grigio, Caliterra Chilean Chardonnay, Three Blind Moose California Cabernet, and Disegno Malbec)
3:00pm - Afternoon Tea
4:00pm - A brisk walk around the outside deck 3 and then changed for the first formal night
5:15pm - King Crab Legs in the Dining Room, along with four other courses
8:00 & 10:00pm - Our Broadway shows with a Champagne Toast beforehand
11:00pm - Dancing in the Ocean Bar - Laura taught Jeremy how to Fox Trot and we trotted and waltzed to the live jazz band

What a day. I feel slightly guilty saying this, but it's exhausting consuming that much in one day.  In fact, we kept laughing about how we'd say we were tired throughout the cruise only to realize that all we had done was eat, sit and enjoy scenery, eat, sit and whale watch, eat, sit and watch (or perform) a show, eat some more, etc.

Friday, July 15th:
Now I understand why the ship is a ghost town after about 10:00pm on these Alaskan cruises. People come to Alaska to see the wildlife and experience the scenery, and unfortunately for us late night theater people, everything good happens early in the morning. Usually Jeremy and I are sleeping in Friday mornings, after our Broadway shows, but the ship sails through the beautiful Tracy Arm Fjord and is out of there by 9:30am. So, we all got up at 7:00am, bundled up, ate breakfast and watched the untouched rugged beauty of the fjord all morning. We signed up for the hands on cooking class but unfortunately Jeremy couldn't join because it was full.  So mom, Dan, Laura and I donned our souvenir Holland America aprons and were assigned to the Honey mint glazed grilled salmon. There were 12 people taking the class and we split into teams to prepare the menu items: Salmon, Yukon squash Risotto, and Mixed Berry Bread Pudding. It was so much fun to debone salmon and cook together in the large test kitchen where someone else cleans up for you!  I think the pictures from the class are some of my favorite of the whole week.  After the meal was done, we ate the delicious lunch we made, along with complimentary wine, in the Pinnacle Grill.  Around 2:00pm, the Volendam arrived in Juneau and, considering mom, Laura and Dan had never been to Juneau and it was our first and best port, we practically ran down the gangway!  The first order of business? Trying the Rookery cafe latte I've raved about for months. Justin, Chris and Kassie (from our cast) stopped by to hang out for awhile. Then, Jeremy and I took the family up the Juneau tram, which we had been waiting to experience with them. The tram goes straight up Mt. Roberts and is the steepest cable car tram in the country.  At the top of the mountain is a gift shop, a restaurant (that Jeremy and I visited the following week for all you can eat crab!), a bald eagle on display and amazing hiking trails. Because of mom's knee, she and Dan didn't join us for the hike but Laura, Jeremy and I hiked into what honestly felt like the opening scene of "The Sound of Music." Because we were already so high up, the hike offered wide-open views of snow-capped mountains, the ocean and town below, and glacial meadows all around us. We even saw a Marmot peek it's head out about 15 feet in front of us.  To top it all off, Juneau parted its typical cloud cover for us and the weather was sunny, clear and perfect.  This was the most beautiful hike any of us had ever been on and we don't expect to surpass it soon.
    After a wonderful afternoon in the quaint capital of Alaska, Jeremy and I treated everyone to dinner at the Pinnacle Grill as a celebration for Laura officially becoming a CPA! I'm so proud of my sister and wanted to spoil her for all the long hours of hard work she's put in. Plus, we wanted to thank mom, Dan and Laura for coming to visit us on the cruise when it certainly was a financial sacrifice. The Pinnacle is the specialty upscale restaurant on board and is the only food not included in the price of the cruise. I had told my family a lot about the Pinnacle, but nothing can prepare you for the decadence and luxury of this dining experience. First, they brought us a beautiful bread basket with three different types of sea salt and three different types of butter. Then, we all received the amus-bouche (wow, I have no clue how to spell that) of a seared Scallop on pumpkin purée. The amazing thing about the Pinnacle is that for just $20 a person, each guest has the option to order as many appetizers, soups, salads, sides, entrees and desserts as they want, and we're talking as gourmet as it gets.  We all had the lobster bisque which they garnish table side with cream and cognac. Then the courses just kept coming.  Laura had the Lobster tail for her CPA dinner, along with Jeremy and mom, and then we all shared four different desserts, including a flambéed Baked Alaska, three different kinds of Creme Brulee and a Chocolate Souffle with the words "Congratulations" written in chocolate. Thank you Pinnacle for a magical evening!

Saturday, July 16th:
Skagway!  Laura, Jeremy and I decided to sleep in a little this morning and we met mom and Dan at 10:30, ready to leave the ship for the tiny Gold Rush town of Skagway. First, I took them to my favorite little local bakery called the Lemon Rose. It's a tiny hole in the wall place and we enjoyed its delicious cinnamon rolls, fresh out of the oven breakfast calzones, pumpkin cookies and great coffee.  We then took a free historical walking tour. Skagway exists solely because of the Alaskan Gold Rush and many of the original 1898 buildings still stand today. Lead by a national park ranger, the historical walking tour was a highlight of our cruise.  After learning all about little Skagway, we enjoyed Alaskan spruce tip beer at the Skagway brewery. On our hike in Juneau, I had mom, Dan and Laura eat Spruce tips from the Sitka Spruce tree. These spruce tips were the primary source of Vitamin C for Alaskan gold-rushers and natives. The local brewery mixes spruce tips with hops to make the spruce tip beer, and one glass has as much Vitamin C as the same size glass of orange juice.  We enjoyed local beer and talked "I Love Lucy" trivia with the resident expert, Mr. Jeremy Bernard :). Laura and I left Jeremy, mom and Dan to hike the Lower Dewey Lake trail in Skagway. We only had a little while before my Dinner Belles rehearsal but we enjoyed our beautiful hike.  Saturday night we had dinner at the Italian restaurant on board, "Canaletto." I'm amazed with the dining options on the Volendam. Canaletto is completely different than the Lido, which is totally different than the dining room and the Pinnacle. We had a wonderful Italian dinner, more wine, dessert and espresso and then everyone came to watch me in my 1960's girl group show, "Dinner Belles."

Sunday, July 17th:

Glacier Bay!  This day is always the highlight of Alaskan cruisers as it offers spectacular views of glaciers, mountains and wildlife. Laura woke up at 5:00am to see some whales and thank goodness she did or else I'd have a cranky sister :). After my show Saturday night, I wanted to sleep a little bit so I joined everyone on deck around 8:00am. We had breakfast while in awe of the 360 degree view of snow-capped mountains and crystal blue glaciers.  After breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning on deck.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  I think we all experienced the dichotomy of being on a cruise ship in the ocean, only 50 feet from a massive glacier surrounded by mountains, and wearing sunglasses to protect from the glaring sun. I wonder who first thought to take cruise ships through Glacier Bay. I'm very thankful to whomever that was. (Correct usage of "whomever?" I have no idea, I've been singing on a cruise ship too long!)  After hours of taking pictures and reflecting on the worshipful cathedral that is Glacier Bay, we enjoyed a Wild Alaskan salmon and clam bake on the Lido. And of course, more bread pudding and berry cobbler.  After stuffing ourselves silly, what better than to dawn swimsuits and let the food babies all hang out?  Jeremy and I took mom and Laura to the Thermal Suite - a private room in the spa with floor to ceiling windows, heated blue ceramic chairs, a mineral bath, running water fountains, and two aromatherapy steam rooms. Needless to say, it's my favorite gem on the Volendam.  We were there all afternoon and it was perfect timing because the humpbacks and orcas were out in full force. The thermal suite was relaxing and exhilarating at the same time because as soon as we'd start to drift off on the heated mosaic chairs, someone would shout "whale" and we'd all jump up to see.  Not exaggerating, that happened every 10-15 minutes for about two hours. We saw more humpbacks and orcas that afternoon than I've seen all summer. Granted, when I say "seeing whales," I mean distant spouts, fins and tales but hey, that totally counts!  Sunday night was another formal evening so after we were sufficiently spoiled in the thermal suite, we dressed up and went to the dining room for wine, escargot, surf and turf - filet mignon and lobster - more decadent dessert and espresso. After a most glutinous dinner, we saw the fabulous ship comedian, Lee Bayless.  What a truly remarkable day in Glacier Bay!

Monday, July 18th:

Ketchikan!  From the moment Laura booked her Alaska cruise, she was determined to go sea kayaking. Ketchikan is the king of Alaska kayaking and Laura found an amazing company, Southeast Sea Kayaks, that offered four hour private kayaking tours. So, while mom, Dan and Jeremy enjoyed their day walking around the little salmon-fishing town of Ketchikan, Laura and I took off on the kayaking adventure of our lives. A shuttle picked us up right off the ship and took us to the company building where they outfitted us with dry skirts, industrial strength rain jackets and life jackets. There was only one other Austrailan couple with us on the tour, so the four of us then hopped in a small boat and sailed out to a larger boat where we boarded our tandem sea kayaks. The incredible thing about kayaking in Alaska is that after our 30 minute boat ride out to a remote cove called Orca beach, our guide said that besides tiny Ketchikan on our right, we were 100 miles from civilization. There is something so serene and peaceful about kayaking around little Islands with no signs of human life. I had never been sea kayaking before and I think this experience ruined me for all other kayaking. Southeast Alaska is so unique because it is made up of little Islands, little pockets of land that appear to float independently in the open ocean. For instance, Juneau and Ketchikan are both Islands, albeit larger than the inlets we kayaked around :). You can't drive in or out of both Juneau and Ketchikan - the only way to reach the outside world is by plane or boat. Kayaking in these beautiful waters is like being in the center of your own fantasy wilderness with nothing but the soundtrack of waves and birds.  Our guide took us close to the shoreside of a small island so we could see myriad purple starfish attached to the rocks. He even grabbed one for us to touch. Then we kayaked directly underneath a bald eagle's nest, and on our way back to the main boat, we saw the Mother Eagle perched atop a branch next to her nest!!  What a cool experience!  We learned that eagles pad their nests with lichen for the comfort of their eaglets. Then, when trying to get their eaglets to leave the nest, they gradually take out the lichen to make it uncomfortable. Note to self as a parent - pull the down out of my child's pillow to get them out and on their own :). The eagles also stop feeding the eaglets and instead lay salmon at the bottom of the nests so the eaglets have to jump out to feed.  God had such a sense of humor when He was creating the animal world. Anyway, after about 2 1/2 hours of kayaking, we went back to the boat and the owner of the company had set up a picnic for the four of us! Lunch consisted of their very own smoked wild Alaskan salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onions, crackers, pita, hummus, hot chocolate and tea.  The other couple we were with combined their kayaking excursion with a Misty Fjord float plane trip so while we were eating on the boat, their float plane flew right up to the boat! Laura and I had so much fun watching them board and take off from the water.  Once we finished every scrap of salmon (!) we sailed back to shore and back to the Volendam for rehearsal.  At dinner that night, we told everyone all about our adventure and heard their stories of the day.  Jeremy went to our favorite free wi-fi spot, Good Coffee.  Mom and Dan took advantage of the many hocker shops in Ketchikan.  Since these port towns (even Juneau, the state capital) rely on cruise ships for most of their economy, every Volendam passenger receives a coupon book upon embarkation.  Laced throughout the book are offers for freebies at many of the souvenir shops.   Although there are many unique local stores with wonderful keepsakes, there are even more cheap souvenir stores that prey on tourists, and these are the stores that advertise freebies in the coupon books. Mom and Dan spent the day going to store to store, collecting the ridiculous give-aways :). After another amazing dinner in the dining room, Jeremy and I performed in our biggest, and I think our best show, "Amore." Then, my favorite part of the week, the Lido chocolate extravaganza. Every Monday night, from 10:30-11:30pm, the Lido is transformed with ice sculptures, decadent cakes of all shapes and sizes, and every dessert you could possibly imagine. My favorites are the Chocolate breads, chocolate ice cream with bananas foster, and melon smothered in the chocolate fountain. We had a great time because a lot of the cast joined us and we sat around telling stories until way too late.

Tuesday, July 19th:

Last sea day!  Wow did the week fly by. We had breakfast for the first time in the dining room and kicked ourselves for not having breakfast every morning in the dining room - a change we made with Jeremy's parents!  I didn't even know the dining room served breakfast and lunch since we always eat in the lido. At 10:00am, mom, Laura and Dan went to the debarkation talk in the theater and then witnessed our crew farewell, "Love in Any Language." Representatives from every crew department, a testament to the many nationalities and religions on board, parade onto the stage and we all sing "Love in Any Language." Afterward, our cast leads an open-forum chat with guests and give a backstage tour. Normally, I only pull out one dress to showcase, but I knew mom and Laura wanted to see the costumes up close so I grabbed all of my dresses, jewelry and wigs!  Then came lunch, an Alaskan beer tasting for Dan, and a brief demonstration on how to fold towel animals.  That afternoon, we were all pretty run down so mom and Dan went back to start packing, and Laura and I went up to her room to take a nap. Well, a nap turned into Jeremy and Chris coming over for "I Love Lucy" and room service cake and tea.  In our usual fashion, we had eaten so much during the day that we weren't hungry for dinner. But, being the final night, we couldn't miss the Master Chef special dinner so we waddled to the dining room for more delicious courses and wine. The menu was a little different, more like a pre-fixed meal with a few entree choices, and the servers performed a sort-of dinner theater.  For example, the amus-bouche was called "the ballet service" and the servers performed a napkin dance before bringing the mushroom-duck mousse. My favorite part of the dinner was a little trick i played on my mom.  Now my mother rarely drinks.  We had ordered a bottle of wine and she made a point of saying, "Now girls, don't let me drink too much. I'm a cheap drunk.". Well, her glass of red wine was nearly empty and mine was full.  And she's here to relax and have fun right? So, I shouted "whale," the whole table turned to look out the window, and I switched our glasses. She turned around, sad she missed the "whale" mand proceeded to take a sip of her wine...not noticing her glass was now magically full.  Ah, the joy of good pranks.  Don't worry, I told her what I did - after she finished off the glass of course! :) After a memorable and fun dinner, we had yet another baked Alaska. I had never tried baked Alaska before this cruise...I've now had enough to last a lifetime!  Tuesdays are my night off so I got to sit and enjoy Jeremy's big show, "It Takes Two," with mi familia. As if my mother needed any more surprises, she was pulled onto the stage by our male comedian, Jason, for the audience participation part of the show!  I knew she'd love it so we conveniently sat where I knew Jason would pick her. The show is centered around duets, so Jason comes out to sing a duet with a female from the audience. The song is "De Lovely" and it's a cute comedic bit because the only thing the audience member sings is "It's." The idea was I'm sure stolen from the "I Love Lucy" episode where Desi let's Lucy sing one word, "Auf" in "Auf Wedersehn." It was soooo much fun seeing my mom on stage and she sounded great!  After a drink in the Ocean Bar in-between shows, it was time to sort through cruise pictures, finish packing and say goodnight.

Wednesday, July 20th:

The dreaded debarkation day. We had an early 6:30am breakfast in the dining room before saying goodbye.  I had planned on spending half the day in Vancouver with everyone after they left the ship, but to my surprise, they were immediately loaded onto a bus and taken to the airport.  Maybe it was for the best because we avoided our traditional long and teary goodbyes.  I will forever be grateful for the visit and the sacrifices my family made to share in this week long paradise together! I love you so much and will always treasure the memories of this week.