Alaska 2016 - Day 2 (8/21/2016) - At Sea

I slept in for a long time this morning, making up for what I didn’t get while packing the night before.  I first got up around 9, but then decided that I didn’t really want to be up just yet.  I got back up after 11 – something that I can’t remember doing for a while.  As I prepared for the day, I noticed that the boat would rock a bit from time to time, in contrast to the virtually peaceful sailing from the day before when we had Vancouver Island to shield us from the ocean.  Apparently the open waters past the island were a tad rougher.

After getting dressed I went up to the buffet for lunch.  They had an Asian theme going, and once again I didn’t have trouble finding stuff to eat.  My next activity was a talk at 2 PM about whales, given by the ship’s naturalist in one of the theaters.  Later on at 4 PM I attended a trivia event at one of the lounges.  I arrived a bit late and ended up partnering with another solo cruiser named Helen – we managed an almost respectable 11 out of 20 correct.  We chatted a bit afterward, and I found out that she was a retired nurse from Australia.  At one point she asked if I was on the cruise or part of the staff – she seemed surprised that a person “my age” would be cruising with all the “old people”.  I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt that it didn’t also have to do with race.  All in all, it was a pleasant conversation.  And she gave me a tip that they seem to do a decent job of setting solo travelers up at a table with similarl demographics in the dining room.  I decided to pass on that for the day, since it was a formal night, but I considered dining there subsequent evenings.

The rest of the evening included dinner once again at the buffet and then watching comedian Derrick Cameron in the Universe Lounge.  His full set was better than the abbreviated one from the night before.  Interestingly, he keeps it clean and doesn’t curse or do dirty jokes;  I guess that’s cruise friendly.  He does make racial jokes, though, which is particularly humorous to me since we were probably the only 2 black guys in the room.

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My favorite photos from the trip can be found here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4ikrCSuPvRpRkXTKA