We began last evening with a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon. This lounge is often quiet before early dining as many guests sit at the Crystal Plaza to listen to the pianist in that lounge. The Avenue Saloon picks up before late dining when Perry Grant plays the piano and then again later in the evening when he expands this to much more including singing. After our drink we made our way to Silk Road for the very first time of this voyage. Silk Road is a Japanese Specialty Restaurant and was developed by Nobu who has restaurants around the world. He blends traditional Japanese cuisine with cuisine from other areas including Central America where be worked early in his career. We dined with Hotel Director Hubert Buelacher. Our waiter was Anthony who has taken excellent care of us for many years. This is a photo of Silk Road. Anthony pre-ordered several items for us. Several of the Nobu Specials were served together making for a very nice presentation. We also shared a platter of sushi/sashimi (sorry no photo this time around). We added a few items to what Anthony had already pre-ordered for us. When we had finished those items, Anthony gave us each a menu and we ordered our entree and one other item. We finished our meal with a delicious assortment of fruit on a fruit plate including a very tasty mango. All in all we had an absolutely wonderful dinner. When we look at our watch, we realized we had been there for two and one-half hours. Nearby the Avenue Saloon since we boarded there have been several posters with information about the Northwest Passage. These photos show some of the posters. By the time we got out of dinner it was too late to attend the show so we went back to our room, read and wrote and then got a good night sleep. We went with the same routine to begin today. Keith worked out at the Fitness Center, stopped by the Lido Cafe for coffee and also did laundry. We both enjoyed some coffee in the room using the recently installed coffee maker and then got ready for another wonderful day as part of this adventure. We had breakfast in our room. We arrived to Seward, Alaska at around 5:30 AM. The arrival marks the end of the Vancouver to Seward voyage and the start of the Northwest Passage Voyage. Approximately 100 passengers will remain on board for the Northwest Passage. These are considered in-transit passengers. The remaining guests disembarked this morning and those joining the ship arrived to the ship starting late morning. As part of turn around day, a lot of pallets of items arrived to the ship today and loading commenced as soon as possible. Later in this voyage at one of the Northwest Passage stops several pallets of food will be arriving. There is a landing strip at that location and the pallets will arrive by plane. Although it rained in some of the ports, none of this dampened our spirits. After all this is Alaska. If it didn't rain it wouldn't be as green as it is and the characteristics would be totally different. We met some very nice people on this voyage. Lots of families have been on board, and all has been good. Everyone very well behaved including not only the children but the adults too. LOL, but true. Today marked our third visit to Seward. The first time was in 1998 at the end of a cruise from Vancouver to Seward. We remember that beautiful drive between Seward and Anchorage. We spent one night in Anchorage at the Captain Cook Hotel and then flew home the following day. More recently we spent one day at Seward in April of 2012 as part of the last segment of World Cruise 2012 on-board Crystal Serenity. We spent several hours in Seward including doing a tour on our own of the Sealife Center. One of the photos we are including is of the Silversea Expedition ship which we saw in Vancouver a couple of days prior to boarding Serenity. We walked off the ship a little after 8:00 AM. Crystal Cruises provided a shuttle service later in the morning but we didn't want to wait for it. The weather was nice with highs in the 50's and later got into the low 60's with a mix of cloudy to partial sunny skies. When we last visited Seward in April of 2012 there was quite a bit of snow on the ground from a snowstorm a few days earlier. While walking to the terminal to exit the port, we ran into John Stoll, Vice President of Crystal Cruises Land Programs and Port Operations as well as Paul Garcia Director of Crystal Cruises Public Relations. John Stoll will be on board until we get through the Canadian Northwest Passage portion of the voyage to oversee the land operations portion of this voyage. Paul Garcia is on board for the day for Media interviews as many members of the media are here to cover the start of the epic voyage. On our way to the downtown area we walked along the sea wall. Eventually we came to a large campsite with many campers parked. There were no campers in 2012 given the weather and time of year. The walk into town is about 2.5 miles. The scenery was nice with mountains all around us some still having a little bit of snow on them. When we arrived to town we walked into the Sealife Center. Last time we were here we took a tour. On our way back to the ship we first walked through the downtown area which is just a few blocks. We saw several churches along with restaurants and stores. We saw a building for GCI which Keith remembers well back in his work days. Back then he and his team would work them to provide communications to and from Alaska as part of MCI's Global Network. We stopped off at the visitor center where we saw a Park Ranger having three children take an oath to be an honoree assistant park ranger. It was adorable. We enjoyed lunch at the Crystal Dining Room. The dining room opened 15 minutes earlier than usual at 11:45 AM. We had our traditional cobb salad to mark the beginning of the Northwest Passage Adventure. We also enjoyed a flute of champagne and toasted our love for one another and the epic journey which starts today. We are posting a copy of the Lunch Menu. You will continue to find dinner menus on the top bar of our blog site labeled menus. Later in the afternoon, we each worked out. Keith worked out on the Ellpitical Machine and Anne Marie took a very long walk and also did a short workout on the Elliptical Machine.
We are going to post early today as we have some items to take care of. We will post about the rest of the afternoon and evening tomorrow. Keith & Anne Marie Comments are closed.
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