We enjoyed another good night's sleep last evening. Serenity left Vancouver later in the evening and today sailed the Inside Passage on our way to our first port-of-call in Ketchikan, Alaska. Although there are many wonderful places to visit throughout the United States of America including some that are rustic, Alaska is considered to be the last great frontier. Much of Alaska is undeveloped although travelers visiting some of the major areas of Alaska sometimes can forget this. A cruise of Alaska is different from many other cruises. Alaska is not the place to work on your sun tan. It is not the place to visit major historical man-made sites and museums. On the other hand, Alaska offers the opportunity to see some of nature at its best and to take in the majestic beauty that is right there in front of you to enjoy. Sometimes there is luck and that might included the weather and being in the right place at the right time when it comes to seeing wildlife and other times is arranging tours to take you from the major towns to the more remote places on land and at sea. We pretty much kept to our normal routine to start our day. Keith was up early for a long workout on the elliptical machine and took care of our remaining laundry. Afterwards, he was off to the Lido Cafe for some coffee. The only change from the routine is that Keith didn't have to bring back any coffee for Anne Marie as she took full advance of the recently installed coffee maker that was added to some of the rooms concurrent with the recent dry dock of Serenity. , Jijo brought breakfast to our room at 7:00 and shortly after breakfast Keith took his first indoor cycling class of this cruise. Signups started yesterday at 4:00 PM and all the slots were filled with some on the waiting list. This was expected on a cruise such as this one as there is a wide range of guests on board. We suspect there might be less demand on the Northwest Passage Cruise. Keith knew two guests taking the class. One of them, Mark, we have known for several years he and attended most of the classes with Keith and his spin buddies during World Cruise 2015 and the other guest, Bob, we met in 2014 when he took spin as well. Keith met Fitness Instructor Martin who he had for today's class during the early May cruise. Keith started to do indoor cycling around six years ago and recently became a certified instructor and is now a substitute instructor at our nearby fitness center that is only a five minute walk from our home. He assisted some of the guests with the set up of their bikes. This was a terrific class and Martin challenged each person to give it their all. All twelve bikes were in use between the eleven guest and fitness director Martin. There was a wait-list of around eight people Anne Marie was able to get in her one hour walk. She was able to walk part of the way outside and the rest inside. Clothing for Alaska was being sold in the Crystal Plaza since this is the first day of the cruise. It appeared that several people were purchasing Jackets, gloves and hats as they might have realized that they didn't bring enough clothing to keep them warm. We actually had two prearranged meetings this morning with two individual members from the crew. One of them was with Head Sommelier, Ditmar, for an upcoming Vintage Room. On sea days Crystal offers 50 or more enrichment related programs throughout the day. Today was no exception. The morning included two talks. The first one was given by Destination Lecturer Ed Larson who spoke about some of the history of Alaska including the Alaskan Gold Rush, Russian Settlement, American Purchase, and the Road to Utopia. We watched this later in the day on our room television. Although much of this we already knew from our formal education and previous trips to Alaska it was still very informative and we still picked up some new information. The second lecture was given by World Affairs Lecturer Ken Walsh and the title of this one was Divided America: Presidential Campaign of 2016. For those from the United States it highlighted many items we already knew and for those from other countries it likely provided a great deal of new information. We also watched the lecture in the afternoon from the comfort of our room. We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe. We made our usual salad entrees with lots of salad items and some protein. We sat with good friend Barbara. We also ran into friends Ashley and Kelly shortly after that and will be getting together with them for drinks on this voyage. In the afternoon we watched lectures and Anne Marie walked. The weather wasn't conducive for Paddle Tennis. Keith also met up with dear friend Bob. This evening we plan to have a pre-dinner drink and then will have dinner at the Crystal Dining Room. Afterwards, we will attend Captain Birger's reception which will be held at 7:45 PM. We will post all about this tomorrow.
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