18 May 2006: Day 6 – Beautiful Glacier Bay.

The past few days, we’ve seen one or two glaciers per day. And we’ve had to travel quite a bit to see them.

Today, we didn’t need to travel anywhere at all.

When I woke up this morning, this was what I saw:



The ship had cruised right into Glacier Bay, 24 nautical miles North of Skagway and where most of the glaciers had originally cruised from.

So from the balcony of my stateroom, I could look out right to what is called the Pacific glacier, one of 10, 000 glaciers tt had been formed in Alaska.



And more of tt glacier.



This is what else you can see from the side of the ship:



Mountains over the icy water.

As our ship sailed through Glacier Bay throughout the morning, we got to see more beautiful scenery as we went along:





And me with the scenery. I’m out on the upper deck.

More glacier too…



And me with said glacier.



But tt being said, our stateroom balcony itself had an amazing view too.



Me on the balcony. It’s warmer in our room.



And me being retarded, as usual.



We had lunch around 1pm in the International Dining Room. They were going to give us yet another table with the Honkeys, but my dad turned tt down. So we sat down with this couple from New Mexico, and it was really cool talking to them. My parents didn’t know much about the States or about Mexico itself, but I notice tt women bond over food, especially if you cook like my mom. And because so much of New Mexico had been reserved land for the Native Americans, I got to discuss what little I knew about First Nations Law and affirmative action towards the natives in the US with the guy. It was really cool and they were really nice. And for my lunch, I had beef goulash and pecan pie ala mode. In case you were wondering.

For the lack of having something better to do, I headed to the gym after an afternoon sick of lying on the bed and watching back-to-back episodes of Law and Order on TV (there is only so much TV tt you can watch, and I have watched more TV since my parents arrived as compared to my entire exchange experience).

Won’t talk about the unfit part. But there is something about gymming on the second-highest floor on a ship: you look out the window from the stepper or the stationary bike or the treadmill or whatever equipment tt you are on, and all you see is the wide expanse of open sea. And somehow this magnificent beauty of space and the great beyond, and the idea tt you are just literally skimming the surface of something so much bigger than you and so much more unfathomable…It gives you some sort of peaceability.

It’s the kind of feeling tt you don’t get when you running in any other gym, not even Orchard’s CFC. Or in Singapore, for tt matter. You can’t really escape. Not your world, not the cruel concrete jungle, not even the judgmental eyes of your peers or the people running next to you like hamsters on a pinwheel. Unlike here.

Tonight was formal night, so we dressed up again and headed down for dinner after my gym experience. Just to give you an idea of the grandeur of the atrium:



This is how it looks like from an angle (I couldn’t get the best angle coz the ship’s photographers were out in full force taking the best angles for their exorbitantly-priced ship portraits). Nonetheless… Still very grand, no?



And this is my parents and I in front of our fave restaurant – the Pacific Moon Dining Room. Yes yes, I couldn’t be bothered to tuck in my shirt tonight.

What I had for dinner?

Chicken broth for appetizer…

And lobster tails with a herb butter sauce and buttered rice for my entrée.



Trust me, fresh Alaskan lobsters are sweet and succulent, and I have never tasted lobsters this good before. I kid you not.

For dessert, I had what was called a “duet of chocolate mousses”. That is white chocolate mousse to the left and dark chocolate mousse to the right. Tastes great with fresh strawberries and raspberries (not shown here).



After dinner, we went to catch the live performance in the theatre – tonight it was a production called “The Piano Man”, which had the ship’s singers and dancers sing and dance to songs from Billy Joel, Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow, Liberace and Elton John. I especially loved the renditions of “The Longest Time”, “Mandy” and “Your Song”.
But to give you an idea of how amazing a performance can be:





I thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s performance. And thus ends Day 6.

Tomorrow is my final day on board the Diamond Princess…