One Week Down

The Highlights:

Had to announce a change to the printed menu one day. Came out at lunch and told them the pork wasn't up to my standards (though actually I just didn't have any - smoke and mirrors!) Too bad folks we're having filet mignon instead. Then I made my piano debut on the Explorer by mostly improvising a blues tune entitled "Pork Loin." Went something like "woke up this morning got the pork out, didn't look quite right, guess we'll have filet mignon tonight."

Made up another blues tune called "Bananas Foster" for our first tableside cooking presentation. Shelly did the fireworks on one of our butane burners while I kept it raw on the keyboard. Shelly is so brilliant that she waited till I sang "then you add the liquor" before adding the liquor. Almost like we planned it - which we didn't have time for of course.

Reportedly did a bang up job in general (we'll see what the comment cards say tomorrow) but in particular I rocked out the Elk stew. It was fun to tell the passengers that I was waiting to hear that Wednesday morning whether the Elk had arrived on the Alaska airlines flight. It did, and I was on the phone on the back deck as we went into Petersburg and gave the thumbs up to all the passengers waiting to disembark. Then the elk arrived - all 175 pounds of it. Oops, we had to send about 165 pounds back (fun to carry up the thirty five degree incline, one-hundred foot dock gangway). The Hammer and Wikan grocery store folks were so diligent in making sure we got the elk before leaving dock at 1:30 pm that they forgot to tell the driver that the vast majority of the elk was going to the store freezers where they would hold it for me. But the stew did go over very well despite the debacle in getting it.

The dumbwaiter that makes our lives so much easier (once it was working on day 2) almost bit the dust today (Thursday - day 7 of our inaugural cruise). We were working as usual sometime after lunch cleaning things, when all of a sudden Dani the hotel manager hit the send down button from upstairs. The thing just flew down all noisy with dishes and scared the bejeezes out of everyone. Within an hour, our Chief Engineer Erik had it fixed better than before. Apparently the weird squeaky noises it always made had been a bad sign. Angie still doesn't completely trust the thing, though no one was hurt and no dishes were broken.

Though I may never get to use it for lack of time, I found out today that Erik has a Playstation with him. It's plugged in right now, and he's playing some car racing game. Cool.

Only had one day where we had to work without a break from five am til ten pm. The galley was grumpy today because we were in recovery.

Shelly got to see Orcas and Humpbacks, some bears, go kayaking, and watch a Glacier calving. I didn't spend much time outside, but when I was, the vistas have been incredible. Late snow on the mountaintops hasn't melted yet. Southeast Alaska is definitely at its finest.

The ranger who came on board in Glacier Bay (we always have one onboard while we overnight in the park) was the same one from a couple summers ago. Though he was hoping I'd forgotten, he was the ranger that came to the crew "rave" we held one particularly fun week. The crew on the Quest was awesome that week and we set up strobe lights, loud music, and non-alcoholic beers in the engine room late at night. Everyone dressed in toga's while I had my own strange get-up: flowery sleeping shorts and a chef coat that was mostly unbuttoned. I'll never publish them, but there must be literally 300 or more photos from that night. Anyway, it was the same ranger and he totally remembered. 'Course, how could he forget.

So many stories - so little time to record and remember them.

Good night from the Great Land.