April 9, 2012
We hadn't packed until late the night before, so 5:30 came very early for us.  Especially since we'd gotten our hours mostly turned around to Japan time, which is 7 hours ahead of ours.  But we managed to get up and were ready to leave by the time Gene got there to take us to the airport at 6:30.  The suitcase was a bit heavy at 70 pounds but it turned out on International flights they allowed 70 pound suitcases on Alaska Airlines, so we got it on the plane ok.  We flew to Seattle first, where we had lunch at Wendy's, and then on to Dallas.  Because we had an overnight layover in Dallas we'd decided to get a hotel for the night.  Unfortunately we also had to get our bag, because the airlines wouldn't keep it for as long as our layover was.  We'd slept some on the plane, but were pretty tired anyhow.  We ordered pizza delivery and after eatting watched an hour of TV and went to bed.  Although late there (12 PM) it wasn't too late in Alaska--9 time...or 2 pm Japan time!

April 10 & 11 (2 days in one because of crossing the international date line)
We had to get up at 6:30 in order to have time to eat before our shuttle left to the airport at 8.  It all went smoothly, and by 10 we were boarding the plane for the 12.5 hour flight to Japan.  During the flight we played games, read, slept and the kids did some school work.  Though I'd been prepared with movies to watch we didn't get around to watching any.  Though the flight was really long we went across so many time zones we landed at 1:30...but the next day because we'd gone across the international date line. Japaneese customs were about the same as US customs, though they did fingerprint us (the first time I've ever been fingerprinted coming into a country).  There was a little confusion with the train, and I don't think we wound up on quite the right train (I think we had tickets for the express, and were supposed to change trains in Tokyo, but we managed to go all the way to our stop on the train we were on).  It took over 2 hours to get to Tokyo on this train, and the kids fell asleep toward the end of the trip.  Where we got off the train there was a map on the wall, so we studied it to see if we could figure out how to get to our hotel.  A friendly guy came along and helped us out, and got a cab for us and we were soon at our hotel (the Shinbashi Atagoyama Tokyu Inn).  Better than walking (it would have been about half a mile), for it was raining off and on.  After we got situated in our room we went to the hotel restaurant and had dinner.  Then we spent a couple of quiet hours watching TV (in Jpaneese!) and reading before going to bed at 9 pm.

A certain small percentage of Japanese (1%?) wear masks, I suppose with the idea to prevent the spread of disease.  Another interesting thing was how the lights in the hotel room worked: there was a container by the door for the key, and if you didn't put the keys in it none of the room lights work!

April 12: beautiful sunny day with sunburn
I got up at 5:30  and spent half an hour working on this before getting everyone else up.  We spent a leisurly half an hour getting dressed and then went down for breakfast.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so right after breakfast we went for a walk around the block, which turned out to be very interesting because we came across a place that was half park and half buddist shrine called the Atago Shrine.  It was also the highest place in Tokyo, at 260 feet elevation!  We had passed under it (the street ran through a tunnel under it) without realizing it, but just before we got back to our hotel there was a wide (and very old) staircase going to the top.  After getting back to the hotel we went back to our room for a little while and then went for a long walk (about 5 miles).  We walked to the Ginza, of which we'd heard about, then to the Imperial Hotel where we considered lunch but decided $50-100 a plate was a bit out of our price range!  Right across the street from the hotel was the Hibiya park, where we went to sit for awhile because my ankle was getting tired.  We discovered Karen's sunglasses were missing so Frankie and Karen went (successfully) to find them while Richard watched the fountain and I rested my ankle.

When Frankie and Karen got back we went to a street vendor and bought chips, candy and drinks for a snack.  Then we discovered a playground in another part of the park and ate our snack there, and the kids had fun on a small zip line after eatting.  We probably spent an hour there and then walked to the nearest subway, which we used to return to our hotel.  We ate dinner in the hotel again and read until bedtime at 9. 

The kids got very red faces (the main reason we left the park when we did), and Frankie actually sun-burned a bit of her back.  The first real sun we've been out in this year--guess we should have dug out the sunblock (so far we haven't even opened our big suitcase, which is mostly packed with stuff for the cruise ship).

April 13: cloudy to rain showers
Today was a day of trains.  We ate breakfast in the hotel and then got packed to leave.  We checked out of the hotel and walked to the nearest subway and got tickets (320 yen for the 4 of us; about $4).  Unfortunately that subway didn't go directly to Tokyo Station (where we were to catch the bullet train), so we had to change trains.  When we got to Tokyo we bought tickets on the Noyogo Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka.  These were a little more expensive at 39,000 yen--about $500 for the 4 of us.  There was a bit of confusion finding the right train platform, so we almost missed the train (which wouldn't have been a problem since they run every 15 minutes!!).  It was an enjoyable trip, and we bought lunch from a vendor on the train.  We bought two large boxes, and then shared.  It was interesting, since we didn't know what much of the food was!  It was almost like a sampler box, so it worked very well. 

The trip to Osaka was very fast, at 2:35 minutes--and around 150 miles an hour!  When we got to the Shin-Osaka train station we had to change trains, and then shortly after that we had to change trains again.  All this was a bit of a pain herding 2 kids, 5 bags (one of which weighed 70 pounds!).  But we managed without any real problem.  Our train tickets covered the entire trip from Tokyo to the final stop in Osaka.  When we arrived at the Tennoji station we had to find our hotel.  I had done some research online and it looked like the hotel was right across the street (which made sense: the hotel was called the Tennoji Miyako Hotel).  When we came out on the street sure enough there it was!  Very handy (note that we did not plan this in advance, we just got the cheapest hotel we could find online.)

The hotel turned out to be a very fancy hotel.  Our room was priced at about $150 a night, but when we went to the desk they said the room we signed up for was not appropriate for us so they gave us a slightly better room.  When we got up to the room (on the 14th floor!)...Wow!  'Slightly' doesn't begin to describe it; it was an executive suite!  Very, very nice of them (they didn't charge us anything for the upgrade). 

At our first hotel the toilet was a combination toilet/bidet, and this room took it a step further: it has a heated toilet seat!  Golly that would have been nice in the outhouse at -40 when I was growing up!!!  The room had a huge TV, and we thought we'd rent a DVD player and watch some of the movies we'd brought with us, but it turned out that their DVD player was incompatible with our DVD *sigh*. 

The weather was spitting rain off and on.  We didn't get wet during the trip, but for a bedtime snack we walked down the street a bit and bought a bit to eat.  (We had dinner in the food court in the hotel (a group of self-serve food outlets), where we each ordered a different Japaneese dinner).  After our snack it was 9, and bedtime so we all went to bed.

April 14: foggy with rain showers
We got up at 6 am, and I spent an hour and a half writing this while the kids played and Frankie straightened up the room.  I also copied all our photos onto the computer, so they are all backed up.  By the time I was done with all that it was 8 and we were hungry, so we went up and had a huge (scroumptious) breakfast. After we ate we went and bought umbrellas for everyone, and then went for  walk sort-of around the block.  I say sort of because we cut through a subway station going one way, and then on the other end of the block we went up and across the buildings to get back to the street our hotel was on.  After we got back to the hotel we had the kids do a bit of school work.  Fortunately the weather cleared by early afternoon, and after lunch we walked to the Tennoji Zoo.  We spent several hours wandering around the exibits, and then went back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

April 15: on to the ship.
After breakfast in the hotel restaurant like the previous day.  It was fairly expensive (around 64,000 yen, or $80 for the 4 of us) but very, very good buffet style.  We had until noon to check out, so we took our time getting packed and downstairs.  The train station was a handy walk across the street of course, and by 11 we were on our way.  Unfortunately we wound up on the wrong train!  Almost all the trains (5 of 6) did a circle around Osaka, going through the main train station we needed.  But we got the one that didn't!  Easily corrected though by catching the next train back to Tennoji Station to catch a better train.  We didn't have any problem at Osaka central station, and were on our way to where the ship was docked in Kobe.  We heard about a train that ran out to the ship (even used it the next day) we decided to take a cab and save the hassel of figuring it out.

Check in was easy, and by a late lunch time we were aboard and settled in our room.  We spent the rest of the day aboard ship.

[note: I got really far behind on this diary, so a lot of this was written on April 24th, during the "excursion" through the ice field]

April 16: a day in Kobe.
The ship remained berthed in Kobe, and we took the train into the city and walked around for awhile.  There were a bunch of small, neat shops and a small Buddist temple.  We cast off in the late evening.

April 17: a day in K
This was a day of walking.  We went ashore and walked back to the hills where the train was, and caught a ride on the train into the downtown area.  Then we walked to the park where we had a break and some soda from a street-side soda machine.  Karen played with a japaneese girl for a bit and then we walked on up to the mountain park where there was a Buddist shrine with 13 little Buddist statues.  From there we walked on up the hill to the observatory, and then, after 4 hours of walking we were walked out so we caught a taxi back to the ship.

April 19: Nagasaki
We were berthed by the time we were done with breakfast so we headed ashore.  We walked to the trolley car, and caught a ride.  We had to change cars in downtown, but didn't have any trouble getting where we were headed: the Nagasaki Atom Bomb museum.  Just before the museum was a monument to ground 0, right benieth where the bomb went off.  We spent several hours in the museum (the kids eventually got pretty bored) and then stopped briefly at the Peace Park before walking back to the train and going back to the ship.

April 20: At Sea
This was a day of school work and programming for me.  I had gotten an Arduino for his and my birthdays, and we wrote our first program to turn an LED on and off using the Arduino.  This was a formal night, so we had to get all dressed up in our suits and dresses.  I think Karen had more fun than anyone; she likes to dress up!

April 21: Pusan, South Korea
The city of Pusan was offering a free bus ride into the city.  We took advantage of it, and got off at the tower.  We took an elevtor to the top of the tower and then spent an hour wandering around while we waited for the bus to take us back to the ship.  We spent the rest of the day on the ship.

April 22: Vladovastoc
Unfortunately it was pouring rain all day.  We did go out for a walk (glad we bought umbrellas in Osaka!), visiting a submarine and a church, as well as the train station.  On the way back to the ship we bought some stacking dolls and some other trinkets.

April 23: At Sea
Today I spent most of the day working hard on the computer.  Mostly programming, but some work on the internet.  During the morning I sat with Richard, prodding him to get his school work done.  Mid morning we went to listen to Dr. Tanya Atwater's lecture about geology, and had lunch after that.  Then we had lunch before more school/computer work.  I spent the afternoon working on the computer, in the Explorations Cafe.  In the evening, as usual, Karen and Richard went to Club Hal (a daycare) for a couple of hours.  I worked on the computer and Frankie watch TV.

Today we changed our clock for the 3rd time in 4 days.  We used to be getting up at 6 am, but every time we go across a time zone we have been getting up half an hour earlier (and going to bed half an hour later).  So now we are getting up at 7:30.  Unfortunately we have 5 more time zones to go across in the next 2 weeks!

April 24: At Sea
About 3 am the boat slowed and starting around 4 am I started hearing wierd grinding noises outside.  When we got up we discovered we were in an ice field!  The ice continued to get thicker and thicker.  The captain slowed the ship way, way down (about 2.5 knots), but still a few of the pieces we hit jarred the ship.  Naturally this made us thinkof the Titanic, which (of course) sank 100 years ago this month.  We saw some seals in the distance, and
there were quite a few birds.  Wonder how often ice comes this far south in April?

About 10:30 the captain, in consultation with Seatte, decided to cancel Petropavlovsk and turned the ship around to escape the ice.  This entailed going back down to Japan and around the northern Japaneese islands to escape the ice.  It took us several more hours to get back out of the ice, and then the captain cranked the speed up to 22 knots.  He announced that he expected to make Kodiak no schedule.

I took Karen and we worked on her school work until 11 and then Frankie and Richard joined us and we went to the theater for a lecture on Albatross.  Very interesting; some of those birds fly 200-400 miles a day for months on end (they know that via radio tracking)!

After the presentation Karen and I went to the lounge over the Front Office, where I finished catching up on this diary and Karen worked some more on her homework.

April 25: Heading to Kodiak
Today I took Richard and Karen up to the "study area" and we put together the next Arduino computer control project (#3).  When Frankie showed up a bit before 10 we went to the biology lecture before lunch.  After lunch it was another lecture and some school work.

April 26: Another sea day
I woke up very early (4 am), so I got up at 5:30 and went up and worked on the computer & Ardurino until 7:30.  Then I went back to the room and got everyone up and we went to breakfast.  After breakfast we watched the video the geology lecturer (Dr. Tanya Atwater) had loaned us until time to go to her next lecture at 10.  After the lecture we went back to the room and finished watching the last little bit of the video.  Then Frankie cleaned the room while I got caught up writing this diary.

At noon we went up for lunch, where we sat with Ray, Barb and their 6 year old daughter Megan.  We ate and chatted until almost 1:30 and then we went back to our room, where I spent some time working on the computer.  Due to not enough sleep I drifted off sometime after 2, and slept until about 4, when Frankie went and got the kids.

We spent the next hour helping the kids with homework and then went to dinner.  We had dinner with friends Kirk and Sue-? from Australia (Brisbane) whose little girl (Ayla, 7) is good friends with Karen.  We stayed late (7:15) and then took the kids up to daycare. 

I spent the evening watching TV and reading and Frankie went to the 8 pm show.  On the way back from the show Frankie got the kids, and we stayed up way too late (midnight) reading.

April 27: Time change #4!
We slept in until 8:30 and were pretty slow about getting up to breakfast.  There was a presentation on glaciers at 10 so we kind of rushed through breakfast.  It was a good presentation; Richard drank it in while Karen napped.

After that I went to the library while Frankie took the kids and did school work with them. I spent several hours working, partly on oil and partly on my program to have the Arduino run boilers.

April 28: Time change #5!!
This day was pretty much like the previous day.  In the morning we passed Attu Island (the last island in the Aleutian Islands), so we are now in the Bering Sea.  Breakfast, lecture, study with the kids.  When I checked email I got one from Tamer to call the Twins because Mom had broken her hip.  So I got ahold of them and we discussed whether I should come home from Kodiak or not.  Mom just had her surgery this morning, so we decided to wait and see how she is doing later on.  Our hours are getting pretty late, so we went and had a late night snack at 11:30.

April 28: Again!!  (Because we crossed the international date line yesterday.)  Time change #6
I woke up really early (6 am) and went up and worked on the computer.  Yet another time change--they are getting really old.  I worked on the computer until 9 am and then went and got the rest of the family up.  We ate a quick breakfast and then went to the 10 am lecture.  We dinked around after the lecture until a bit after noon, and had lunch.  After lunch we took the kids to daycare (we are giving them a day off from school, since they haven't had one in quite awhile--more sea days than planned on due to missing Petropavlovsk.)  I spent another hour working on the computer and then went and took a nap until Frankie got the kids at 4 (the daycare is closed from 4 to 7).  We didn't do much until dinner, and after dinner the kids went to the daycare and Frankie and I watched Star Trek.  After we got the kids at 10 we watched the last bit of our show and then cartoons until 11:30 when Karen wanted a snack so we went up and got a bit to eat before bed at midnight.

April 29: Time change #7!!!
Last time change for awhile.  Fortunately, because it is really starting to mess with my sleep schedule...I woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and worked on the computer until 6, when I felt sleepy enough to try to go back to sleep.  I did some Arduino programming, read up on oil data, determined that using coal to fire a tugboat to Alaska would take a fuel tank that was 30'x30'x50' in size (not TOO unreasonable, assuming I guessed all the data correctly)...each way.  That much coal would cost $50,000 (at $50/ton)--instead of $300,000 (at $1,000 per ton for bunker fuel--$3.50/gallon).  Rather a considerable savings!!

April 30: Kodiak
We got up at 8:30 and took the kids to daycare right after breakfast so we could sort out the stuff we wanted to mail home.  We got about 20 pounds of stuff ready to mail and then got the kids and had lunch as the boat pulled into Kodiak.  After lunch we had to wait for a bit before our scheduled time to go through customs.  When we went up to do customs we had a very long line; seems everyone on the ship decided to go at once!  But by 2 we were through the line.

We had a lot of stuff to do so we hired a cab.  First stop was the post office to mail the stuff.  Then we went to the boat to check on it (it was ok).  Then on to the airport to see if the car would start (it didn't--battery was run completely down).  Then to the bank to get a little money before returning to the boat in time for an early dinner.

After dinner we joined a group we had arranged to take on a boat ride.  Turned out to be good ride, and we saw lots of birds, sea otter, sea lions, etc.  We got back to the Zaandam a little after 8 and spent a while watching us sail out of port and then we got a snack.   After eatting we went on deck to watch the sun set, and ran into Ian and Tanya (plus friends) and had a nice chat with them.  It was 11 by the time we broke it up, and as we were tired we went to bed.

May 1: Crossing the Gulf of Alaska
We got up at 8:30.  After breakfast the kids got started on their school work before the final lecture by Tanya about glaciers.  Then we went back to our room to work some more on the kids' school.  The weather was fair, cloudy with only a little wind.  There were  fair number of sea birds around and we enjoyed watching them off and on.  Although I looked hard for whales (etc) I didn't see any.  We went to the lectures on ice and ecology. 

Note: from here on I wrote this a month later.  So the story is a bit brief!  Sorry...
May 2: Glacier Bay
We spent the majority of the morning motoring up into Glacier bay, and then the majority of the afternoon watching the glaciers.  On our way in we slowed enough so a park interpreters could get on the ship, and they gave lectures and helped point out things as we ventured up the fiord to the glaciers.  One was quite active, and we saw several pieces break off.

May 3: Sitka
We anchored out from Sitka and took the tender in to the dock.  We walked through town to Totem Pole park and then went up to the Raptor Center, where they gave a good presentation with live birds.  After we left there we walked back toward the ship, stopping at a marine exhibit which the kids really enjoyed because they could touch and play with a lot of the sea life like sea cucumbers and sea stars.

May 4: Prince Rupert
Our visit was primarily a bus tour of town by a previous mayor.  He was very informative and we learned a lot of history.  After the tour we walked down to the Train museum, and on the way back to the ship we stopped and visited the fire station, which was having an open house.  Just before we got to the ship we stopped at a store where the kids got some toys & gifts, and at a couple of booths where the kids played with more marine life like crabs.


May 5: Cruising the inside passage
Ian and Tanya spent a lot of time on the back deck, talking about geology, ecology and whatever else happened to catch people's attention as we cruised down beside Vancouver Island.

May 6: Vancouver & disembarkation
Because my bus left at 9 we got on the early schedule and were some of the first off the ship.  We cleared customs and then it was time to split up, for I was headed straight home to be with my Mom because of her broken hip.  Frankie and the kids were sticking with the origional plan of visiting with  her Dad in Spokane, and caught a bus to Seattle and then the train to Spokane.