High Tea

Despite being held in record heat for Asheville, mom's high tea was a smashing success. We dined on a variety of sweet and savory treats all prepared by the Damien women. Everyone enjoyed the cool breezes on our wrap around porch. We were even lucky enough to have our old neighbors from Florida come over and visit.

Katie

Windsurfing Vancouver

I have arrived safely back home in Asheville, North Carolina. I had some terrible flights, but mom hired a driver to come and pick me up from the airport so I felt very important leaving baggage claim with my own chuffer and I got to sleep the whole ride home.

Before I left the ship I had some final great adventures. Dan and I went windsurfing and biking around Vancouver. I told him we had to do superhero poses in our wetsuits because that's what they remind me of. We stopped at a little know ice cream place that had over 200 hundred flavors all right there. It was very cool. When I was in Juneau last Dan and I went hiking up a mountain and stopped in town for dinner with Michael and our dancer friend Terry Lee. And finally no farewell would be complete without a midnight Martini in the Martini Bar. You can probably tell from Michael's picture that he was already on his second one.

So now I'm going to apply to the masters program for creative writing at Warren Wilson College. The program is very competitive so Rebecca, who is also applying, and I are going to Pennsylvania to play…I mean prepare our submissions to the program. I'm set to join a ship in January after the holidays, which is how I like to do it. So now I have six months to decide what I will do with myself. For now, it's time to start writing. Then I suppose I better find some work. Which in this town is easier said than done.

Katie

floatplane

Dan and I had a great adventure in Ketchikan. We went on a floatplane trip through Misty Fjords National Monument. We flew around the mountains for about an hour then our pilot landed in the middle of this lake and we all got out and stood on the floats. It was magnificent.

Katie

Vancouver

I had been windsurfing once in Aruba and Dan (French Canadian audio tech in the theater, and the taller one wearing blue) who lived in Vancouver for a while suggested we make a trip to Jericho Beach to windsurf. I thought he was joking at first because the weather in Vancouver is pleasant, maybe little on the chilly side, but the water is really cold. He said no people do it all the time they just wear a wetsuit. So he and Paul (Scottish AV tech also in the theater) and I went biking around Vancouver and then windsurfing. The water was freezing, but after a little while, you were working so hard to stay up that you didn’t notice how cold it was... that is until you fell in.

Katie

Kyle Visits

My very good friend, Kyle, a former dancer on the Century and now a dancer for Disney in Tokyo came for a cruise on the Infinity. He and Michael and I had a marvelous time together. We stayed up all night watching movies and went out and played and I have pictures of us eating sushi together upstairs on the ship. Then I took a picture of Kyle and Michael during magic hour on the back of the ship and there’s one more of them at the top of Mt. Roberts in Juneau.

Katie

P.S. - If you can’t remember Kyle from before you can look him up in a pervious chronicle from March 2004

Ketchikan

Ketchikan is a nice enough port. There are too many shops for my taste and if you’re looking for something truly Alaskan, you better get a piece from a local artist because everything else is made in China. Like all the ports in Alaska there are great outdoor adventure type things to do. I haven’t had the time to do anything outside of town yet. Right next to the dock they have a lumberjack show that I went to where they do log rolling and pole climbing and all that fun stuff. Next time in Ketchikan I will try for a bigger adventure. I haven't heard from many of you in a while. Time for you to send me an update.

Katie