April 23 - Kodiak, Alaska

 It was rather foggy when we anchored here this morning.  We cleared customs in just a few minutes as they had the agents come on board and they called groups to report to the upstairs Observation Lounge.  We were given back our passports (collected when we left Japan) and spent about 30 seconds with one of the 3 agents.  Easy peasy.

Our tour today was an hour ride around the area called "Panoramic Kodiak".  It was a school bus and our "guide" was also the regular bus driver for the school.  He's also a pastor, so a man of many hats.  There really isn't a lot to see, but he talked about life on Kodiak (he's been here 19 years) and I always find that interesting.  Kodiak is the largest island in Alaska and has a population of just under 13,000, half of whom live in the "city" area.

Our tour bus for the day

The local hospital where they handle minor surgeries.  There are 19 beds and 4 maternity beds.  He mentioned shoulder repair and hysterectomy surgeries which I'm not sure I would call minor.

The high school.  Together with the middle school, there are around 800 students

One of the defense bunkers from WWII that still dot the island.

Everything is at your own risk in Alaska, and there are lots of risks

t, 

This is a contraption which is used for boat repair.  You float your boat onto the grid and when the tide goes out, you have about 5 hours to fix it.

We walked around the marina a little bit and then headed back to the ship.  On our way into La Veranda for lunch, we bumped into Greg Moreland, the magician from last night, so we invited him to eat with us.  He's a pretty interesting guy, but I was a bit surprised and bothered by the way he interacted with the staff.  He would put down his fork and sit back, which usually means you're done eating.  But when a waiter would come by to see if he wanted his plate removed, Greg would be a little testy about it.  I finally did say that they were only doing their job and he might be being a little hard on them.  Probably won't change him, but I felt better for defending the staff.

All of us were there for Trivia, so we split up into men against women and once again we women were the victors with 8/15.  No prize points, however.

We feel like we've been eating too much, so we elected to stay in our suite and ordered room service.  It was nice to lounge around in our robes and watch a little TV.