DAY 3---KLAWOCK, ALASKA

BACKGROUND INFO

KLAWOCK

        Klawock is a city on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island with a population of 720.  It is 56 miles from Ketchikan which is on the east side of the island.  Klawock’s first settlers were Tlingit who came from the northern winter village of Tuxekan.  They used it as a fishing camp during summers.  In 1868, European Americans opened a trading post and a salmon saltery.  Ten year later a San Francisco firm opened the first cannery in Alaska

        Today, Klawock has the oldest hatchery in Alaska with salmon, coho, and steelhead.  There is also a sawmill for area logging operations.  A cruise ship dock opened in May 2024 but apparently another cruise line beat us to it today as we are tendering ashore today.  A Totem Park has 21 totem poles, one of the largest collections in Alaska.  We will be seeing this park in our tour today. 

LAST EVENING

        I don't know how AC can make a better Makers Mark Manhattan than me, but he does!

                                                        Jalapeno poppers as our canapes 
        We went up to Sette Mari at 6:30 when it opened.  They were already seating people and there was still a long line.  But out came Teguh, maitre d, and led us past the long line to our table.  I bet the people in line wondered what that was about.  Yes, we are being spoiled as usual.

        This is our Executive Chef, John Pugh.  We have cruised with him many times and he is now a very good friend besides being the chef who oversees things in all the restaurants.  Great guy!

                                                   Chef Ronald on right and his cooks.

                                                                  My veal parmesan.

                                              Teguh brought Chef Ronald out to our table.

           My dessert, very decadent!!  They also always bring biscotti (at top of this photo).

         Emmanuel stopped by to say hello.  He is also a long time friend and excellent waiter.

No comedian show for us as we stopped by the Meridian Lounge for a amaretto on rocks for me and glass of vino for Rebecca.  Then back to suite and jumped into bed.

TODAY

        Remember our clocks were set back an hour at 2am.  I woke up at 3:30 but still had almost 8 hours of sleep.  Laid there until we finally got up at 5:45.  At 6:00 I went out and walked (as fast as I could walk) around the deck 7 (our hallway) hallway for a half hour.  I went down to get our Americano coffees at 6:30 when Coffee Connection opens.

                When I opened the balcony window shades, there was a full moon still there.

                 This morning we turned in an inlet of Prince of Wales Island from the ocean.

       So now we have a beautiful view of shore line as we sail to our anchorage at Klawock.  It will take a couple hours to arrive there.  Sunny skies and 55 degrees this morning.

        I met Jeff up at La Veranda at 7:30 for breakfast.  There was a long line at the omelet station but Teguh saw me and took my order.  Again I was put at head of the line but this time they did not know it.

I ordered a cheddar cheese and ham omelet and gave Jeff half.  About 10 minutes later here came another omelet.  Jeff and I managed to eat most of it too!

                    During breakfast the port pilot boat arrived to transfer the pilot onboard.

        Jeff has another cooking class at 9:30 this morning.  Then at 11:00 he and I will be meeting in the theater to get tender tickets for our excursion, "Taste of Klawock & Totem Park".

                                     We arrived at our anchorage outside of Klawock at 9am.

                                                            Sailed past this on way here.

        They use the ship's life boats as tenders to take people ashore.  They started the operation right on time at 9:30.

        At 11:00 Jeff and I were in the theater to get our tour group numbers and wait until they called us to go down and board the tender to start our tour.  Here we are boarding.

                                                              This is the Explorer.

        It was the shortest tender ride I have ever had.  Maybe 5 minute ride.  There was just 12 of us in our "Taste of Klawock & Totem" tour.  There was a very nice little van that held us.  Sorry now I did not get a photo of it.  The driver was a very nice lady who describe the area.  We never did get into the small town of Klawock.  She said 800 lived here year round and they got very little snow in the winters

We got out along the road with path leading into the woods.  This lady who was half Tlingit and half Haida (native Alaska tribes) was our guide and discussed the different plants as was walked the path into the woods.

                 She later said she made what she was wearing and it took a year to do so.

        About 100 feet into the woods we came to tables of food and wines.  This was our tasting part of the tour and spend 90 minutes here.  Jeff & I sat in a plastic tent like thing and was served the three different tastings.

              This was the menu of what we would be tasting and what wine was paired with them.

        First each of us were given two plates with raw oysters with different sauces.  Now I never eat raw oysters but I did have three.  Jeff passed on them.  I won't be having any more raw oysters in this life time.  It was paired with a sparling wine

                     There was this interesting bottle of hot sauce on our little table..

           Next was this pita bread with salmon.  Very good and served with a Bogle zinfandel.

        Lastly was halibut on a crostini.  Again I did not get a photo.  I should have taken more photos on this tour.  It was very good and served with a pinot noir wine.  The lady came by each tent thing and explained her heritage, her garb, and sang a couple Tlingit songs.  

        There was a stream there also and salmon were swimming up it to spawn at this time of the year.

The air was so fresh and it was not that cold (62 degrees) with the sun shining.  We both loved this tour.

        Back on the bus for a short ride to Veterans Memorial Park where we viewed totem poles.  I took these photos and told the driver I was ready to go back to the ship.  She said we were to be there for another 30 minutes but would take us back to the ship now.  How nice!  I gave here a nice tip.

        Jeff and I were back onboard before 2pm so headed up to the pool grill for lunch.  Jeff had a big burger and I had these lobster nachos.  Very yummy!

        Rebecca was reading a James Patterson book when I got back to the suite.  I sat down and worked on this post. Again, I wished I had gotten more photos.  As I said this is a new Alaskan cruise port and our first time here,  Love this quaint little port.  We are booked on another Alaska cruise next year and will be returning to Klawock then.  Same as this year, Jeff will be with us the first 7 days of our 14 day cruise.

        At 4pm every day they have a tea time with tea, these foods, and piano music.  I gained 2 pounds just taking these photos.  We don't do tea time!

                                        This is an ocean fishing boat coming back in at 4:30.

        This is this evening's Compass Rose menu.  We will be having our usual cocktail hour in the Meridian Lounge and then adjourning to Compass Rose for our first dinner there this cruise.  We will probably be going to toinght's show at 9:30 as it is featuring two female singers--one singing rock n roll and the other soul.

        We will be sailing at 6:30 this evening for our 227nm cruise to Juneau.  Arriving there at 11:00am tomorrow.  
        

DAY 2---CRUISING THE INSIDE PASSAGE

LAST EVENING

        We met with Jeff in the Meridian Lounge for cocktail hour.  This is the bar manager, Gusti, an old friend of ours.

        This is "AC".  I could not pronounce his name so he said to call him AC.  My Makers Mark Manhattans were great.  Jeff had a Woodford Reserve Old Fashioned.  Rebecca had Rombauer chardonnay.

        We headed up to Prime 7, the steakhouse, for our 7pm reservation.  I ordered this Trilogy cabernet from the connoisseur (pay extra) wine list.  Margarita is presenting the wine.

        Jessica, the head sommelier, is presenting the Rombauer chardonnay I ordered for Rebecca (of course I had some too) again off the connoisseur list.

        I know I am the only Regent passenger who asks for our meat to be presented.  Kevin, the Prime 7 maitre d, has brought our three 6 ounce filets to our table.

        The filets looked great so I then coated both sides of the meat with Lawry's lemon pepper which I bring from home.  Later the chef will grill them.

        Rebecca and I had half orders of a chopped salad to start with.  The dressings were too runny.  I also had a crab cake.  This is my filet with a baked potato and some creamed spinach.  We did not care for the creamed spinach however.

       They always bring these after dinner and before dessert.  Way to sweet as must be pure sugar!

        Of course, I had to have the dessert unique to Regent cruises, a popcorn sundae.  YUMMY!

        They had a "welcome aboard show" in the theater at 9:30 but we did not go.  After very little sleep the night before, I was ready for bedtime.  We had a really nice evening with Jeff.

TODAY

        Very smooth sailing last night and today.  I had a very good night's sleep and got up at 6:15.  Early this morning the water was like glassy pond water and there was some fog early.  This photo taken at 8:30.

        I got dressed and went down to the Coffee Connection when it opened at 6:30 and ordered two Americano coffees to go.  I do this every morning on cruises.  I then started working on this blog post before showering for the day.  

        I met Jeff up in La Veranda at 7:30 when it opened for breakfast.  I ordered this special for the day, eggs provencal.  This is a half order with some sausage.  Jeff said he did not sleep well and woke up at 12:30.  Finally got up at 3am and at 3:30 he ordered room service breakfast.

Teguh, head of La Veranda during the day, and Sette Mari maitre d at night, greeted me.  I asked if he could get me a Compass Rose (main dining room) menu for tonight as they did not deliver one as I had asked yesterday.  

        This is tonight's Compass Rose menu.  I did not care that much for it so I asked Teguh if the Sette Mari (Italian restaurant at night) could make me a veal parmesan.  It was not on tonight's Sette Mari menu so was a special order.  I got a call later saying the chef would make it for me.

                      This is Rheylene, whom we have cruised with a few times before.

        This morning on our door was an invitation to dine with the cruise director and cruise consultant this evening in Chartreuse, the French restaurant.  We do not care for French foods nor that restaurant so will turn them down.  Sorry! I thanked them for thinking of us but declined the invitation.

        At 9:30 Jeff and I had signed up for a Culinary Arts Kitchen cooking class titled "Taste of the Northwest Kitchen".  It costs $129 pp.  I have done these classes before and always enjoyed them.

                                                 Our instructor chef.  She was excellent.

                                                 We each had a cooking station like this.

    We started with making a cake.  Name of it was not in the recipe folder.  This is before baking.

                        Next was this salmon appetizer.  Name also not listed but good.

          Next was this Northwest Cherry Ginger Tea Party drink.  Bourbon was one ingredient.

                 Last was "Pan seared scallop with dungeness crab and a pecan brown butter".

        The dessert was baked and at the end of the class they topped with with a scoop of coffee ice cream.  It was very good but time was now 11:15 and I had to save room for lunch.  Jeff and I really enjoyed the class.

       

         Our noon position.  As you can see we are no longer in the Inside Passage but in the Gulf of Alaska.  It is partly cloudy with some sun peeking through.  59 degrees outside.  Still smooth sailing.

        We had lunch in La Veranda and I confirmed my order with Teguh for my veal parmesan and Jeff's chicken parmesan in Sette Mari this evening.  After lunch I went to the Destinations Desk (tour desk) and had them transfer Rebecca's helicopter tour into Jeff's name.  That tour is priced at $599pp but with my discount I only paid $199pp for it.  I hope the weather is good in Juneau for it.

         Rebecca watched her soap streaming on her phone this afternoon and I am still working on this post.

                                     Our upgraded flower arrangement is so beautiful.      

        On my way the the theater for the 3pm lecture on Alaska, I picked up a cappuccino at Coffee Connection.

                       Philip Martin spoke on "Alaska: The Last Frontier".  He was interesting.

        This evening at 6:00 in the theater is the Captain's Welcome Reception.  He will be introducing the senior officers on stage after cocktails and canapes.  We will probably not be attending, but rather, head back to the Meridian Lounge at 6:00 for our cocktails.  As I mentioned, dinner tonight will be in Sette Mari.  The show at 9:30 is featuring a comedian, Fred Klett.  Comedians are not our favorite kind of shows.

        Tomorrow we will be arriving at our anchorage for Klawock, Alaska at 9:30am.  Never heard of it before this cruise and not been there.  It is a new cruise port.

        At 2:00am our clocks will be set BACK one hour.  Then we will be 3 hours different than Dallas time.  We'll stay on this time zone until the day before arriving back in Vancouver on September 9th.