Lounging to Alaska: a Nautical Tale

Dan & I (see: Dan & Simon's Wacky Rally posts) met at the ferry terminal a little before four in the afternoon. It turned out the boat wasn't going to depart until seven, so our first interaction was a debate about what to do until then. We ended up just getting on the boat and figuring it out. [It turns out the boat, which we thought left at 6 PST leaves at 6 Alaska Standard Time, giving us another hour before departure.]

If you didnt guess, Dan will be conntributing in brackets.

As I sit here thinking about how to shape this into a narrative, I keep coming up with "ways I could have done this better." To be clear, I had a delightful time on the boat, but it's hard to make a post out of "I ate and read and looked out the window and played card games" without thinking about how I could have streamlined the process. I'll do my best to give a full account before giving a future traveler advice.

We spent the first night with a light dinner (chowder, probably) [It was indeed clam chowder] and hitting our two drink limit in the dining area. After that, we just wandered around the ship, getting an idea of its public spaces. To wiz wit: