May 14-18 May 19 May 20-21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25-26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31-June 1 June 2-3 June 4 June 5 June 6-8	Sunday, May 31 We're out on the Pacific side of the passage again (technically, the Outside Pasage). The water is fairly smooth this morning, however, so I ate a decent breakfast. I did some shopping (had to use up more of our shipboard credit) in the ship's boutique. I picked up two pretty necklaces and a nice warm vest. We ate lunch while we docked in Prince Rupert, BC, and the ship went through the usual arrival process. For some reason, they had everyone in the early tours meet in the Seven Seas Lounge to go to the buses. Very poorly organized, in my opinion. Meeting in the lounge to stage for the tenders is one thing and understandable. Meeting in the lounge to stage for the buses is not. (And, yes, I did mention this in my cruise review...) We finally boarded our bus for a city highlights tour. Our stops included a park overlooking the town, a museum made from a transplanted train station, and the Museum of Northern British Columbia. Very nice museum! I think the woman doing most of the talking on the bus was new to her job. While she did give us a lot of detail and was good at pointing out the city sights, she read from laminated note cards that were so slick, I kept expecting her to drop them! And her voice quavered as she spoke. Hope she settles into the job soon. The photo on the left above was taken at the park overlooking town that we stopped at. It shows the view back over some of the houses towards the waterfront. The center photo shows a totem pole located in this park. The photo on the right is the front of City Hall, which is a bit unusual. This photo was shot through the bus window as we stopped at a traffic light. These two photos were taken at a small waterfront park that we stopped at. They show a whale sculpture with our ship in the background. Also at this park was the train station museum. This station used to be located about 40 miles upriver from its current location. It was going to be torn down, so someone decided to barge it downriver to this spot and convert it into a museum. Before my museum registrar daughter throws a fit, any museum photos posted in this journal were taken at museums that allowed photography, as long as flash wasn't used. These three photos were taken inside the train station museum. The one on the left shows a room set up for a crewman to sleep in, with its own wood stove. The center photo shows the interior of a reconstructed tent house ready for dinner. Looks like there's a lot of beer on the menu... The photo on the right is an old piano. These three photos were taken inside the Museum of Northern British Columbia. The photo on the left shows an old sewing machine (Hey, Kelly - found your sewing machine!!!). The center photo is a parlor setting with an evening coat tossed over the back of the settee. The photo on the right has a display of old cameras. No, none of the ones I've used over the years are in this case - that's the day after tomorrow.... These three photos were also taken inside the Museum of Northern British Columbia. The photo on the left is a portion of a totem display in a room made to simulate the inside of a clan house. The center photo is a print titled "Fox and Eagle". The photo on the right is a carved and painted ceremonial hat. We walked back into the dock area from the last museum. The photo on the left is a view of the tourist portion of the waterfront area as we walked back. The photo on the right shows an "Oom-pah" band playing in the parking lot of a local brewpub (just off the right edge of the photo on the left). They were playing Beatles tunes... Specifically, O-Bla-Di, O-Bla-Da... We did a little shopping in the waterfront area (at a place called Home Work), picking up a Dr. Who mug, a sign, a t-shirt, and a salmon cookbook. From there, we walked over to the Sunken Gardens. This is a site that was excavated for one of the municipal buildings and never filled in and never used for the building! The local garden club converted it to a lovely garden. These three photos are various views of this sunken garden. These two views of the Sunken Gardens are from street level. . . . We were back on board a little after 5 and we don't sail until 9 pm!! So, we had another good dinner, then crashed. Monday, June 1 We slept in again this morning as we're at sea all day today. I was dreading today initially, as it's entirely on the Pacific side of the string of islands that define the Inland Passage. It's like a mill pond out there today!!! After breakfast, we did a quick load of laundry. That should hold us until we get home. We also attended a lecture about blowing up Ripple Rock, an almost island in the middle of Seymour Narrows, the deepest channel in the Inland Passage. They blew it up in 1958, making the channel safer for ships to pass through. They still need to time passage for slack tide (the time between high and low when the water isn't rushing so fast through the Narrows, but now they can use the whole channel, not a narrow passage on each side of this rock. The peak of Ripple Rock (actually two peaks) used to lay about 9 feet below the surface at low tide, causing really wild rapids as the tide came in or out, killing over 100 people over the years and doing a lot of damage to shipping. Lunch was a bit slow today. I think our waiter kept forgetting we were there... Oh, well, we weren't in a hurry. We have no real plans for this afternoon. I used up the last of my prepaid internet minutes checking email today. Now any time spent on the internet goes to minute-by-minute charges. I still have some on board credit to take care of another email fix. However, there's no more internet connectivity (unless it's prepaid) after midnight tonight. Carl jogged. I walked around the track, then worked a little of the group jigsaw puzzle that was set up in one lounge. Not only was the water very, very flat today, there was a pretty heavy fog most of the day, like floating through a cotton ball. We had drinks at the bar (ginger ale for me) before dinner, which was again very nice. Then we crashed for the night... Next...