Ketchikan

23 August 2018

That little girl slept in again this morning, not leaving us with much time to explore Ketchikan this morning.

Ian had disembarked whilst Cornelia was asleep, and returned earlier than I had expected him, so we all went up to breakfast together, for another late one.

Immediately after, we persuaded a slightly unenthusiastic daughter down the gangplank and off the boat for a wander around the town. Having been to Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay, poor old Ketchikan is a bit of a poor relative by comparison. It was full of cheap tourist stores, with not much of interest to see.

Cornea spotted a popcorn stall, so was treated to a small bag of sweet and salty although she was not allowed to eat the whole lot in one sitting! We also looked at one of the outdoor wear stores, and bought a sweet T-shirt for Bugsy. We also found some lovely pink dungarees for her, that she fell in love with, but unfortunately they only had them in a size too small for her. The ship was leaving much earlier today – at 12:30 – so we only had an hour or so in the town, but we wouldn’t really have wanted much longer.

Back on board, we had our usual lunch of ham and cheese croissant for Cornelia, panini for Ian and a small salad for me. Immediately after, we dropped Cornelia off at kids’ club and once again, we had the afternoon to ourselves. We booked our next few days when we return from this cruise – we are heading to Las Vegas for a few nights and will hire a car to drive up to the Grand Canyon. Back in our room, I had some blog work to do, and I persuaded Ian to do some of Cornelia’s scrapbook. We were, to be truthful, probably trying to find ways of avoiding going to the gym, but I kicked my own backside and made the decision to go. We both went and I did another hour on the treadmill, and we saw some whales again, which does make it extra special!

We went to collect Cornelia straight from the gym, and have agreed that she can go again this evening and can have tea with them (this is the only night they do a supper for the kids altogether). There were two hours to kill before she had to be back, and although I was going to suggest a swim to her, I realised that she would be way too tired if we did that. So instead, we hung out together, curled up on the sofa watching a gnome movie! Bliss!

Ian and both showered and dressed for dinner, and took Cornelia (who had chosen her rainbow dress for her party) up to Horizon for her meal. She was the first one to arrive, and was given hugs by all the staff there. It is so heartwarming to see her give and receive such affection so freely. I spied on her for one minute, then we dragged ourselves off for our own tea on the opposite side of the ship. We both had beef stew with rice and cauliflower gratin, followed by blueberry ice cream with chocolate sauce.

With an hour remaining before we were going to collect Bugsy, and with Ian not keen on going to the casino, we decided to just “see what else was going on”. We wandered through various venues, but didn’t find anything to entertain us. We had to pass through the casino to get to the other side of one of the decks, and as we did, I spied a Monopoly machine on one side of the casino and suggested to Ian that way spend a few dollars on that one, purely because I recognised the brand! He grumbled a bit, but after much number-entering, I managed to load $20 onto my card and just kept pressing play. I didn’t win, of course, but it would have been a fun way to spend 15 minutes, had it not been for Ian is slightly surly face watching over me. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable as feeling someone’s disapproval when you are trying to have a bit of fun. It soured my evening completely, and I returned immediately to the cabin in a “bit” of a strop. Ian went to collect Cornelia when I ran her bath, returning briefly to collect the pager he’d forgotten to take with him, then finally I heard a happy excited little voice outside the cabin. She burst through the door and clambered straight onto the bed to give me a big squeeze hello. She was hyper from her evening party but in very good spirits! She had a quick bath, then came back into bed with me for a cuddle and her storytime. I read two stories to her, and sang some nursery rhymes before she reluctantly left our bed for her own, where Ian gave her her nightly instalment of Mumfi, which he makes up every night for her! It was 22:00 by the time he’d finished and I was also ready to sleep, so we both settled down for the night, while Ian sat in his chair by the door, looking at his phone! And then… “Mummy, I need you to cuddle me in my bed!”

“Bugsy, I’m going to sleep.”

*crying* “But I neeeeeeed a cuddle right now. Right. I’m coming into your bed for a cuddle!”

And she stomps over, clambers up on top of me to scratch my face, before grabbing my arm and wrapping it around her. Once she’d apologised, she snuggled right on in and I thought she’d drop off, but she did the usual toddler thing of kicking around so much that I hissed at her that if she didn’t keep still, she’d have to go back to her own bed, and it was very late and we both needed to sleep. Just as she had settled, Ian decided it was time for her to go to bed, and came over and started removing her from my arms. Eventually, she negotiated an extra two minutes of cuddles, before Ian swept her off to her own bed, where she fell straight to sleep.