A real sighting

Sorry about not posting the Fun Facts about our cruise yesterday. I also will not be posting the information today. To make it up to you, I will tell you about my first big celebrity sighting.
On Wednesday night, LG and I went to see the play "The Water’s Edge" at the 2nd Stage Theatre. The play was pretty good, a modern telling of the Greek story of Agamemnon (from the play by Aeschylus). It was, of course, disturbing and violent and kinda creepy. The play starred Kate Burton (from Grey’s Anatomy) and some other people.


More importantly, however, was who was in the audience…























Stanley Tucci!!

Yes, folks, that's right Mr. Stanley Tucci. He was sitting two rows in front of us with his wife/girlfriend. They both seemed to enjoy the show, but Tucci did yawn a couple times during intermission. Nothing exciting happened, but it was my first sighting of a celebrity in the real world. Yay!

Back from Alaska, pt. 3

Following our visit to Sitka, we traveled to the city of Ketchikan.

In Ketchikan we had a very early morning excursion to the Misty Fjords National Park. While the Fjords were indeed beautiful, the trip was a little monotonous. Look on your right...trees and water, look on your left...trees and water.




The boat ride through Misty Fjords was a little too long, but it ended on a very exciting note. As we finished up in the easternmost part of the tour, we came across a small wooden dock floating in the middle of a bay. The boat pulled up to the dock and we heard the roar of engines overhead. As we got off the boat and stood on the wooden dock we watched a small floatplane fly in. We climbed aboard the plane and flew back over the long route, seeing the fjords from above this time. While the ride, to me anyway, was a little scary, it was breathtaking.




As the ride came to an end we landed, with a giant rushing sound, in the middle of the water. We deboarded the plane and, with our legs still shaking from the plane ride, walked towards a row of three giant cruise ships, each of which towered over the city of Ketchikan.


Our last journey was a nighttime trip to the city of Victoria, B.C. I wish that we had had some more time in the city, but as it was we were able to walk around a little bit and see the sights of Victoria at night. The city has a very British feel to it (complete with red double-decker buses) and is filled with gardens that are open to the public. Our first stop was to check out the rose garden of the Empress Hotel. We then strolled around until darkness came and the government building across the water was lit up for all to see. It was a very nice end to the trip.



We boarded the boat at 11:00 pm and prepared for our departure the next day. We packed our things up and went to bed, waking up the next day back in Seattle. It was a fun seven days and I was very happy that we chose Alaska as our destination. We spent Friday and Saturday with my friend JL before taking the red-eye back to NYC late Saturday night.



Tomorrow: fun facts and figures from the trip!

Back from Alaska, pt. 2

Following our thrilling adventures in Juneau, we travelled south to the aptly named Glacier Bay. There we stayed on the boat, passing slowly by a handful of huge glaciers on either side of us. LG and I were lucky to have a room on the port side of the ship, because most of the best views were on that side. We sat on our little deck and watched the towering cliffs of ice pass by.




Large chunks of ice fell off the glaciers while we were sitting in the bay, creating a loud, thunderous sound that echoed throughout the bay. Sadly, like the whales, by the time I figured out where on the giant river of ice the sound was coming from, the chunks had already fallen into the water.



This is the best picture I could get of some falling ice in action. (Hint: look on the left side of the glacier.)


After we left the glaciers behind, we travelled on to the small town of Sitka.


Sitka was, by far, our favorite town that we visited. While our excursion was not quite as crazy and exciting as dog-sledding/whale watching, it was a very nice chance to get into the natural surroundings of Alaska. We hiked through part of the Tongas National Forest (which is the largest national park in the country, covering over 17 million acres). The forest was dense and brilliantly green.





Look for the final installment tomorrow!

Back from Alaska, pt. 1

LG and I returned from our wonderful honeymoon on Sunday. We spent a lovely week and a half in Seattle and Alaska, most of it on the MS Zaandam, our Holland America cruise ship.




We had a lovely room with a sofa, refrigerator, and balcony...



from which we could see wonderful sights


On the first day, we cruised from Seattle, passing the famous Space Needle (which is not as tall as I thought it would be).


On day two, there was some bad weather. We both got a little seasick, so there are no pictures from that day. By the evening, we were feeling better, but the day was kinda lost. Luckily it was just an "At Sea" day, so there was very little to miss.

On day three we arrived in the city of Juneau. The city was very small, especially for a state capital, but was perfectly quaint and welcoming. The ship arrived in port at noon and we disembarked soon after.


From the port in Juneau we took a bus to an airfield where we climbed aboard a small helicopter and were flown over beautiful mountains and the gigantic Mendenhall Glacier.




We then landed on the glacier, in front of a large camp of sled dogs. We then climbed aboard the dogsled and went on a short, but exciting ride. We were also able to drive the dogsled at a couple points. It was very cool.




After the dog-sledding, we went on a whale-watching expedition. There we were lucky enough to encounter a "super pod" of Orcas/Killer whales. There were about 60 Orcas swimming all around the boat. It was very cool. The photos do not do the event justice, mostly because I was never fast enough with the camera to capture the whales as they broke the surface to the water.



Thus ends the first three days of the cruise, but I will continue with another installment later today or tomorrow.

Excitement mounts

Today is my last day of work for the next two weeks. I am about to embark (with my lovely bride) on our honeymoon. We are taking a cruise to Alaska on the Holland-America line. I am so excited for this trip, for many reasons. Not only will I be able to go on a magnificent vacation with the person I love (which we haven't done in a long while) but I will also get to see a part of the world that is completely new to me. I have been to many states in the lower 48, and while they are different from one another, you are still in "America" and it never feels like you are truly far from where you started. With Alaska, though, I imagine that it will feel very different, like a different country. At least I hope it feels that way. Granted, I will be riding in a gigantic boat filled with well-to-do people and retirees so the presence of all things American will still exist. But I hope that when we step off the boat and venture around the towns and cities of Alaska, we will see the unexpected and unique.

Either that or it will just be a cold version of Tennessee.




Another reason that I am excited for this trip is that I will get to spend a few days in Seattle in the company of my friend JL (who served as one of my best men). I haven't yet been to Seattle and he talks highly of it, so I'm eager to check out the city that brought us Nirvana and Starbucks (though those two really cancel each other out in my mind.) I'm sure that JL will have some cool spots to visit, beyond the Space Needle that is. For my money, though, I'd be just as happy sitting around his house, drinking wine and smoking cloves. We'll get some of that in too, undoubtedly.



The final reason that I am excited for the trip is...

I"M TIRED!!

Between the wedding and the new job, I'm just down and out beat. It will be so nice to be pampered and catered to on the cruise. FB and I have been going non-stop for the past few months. Looking back on everything, I don't know how I managed to get everything done without messing it all up. Somehow, among the graduations and birthdays, I managed to apply for, interview for, and get a new job. Way too much stuff going on at once. So, I will sit back and relax and be lazy for most of the cruise, gorging on room service and midnight buffets. I can't wait!

Stupid Blogger

Blogger has been a cranky pain-in-the-ass lately, causing me to not be able to post things when I want and making my last post appear three times on the blog. But now it seems to have been fixed, so I was able to post some more wedding pictures. These are of the actual ceremony and reception. Click here to check them out. Sorry for the delay...

Newness

I began my new job on Monday. The first two days went well, filled with those moments of new-jobness that you would expect: filling out paperwork, setting up phone and email, meeting coworkers, etc. I am working in a small department, so I don’t have too many people to meet and remember. There are 12 people in the entire department, which is a big difference from my last two jobs. At the Hill I worked with groups ranging from 25-50 plus people. Many of them I knew but never really talked to or worked closely with. Here, it seems that everyone works with everyone. I kinda like that.

The working environment is also a bit different than I am used to. The building is located on Broadway in Soho, a vastly cooler area than my last job. Before, I would enter through Penn Station and near Madison Square Garden, now I get to walk by Dean & Deluca and Crate & Barrel. The other part of the building that I like is that there are stairs in my life again. When I was in OH I walked up and down the stairs every morning and afternoon. We were located on the third floor so taking the stairs was easy and a nice bit of exercise. When I moved to NYC I worked on the 21st floor of a 30-story building. Clearly the stairs were not an option. So, for the past year or so, I haven’t walked up and down stairs during the workday. Granted, I made up for it by living in a fourth-floor walkup, but that’s beside the point. Now, in the new building, I work on the fifth floor. There are wide, accessible stairs right near my office so I am able to return, once again, to the glory of stair-climbing.

While it has only been two days, I already feel comfortable with the people in the office and the building itself. Just this morning, in fact, I made a joke about an S&M restaurant at a morning meeting. Aren’t I sweet?

At the end of this week I will be leaving here for my honeymoon (which I am very, very excited about). Upon my return I am sure I will be able to pick right up where I left. It is nice to have this introductory week before my vacation so that I can get to know everyone and everything. Also, now I won’t be nervous during the honeymoon about what the new job will be like. That nervousness I will leave to LG, who will start her new job the day after we return.

I will be back later today with more wedding pictures. I promise!

Wedding Photos (almost)

I am in the process of putting up photos from the wedding weekend. For now, I only have pictures from the Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner. You can look at those for now, but I promise that pictures from the wedding itself will be up soon.

Wedding post

Well, I'm hitched. The wedding was this past Sunday and it went swimmingly. I will be posting a longer, more detailed report this weekend. But for now, here is a nice picture of me and my beautiful bride. Thanks to all who made it to the wedding, especially those who helped.