Diary 2

May 17th, 2014, 8.57am Alaskan time

We woke up pretty early today, around half past 4 in the morning. Sleeping was decent though. The only thing that bothered a little bit was the sound made by the engine. Apart from that all the conditions were satisfactory. Our sleeping bags turned out to be a very good idea - one of our fellow-travelers, who established his place in the deepest corner of the Solarium told that he was freezing during the night, and we were warm at our border place. Although I saw some people taking their things and going somewhere in the night or in the early morning. Later we saw them sleeping n one of the covered halls.

The cafeteria here works 24 hours. We haven't eaten there yet, we have enough of our own fodd with us. We only go there to take some hot water for the tea or ofr an instant oatmeal. We were even lucky to find one without any additional artificial ingridients in the local Bellingham shop. Also we bought cofee a couple of times in the cafeteria. It seems to me pretty expensive though, 4.75 for a medium-size latte or Cappucino. I might be mixing things up, but I think you can buy a large one in Starbucks for the same price. 

Right now we are laying on the upper deck on the lying chairs, reading and looking around. The Marine Highway, which we are driving through goes between the small islands and strips of land. So we always see land on both sides. Mostly it is mountains and forests. From time to time some small boats pass by. Very early in the morning it was very foggy. We war literally driving into the milk. At that point our vessel started to produce the loud sound of fog-alarm every couple of minutes or even more often. Obviously to inform other possible traffic members of our existence. There was also a person sent to the very front point of the ship. The guy was looking forward all the time, with no tools, just with his own eyes. 

Eventually the fog went away and now the air is clear around us. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, but there are some clouds. Now it is no very cold, in the sun it is even nice and warm. 

About 30 minutes ago there was an announcement, that the car deck is open to visit. We also went to have a look, even though we don't have a car there. What we saw was really pleasant for our eyes:) It turned out that that was also the time for pet owners to walk them on the car deck. There were many different dogs and the owners were walking with them in the small open area and also between cars. As soon as the pet did it's things, the owners had paper and sanitizer and poo-bags to clean up. WE understood, that mid-sized and big dogs are not allowed to be anywhere except from this car deck and some other designated place, that we haven't seen yet. So, they mostly stay in the cars and the owners have 3 times a day a chance to walk them. We have 2 small dogs in our Solarium, obviously it is allowed to bring the dogs of that size with you everywhere.