To Alaska and Beyond! Updated 4/28 x 3 and it's COMPLETE!!
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**chezp** · 08-10-2009, 02:01 AM

Sawyer Glacier is indeed stunning - I just love the blue of it. That's got to be one of the must-see sights of the world.

**Disneybine** · 08-10-2009, 05:31 AM

Amazing pictures as always, Maureen! How cool that they got ice from the glacier for the ice sculpture! Did you take a picture of the finished artwork?

orionchika · 08-10-2009, 07:32 AM

Nice pics and video.... so very

**Colexis Mom** · 08-10-2009, 08:14 AM

Great pictures of the glacier!!

**OhToodles!** · 08-10-2009, 10:35 AM

How neat! That must have been something to go out and get ice from the glacier and then see it later as a piece of art.

jimmymac · 08-10-2009, 11:08 AM

Stunning

pamcarey · 08-10-2009, 01:01 PM

Awesome pics of the glacier!

goofysdtr · 08-10-2009, 02:33 PM

I just can't get over how awesome it all sounds! You've made up my mind--definitely a "must do" someday!

Minnie Lor · 08-10-2009, 03:37 PM

Really incredible

statelady01 · 08-10-2009, 09:52 PM

We got to the Safari Class as a dancing class was wrapping up. Aaron and I sat in the back while they got that group out and our game leader got Finish the Lyrics set up.

Soon enough, she was asking volunteers- and you had to be 18 to play. Not like Aaron would have even come close to going up there, but he had an out. What the heck- I raised my hand and to my horror, I was picked.

Unfortunately for you and very fortunately for me- we didn't bring our mpeg capable camera or the Nikon so there are no pics. And another cool footnote- it turns out that another Passporter was on our sailing and their family was present at Finish the Lyrics. Haven't heard from him/her in awhile, so maybe if they check in with the report, they might be able to chime in. But what an amazingly small world. No pun intended. Well, maybe somewhat.

Anyway, we had a really nice entertainment staff host- she was from Argentina I think- and then this hilarious staff member named Rickey, who kept score and had lots of one liners to add in.

They picked 9 of us and we went on an elimination round system. We were given a point for: did we finish the lyrics, and enthusiasm. I was contestant # 6. Of course, everyone before me got really good ones. I get up to the mike and I had to finish the line in Stayin Alive. I did the John Travolta arm point and finsihed the line with "been kicked around since I was born." And the audience gave me my two points. On I go. 3 contestants were eliminated and it was down to 6.

Next round, (my notes are sketchy- I might be off but am doing my best to remember)- I got Believe by Cher. Hello. Knocked that one down easy- although the host told me I got the lyrics slightly wrong by saying "I really don't think I'm strong enough"- which I am for sure was right but whatever. So I only got a point for that round. But somehow, I managed to make it to the final three. Might I add there was someone booing many people- and I didn't see who she was with or cheering for- but that only fed my comptetitiveness because I didn't see her getting the guts to come up and do it! LOL!

So then, we go down to me, another girl and an older guy. This round for extra points we had to also say the name and artist. The younger girl had really gotten some good, easy ones like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. But this time, she got the Eurythmics and didn't do so well on the lyrics part, as well as not knowing the artist or song title. The guy got something else- I don't remember what it was, only that he bombed it. I knew right after that that if I nailed mine I could possibly win.

I step up to the mike. And I hear Jump by Van Halen start. So I closed my eyes, did some impressions of David Lee Roth and belted it out. I finally got a really good, thunderous round of applause. And before I could tell the host it was Van Halen and the song was Jump- she says into the mike- "Anyone here Van Halen fans?" And the place went quiet for a sec, then there were massive groans. She had just given out the answer! And I had lost my chance to win! A few people shouted out to make me go again but there was a guy's voice in the back who said that wasn't fair- and told me to tell everyone the name of the lead singer. Cool by me. I promptly announced that the lead singer of Van Halen at that time was David Lee Roth, who was later replaced by Sammy Hagar. I thought that extra tidbit might save me- and it did. So I got my full points.

Rickey added it up and announced that there was a tie. The guy got second, and then Britney Spears girl and I tied for first place! We each got hats and medals with the RCCL logo! I looked out to see Aaron just blown away. He's not one for compliments much but when I made it back to him he told me, "You were really brave up there!".

A few people congratulated me as we all exited the Safari Club and we headed back to the room- where Matthew and Kevan were shocked and really regretted not going with us. I did too- but I didn't think in my wildest dreams I would have ever had the guts to enter- I don't know what possessed me to do it.

Aaron took a pic of me with my winnings:

The scenery had changed a bit as we were leaving the Fjords so we grabbed a few pics.

We caught a glimpse of the Norweigan Star out in the distance:

My adrenalin was still really pumping by this point and I noticed that according to the Cruise Compass, there was a 5:15 Logo Quiz in the Pit Stop Bar. I showed it to Aaron and he smiled, but this time we also forced Kevan and Matt to come with us- as it didn't say adults only.

While we were waiting for that to start, I grabbed a few pics of the Pit Stop:

I was thrilled when I saw Rickey come walking in to start the game! I wasn't sure if he was going to remember me, but he said something to the effect of "Oh, Cher- are you joining this one too?"

The quiz was actually on paper- you were allowed to have teams- which is what most people did. I think there were probably 8 or 9 teams total. The logos were all on the paper and we had to write in the company or product it was associated with. We had 20 minutes. I have to say Team Austin was a true team. Aaron knew several we didn't and Matthew as well. Some of the logos were ridiculously easy like Nike, McDonalds but others were really hard- there was one for a place called Castle Dental. It had a pic of a castle with a family walking under it. Since we don't have Castle Dental near us, there was no way we knew that.

Rickey called time at the 10 minute mark, and we reviewed what we had, making guesses. Out of 50, we attempted all of them but I was sure we had 40 right. That had to be good. We went ahead and turned it in early. He graded ours right away and we got 43. Matt asked him if that was good, and he said the average was 35- so we might be the family to beat.

He called final time and by that point had graded most of them. He held on to ours at the bottom- so I guessed we had won. Sure enough, Team Austin came in 1st place! Woo Hoo! The closest anyone came to us was 38.

We got RCCL bottle straps and keychains for this one- poor Matt had been hearing about cruises being the prizes for bingo and assumed this game had the same bounty.

It was a really, really fun activity for the four of us and something we each contributed to. Rickey was getting ready to leave and Aaron suggested we get a pic with him. It turned out great- Rickey was a ton of fun.

By the time we finished up the game, it was about 6:00 and tonight, I had somehow lured the boys into eating in the main dining room, as we had hopes of seeing the ice sculpture- so we headed back to 8088 to get ready.

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