A gorgeous sunrise greets us on our first day at sea.  It is beautiful out there. 

After our morning gym routine – oh – its going to be ugly this cruise, the gym is packed to the gills with all these “Nomad” people.  Oh, and the lady who is so sick it isn’t funny, yet she is still running on the treadmill 2 down from us.  Sigh.  We escape with our exercise complete and get ready for our busy day – Coffee with Gage (the CD) and the Hotel Director Dustin – who is adorable…and young!  He is actually the youngest HD ever hired/promoted at HAL.  Fun talk.  Then it is Ian, our dedicated travel guide with a talk on Sitka….oops…not!  Now it is Ketchikan, which is interesting and we get a few hints and tips, but we’ve been there before a few times and don’t plan on doing anything other than walking around and getting lunch.

Next is Dr. Kam with the History of Japan part 1.  He is so good and funny and really an interesting talker. And I am always just amazed at Japanese history.  I take a ton of notes I will not bore you with here – you know, the Edo Period, the Seclusion period, the Samurais, etc. – suffice it to say, both Ed and I are absorbed. 

We have the afternoon pretty free, so after lunch of bratwurst and sauerkraut we sit in on trivia.  A time waster and we did pretty well, it was historical quotes turned into Tweets.  So a fun time waster.  Then it is reading, walking around, getting used to the ship again.  But oh, what a difference a few hours makes with the weather – here comes the seas!  We knew we probably weren’t going to Sitka because of the big storm off the coast, but we’re still feeling the effects of it even here, heading more coastal and inland.  Phew.  We’re going for a ride!  Full aft – yep – batten down the hatches!

After “formal” dinner, we hit the showroom for the first Dance production show, which is quite good, then to Ocean’s Bar for a nightcap and to go drinks and the cabin – where  we are greeted by the little bear/alien towel animal, and belt in for our rocking and rolling night time.  Bring on the Dramamine!