Hello everyone! Thanks for the great bon voyage. Karen, your Vancouver picture caught the day perfectly. It was quite warm -- mid-80s, I believe -- and sunny, which made for a beautiful sailaway. Today still is sunny, really gorgeous, but a little cooler, in the low 60s. Jackets and sweaters are appearing all around the ship now, unlike yesterday.

This is our first time on the Mariner and I'm now acclimated. It feels different from the Voyager in some regards, and the same in others (such as La Verandah, where we just finished lunch). Tonight is the one informal night, and we'll be in the Compass Rose, with Prime 7 reservations later in the week. Last night's dinner was excellent, especially an Alaska seafood spectacular (or something named similarly) as an appetizer. We've met some nice people, but no other LCTers. :(

Our suite is wonderfully situated on Deck 7, and it should come as no surprise that I've spent a good bit of time on our deck already, including for breakfast this morning. We had a good lecture about the Inside Passage this morning by Charles Iliff, a retired professor from the University of Alaska, whose wife also spoke briefly and is a retired professor also.

I wanted to answer on this thread now but will start a seamail thread next time. We have left the open waters and are coming into a more narrow portion of the passage where the sightseeing should be good. So I'm off for now. Tomorrow is Ketchican, where we have a floatplane excursion to Misty Fjords.

More later!