Tuesday, May 6, 2008

AND SO IT BEGINS...

Today was the first day of our Tourist Season, with 2 ships coming into port for the day.
From now until September these normally quiet, easily navigated streets will be filled with
teeming masses of humanity carrying cruise ship tote bags & wearing cruise ship ponchos.
Normally the cruises don't come on the weekends, but this year they will be here both Saturdays
and Sundays. We can't complain though--I read in the paper that the average tourist spends
$75.00 a day here and we expect several hundred thousand to visit before the end of summer.
That's a whole lot of extra people in this little town!


The first ship we saw was the National Geographic Endeavour. This one cruised by about 8:30
this morning. You can read about it here.


The second ship didn't go by our house--instead they were docked at the other end of town. This
is the beautiful Empress of the North. It is a 223 passenger paddle wheel ship that is quite elegant
and one of the more expensive cruises you can take. You can read about this ship here. This cruise
had Peter Ueberroth on board. "On this exclusive cruise featuring Mr. Ueberroth, guests will have
the opportunity to enjoy Alaska's wilderness, wildlife and history on board the luxurious Empress
of the North," said Diane Moore, Executive Vice President, Majestic America Line.

Pretty soon the privately owned yachts will start cruising by. I think my very favorite last year was the
yacht with the personal helicopter carried on the back of it! What fun to grab the binoculars to see
the name of the yacht, then look it up on the internet and see who's who. Stay tuned for more posts
on who is visiting our town this year.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey that's me on the deck of the paddle wheel! Yeah... I wish. haha

Laura ~Peach~ said...

so who did the yacht with the helecopter belong to??? I love the paddle wheel boats they are just really pretty plus growing up in Hannibal there were always paddlewheel boats in the river.

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Pam--I THOUGHT that was you! I waved and waved--did you see me?

Laura--the yacht with the helicopter was owned by the man that started Bayliner Yachts in WA. There was another one that came through from the Caymen Islands that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The hull was so shiny that we could see ourselves in it like a mirror and there were cars INSIDE of it. We went down to the docks to see it up close and they had it roped off with red velvet ropes.

Laura ~Peach~ said...

wow! hard to even imagine!

so with the baking and cooking you love to do, do you have a shop or place where these tourists can buy goodies?

it is sooo beautiful where you live, I can see why people would want to come there and cruse on the ships...

I can't wait to live vicariously through your camera :D

LOL too funny I already do and love it, I am sooo glad to have found your blog!
HUGS