We went downstairs to catch our shuttle for the kayaking trip we booked yesterday. We waited fifteen minutes and no shuttle. I then went to the front desk and had them call. The desk was very helpful and called all the tour companies. It turns out they didn't come. Their explanation was that the Holland America rep we booked with did not call and confirm the reservation. Rosemary was not there to straighten this out as well as the tour company could not come get us. Their scheduling had all their people in Anchorage. We went up stairs to take a nap, since we had been up so early.
We took a shower and decided to take the shuttle to the town. I went to the Holland America desk and got our refund. Rosemary continued to make excuses and blame everyone else except herself for the mistake. She also tried to make excuses that this is the second time she has used this company and she never needed to confirm before. After she knew yesterday about the problems we had in Denali, she should have made a point to make sure nothing went wrong on this booking. We are basically tired of Holland America employees saying that this is the first time for this, or the first time for that. This screw up basically messed up our entire day.
We took the shuttle into the little shopping area of Girdwood. We stopped at the Jade shop. We saw some amazing pieces of jewelry. They have an old fashion saw that takes two month to cut through a block of jade. It was mostly a museum piece and met the demands of the shop. If mass production was required, they would upgrade their technology to much faster techniques.
We spent about an hour in the shop. During this time a tour bus stopped by and the store was swamped. Angie ended up purchasing some Hematite jewelry. A complete set of bracelet, necklaces and ear rings. She also bought a jade bracelet. We walked to the gift shops and then had lunch at a little deli. We ran into Mike and Judith as they were heading to the Jade shop.
The food was pretty good and reasonably priced. We scarfed down our food and headed back to the Jade shop to share the shuttle back to the hotel with Mike and Judith. Steve took a nap before his massage appointment.
Steve had a massage, it was pretty good, but was different than what he is used to. He thinks it was mostly a different technique. But it was still good nonetheless. After the massage, we met up with four other couples from the tour to have dinner at the seven glaciers at the top on Mt. Aleyeska. The tram ride up was wonderful. We learned that Alyeska is the most northern rain forest in the world, they claim it rains almost everyday. So far it has not rained on us.
The tram cables are one continuous run of wire. It took four weeks to have all the cables dragged up the hill on the backs of men. The basic needs where taken up to start a cement plant and allow helicopters to drop the remaining supplies.
Dinner was very good, I had the buffalo medallions and Angie had the Filet. She surprised me with ordering a side of king crab legs. She had a little taste of it, and didn't like them so I had some extra food to eat ;-)
The restaurant had a fantastic view of the surrounding glaciers and mountains. I am not sure we saw all the glaciers, but what we did see was wonderful. We took the tram back down to the hotel and headed back to the bar for drinks. The waitress remembered us and our drink orders. This was pretty good after last nights forgetfulness.
There was a lot of confusion over the time we had to have our luggage out. I went and asked the hotel staff and they told us the time and to have it inside our room ready. Later we found out that this was incorrect.
After packing most of our luggage we headed to bed.