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Nearly Finished and Pictures posted on Picasa Web

August 30: The final day is now posted and about 50 more pictures have been added to the Picasaweb album (linked below and on the right). The album pretty well represents the highlights of the trip. I also made some layout changes to the page to make it a little easier to get around.

http://picasaweb.google.com/welchah/Alaska2009.

Here are some of Alan and Joyce's favorite pictures:

If I have the chance and can narrow it down, I'll try to post a few movies of some of the special events, and we'll call it done!

Alan

July 24--Long trip home

While the flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis was pretty painless, as was the final leg from Minneapolis to Indianapolis, there was nothing easy about either flight. Since we left at nearly midnight, we all hoped that we would sleep on the plane, especially since we would be losing 4 hours with the time changes. None of us got much sleep.

To add insult to injury, Alan inadvertently left the Tony Dungy book he had been reading on the first plane. Of course, our connecting gate was nearly as far as possible across the Minneapolis terminal. Alan asked the gate agent to call back to alert them to look for the book, but the gate agent didn't seem to think that we had landed at the gate that Alan thought. So he started the trek back to the gate, but the cleaning crews didn't turn in the book. He had just a few chapters to go, but hopes that whoever gets the book enjoys it as much as he did (and enjoys the special note that Joyce wrote him when she gave him the book!)

Once back to Indianapolis, Alan's sister-in-law, Beth met us at the terminal, right on time and drove us back as far as Brownsburg. Alan drove the rest of the way to Lafayette (with a Lebanon stop for ice cream, of course), and then Forst drove the last leg with Louise to Mentone. After valiantly trying to stay awake for bedtime Indiana time, they all finally succumbed, knowing that all were back home in Indiana, and that a wonderful time was had with family in an amazing wilderness!

July 23--Cousin Lunch and the Museum

Wow, our last day in Alaska! For being on vacation, we sure have been on the go a lot, so we took a more leisurely mornng and caught up on some rest and picture work. We know that we won't see a bed again for a long time, so going a little slower today isn't so bad. The Dunnuck's and Welch's met downstairs for a French Toast breakfast in the hotel and then waited until 11 when they were going to meet Forst's cousin and his wife.

Dan and Anne Sommer moved to Alaska nearly 20 years ago with their church and have raised their family here. Dan's grandmother and Forst's mother were sisters. While there wasn't a lot of shared experience growing up, there were still plenty of family stories to talk about. Alan and Joyce enjoyed hearing more about what it's like to live in Alaska year-round. The six of us went up the street to the Glacier Brewhouse, a local brew pub that is very popular. The food was great and the fellowship was wonderful.




When the Sommer's left, the rest of the group made their way to the Anchorage Museum. The Schaeffer's had toured their on their long day before returning to Indiana and were very happy with their choice. The museum was undergoing some renovations, but the gallery of Alaskan art and displays about Alaskan history kept Alan and Joyce going for some time. Forst was having a "bad knee" day and elected to sit out most of the touring and was joined later by Louise.


From the museum, we made our way back arcross downtown Anchorage toward the hotel. We needed to be there by 9:30 in the evening for our shuttle to the airport, so there wasn't a rush. Along the way, we did some Anchorage shopping, looking for bargains, gifts, and last-minute souveniers. We also had a chance to see some wonderful gardens with many different kinds and colors of flowers, something we had come to expect in Alaska, but it was still stunning.

Just a couple of blocks from the hotel was the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. They had a restful presentation about the Aurora Borealis, titled "Aurora". The Northern Lights usually make their appearance at the time of year when visitors aren't around as much, so this was a great opportunity to see some amazing colors and sights, with wonderful musical background (and a nice place to rest as well!)

A couple of souvenier stops later and we were back to the hotel. We found an alcove to take over for an hour or so, Alan and Joyce went for some Subway sandwiches, and we finished our time in Alaska pretty low key.

The shuttle bus arrived on time, and there were just a few of us that had late flights out from the Princess group. Amazingly, there were several Indiana connections in the group, so the trip to the airport provided a nice time for reminiscing with others about our time in Alaska.

We arrived at the airport, checked our luggage (after some "rearranging" to meet weight requirements), and made our way to the gate. By around midnight, we were in the air, trying to sleep, and making our way to Minneapolis, and then on to Indianapolis.

July 22--Rafting the Talkeetna River

After a good night’s rest, Alan and Joyce were leaning toward taking the float trip. We went back to the tour desk and discovered there was one scheduled at 11 a.m. We would need to take a shuttle bus into the town of Talkeetna by 9. There wouldn’t be time after the float trip to get back to the lodge to catch the bus to Anchorage, but the Princess representative was willing to arrange transportation from Talkeetna to a gas station at the junction with the main highway where we could meet the bus on its way from the lodge to Anchorage. We decided to take the float trip. Forst and Louise decided to stay at the lodge and take advantage of the talks given by rangers on Alaskan history.

Alan and Joyce took the shuttle bus to Talkeetna, the small town that was used as a model for the town in the TV show Northern Exposure. Joyce was surprised not to find any of the landmarks from the TV show, including the picture of the moose on the side of a building. We had about an hour to look around before the float trip. We visited several small shops, including a quilt shop.

We suited up in boots, rain gear and life jackets and climbed in the rubber raft. We floated with our guide, Travis, who also did all the rowing and guiding the boat and a woman from the Netherlands who was on a 9 week tour of the United States. If you happen to have a copy of the book listing the eligible bachelors of Talkeetna for 2008, you would recognize him as the #1 bachelor!

We began on the Talkeetna river, which is a glacial fed river, so the water was a light gray milky color from the glacial silt. We saw several species of birds and eagles. We saw evidence of moose and several beaver dams. Travis floated us a little way up several smaller fresh water streams that fed into the Talkeetna river. As the water from the stream mixed into the Talkeetna it looked like stirring cream into coffee.

On one of the streams, a beaver had built a dam completely across the stream. The water level on the other side of the dam was approximately 4 feet higher. Travis edged the raft right up to the dam for a good look.

Our float trip ended as the Talkeetna river flowed into the Susitna, a much larger river. After some mild excitement getting stuck on a gravel bar and then floating past the planned exit point, Travis exerted a little more effort and deposited us upriver at the planned spot and we posed for pictures.

Buddy, the photographer, driver and person who made sure our life jackets fit appropriately, was a Purdue chemistry graduate who had lived the high-powered corporate life and left it all for the peaceful quiet Alaskan wilderness. He shared some great pictures of wildlife that had been taken on earlier float trips that season, including an incredible view of Mt. McKinley taken where we exited the water. We did not get to see the mountain due to low clouds and rain.

We walked back to the Princess tour office in Talkeetna, while sharing a delicious raspberry cinnamon roll and met the man who was taking us to Sunshine to rendezvous with our bus. He was giving another Princess employee a ride back to the McKinley lodge after we met our bus.

We arrived about 45 minutes before the bus and had a chance to talk about working for Princess while we waited. During our vacation we met several retired people and young college age people driving buses, guiding people to their tours, working in quilt shops in Skagway, etc. Alan and Joyce think working for Princess from mid-May to mid-September might be a fun way to spend a few years of their retirement. When Alan learned that after working two summers we could take any Princess cruise for $15 a day, he was almost ready to sign up for next year!

Alan and Joyce met the bus without incident, and the trip to Anchorage was uneventful. We arrived at the Captain Cook Hotel between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. The hotel was very nice. Our rooms were on the 17th floor with a nice view of the city of Anchorage and the Chugach Mountains in the distance.

After a brief rest, Alan did some checking on possibilities for dinner. The Glacier Brewhouse, about 3 blocks from the hotel had been highly recommended by the bus driver on the trip from the Mt. McKinley lodge. Alan called nd was told the earliest reservation was for 8 p.m. which was longer than most of us wanted to wait. Instead, we all enjoyed a pleasant dinner in the hotel.

After Forst and Louise retired, Alan and Joyce took advantage of the long hours of daylight to take in a couple souvenir shops a few blocks from the hotel to look for last minute gifts and bargains.

More Alaska Pictures 2

July 21--Denali Tours

During the train trip to Denali, Alan and Joyce had talked to the Princess representative about the possibility of exchanging the included Experiencing Denali tour for the Natural History Tour that would travel further into Denali. Later in the trip the representative offered a morning tour of Denali that another group had booked but decided not to complete. Alan and Joyce were interested and asked for details of how they should reimburse the other tourists. They were told the other people didn’t want to go because the tour began at 7 a.m. and weren’t being offered reimbursement so the tour was available at no cost if we wanted it. There were four tickets so Forst and Louise could also go. Forst and Louise declined, but Alan and Joyce were very eager for more time in the Denali National Park. A free tour was an added bonus!!

Alan and Joyce started the day with a breakfast buffet at the lodge. As we sat down with our food we were treated to a slide show and commentary with breathtaking views of Mt. McKinley many of them from the perspective of climbers. As we watched and listened, a man sat down beside us and talked to us about the pictures. We discovered the pictures we were seeing were his and he, Laurent Dick, had successfully climbed the mountain three times. He spent several minutes answering our questions and describing what it is like to climb the mountain. Laurent commented that the Denali National Park is larger than his whole home country of Switzerland! We learned that Mt. McKinley is the most challenging mountain in the world, because there is more mountain to climb. Base camp where climbers begin their ascent is located at only about 7,000 feet which is a lower altitude than where climbers start on Mt. Everest. We finished our breakfast and as we were paying we noticed the DVD we had been watching was for sale. We bought one and Laurent signed it for us.

We boarded the bus for our tour and drove a few miles to Denali National Park, 6 million acres of wilderness, approximately the size of Connecticut. We started the tour by watching a movie about the early days in the 1920’s when the national park was created. We saw pictures of the early visitors and facilities. After the movie we boarded the bus and drove into the park. We saw caribou grazing in a river bed and trumpeter swans on a pond during our bus ride. We stopped and walked a trail to a small cabin that is used in the winter by the rangers and dog sled teams as they patrol the park. The window shutters had long nails protruding from them to discourage bears from attempting to gain entrance to the cabin. During our walk our guides pointed out various native plants and flowers. Moose and snow hares eat willow and we saw abundance evidence of both on the willow in the area.

We again boarded the bus and drove about 17 miles into the park to a vast valley with the wide meandering Savage River bed and tall mountains on both sides of us. We walked into the valley a short distance and met an native Athabascan elder who spoke to us about the customs of her people and the importance of the land. She sang a native song for us. She welcomed pictures but asked that we not shoot video of her. It was sunny and windy.

It was at this viewing spot that we were able to see about a third of Mt. McKinley. The rest of the mountain was covered by clouds. It was great to see even a third of it as it rises high above the other mountains and is completely snow covered. We were reminded once again of the rare privelege to see the mountain at all; the vast majority of the visitors to the interior of Alaska never see it at all.

As we neared the Savage River on our way back we spotted two or three Dall sheep on a small hill above the river. Our guide was very surprised to see them there instead of on steep mountain sides. Grazing in the meadow they were very vulnerable to their primary predators, the wolves. Thankfully we didn’t see any wolves stalking them so we watched them several minutes and then proceeded on our way.

Alan and Joyce got back to the Princess Lodge about 45 minutes before the included Denali Natural History tour was to begin. We decided to walk across the street to Subway to get some lunch before the tour. While in line, Forst called Joyce to let her know they were getting ready to catch the shuttle to the main lodge building as that was where the tour would depart from. Joyce took their Subway order so she and Alan could take lunch back to them. While Joyce was talking to Forst, the woman behind us in line had noticed Alan’s Purdue shirt and being an IU fan had to comment. They began talking and discovered this woman and her husband were in Alaska from Zionsville on a mission trip to Girnwood, near Whittier. They had taken a couple days off to visit Denali. Alan used the opportunity to offer DANI projects for future mission trips!

Alan and Joyce took the Subway back to the main lodge building, met Forst and Louise and ate lunch in the spacious lobby area. Forst and Louise had taken a tour to a sled dog facility and were excited about all they had learned about the Iditarod and sled dogs.

After lunch, we all boarded the bus and went back into Denali. We didn’t go quite as many miles into the park on this tour. We had only driven a short distance when we spotted several moose grazing in the river bed. It looked to be a male, female and youth moose.

After watching the moose for a while, we continued on and stopped for a nature walk. Forst and Louise decided to stay on the bus with the driver and another couple. We walked for about an hour back to the Savage River bed. We saw many native plants, one poisonous plant that eating one leaf could kill a man in about an hour. We viewed bear and caribou scat (poop), bear tracks and lots of evidence on the plants of moose and snow hares eating the leaves and bark. Our guide had bear, moose, caribou and dall sheep hides for us to feel and Dall sheep horns and caribou antlers to hold as she talked to us about each animal. She had statistics about the relationships between the increases and decreases in population of the various animals in the park. We learned about the tracking of wolves and the collars put on the alpha male or female of the pack that allows the wolves to be tracked and studied. It was a beautiful day to be walking in an awe-inspiring place with an abundance of natural beauty in every direction one looked. The sky could not have been any bluer (sorry Seattle!) Alan and Joyce were very thankful they had the opportunity to spend most of the day in Denali.

After a short visit to the visitor center where we saw a short film with scenes of Denali National Park and its animals in each of the four seasons, it was time to board the bus to travel to the Mt. McKinley Lodge about two hours away. When we arrived at the Mt. McKinley Lodge there was a fine mist falling. We were given our room keys and found our luggage already in the room. Our rooms were in a building much closer to the main lodge, so it was a short walk to dinner. The Mt. McKinley lodge was quiet and secluded with the closest town being Talkeetna about an hour away.

We ate dinner at the 20320, which is the height of Mt. McKinley. Alan and Joyce again took advantage of the opportunity to eat fresh-caught wild Alaskan salmon.

After dinner, Forst and Louise returned to their room and Joyce and Alan explored the main lodge. There was wi-fi access in the lobby sitting areas so we took the lab top over to take advantage to it. There were also four computers for guest use with suggested 15 minute use times. Joyce took a turn and looked at email. Alan and Joyce considered a float trip on the Talkeetna and Susitna rivers. The weather forecast called for rain and they weren’t certain they wanted to float down a river in the rain. They checked the details at the tour desk and decided to sleep on it before booking the tour.

More Alaska Pictures

July 20--From Sea to Land (big land)--Or Home

It was an early call this morning to get breakfast and be in the assigned dining room for our disembarkation. The Welch’s and the Dunnuck’s had an earlier call (8 am) than the Schaeffer’s. It was raining in Whittier as we left, but most of the walkway between the ship and the train was covered, so we didn’t suffer too much. The walk was pretty long for Forst and Louise, but the next 8 hours or so were going to be on the train, so there was plenty of time to rest.

Meanwhile, the Schaeffer’s had arranged to get to Anchorage by bus. The original plan was to rent a car in Whittier, but the car that Alan reserved for them was inadvertently scheduled for the 13^th, not today. Luckily, Sandi discovered that a few days ago, in time to make plans for the bus. Once in Anchorage, the family stored their carry-on’s with Princess, who were already handling their luggage to be checked on the plane. They spent the rest of the day exploring parts of downtown Anchorage, and in particular the Anchorage Museum. They can write and tell us about their long day, their overnight flight and their trip back to Mentone on the 21^st.

Pretty close to on-time, the bubble-topped Alaska Railroad train left Whittier for the trip to Denali National Park and the Princess Denali Lodge. The first adventure was a duo of tunnels: the first one was 2 miles long, and the second one was one mile long. These tunnels are the only way to get in and out of Whittier by land, and are used by both the train and automobiles. The different forms of transportation take turns using the tunnels!

The two couples had facing benches with a table between them on the upper level of Car C. The coach was covered with a window that stretched from horizon to horizon, so there was plenty of opportunity to see the scenery on both sides of the train at any time. While it was rainy in Whittier, once we passed the tunnels, the weather let up a bit. We had mostly grey skies throughout the day, but the visibility was far enough to see the mountains that were sometimes distant and sometimes right next to us, but always there.

Our first major scene was the Turnagain Arm. The tracks followed the shoreline all the way to Anchorage, where we stopped for a while to take on a few new passengers. The train station is near downtown, but is in an area that dropped about 40 feet during the March 1964 earthquake that devastated the area. From there we left the water and headed northward toward Wasilla, home of the current Alaska governor, Sarah Palin (at least for the next few days!). Our train passed a few hundred yards from the Palin residence, but it was obscured by trees. Wasilla is about 50 miles from Anchorage, but this is the most densely populated area of the state, so we still saw quite a bit of civilization. Anchorage itself is about the size of Fort Wayne, and in many ways seems like a similar community.

One thing that we saw lots and lots of was fireweed. The fireweed plant is always at about its peak blooming period in the middle of July. The flowers are a pinkish/purplish set of small flowers that bloom from the bottom of the stalk to the top. The locals say that they have never seen so much fireweed in bloom, and it can be seen literally everywhere on the interior of Alaska. The locals also say that by the time the last buds blossom, that there are about two more weeks left of summer. A couple of people told us that Alaskans’ favorite time is about the second week of August, so that may be the timing for the next trip! Evidently the colors are gorgeous as Alaska moves into the fall, and some of the lower mountains begin to have some snow at the top.

As we passed through the country side, it became more and more difficult to identify signs of civilization other than the train itself. We probably didn’t cross a dozen rail/road crossings, and most of them were the same single highway that makes its way up through the middle of the state toward the Park and Fairbanks. We saw lots of trees, mountains, rivers, and creeks. And fireweed. And trees. And lakes. And fireweed. And trees. (you get the picture.) It was all beautiful. We did catch just a few glimpses of some distant moose and some closer trumpeter swans.

There were stories from our guide as we went along about the area and the people. A few people made their way out of their homes to wave at us as we went by. We didn’t see most of their homes, but out in the “bush” most of them are off the grid and don’t have electricity or running water. If they want to go somewhere, they flag down one of the trains (not ours) and hop one, much like the people in a bigger city would hail a taxi. We also had a couple different people get on the train to give us more information about the area, including a dog sled racer and a ranger from the Park.

By late afternoon we arrived at the Denali National Park station, and moved from the train to a bus for the short ride to the Princess Denali Lodge. We had nice rooms in one of the buildings a little ways away from the central buildings.

We took a little time to settle in before Alan and Joyce went out to scout for supper. The Lodge is pretty isolated, though there are a few other places across the road and near the lodge. We elected to eat dinner at Base Camp Bistro, which allowed us to get seated in just a few minutes. The food was good, with the homemade barbeque potato chips getting the most comment. There were also large, beautiful flowers everywhere! Some of the dahlia blooms must have been more than 9 inches across.

After dinner, Forst and Louise took the local shuttle back to their room. Alan and Joyce gathered their swim wear for a dip in the hot tub at the other end of the property, overlooking the Nenana River. They had “bubbled” in the Princess Denali Lodge tubs 12 years ago after returning from a tour into the park that ended about 11 pm. It was a little earlier this time, but it was still very light, which is to be expected this far north in Alaska.

They made their way back to their room and settled down in anticipation of the early call for their tour into Denali the next morning.

July 19--Prince William Sound and College Fjord

We spent a fair amount of the day not being able to see any land, which was a first! It was fairly rainy, so there wasn’t much incentive to look outside anyway. We had a little bit of rolling, but nothing severe at all. By early afternoon we had entered Prince William Sound, so that calmed things down even more.

Since it was Sunday, we thought that we would attend a church service on the ship. Forst had called and was told that there would be a Protestant service in the Theatre at 9, but the “Princess Patter” only talked about a Catholic mass there at that time. A second check found that the “Patter” was right, so we skipped a formal service.

Alan and Joyce took time in the late morning to go on a tour of the ship’s Galley, where the food is prepared. We started by seeing a demonstration of some of the fancy cooking that takes place every day on the ship in the Universe Lounge. After that we walked through two floors of the galley. The scale of the kitchens was pretty amazing, and both Alan and Joyce noticed how much stainless steel there was and how clean everything was kept.

The whole clan met up in the Horizon Court for a later lunch. It was still raining, and there were some amazing desserts on display, so there were nearly as many sweet things on our platters as there was “good-for-you” food.

Alan, Joyce, Jon, and Sandi took advantage of one more dance lesson. This time it was “Swing”. Jon actually got to the lounge where the lessons were taking place before Sandi, so he was able to gather some of those much desired husband points. The dance steps are a little more complicated than what we had learned before. That, and the fact that we were getting pretty tired from all the activities, made it a little more difficult to keep from hurting our partners, especially with the quicker beat to the music.

We had one more glacier stop before ending the cruise. Tucked into Prince William Sound is College Fjord. Along this fjord are several hanging and tidewater glaciers. One side has glaciers named after prestigious eastern men’s colleges and the other after prestigious eastern women’s colleges.

While it was still rainy, most of us went outside to take in the sights. We spent most of our time in front of the largest glacier there, Harvard Glacier. We were again treated to a magnificent sight, and the weather cleared just enough to allow us to get some pretty good pictures. It was the coldest day of the cruise, however.

Much of the “free” time today was spent in getting things packed up. We had specific instructions for different suitcases from Princess. Those of us continuing on to the land tour had three categories of things: luggage to meet us at the Princess Denali Lodge; luggage to meet us in Anchorage in a few days; and luggage to hand carry on the train. All of us had to have our luggage that was not being hand-carried outside of our door by 10 pm tonight. It was tough to think about what we would need in the morning that we would be willing to carry around with us the next day (in small pieces of luggage). Of course, the Schaeffers would be heading back to Indiana after the cruise, but their plane wouldn’t leave until nearly midnight the next day, so working out the luggage there also caused some careful thinking.

Another adult dinner followed, this time culminated with the Baked Alaska Parade. The junior waiters marched around the dining room with Baked Alaska desserts held high. While the Baked Alaskas were flaming during the previous trips that Alan and Joyce had taken, these were equipped with an electric candle, so it wasn’t quite the same effect. All at the table agreed that it was mighty tasty, nonetheless!

Not too much was happening after dinner, so Alan finished off his internet time by uploading a few more significant pictures of the trip. Then it was off to bed for an early morning call for disembarking the ship.

July 18--That's a lot of Ice!

Today we didn’t get off the boat, so we took it kind of easy in the morning. It wasn’t long before we entered Glacier Bay National Park. This isn’t like most national parks; you enter it on the water, not on land. It was a beautiful day and we had some amazing views of several hanging and tidewater glaciers. We spent quite a while in front of Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier. As a tidewater glacier, it comes right down to the waterfront. Margerie Glacier has a front that is nearly a mile wide, though it didn’t seem like that as we sat in front of it. It rises 250 feet above the water, and more than 100 feet sits below the water line. It is very blue, as the water is so compressed that only the blue color is reflected out of it.

Next to Margerie is the Grand Pacific Glacier. The front of this glacier is more than two miles wide, and the ice field that feeds it stretches back 23 miles. Thinking about all of the water that is contained in these glaciers, and the power they possess as they grind away at the mountains is nothing short of awesome. The Grand Pacific has a lot of stone and debris in it, making it look ‘dirty” compared to many of the others.

We also swung by some of the other glaciers in Glacier Bay, most notably the Johns Hopkins, Lamplugh, and Reid glaciers. The Johns Hopkins has a tremendous number of harbor seals that use the area as a nursery, so our big ship wasn’t able to go down the inlet where it sits.

We did get to see some calving while we were there. Calving is what happens when a chunk of the ice breaks off and crashes into the water. This is how icebergs are formed. While you may not know where the calving will happen, you get a little notice with a loud “crack”, much like lightning and thunder.

By late afternoon, we left Glacier Bay and were on our way out into open water. Alan and Joyce were surprised throughout this trip at how calm the water seemed. While it was a bit more choppy and rocky, it never got to the point where we had to hold on to the wall to walk down a hallway, thankfully!

This evening was another “Formal” night, so we took advantage of the formal pictures settings to get another full group shot taken. The first one didn’t capture us all at our best, so we thought we’d give it another try with a more formal backdrop. The result turned out pretty good! The Schaeffers and the Dunnucks had family shots taken,which also came out pretty nice. The Welchs were pretty satisfied with the shot they had on the first formal night.

Lobster was the main attraction on the menu for tonight. The kids decided to join us again, but didn’t elect to go with the lobster. About half of the rest of us did, and we were happy to see that Cesar was prepared to take the meat out of the shells for us. We also had large sea prawns, which Cesar also took care of for us. By now, Cesar and Joseph were doing a good job of anticipating what we were going to order and having it ready for us.

Princess also decided to honor Louise for her 75th birthday today. Her cabin was decorated with balloons, and she got a special chocolate soufflé dessert, complete with a chorus of happy birthday from the table and wait staff.

The evening’s entertainment was a collection of songs and dance to hits from Motown. Alan went to the show by himself, while Joyce took over child care responsibilities. She split time between the cabins for the first hour while Alan was at the show, and then Alan took Jon’s spot with Paul, and Joyce spent the night with Sydney. That gave the elder Schaeffer’s some time to appreciate what the “Love Boat” had to offer. We’re sure that they spent the night watching the “Love Boat” reruns that were always showing on one of the channels.