What's fun about returning onboard after a physically demanding tour in town? Finding out that there's still plenty of fresh baked cookies left on the tray from the 10AM offering! Plus the nice thing about cruising as an adult is there is no one to say no when you start your lunch with dessert.
I wasn't finding much appealing on the menu for lunch in the dining room today. Unlike ocean cruises, the dining room does open on port days for lunch so you can partake whether you stay onboard or return from a morning excursion. I also like how they put out the menus from lunch and dinner at breakfast so you can plan ahead whether you want to come back for lunch or eat in town.
Opting for more casual fare, I chose to have my lunch today from the Back Porch Cafe. Normally, the procedure is to grab a table outside by the cafe (or inside at the few tables if you'd rather) and a crew member will come by to take your order. This rarely worked well due to limited available crew so many times we ended up just ordering at the counter and getting a numbered sign to take to a table. The one to two crew members doing the cooking at this small griddle space were also overwhelmed. It gave one a lot of time to enjoy the view waiting up to an hour for even part of your order to arrive. Many times I saw crew members wandering around with plates yelling out "Who had the burger?" "Who had the pizza?" looking like lost souls because the passengers had long since given up and left.
I wish every cruise line that offered a cafe or poolside grill eatery would stay open past 5 or 6 in the evening. There is always going to be a day where a passenger has been on an all day tour and wants something quick, light, and casual. Or they are having so much fun onboard that they only have time to grab a quick burger or hot dog.
My order of Nachos - I was a little surprised by how some of the multicolored tortilla chips had their own flavor or slight spiciness to them. For the love of all that is cheesy...why is it always one huge glob of cheese in the center soaking three chips and leaving the others to hear "Nope, Nacho Day Today!" Would rather see a small cup to hold the cheese for dipping into if you're going to use the ladling melted Velveeta method.
My pepperoni pizza order - But wait? Is this the new invisible kind of pepperoni? They really tasted lighter than air and in this case, the calories really didn't count. I'm sure it was simply a matter of them bringing me the first pizza that was ready without checking the order slip. I'm all for flame kissed but this crust was char-broiled! The taste of the middle part of the pizza was good with plenty of cheese pull and flavor balance.
Dinner time in the dining room:
Wedge Salad appetizer - Bacon, bleu cheese, shaved red onions, cherry tomatoes, and bleu cheese dressing. This is the kind of "just lettuce and tomato" type of salad Dad enjoys. This dish tasted very fresh and was a great start to our meal.
We both ordered the Bleu Cheese Crusted Beef Tenderloin - Herd (I sure hope that's a typo on the menu) Roasted Red Skinned Potato, Carrots, Asparagus, and Brown Butter Béarnaise. Must have been a sale on bleu cheese at the store.
Here is the dish as it was first presented to both of us despite our different requests at level of doneness:
You can see how it was so medium rare that the bleu cheese crumbles sliding off have turned pink. Dad insisted on sending his back to be cooked to the medium well he wanted. The entire table, us included, got a good laugh out of how much the piece of meat had shrunk to reveal the vegetables underneath.
For dessert we chose the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding - A little overbaked but I liked the balance of the creme sauce instead of more caramel sauce.
After dinner we headed up to the River Lounge to hear our historian Doug's introduction to our next port of Kalama, WA and learn the plan for tomorrow's activities from Rhiannon and Lindsay. We stayed for a good portion of tonight's entertainment - Songs and Stories from the Silver Screen with Mel and Leah before heading back to the cabin.
I stepped outside on the small deck behind our cabin to watch the sunset over the wake:
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