We woke up early to get to our flight which was at 8:00am.
Thank goodness for the Clear boarding process as the regular lines for check in probably contained 200+ people.
From the time we arrived at the airport, we were through check-in, customs and at our gate in about 20 minuites!
Then the "fun" began. Our Delta plane was late and we finally made it to Atlanta 3 hours late which was several hours after our 9:35pm flight was to leave.
We checked into a Marriott close to the airport and went to bed sometime after midnight.
The good news is that we had pre-booked a flight from Atlanta to Bloomington in case we missed our flight. The bad news was that the flight didn't take off until late in the afternoon.
It was on time and we made it to Bloomington in the early evening.
A wonderful trip we memories that will last a lifetime!!
That's all for this trip - thanks for following along on our journey.
Barb & Ed
Barb seeing Rick Snow in Denali - our pilot and former neighbor
We took this shuttle boat to Grandville Island, Vancouver, B
Still in Vancouver for one more day before flying home tomorrow.
The weather today was perfect – 68 – 74 degrees, no wind and all sun!
After a big breakfast that was included, we walked 2 miles through town and along the waterfront to the shuttle boat to take us to Granville Island.
Grandville Island is a food, shopping, entertainment island just off of the mainland. Then call it an island; however, it is really a peninsula.
The last part of the trip to Grandville was on a shuttle boat that only had a capacity of 12 for its 10-minute trip.
We spend the entire day there shopping and eating.
Lunch was in a restaurant where we had a table on the 3rd floor overlooking the harbor – it was really neat.
We finally left the island at 4:30pm and walked to the mainland’s primary entertainment district. It was a little like the entertainment district in Memphis.
We sat and watched a Gay Promenade and it was fun.
Then it was about 7:30pm so we took an Uber to the same restaurant we ate at last night and had Sockeye Salmon for the second time this day and it was very good.
In our opinion, Vancouver is a very clean, friendly city. It has miles of bike and pedestrian paths and lots of parks, all dog friendly. All-in-all a nice city. The only problem we see is that it rains about 1/3 of the days of the year.
That’s it for this trip’s blog as tomorrow we get up at 5am for the 1/2-hour drive to the airport. There we take a WestJet plane to Los Angles before switching to Delta and flying to Atlanta and finally, we hope to Bloomington, arriving at 10:21pm.
When we get home, I will make a page of videos that we have taken, some you have seen and some you have not.
Night from Vancouver and we are READY TO COME HOME!!
On the shuttle to Grandville Island
A small part of the Market on Grandvills Island
The Gay Promenade
Going out for the day
Our shuttle boat to Grandville Island
Lunch at Grandville Island - what a view!!
Sockeye Salmon for lunch and we also had it for dinner
The line for donuts at the market - Barb is way back at the end
After a wonderful week of cruising the coast of Alaska, we
arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia for a two-day visit before flying out on
Sunday at 6:00am.
I have corrected the problems with viewing videos on Days 5, 9, 11 and 16. If you can't see any other video, please text me.
We virtually were the first people off the ship and we were
to our hotel the Westin Bayshore by 8:45am.I had asked for early check-in and they had a room ready for us, a
corner room overlooking the marina and the view was beautiful.
As we had a 2 ½ hour walking tour schedule for 10:00am, we
hustled out of the hotel for a 30-minute walk to the tours starting place.About 90% of the way was via a walkway that paralleled
the waterfront and it was great not having to walk on city streets.
The tour was interesting and fun and by noon we already had
10,000 steps.
After the tour, we walked to the shuttle bus to take us to a
place called Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and wow, what an amazing time we
had in the park for about 3 hours.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge crosses to towering
evergreens. The bridge is 450 feet long and hangs 230 feet above the Capilano
River.They said that if you put the
Statue of Liberty on its side, the bridge would come shoulder high.That’s a long swinging bridge to walk over.
Once over the bridge we did the Treetops Adventure where we
crossed 7 suspended footbridges offering views 110 feet above the forest
floor. Then Cliffwalk follows a granite precipice along Capilano River with a
labyrinth-like series of narrow cantilevered bridges, stairs and platforms and
only 16 anchor points in the cliff supporting the structure
This was an amazing 3 hours and one of the highlights of our
entire trip.
Then we took the shuttle bus back into town, walked 20 minutes
back to our hotel.
After cleaning up, we walk a short distance to a restaurant
that was on the water and had excellent seafood – we had our new favorite fish –
Halibut.
We finished the night early with 24,000 steps of 9.6 miles
we walked today!!
Yes, we are tired.
Night from Vancouver, BC
On the Treetops Adventures course
Going across the suspension bridge
Time to leave the ship
The view from our room
Our guide Kelly
The Suspension Bridge and yes it did swing!!
High up is the tree adventure course
Going from one tree to another and yes, Barb had fun
Today is our second and last day at sea as we cruise the Inside Passage.
Our day started with a tour of the theater and the backstage which was interesting. One thing that we learned was that the entertainment staff have an 8-month contract and they are allowed to bring family on the ship for up to 3 months. That’s a huge perk.
After the backstage tour, we went and had morning tea and then we had a private tour of the bridge, which of course was very interesting.
By then it was time for lunch and ate a small lunch in the Oceanview Café.
Alaska’s Inside Passage is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast.
The Inside Passage stretches 500 miles along the Pacific Ocean and boasts wildlife-filled fjords, tidewater glaciers, and lush island scenery.
Before entering the Passage, we were invited to a cocktail part with members of the senior staff. That was fun talking with them after a great cruise.
The show tonight was
We ate dinner with the couple from Road Island again and it was fun as we had a lot of things about our lives that were in common; however, they did not play in the casino.
After dinner we went to the casino for our last session where Barb broke even and Ed had a nice win and in total we were up for a good total win.
Night from Canada this time and tomorrow we arrive for a couple of days in Vancouver, BC
Going out for the day's tours
The theater from the stage
The second officier explaining the navagiation equipment
Now we are in Ketchikan and the highlight of the day was our
Misty Fjords National Monument Flightseeing Tour in a floatplane.
But first we walked around the town and looing at the sights.We walked right away to the old town area and
walked along the creek where the salmon were running.Later, we stopped at the local Eagles Club
for a Halibut sandwich.The club was
recommended by one of the local shop owners.
Then we walked to the Salmon Latter and watched the salmon
climb the rapids and the Salmon Ladder which was an easier way to go
upstream.Salmon always returns from the
ocean to the stream where they were born, spam and then die.
They had a wonderful museum showcasing totem poles and their
history.
After than we took off at 2:45pm for a 2-hour trip,
including landing on an alpine lake for a chance to get out and take some
pictures.The Misty Fjords National
Monument is a 2.3-million-acre area which is larger than Yellowstone National
Park and the only way to get to it is by floatplane – what an experience!! This was truly one of the major highlights of
the trip.
The floatplane we were on was owned by the female owner and
pilot, Michelle.She came to town 35
years ago, worked on a fishing boat for 2 years to save enough money to buy her
first plane.Then she also bought
another plane and has a very, very successful business.
The highlight was landing the plane on a very small lake
high up in the mountains and we got out and walked around for about 20 minutes.Then it was time to get back on the plane for
the trip back.We hope the videos show
the experience we had.
The show was two acrobats and it was just ok.
The casino tonight was not good for us as both of us lost a
little.
After that we went to our restaurant and shared a table with
a couple from Road Island and very fun to eat with.We decided to eat together tomorrow.
That’s it and now we set the clocks ahead 1 hour and we will
get up and be cruising in the Inside Passage all day.
Night from our next to the last day of our cruise.
Ready to go to Ketchican
Sampleing Sockey Salmon - Wonderful!
The old town area with the Salmon stream
On the floatplane
Landed on a beautiful lake
What an experience!!
Snacks as we were leaving port
Time for dinner, etc.
The Hotel Directors sent us a bottle of good Italian wine
and a plate of chocolates
Salmon climbing the Salmon Ladder
Taking off in the Floatplane
Just flying - there are no roads here - just lakes to land on!
This is Icy Strait Point.
This is like one of those ports in the Carabeen as it is a cruise line
owned port, built, maintained and staff by the cruise line.
We arrived at 6:45am; however, we did not get off the ship
until 9:00am and walked into this little made for ships port.It was just a bunch of overpriced gift shops
and some restaurants.In addition, it
was the area where you boarded busses and boats for tours.
We instead went to the back of the compound and took a $5
shuttle to the little native town call Hoonah, a little town of 800
people.It was a wonderful choice as we
walked around the town, stopped into local shops run by locals and just had
fun.Basically, the town was about 4
blocks one way, up a little hill and then 4 blocks the other way.
We stopped at one gift shop run by a 7th
generation native and spent quite a bit of time hearing him with stories of his
past.Most of the people here are a combination
of native Indian and Scandinavian counties, like Norway, Sweden and Finland. This person we talked had the eyes of Ed –
blue eyes and was very light skinned!
We ate a halibut lunch that was good and then on the way
back to the ship found a place that was sell crab dinners, so we had that
also!!Barb wanted fresh caught crab
and this was the place.
As is our custom, when we got back on the boat we went to a
little café and had tea and snacks and listened to music.
Again, our normal routine then is.
1.Dinner
2.The show which was a cast production number
called “Boogie Nights” and it was very good.
3.The casino where Barb broke event and Ed won a little
Tomorrow is our last stop and it will be at Ketchikan
Today it is the little town of Skagway and it was 55 degrees
when we left the ship at 7:30am because today we booked a tour on the White
Pass Scenic Railway tour.
Skagway is just a one street town.It was originally the gateway to the original
gold mining areas.We watched a video
and a Ranger presentation about the start of the gold rush.It was very interesting as there were a lot
of pictures that showed all aspects of life during that time.
The town of Skagway had not transformed itself from the gold
mining gateway to a totally tourist town and they did a good job of it.
We took a narrow-gauge train ride for about an hour up to
the summit and there were some amazing views along the way.
After the train ride we ate in town and then of course
shopped until late in the afternoon when it was time to go back to the ship.
Most of the afternoons, we have gone to the little café and
had tea and snacks and we did it again today.
We left our cabin at around 5:30pm to listen to the music
before going to the 7:00pm show.
The show tonight was a magician and he was quite good.
Then, of course it was on to dinner where we sat with a
couple from yesterday and also were joined by another couple
After dinner we went to the casino where Barb and a good win
and Edalso won.Both wins were the most per day that we have had
this trip.
We arrived in Juneau at 10:00am and we took a bus to a
harbor where we boarded a boat for a 1-hour boat ride where we saw Bald Eagles
and two whales, a momma and her baby. We
were only able to get a picture of the momma plus the elusive tail flipping
into the water. Once they do that, you
don’t see them for some time.
Then the boat took us to the edge of the Tongass Natural
Park where after seeing a movie in the visitor’s center we walked one mile to
almost the base of the Mendenhall Glacier and an enormous waterfall – what a
site.
To got closer to the waterfall, we had to wade across a
small stream. As you can see by the
above YouTube video, Barb attempted to walk on the rocks and she splashed into
the water. Ed took off his shoes and
socks and waded across. The water was 35
drees and it was up to Ed’s calves at the deepest point.
We were then on a sand bar with others and could get much
closed to the waterfall – now that was fun!!
We went back across the stream and made the 1-mile hike back
to where the busses left us off for the drive back to Juneau and at that point,
we walked around the shops and finally went back to the ship at 6:00pm –
showered and went to the last part of the show.
We walked into the show and after 5 minutes we walked out –
the singer was terrible in our view.
Then of course we went to eat and had a wonderful meal
After dinner, we went to the casino where Barb broke even and
Ed won a little.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Skagway
Night - night
See and listen to the falls - amazing
On the boat heading towards the glacier
The tail flip
Momma Wale
The Mendenhall Glacier
The waterfall - we walked to where
the people are at the bottom of the falls!!
At the base of the falls
Ready to go out for the evening
We are being told that internet will be not working some days so if the blog is not there, that's why!!
