Saturday, September 18, 2010

Jax is Two

Happy Birthday to Jackson
who is big boy 2 now.
We had fun at his
"All Aboard" Train party.

Candle blowing time.
Jackson enjoyed his presents but he wanted
everyone else to open them for him.
Big sister Ayden
Sweet cousin Gracie
Toothless Cousin Spencer :)
Constant Motion Cousin Coen
and Baby Cousin Hadley
Hope you have fun with all those trains & cars Jax -
Happy Birthday!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Victoria and Home

We spent most of Friday cruising towards home -
we just had one more stop
at Victoria, British Columbia.
This stop was to satisfy some law about docking
at a foreign port since we had been in foreign waters.
There were quite a few other ships headed our way -
it reminded me of a child's story about
boats or trains racing to the finish line.

Around 7PM we were docked.
Neither Steve nor I had ever been to Canada before.
This was our shortest stop yet since we only had
about 4 hours to tour the town.
Victoria is known for its Burchart Gardens,
touring its pubs and docks,
tea at the Empress
But we chose a tour of the Craigdarroch Castle.
It was completed in 1890 by coal baron Robert Dunmuir
who I don't think ever even got to actually live there.
His wife and children lived there until 1908.
Then it was used for a Military Hospital,
Victoria College, Victoria Conservatory of Music, and finally
Craigdarroch Castle Historic House Museum.

It is four floors of beautiful stained glass and intricate woodwork.


This was their view from the top tower of the house.
As you can see - our time was running out.
They only gave us an hour to tour the house but we
could have spent a great deal more time there.
The rest of our tour around town,
although interesting, was mostly in the dark.
Thus, pictures were not so great. (See Empress above)
This is one place Steve and I would both like to visit again
when we have more than a few hours.
We got back on board and cruised through the night.
I woke up around 6Am to this view of Seattle
Time to go home.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Ketchikan

I woke up Thursday morning and knew
by the noises that we were docking.
I slid open our glass door to see what
Ketchikan looked like and heard a loud splash.
My first thought was that someone had thrown
something overboard - a big NO-NO!
But when I stepped out on the deck
I heard more splashes.
It took me a few minutes to wake up and
realize that the salmon were jumping -
but it's hard to get a good picture of them.
When I saw this:

I thought that Ketchikan must be really small -
but the town was on the other side of the ship.
However, I enjoyed watching the fishing and tour
boats come and go.
And it was neat to watch the water planes
(or whatever they're called)
landing and taking off.
We wandered over to the town side of the boat
and Ketchikan is a small fishing/tourist town
but kinda quaint.

We were only going to be docked for the morning
so we headed out to see the town.

We took a tour on one of these horse drawn trolleys.
One of those 'quaint' things about the town were
these 'street' stairs. These are considered actual
streets and if you live on one you have
to park and walk the rest of the way -
just think about moving furniture or carting
toddlers and groceries - especially
in this town that has record rainfalls.

Ketchikan is also known for it's numerous
totem poles. I had always thought totem poles
were a religious symbol but they are really stories.
People also give totem poles as special birthday
or anniversary presents, for special honors, and
they even have some if you've been dishonorable.
This creek is one of the main salmon ladders.
They said that when they are at the top of the season
a small person can walk across this creek
without getting their feet wet.
Another totem pole.
Ready to get back on board.
Later in the day as we were headed towards Victoria.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Glacier Bay

We said goodbye to Skagway around 7:30 pm
and enjoyed the view until it was too dark to see much.

Around 6 am we picked up the required
National Park Rangers that
would give us direction and commentary
throughout our stay in Glacier Bay.

Below is the glacier that our boat was allowed to
stop and visit for an extended period of time -
probably about an hour.
We were on the Starboard side so our 1st view
doesn't look like much - but that dirty ice
looking stuff to the bottom left is part of the glacier.
To better understand it's size - there are 2 men walking around
on the shore just to the right of the glacier
and there are 5 tents on the far right side of the picture.
After about half an hour the boat turned
and we had this view of the glacier.
We sat there and waited to see if we would
get to see it calving. Steve thought it was like
watching ice melt - isn't he funny.
We did see some parts fall and it was amazing
at the 'crashing' noise such a little bit would make.
And we often heard loud crashes within
the glacier that we couldn't see.
We cruised by several other glaciers as we
wandered through the bay.
On our way out of the bay we started
seeing a lot more wildlife.
We saw a humpback whale crest
but I was too much in awe to snap a picture.
But we saw lots and lots of whales (orca and humpback)
sea lions, sea otters, and eagles.
The rangers got on and off the boat by climbing
down a ladder to this smaller boat.
The end of the day brought some beautiful horizons
and we continued to see whales for quite awhile.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Day 5 - Skagway, Alaska

We awoke Tuesday morning to the sounds of
men shouting and motors grinding as
we docked into the Skagway port.

One of the many other cruise ships that
followed the same route as us
was coming in behind us.
We had a gorgeous cool and sunny day.
The town was about 1/4 mile from the dock
but we really enjoyed the view before we
even left the boat.

Skagway was a railroad town and port of call
back in the day of rail travel and the rail trips
were the main attraction here.
It sounded like a neat tour up to the
Klondike Highway and the
Yukon Suspension Bridge.
But it was an all day trip and that suspension bridge
thing made Steve a little nervous.
We had some time before our tour so we walked into town
and enjoyed the view along the way.

Skagway is a little town -
only 800 when the cruise ship season is over.
They have one school from Kg - 12th grade
with 9 teachers and 76 students.
The Red Onion Saloon is known for
its 'spoiled doves' historical reputation.





Our first tour took us on a scenic drive up over the town.
The mountain here was Harding Mt. and they said
it was named after President Harding who was the only
U.S President to visit Skagway.
He complained constantly of being cold and then
promptly returned home and died of pneumonia -
at least that's what they said.




We did see an airplane arrive at their 'airport'.
The tour then took us to a museum - a very good one actually.
They had a lot of artifacts from the miners and
we could have spent more time there.
We also went to a Sculpture Garden - this was the only
sculpture I found interesting but they had enlarged photos
with a miner's notes about their lives -
it looked like an awful life.
They said only a small percent actually made
and KEPT their earnings of gold -
some guy named Nordstrum was one of them.
Most was spent on prostitutes, staying alive
or swindled away from them.
The tour we took of the Red Onion was led by this 'madame'
The was NOT Steve's favorite tour - he didn't like her silliness.
The history she told though was pretty sad -
some of it downright criminal which was
a large problem Skagway had.
Here in St. Louis we have our Jesse James
there they have Soapy Smith.
We enjoyed Skagway for it's scenery
but it's not a place I'd want to live.