Skagway, Alaska

August 3, 2013

Today we debarked the ship about 8:00 am.  That meant we had to get an early start since we needed to have our bags outside our room by 6:30 am, eat breakfast, and remove carry on baggage from our room by then.  This will be the beginning of the land tour portion of our trip.  This will last for 10 days/9 nights.  We met our tour director, Amanda, as we gathered to get off the ship.  She is responsible for overseeing baggage transfer, excursions, and hotels at each stop.

Our stay in Skagway began with a short bus tour of Skagway.  We went to an old miners cemetery and took a short hike to the Lower Reid Falls.

Miner's Cemetery

Lower Reid Falls

After the short tour, we checked into our room at the Skagway Westmark Inn.  At every town on our land tour, other than Fairbanks and Denali, we stayed at a Westmark Inn.  This chain of hotels is owned and operated by Holland America, which is the company that we booked our cruise - tour through.  Most of the rooms were adequate, if not fancy.  Considering that we were staying in remote towns in the Yukon Territory and Alaska, these places were fine.

WestMark Inn Skagway

Westmark Inn, Skagway

After checking in to our room we had a Reuben sandwich for lunch at the Red Onion Saloon in town. The Reuben was one of the best I have ever had.

Red Onion Saloon and street in Skagway

 After lunch we walked around town and into a few shops.  Skagway is primarily a tourist town and the shops show that.  We also walked to the small stream that runs through town and saw salmon swimming upstream to spawn.  This was something new for us and interesting to watch.

Salmon in stream

The salmon is a little difficult to see through the glacial silt in the stream.  The silt is about the consistency of powdered sugar and is in all streams created primarily by glacial melt off.

We took a hike over a bridge that crosses the Skagway River and walked about a mile on the other side of the river.  On this hike, we had good views of Harding Glacier outside of town.

Skagway River from walk way

Harding Glacier

Overall Skagway was an interesting little town, but one day in this location was enough.

A building in Skagway

Another view of Skagway with mountain in background

Cruising the Inside Passage

July 31, 2013 - August 2, 2013

We spent three days on a Holland America cruise ship, the Voldendam, cruising the inside passage from Vancouver, BC to Skagway, Alaska.  The cruise started very well with clear, beautiful weather.  There was a wonderful sunset.  Our cabin was nice, and the food was great (of course).

Mike on the ship

Mary on the ship with Canada Place in the background

Mike watching the sunset from the bow of the ship.

Mary enjoying the sunset

Beautiful sunset!

 Day 2 of the cruise was foggy all day long.  Really a shame since all we did was cruise the inside passage, and we weren't able to see it.  It also was a day that we should have been able to see whales, but nothing was visible.  Very disappointing! However, we were still on a cruise, still being pampered, and views even with the fog were interesting.

Mike looking out the back of the ship

Mary with the fog in the background

On the third day we were rewarded with sunny skies again!  We made a stop in Juneau and debarked to explore the town.  We rode the Mt. Robert tram up the mountain outside of Juneau.  We were rewarded with some beautiful views.  We even saw an eagle circling by the mountain.

View of Alaskan mountains from the ship as it approaches Juneau.

V

Another view of Alaskan mountains

Mike enjoying views from the Crow's nest lounge

Mary in the Crow's Nest Lounge

Our Cruise ship

Beautiful day in Juneau, Alaska

Mary at the viewpoint at the top of the tram

View from the top of the tram

Mike by a carving on a tree.

After riding the tram, we walked through Juneau and took a tour to the Alaskan Brewing Company just outside of Juneau.  We tasted (for free) many of the beers that they make and bottle there.  We especially like the Alaskan Amber and Gold.

On the fourth and last day of our cruise we debarked in Skagway ready to start the next phase of our cruise, land tour trip.  The views of the mountains coming into Skagway were beautiful.

Final thoughts about our cruise.  We enjoyed the times that the weather was clear and we had good views of the water and land.  We were disappointed that we did not see whales.  A few people on the cruise saw a whale, but only briefly because of all of the fog.  Of course, the food was good.  We ate in the dining room for supper one night and at lunch the next day.  Service was great and the food was good.  We chose to eat in the relaxed atmosphere of the Lido area the rest of the time.  We especially enjoyed the omelet station at the breakfast buffet each day.  I would do a cruise again, but don't know if I would enjoy one that was as long as a week.  Maybe if the weather was good every day and we stopped at different destinations every day.

Vancouver, B.C. Day 3

Another beautiful day in Vancouver.  Sunny and low 70's.  We have been so lucky with this weather.  Today we caught the free shuttle to Capilano.  Capilano has a suspension bridge, nature walk on the floor of a rain forest, a canopy walk among the trees, and a cliff walk above the Capilano River.

View from the suspension bridge

 We had to cross on the suspension bridge to get to two of the hiking areas and then cross again.  Yikes! Actually, since I have such a fear of heights, I thought it would be very difficult to do, but it wasn't too bad.  When the bridge began swaying some from the people walking, I had a little bit of trouble, but had to complete the walk.  Then coming back was fairly easy.

Proof that I crossed the bridge.

Mike on the bridge.

This picture shows how high the bridge is.

After crossing the bridge we walked around the trail at the floor of the temperate rain forest.  It is very different from the forests of Arkansas.  Then we walked on the canopy trail, high above, between trees of the Capilano forest.  These trails were fairly high, but were short walks between platforms around a tree. It gave a very interesting view of the forest.

Canopy Trail

Mary on the canopy walk.

 When finished with the canopy walk, we crossed back over the suspension bridge and took the cliff walk above the Capilano River.

Mary on the cliff walk

Mike on the cliff walk

 The cliff walk was as high as the suspension bridge, and was narrow, but didn't sway.  Gave us a very good view of the Capilano River.  After leaving Capilano, Mike and I ate a late lunch in downtown Vancouver then took a walk back to the hotel.  We are staying in for the evening so that we will be ready to board our cruise ship tomorrow. Our stay in Vancouver has been very relaxing.  We are looking forward to the next stage of our journey.  Until next time, so long.

Vancouver, B.C. Day 2

July 29, 2013

Today Mike and I visited a couple of areas in downtown Vancouver.  We started the day by riding a ferry to Granville Island.  This island has a public market, several restaurants, water sport shops, and the Granville Brewing Company.

Mary on Granville Island

Mike in front of the Granville Public Market

The Public Market contains everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood, cheese, pastries, and food stalls with complete meals.  It was fun to go through but since we are staying in a hotel couldn't really take advantage of buying anything. We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant on the island - Fried fresh halibut, fresh smoked salmon pizza. 

After leaving Granville Island, we decided to walk on the sea wall for a while.  Vancouver  has biking and walking trails around the entire peninsula.  What is really cool about it is that the biking and hiking lanes are separated.  Makes walking a lot easier.

Mike on the sea wall.

While on the sea wall we came to a beach area.  I thought it was way too cool for swimming, but some people were laying in the sun and swimming.  The high only got to about 72.  We did touch the water since Mike has never been to the Pacific before. It was really pretty and the weather was great.

Mike on the beach

Mary looking at the Pacific

After resting at the hotel for a while, Mike and I took the hotel shuttle to Gastown area.  It is the area of the original Vancouver.  It gets a lot of hype, but we weren't really impressed.  There are a lot of homeless people in Vancouver, and many of them seemed to be on the streets of Gastown.  The steam clock was interesting, but the rest of the area didn't have the history we expected.  The steam clock whistles on each quarter hour.

The Steam Clock in Gastown

Overall, this was a good day.  Enjoying the weather and doing a lot of walking.  That is one of the neat things about Vancouver, if you are in okay shape, you can get about anywhere by walking.

The Journey Begins

Sunday, 7/28/2013

Mike and I got up bright and early this morning along with sister Jane who is dropping us off at the airport.  Early was 4:00 am.  Our flight left at 6:00 am.  We flew to Dallas then caught the flight to Vancouver, BC.  It was an uneventful flight.  We saw some awesome views of the mountains just before we landed in Vancouver.  We are staying on the top floor of the Best Western Plus.  It has a balcony which has some very interesting views.  The weather is so nice here that we can sit out any time other than the couple of hours when it is in full sunshine.  We will be in Vancouver until our cruise leaves on Wednesday so we have 2 full days to enjoy the city.

Canada Place - our cruise will leave from here in a couple of days.

City view from our balcony at night.

View of mountains from Canada Place.

Mike is enjoying the location.

Mary is enjoying the pretty flowers in Vancouver.

View from our balcony.

Mike relaxing on the balcony.

Pre-Trip Thoughts

Two nights before our next big vacation.  We are flying to Vancouver where we will spend three nights, then we will be on a cruise of the Alaska inner passage for three days, and will end with a land tour of the Yukon and Alaska.  We have been planning this for what seems forever and it is finally here.

As always, I am excited and nervous about the beginning of the trip.  There has been so much happening in our lives lately that I haven't had the time for the type of pre-trip planning that I usually do.  However, the day will come, we'll get on the plane and begin the journey.

I will keep things posted as much as possible in remote areas.  And I will catch up on blogging when I return.

Random Thoughts of a Runner

 I just finished running 5K (that's 3.1 miles for those of you who don't run).  Not bad for a 58 year old.  Especially one who didn't start running until she was 54.  Four years ago I began running and eventually was running 5K on a regular basis.  I even ran in a couple of races.  Not to say that I can run at a very fast rate, but I do run.  Then life got in the way of my running, job, family stuff, bad weather and I got out of the habit.  I have been trying lately to get back in the habit, so it feels good that I ran as far as I did, even if it wasn't very fast.  Some people think that as you get older (notice I didn't say old) you have to stop doing a lot of things you love.  To a point that is true, but I think that if you persevere then you can do those things longer.  I hope to keep running as long as my knees and health allow.  Maybe this will help keep me healthy for a longer time.  So far I have been fortunate with my knees.  I don't seem to have the issues a lot of people my age have.  So maybe this year I will be able to run in a couple more races.  Not to win but to finish.  Sometimes that is what life is all about.  Not "winning", but finishing.  We look too much to who is #1 and don't look at all the people working to do the best they can until the very end. In finishing what they set out to do, they are winners in every sense of the word. So to any who read this, what ever it is that you desire, keep working on it until you have completed what you set out to do.  Press on to the finish line with all you have.