Vancouver again

As ever, when on holiday, the first part seems to stretch out and I'm able to enjoy long weeks, while the second part, still thoroughly enjoyable, simply whizzes by.  

I have a postscript to the comment I made a few days ago about the Glums, adjacent to us for our evening meal.  They are actually the "Not-So-Glums". We now believe them to be parents with two sons.  Having engaged the mother in conversation a few nights ago, we were shown their video of some bears and they have been greeting us cheerfully as long-lost friends ever since!

We're back in Vancouver and docked just before 07:00 this morning.  

Our flight doesn't leave 18:30 so we took the opportunity to meet Sadie (one of Dave's colleagues at the Olympic badminton last year) and family before setting out for the airport.  Sadie gave birth to a little girl just over a week ago, so it was very bold of her.  

Stuffed again!

The subject title refers to a comment made by Kim in the Grand Restaurant earlier.  This is where we have our evening meals, served by a superb set of waiters, assistant waiters and sommeliers.  Today, being our last full day on board ship, we were also invited to a special brunch there.  I've commented on the food previously, but this was an ultra wonderful spread with tons of food laid out in a central area, some pre-prepared, but also with many chefs preparing food on the spot: stir fry from scratch, with a variety of meats or fish, different kinds of eggs, pancakes, in addition to a fruit expert cutting melons etc freshly.  

He (and others) had already produced some sculptured fruit and there were plenty of large ice sculptures on view.   

It wasn't easy to choose what to eat, but the desserts proved particularly difficult - star from my point of view was probably the chocolate fountains with plenty of fruit chunks and marshmallows for dipping.

The morning began with a swim.  Having broken my goggles a few days ago and suffered stinging eyes from the salty pool, I sought out goggles in Juneau, but only managed to find children's sizes.  Fortunately I was able to expand the strap and took advantage of the pool yesterday and today.  The pools are well populated in the afternoons with plenty of young people but but it's only apparently the brave or foolish that frequent them before breakfast.  That suits me!  It was raining yesterday, but the sun shone this morning.  On both occasions the water itself was fine but the wind made itself known on completion of the swim.

Talking of weather, I can't believe we've been so lucky.  We've had a couple of brief periods of fog, and there was some rain yesterday but it cleared up for our nature trip in Ketchikan.  Otherwise, the majority of the time has been sunny with warm temperatures.  The sea has been correspondingly calm and we've hardly felt the motion of the ship.

Dave and I spent a thoroughly enjoyable hour in the theatre this afternoon at a jazz concert, while this evening we supped aperitifs in a lounge with wonderful forward views before descending to the restaurant and another super meal along with farewells to the waiting staff.

Ketchikan

Today we stopped off at Ketchikan - our last port of call before arriving back at Vancouver.  Docking wasn't until early afternoon and, as we came into the pier, we thought wondered how much there would be to occupy us, after our planned shore excursion - a nature walk.

In fact the walk was excellent, with a lot of information, and plenty of wildlife sightings, including three black bears at a stream.  The male scooped a salmon out of the water - just like you see in wildlife films!  

Our guide gave us a wealth of information about the flora within the forest - the mosses, lichens and berries,  as well as the succession of species thar occur, especially, alder, spruce and hemlock. Bear footprints were also in evidence, and scar marks on a tree, where apparently the mother had taught her cub about climbing.  

Plenty of salmon were to be seen in the stream, along with a variety of gulls, a couple of herons and some eagles.  A new power plant is in the process of being built and there are, at present, some pipes with water gushing down them.  Some of the salmon clearly saw these pipes as a salmon run and tried, unsuccessfully to "leap" up and into them.  Poor salmon! 

On our way back into town, we stopped off at Creek Street, which was well known as the red light area until 1954 when the houses were forced to close.  Nowadays, it is a very attractive area, the buildings mostly consisting of shops, many of which have plaques explaining their history.  There was plenty for us to see here.

The evening meal was, as usual, a real pleasure.

Whales!

So yesterday was spectacular.  How should I describe today then?  

WOW might be appropriate!  

After docking in Juneau and an early breakfast I was down on the pier to meet the rest of my group for the Photo Sea and Land Safari - in effect, whale watching and a nature hike in addition to receiving some tuition in photography.  It was brilliant!  I took nearly four hundred photographs while out but have managed to whittle them down to about just over a hundred! 

Although the day seemed to dawn brightly, there was a fog lingering over the bay as we headed out to sea in a small motor boat.  Our photo expert was a photo journalist who is specialising in wild life at the moment and he was able to pass on tips about virus aspects of photography which was great.  Our boat expert, Captain Jim, took us out to an area known for its abundance of herring and therefore whales, stopping to see a seal lion ringing a bell on a large buoy on the way.  

I can't give enough superlatives about the whale watching.  We saw hump backs - a mother and baby, plus about three or four others, who swam about, spouted and dived time and time again, showing their tails really quite close to us.  Just beautiful.  

The land part of our trip was pretty good too!  We saw numerous salmon, come back to their spawning grounds, a bald eagle in a tree, and a porcupine on our way back in another tree - I hadn't realised that they were able to climb - and also another glacier at close quarters, the Mendenhall, which is retreating fairly rapidly.  The only (slight) disappointment was not seeing any bears.

Dave participated in a bike ride and beer tasting this morning and I met him on the pier after our trips for a walk round Juneau and a visit to the museum.  

This evening was our second "formal" evening meal, in which we we offered large lobster tails.  Yummy!  It ended with the chefs, waiters and all serving staff being presented to us and parading down the fancy staircase.  

Here are some comments about Juneau and other things I have learnt during the day.

• I didn't realise that Anchorage was not the capital until a couple of days ago.

• The capital could have been called "Harris" as he and Juneau were the two founders of the settlement.

• Juneau has a population of only 32,000.

•  A bald eagle has a wing span of seven feet.

• Humpback whales can be 45 feet in length and weigh 45 tons. 

• They migrate to Hawaii in September and stay there until April/May.

• They have heir young whilst in Hawaii but don't eat a great deal.  Most of their feeding takes place off Alaska.

Hubbard Glacier

Spectacular morning!

The Hubbard Glacier was the main attraction of the day, and it really was worth the two hours spent out in the elements on deck thirteen. 

The glacier reaches the sea in Yakutat Bay and is an impressive sight.  It is one of the few glaciers that has not been retreating and is apparently the largest tidewater glacier in North America, stretching seventy six miles from source to sea.  

We were really lucky with the weather as, although not sunny, there was no rain and the clouds lifted a little during the morning.  The captain said were able to get closer to the glacier than any of his other trips this season.  Once there, we angled to port or starboard to give different views of the glacier as it adjoins the sea.  It was cold, but not as cold as I had imagined it would be and the wind, which had been bracing, to say the least, dropped a little as we approached the glacier.

The whole experience was a geographer's dream, allowing close up views of the:
• portions of deep blue ice, which have been greatly compressed;

 

• crevasses - deep cracks in the surface of the ice;
• layers of moraine within the ice, gathered as the ice grinds over the rock further up the valley;
• winding lines of material on the surface of the ice, having fallen from the valley sides;
• holes in the front edge of the ice, with meltwater flowing out;
• "explosions" as parts of the ice calved away, crashing into the sea.

The afternoon was spent in a rather different way - wine tasting!  There were twelve on offer and I sampled the six white wines while Dave chose the six reds.  

We have nicknamed the quartet who occupy the table adjacent to us in the evening the "Glums". Russian?  Ever talk?  Rarely.  It may be a father, two sons and a daughter.  The young lady is particularly stony and I'm not sure that she's said a dozen words in the last four evenings and certainly has never knowingly smiled.

Cruising 3

The day dawned rather cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining.  The temperature had dropped noticeably and we could see small rivulets of ice descending valleys in the higher peaks.

After breakfast we made our way to the theatre for the "Ocean's Ahead: Secrets of Ship's Navigation" - a presentation by the Chief Navigation and Environmental Officers - which was very interesting.

It seems the company adheres to a strict environmental policy, tighter than required by law and it was good to learn that a huge amount of recycling takes place from waste products.  For instance, there is crushing equipment for glass, aluminium and tin on board ship and staff members sort everything.  Once the products are taken ashore at the end of the cruise, all proceeds from the recyclable materials are returned to employees so there is an incentive to recycle as much as possible.

I spent much of the morning up on deck thirteen on whale watch, and saw some spectacular scenery as well.  There were numerous sightings, but most of the camera clicks were just too late!

Mid afternoon we dropped anchor at Icy Strait Point and waited to be tendered ashore.  We rather showed our cruising inexperience here.  We had imagined that, since we had already purchased a shore excursion, our "tender" ticket would be included in this.  Not so.  Although it doesn't cost anything, you have to pick up a ticket in the hours before going ashore.  By the time we realised this, we were in block 23 and had to wait for a couple of hours before disembarking.  

The trip to Hoonah on Chichahof Island was well worth it though.  We took what was labelled as a tram ride round part of the island, although it was more like a slow open single decker bus with two carriages behind.  

The driver, who also spoke over a loudspeaker, was excellent and gave us  information about the flora, fauna, weather, population, island, town, services etc.  For instance, we heard that the sea otter wraps her babies in kelp seaweed in order to keep them warm and also so they don't stray while she goes for food; some of the many berries (of which he listed about ten) are used medicinally and the folded rocks show how tectonically active the area has been (and still is).

Coming back just before sunset gave us more beautiful views over the sea.

Cruising 2

We're very impressed with the cruise and the Celebrity line so far.
• Large amount of space so, although there are many people on board, it never seems that way.
• Good food, available whenever you want it.  You can pay extra for "super" or speciality dining, but there's no need for that.  There is far more than we need (or want) and we can pick and choose at each meal.
• Unlimited coffee, tea and soft drinks available all day.  Alcohol is extra, but we can partake when we choose.
• Plenty of activities - sporty, entertainment, 

My annoying difficulty today was at the pool.  I knew that it was filled with sea water and was about to put my cheapo goggles on (bought in Vancouver as I hadn't brought mine from home) when they broke.  Being an intrepid traveller(!) I continued but couldn't do more than ten lengths as my eyes were really suffering.  Ten lengths in a tiny pool takes about four minutes!  I was surprised to find that they don't sell goggles on board so now I'm stymied as far as my preferred type of exercise is concerned.

Have done a bit of sea/ocean gazing but haven't seen any wildlife as yet.  I'm optimistic for the next few days though.

The weather for the whole of our trip so far has been great, although it has been cloudy today, with much reduced temperatures and fairly heavy rain this afternoon.  Let's hope for better tomorrow, when we go ashore for the first time.  

The passengers were encouraged to dress up for the meal this evening and, once again, it was super.