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.

Cruising!

A swim was tempting this morning, but I decided against it as I didn't want to be packing wet kit in my case.  Instead, I joined Dave and Tony at the casino - no, not for a gambling spree, but for the good-value three dollar breakfast.  Certainly better value than you'd find anywhere else locally!

 We passed a sports' stadium on the way and Dave joined the statues for a run. 

Tony & Kim picked us up in a taxi and we all arrived at the cruise ship terminal together.  The terminal acted as the USA border so, although Tony & Kim made their way through security fairly quickly, Dave & I were held up and were required to give our digital finger prints and facial photographs taken.  

Once on board, we made ourselves comfortable on an upper deck before going to our cabins.  These are quite large and have balconies.  We had forgotten that we would be welcomed with a bottle of bubbly in our cabin so that was a lovely surprise, as was the bottle stopper given to us by K&T.

The latter part of the afternoon was spent exploring the ship, although there still many areas into which we haven't ventured as yet.

We had been warned to expect mountains of good food, and we weren't disappointed.  Lunch consisted of a huge buffet, with all kinds of cooking styles, while the evening meal allowed a choice from a menu with a whole host of extremely efficient waiters.  All good!

We hosted Kim & Tony on our balcony this evening - well there was only really room for two at a time, so we moved positions!  The line of the mountains onshore was magical, only to be followed by an even more magical sunset! 

Cycling & Bridging

Started the day with another swim, this time having the pool to myself for the whole time - great!  There must be something with swimming and key cards though.  On returning to our room (Dave had already left for the casino!) I spent five minutes trying to gain entry, in the end resorting to the front desk and having it re-set.  Takes a while when you're on the tenth floor and the elevators are temperamental.

I breakfasted at another outfit close by and took the opportunity to inspect the library afterwards.  It's excellent, with huge numbers of books in each section, in a variety of languages, along with CDs, DVDs and masses of computer terminals on at least seven levels.

This afternoon, Dave hired a bike and rode around Stanley Park, while Kim and I took a "free" bus to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  Yesterday we had wondered whether it was worth the entry fee, but decided to go anyway, and were very pleased at our decision, although Dave and Tony were probably best not accompanying us.  

We began the adventure on the suspension bridge itself, with quite a wibble wobble all the way across its three hundred and twenty feet.  The views were fantastic, although we had to concentrate to make it across without incident.  

Next came the "Treetops Adventure" and the "Cliffwalk", both affording great views of the scenery below.  

   

We only wished we'd allowed longer so we could go further to Grouse Mountain, but the last bus ran at 16:30, which dictated our return journey.  

The evening saw us at Kim and Tony's for drinks before another super evening meal.  

Vancouver

I started the day with a swim.  This should have been an easy activity as I'd checked out its location and had sorted out what I needed.  Well, almost.  Having asked whether Dave would be in the room when I had completed my swim, I left without my key card.  Bad decision, which I realised as I was getting out of the lift since it occurred to me that I would need it for the return journey.  "Oh well, never mind," I thought, "hopefully someone will be in the lift already, so I won't need to swipe it to get back to the tenth floor".  Fine, except I found I needed the card to obtain entry to the changing room so had to go back to our room in any case.

Despite the hassles, the swim was good and I had the pool to myself for the majority of the sixty lengths.  "What great exercise," I hear you say.  Not really, as the pool was about a quarter of the length of the Tonbridge pool.

Dave and I took a late breakfast at Library Square - coffee and a muffin - adjacent to the very modern library building.

We spent the afternoon with Tony and Kim, walking to Gastown, where they still have the old gas lamps in the streets.

There is also an interesting steam clock.

We spent some time at the docks, and saw some large ships ready to set off as we will be doing on Sunday.

Stanley Park was the next destination, where we went to the aquarium.

Apart from the fishes there was also an "Amazon" zone with birds and butterflies.

The promised rain held off until after our evening meal.  I had my raincoat and Kim brought out a plastic strawberry, in which she thought was a plastic mac.  Imagine her surprise when she unfolded it to produce a bag - but Dave didn't want it to go to waste so decided to wear it anyway!  

Moving on again

It was with  mixed feelings that we settled down to our breakfast on the deck this morning - the scene was, as usual, beautiful with chickadees and a chipmunk taking advantage of the feeders, but we had finished our packing earlier, as it we were moving on again.  A new sighting today was a ground hog that sat up on the garden perimeter.  

Eva drove us for half an hour to catch the bus into Montreal.  We reached the airport in good time and the flight to Vancouver was uneventful.

The Canada Line train to downtown Vancouver was very civilised and from there it was a ten minute walk to the hotel.  Immediate impressions are:

• The beautiful line of the mountains east of the city;
• The long stacks of logs being floated down the Fraser River;
• The nearby harbour area from which we will be departing on Sunday.

I'm sure there'll be more over the next few days.

Tony and Kim arrived a few hours earlier than us and we met for a good catch and an evening meal.  We heard Black Sabbath were playing in Vancouver tonight and saw quite a few fans coming away from the arena (almost over the road from our hotel) on our way home. 

Another country day

Dave had another run this morning while Eva and I settled for a less energetic eight-o'clock walk.  One of the features was a garter snake, that slithered across in front of us and into the ditch beside the track.

Back home, we were treated to pancakes, bacon, blueberries, strawberries, banana and maple syrup, true Canadian style.  And to top it off, we ate it on the deck, while watching the wildlife in the garden - chickadees and humming birds again, and even an American goldfinch this morning.  The chipmunk didn't appear, but there were lots of butterflies and we heard the calls of other birds.  The house is surrounded by many trees so there is plenty of potential for nesting items.

This afternoon, Dave set off on Eva's bike, while Eva and I drove down to Sutton, which has some delightful shops.  On the way, we encountered some wild turkeys crossing the road.

The town has a sense of history and there are many plaques describing the buildings, both shops and churches.  Although there is a big supermarket with a large range of goods, Sutton also has many small shops selling clothes, kitchen ware, organic foods and spices, and a wonderful delicatessen, where we purchased some delicious cheeses.

The sunset this evening was, once again, brilliant.

We'll be leaving Sutton early tomorrow, but our thanks go to Evan and Jean Guy for a super stay.

The Eastern Townships

The 'Eastern Townships' is a term which refers to an area of Quebec, east of Montreal, just north of the border with the USA and south of the St Lawrence Seaway, to which some American 'loyalists' moved after the American Revolution.  It is a beautiful rural area with some small towns.  There is a mixture of agriculture, with beef cattle, dairy cattle and horses along with arable farming, including maize.

Dave and Eva went out running this morning, while I took advantage of a lie-in before breakfast, which included home grown fruit and almond croissant, on the deck.  This overlooks the flower garden, where bird feeders have been set up, and we were treated to our first sightings of chickadees and, fleetingly, humming birds.

 There is also a chipmunk, who dashes around and enjoys the bird feed too.  Having only seen pictures of chipmunks before, I was surprised by the small size of this one.

 Our travels took us to an alpaca farm, where the owners have bred livestock for many years, and decided to look after alpacas in their retirement!  I now know that:

• Alpacas can live up to twenty five years;
• The gestation period is eleven and a half months;
• The babies suckle for about six months;
• The fibre is up to three times warmer than sheep wool
• The fibre can grown up to six inches in a year

The next port of call was the Olympic Equestrian Park at Bromont.   There was nothing  going on, but we parked the car and looked around briefly.  

After lunch, we drove to l'Orpailleur winery and were able to look at the information and equipment without having an official tour.  We were even given two small free samples! 

Back home, there was time to sit on the deck bird watching for a while and this time the chickadees were joined by a woodpecker and a humming bird came to take some of the syrup put out for her.  

Sutton via Montreal

We said goodbye to the Lynches this morning and took a taxi to Union Station, a large complex housing terminals for buses, streetcars and the subway as well as commuter and intercity trains.  There is a check-in system for luggage, airport style, which seems to be really sensible as it means no humping large cases on to the train, finding suitable space amongst the baggage already stored or cluttering up aisles. 

I'm starting this on the train (over five hour journey) so perhaps I'd better save my final comment on the system until we are in possession of our belongings! 

Although we were able to book our tickets from the UK, so knew we would have a seat on this train, we could not book specific seats and Dave and I are not together.  That's no real problem as we are located fairly close and can communicate with each other.  Plenty of leg room and comfy seats too.  

In fact, the luggage collection worked well and we were soon on our way with chauffeurse, Eva.  Movement was rapidly lost as we entered the evening rush hour traffic but once we left Montreal behind we picked up speed en route to Sutton.  

The town is made up of only 4,000 people, but seems to be delightful, with a good variety of shops and services.  It is very much a rural town, though, in the midst of a farming and woodland region.  I hadn't realised it was so close to the USA border, but the mountains of Vermont can be seen in the distance and Eva says she skis there in the winter.  

The house is lovely and is surrounded by seven acres of land.  

We were treated to a super meal, including blueberry pie, made with fruit from the garden, picked this morning.

The Beaches & Good Vibrations

One of the benefits of Toronto is moving around on the transport system, for which we can buy a Day Pass, which allows two adults (plus two children, if you have a family) unlimited travel on underground trains, buses and street cars for $10.75 at the weekend.  This has been of amazing value for us in the past couple of days.

 We didn't really know what to expect in the way of weather during our trip and brought a variety of attire, to cater for all eventualities.  In fact, the temperatures have been high - between about 25 and 30°C and possibly more than that today.  We took the chance to have a gentle day and walk in Kew Gardens and along the boardwalk at the Beaches, beside Lake Ontario.  Anusha and Aiden encountered a street artist who used fire within his act and also shaped long balloons into swords for them.

 Actually, it may have been a relatively gentle day for me, but Dave went running round a local park early this morning, and then participated in five shorter (about one hundred metres) races during the day with Anusha and Aiden.

We were introduced to paddle boarding, in which people kneel (or stand, once they are more confident) on a surf board.  It certainly looked to be a great activity along the shoreline in sunny weather. 

We made our way to the Harbour area in the evening, with good views of the CN Tower, the tallest building in Toronto.

The rest of the evening was devoted to a different kind of beach.  The Beach Boys (well two out of five touring recently for their fiftieth anniversary) and five other musicians were playing at the Canadian National Exhibition Centre.  Amazingly, this was a "free" concert, with a ground entrance fee of just $12 for the "olds". They played their most popular hits of the sixties and threw in some other famous rock songs, like "Summer Time Blues".  The performance was excellent.  

Toronto

Our first activity this morning was being shown the "Laneways" by Anusha (on her bike) and Aiden, culminating with playing some ball games back at their garage.

The only thing I remembered about Toronto, from a very brief visit a few years ago, was the underground walkway.  This links twenty eight kilometres of shopping, various kinds of entertainment and other services.  We used a small portion of this on our way to the St Lawrence Market this morning.

The market is part covered, part outdoor and is made up of many types of stalls.  There was even a group of people in costume singing. 

Later, Dave and I co it he'd to the Royal Ontario Museum, where I managed to get round about a tenth of the exhibits, including the wonderful crystal section, one of the many stars being a huge sample of wulfenite.

The day ended with ice creams at Ed's.

Goodbye Niagara

For the previous two mornings, we had some interesting conversations over breakfast with the other guests - two American couples from Michigan - discussing subjects like the 1812 war (when the USA invaded Canada), cycling routes and where we would like to live in the world if money was no object.  This morning, there were two new couples at breakfast and we quickly discovered that one pair had returned from cruising the Alaska coast just a week ago, on exactly the same ship which will carry us.  What a coincidence!  Fortunately, they had a wonderful experience.

We visited the small, but impressive, historical museum in Niagara this morning, learning more about the invasion, which impacted greatly on the town since, in May 1813, the town was burned down and posed for photos afterwards!

Next stop was the apothecary "museum" which depicts a pharmacy of 1869, with a mass of pills, potions and posters, as well glassware, utensils and that unique aroma.

 The bicentenary has prompted a series of re-enactments, one of which took place as we were in the town centre, where the US soldiers tried to persuade a generally unimpressed (and in some cases, hostile) contingent of locals that they were friends and meant no harm.

Once again, many thanks to Phil and Chris for their thoughtful planning and being kind hosts.  

We had thought that purchasing the bus tickets from St Catharine's in advance would ensure that we would be able to give our hosts in Toronto a specific time of arrival.  Not so.  Although we arrived in good time, only a handful of people were selected to take their seats, while the rest of the moderately large queue had to wait for an hour for the next one.  Grrr!

Once in Toronto, though, we were given a great welcome by Damien, Indrani, Anusha and Aiden.  They live in a lovely spot, close to the Greek area, where we were able to sample some Greek food this evening.

This and that

Another good day:-

• pancakes for breakfast;
• historical walk;
• lunch at Niagara College;
• suitcase hunting;
• swim.

Pancakes were served with maple syrup and fresh peaches, grown locally - yummy!

The historical walk was brilliant.  Our guides were dressed in costume and took us through the events of 1812/13, when the United States declared war on the British/Canadians/Native American Allies on our walk from the lakeside, through the cemetery to the museum.  We knew very little about this, so it was all fascinating.  

Lunch was prepared and served by students on the Culinary Studies course and was very good.

Dave and Phil took off on a cycle ride while Chris and I went to the mall hunting for a replacement suitcase, mine having been butchered in the journey across the Atlantic.  

Back at the house, we took advantage of our hosts' pool and cooled down with a swim.

Thanks to all who have made comments.