A quick look at some photos post cruise

British Columbia and Alberta

Hi, hi, hi - I finally have Internet access and time to blog again! So...........

After our cruises we disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia and spent five days there taking up the offer of an upgrade to penthouse accommodation with our friends Bryan and Liz for just $50 extra per night between the four of us. We did lots of site seeing using the hop on and hop off bus and visited Gastown, Yaletown and beautiful Stanley Park. Best of all was the food market on Granville Island which was just three blocks away from our hotel plus a short ride across the water on the False Creek ferry. Fresh supplies meant we were able to enjoy home cooking again! We had a final lunch with Phil and three of his friends and he then went home to Australia for a brief one week break before his next contract started in Hollywood, Florida. He's back here now (spoke with him last night) and hard at work rehearsing.

From Vancouver, Bryan and Liz headed off on their Rocky Mountaineer tour and we'll catch up with them in Los Angeles next weekend. We hired a car and drove out towards the Rocky Mountains staying overnight in Kelowna before heading on to the first part of our home exchange -a three night stay at Fairmont Hot Springs in the Rockies. What a drive......snow covered mountains, beautiful lakes and streams - the camera was hard at work. Our accommodation villa was very comfortable and thankfully very warm. Natural wildlife was everywhere - deer outside our door.

We soaked in the natural hot springs until we were prunes - it was so warm (water 39 degrees) and relaxing, with the snow covered Rockies to gaze at. I kept a card that shows the mineral composition of the water - all these people go there to soak away their aches and pains and then shower and wrap themselves up in warm clothes to go home. While we were at Fairmont we drove off-road (nearly forgetting we weren't in a 4WD) and followed gravel tracks around lakes, up back roads etc and hardly saw a soul. It was truly beautiful.

On Monday we drove from Fairmont to the second stage of our home exchange at High River in the neighbouring province of Alberta. This involved driving over the other side of the Rockies. Wow....I just can't describe the extraordinary scenery. I was thrilled to see a black mother bear with two cubs on the side of the road and I have never seen so many motor homes and 5th wheelers as those we passed on the Trans-Canada highway.

We stopped at Banff on the way and took the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain where it was snowing. I caught my first ever snowflake with all the bits jutting out of it. From there we drove on to High River on the prairie. High River is a town of about 2,000 people and we are 10 minutes out of town on a 5 acre block surrounded by ranches. From the back half of the house, we gaze over the prairie with cattle grazing to the snow capped Rocky Mountains. It gets very cold here and now that it's officially "summer" I can report that it was 13 degrees yesterday morning with a wind chill factor of -1. However last night we were able to get into the outdoor hot tub at 11:00 p.m. (still with the last of daylight on the horizon) and I really enjoyed it.

In British Columbia on the other side of the Rockies there are trees everywhere but way back when white man first arrived here, there were no trees - just flat land for miles and miles. We've enjoyed sleeping in for the last two mornings and driving into town yesterday and into Nanton today to spend some time in the Bomber Command Museum of Canada learning all about the bomber offensive in the 2nd World War. I now know a lot more about the Avro Lancaster and Canada's role with Bomber Command.

What's been especially good about this home exchange has been the ability to see and experience how Canadians holiday in the mountain and lake areas and how country Canadians live on the prairie. Friday night we're going to watch ice hockey - one of Canada's most popular sports.

I hope all family members and friends are well and happy. No photos accompany this post but hopefully next time. Holiday is drawing to a close - we are due home on Wednesday 9 June.

Love to all and can someone from the family please read this to my Mum. Ta

Hugs

Lyn

Alaska's Inside Passage

Skagway, our fourth port of call, is located at the northern tip of Alaska’s Inside Passage. It was established in 1898 as the Alaskan gateway for the early Klondike Gold Rush. There are only about 1000 year round residents but of course this number swells through the summer months to cater for the ship loads of tourists. Many of the original buildings have been preserved in this very picturesque and tranquil little town surrounded by snow capped mountains and the Skagway River.

We went on the most amazing 3 hour round trip to the White Pass summit, aboard the White Pass and Yukon narrow gauge railway. There was snow piled high on each side of the track and it was absolutely “freezing” when I stepped out onto the platform between the carriages to take some photos.

Unforgettable Hubbard Glacier

The next day we cruised the Hubbard Glacier and it was an experience I’ll never forget. It’s right up there with the Taj Mahal and Niagara Falls as ‘spine tingling’. This is where having a balcony cabin is especially great.We were able to spend the day alternating between balcony/cabin as the ship cruised closer and closer to the glacier, looking down at the icebergs getting thicker and thicker on the water. We all ordered soup from room service and literally put on most of our warm clothes. Everyone on the ship was so excited as it was such a beautiful day and we were very lucky to see the glacier ‘calve’ as almost half of the entire ice front crashed into the bay. You could hear the collective gasps of wonder throughout the ship. I was lucky enough to capture this moment on video but it really doesn’t do justice to the majesty of it. Prior to the ice breaking away, there was a sound similar to that of thunder and then after the ice fell, a huge wave rocked the ship. It was so great to share this once in a lifetime moment with Phil.

I was so lucky to have my camera poised to shoot the glacier calving.

Sitka

The day after Hubbard Glacier was spent in Sitka learning about its Russian history and how the native Indians battled the Russians. Sitka was once the capital of “Russian America” and only came under US ownership just over a century ago. There were more interesting totem poles to view and the dormant volcano - Mount Edgecombe - with its snow capped peak. We also hiked through our second temperate rainforest.

Nanaimo

We bid Alaska farewell and cruised on to Nanaimo, the 3rd oldest city in British Columbia. We enjoyed a leisurely day strolling through the town and finished with fish and chips on this cute wharf restaurant before reboarding the ship. As we sat there we watched people buying live seafood from one of the moored trawlers.

Victoria

Victoria is on Vancouver Island and is rather British like with its impressive parliament buildings and this beautiful Empress Hotel. We shared a cab out to Burchart Gardens on 55 acres and were happy we took the advice we were given to spend some time there. The gardens started as a hobby to cover a worked-out limestone quarry. I took over 40 photos of the Sunken, Rose, Japanese, Italian and Mediterranean gardens.

Vancouver

We are now enjoying Vancouver, which is Canada's 3rd largest city and of course home to this year's Winter Olympics. It's about the same size as Brisbane and has a beautiful harbour which enables the cruise ships to berth right in the centre of the city. We've spent three days sightseeing and love the place.

North to Alaska

I'm a few days behind with my blog but have 30 minutes at Nanaimo's Regional Library here on Vancouver Island (Canada) so I'll see how much I can write in that time.

Cruising up Alaska’s inside passage has been fantastic. First port of call was San Francisco and a revisit to the Golden Gate Bridge (this time with Phil and Marco) and a drive down the world famous, very crooked, Lombard Street (something we didn’t do in 2008 when we did our home exchange in San Rafael, just north of San Fran). After that we met up with our friends Bryan and Liz and enjoyed a clam chowder lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf. The highlight of the day was cruising under the Gateway Bridge as we waved San Fran goodbye from the bow (lots of freezing wind blowing). San Francisco was followed by two sea days of pure relaxation as we made our way up to Ketchikan (salmon capital of the world) and our first Alaskan port of call - fishing and tourism are the main industries.

Athough it rains in Ketchikan 360 out of 365 days, we were blessed to have sunshine the whole day and enjoy a hike through a temperate rainforest just starting to come to life for spring (no bears in sight) thankfully! We learnt about the different forest plants and berries and I can now identify skunk cabbage (the plant eaten by bears to relieve their constipation after months of hibernation) – a skill I’m sure will come in handy!!!! We were introduced to the ancient art of totem pole carving, a technique used by the natives of early Alaska to tell their stories. I saw my first bald eagle in the wild, patted a reindeer and now understand the life cycle of salmon. The streams in that rainforest will be teeming with them in August when they “smell” their way back to spawn in the stream they were born in, after about two years out at sea. Amazing! The five species of salmon prevalent there are king, coho, pink, sockeye and chum.

Next port of call was Juneau, the capital of Alaska with a population of 31,000. Its main industries are government, tourism, fishing, mining and logging. The native inhabitants are the Tlingit tribe. What a day we had! We started with a walk along the waterfront to pat Patsy Ann, Juneau’s famous deaf dog that used to go down to the wharf to greet every ship long before anyone could see it on the horizon. We hiked to Mendenhall Glacier, took a cable car ride 1800 feet up Mount Roberts and found snow at the summit. I took some spectacular photos of the snow capped mountains sloping down to the water and beautiful Juneau. We walked to the Governor’s house (which Sarah Palin wouldn’t move into when she was governor), visited Alaska’s State Capitol building, the centre of government in Alaska and enjoyed the treat of treats on the wharf…..king crab and Alaskan beer to wash it down – yum yum!

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Love to all family and friends

One Tequila, Two Tequilas, Three Tequilas, Four......

Have just returned to San Diego for a day ashore after five night cruise to Mexico. Life aboard for the five days has been very enjoyable with lots of margaritas and catching up with Phil. It was so good to cuddle him. Welcome aboard show was fantastic as it gave me the first opportunity to see Phil perform since our last cruise in September 2008.

Blue Margarita to match my blue jacket - first night on board!

First port of call was Ensenada which is a fishing and commercial port 68 miles south of Tijuana in Mexico. Lots of street vendors selling jewellery and 'silver' and plenty of pharmacies selling prescription drugs with no need for a prescription.

Ensenada

From there we went to Cabo San Lucas which is everyone's favourite Mexican port. Phil and his friends knew exactly where to take us and fortunately Marco speaks Spanish so he was able to bargain for a very good taxi fare. We were sitting on the beach at Mango Deck drinking margaritas by 10:00 a.m. I have never seen so many people trying to sell jewellery, clothing, silver, cigars, leather etc. We just sat in our beach beds under the umbrella drinking our margaritas while they walked past us with their wares.

On the beach 10:00 a.m. Cabo San Lucas

More news next time I get a chance. Internet time running out. Frustrating not having as much access as I need to Internet.

Love to family and friends. Can someone from family please phone Mum and give her my love and read the blog to her.

Ta

After two full days of being a tourist in San Diego, I had a day off yesterday and spent it sipping coffee in the local coffee shop and reading. Today (Sunday) was spent at Balboa Park. At 1200 acres it's half as big again as Central Park in New York, making it the USA's largest urban park. What a place!!! The buildings all have a very strong Spanish influence having been built for the 1915 Panama-California Expo (the world's first World Fair) to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. There are 15 major museums in the park, several performance venues, beautiful gardens and the San Diego Zoo. It also houses an international village that has houses from countries all over the world opened to the public on a Sunday with samples of their local food etc. It was very interesting and typically 'yummy'.

I visited the Timken Museum of Art in the park and viewed all the paintings you can see from this link. I learnt a bit more about Rembrandt and saw some of his etchings from the period in his life just after he went bankrupt. He had a very sad life really. He lost three children in early infancy and then his wife died and left him her worldly wealth on the condition that he didn't remarry (cheeky hey). He then loved and lived with his former housekeeper who was pregnant with his child and the Calvanists (I think Presbyterians of the time) declared her "the whore who lived with the painter Rembrandt".

Also attended about a quarter of the free 1 hour weekly Spreckels Organ concert. Wow......4,530 pipes! Certainly makes Brisbane City Hall's organ look small. All in all a great place but I would have needed at least a week to just have a 'quick look' at everything on offer.

Board Radiance of the Seas tomorrow and am looking forward to heading for Mexico with drink in hand and son at my side, to watch the sun "set" rather than "rise" over the water.

San Diego

Charlie Steppa (former e-Learn employee) and Dan and Cam Carpenter (former squashies from Tarragindi Squash Club) were on our flight. It was great to catch up with them. Flight took 13 hours on board a new 777 with all the latest gadgets including a USB port for my IPod, individual entertainment consoles etc. I can recommend VAustralia for the Australia/USA Pacific leg - not expensive and the food etc was great (all included in the fare).

Arrived in LA at 7:00 a.m. and caught the airport bus to Union Station and then the Amtrak train to San Diego and the Bristol Hotel. Found a very close supermarket and stocked up on food and alcohol including my favourite Korbel Brut champagne.

Our first 'outing' was a 2 hour harbour cruise and I took a great photo of sea lions sunbathing on a platform and even more photos of the huge number of US navy ships docked in the harbour. San Diego really provides a great example of the might of the US navy!

Hospital Ship "Mercy" in San Diego Harbour

Spent half a day aboard the decommissioned USS Midway aircraft carrier. It is ENORMOUS and once supported about 200 pilots and a crew of about 4,300. It would have literally been "a city at sea". On the flight deck there was an assortment of helicopters, jets and propellor aircraft. The choppers were from the Vietnam war and the recovery aircraft included the one used to recover the cosmonauts from Apollo 10. The jets were from the early 50s up to the present day and the propellor aircraft were examples of supply and surveillance craft. I've never walked up and down so many ladders and in and out of so many compartments in one day. I had no idea where I was on the ship. I asked the guide who talked to us on the bridge and control tower how long it took a new recruit to become familiar with the layout of the ship and he said "about a month - they get to know where they eat, sleep and work first and then the rest follows".

Visited Old Town State Historic Park yesterday (site of first settlement in California in the mid 80s), Little Italy where I had a fab coffee and then onto Coronado Island and its landmark Hotel del Coronado. It was all very beautiful but still not the best beaches of the Pacific Ocean. We have those in Northern NSW and SE Queensland.

The cruise ship terminal is close to the hotel so can walk there to board on Monday. I can't wait to see and hug Phil.

I'm not sure when I'll get Internet access again but will try and update blog regularly.

Love to family and friends.