Alaska Adventure

December 26, 2016 / Terry / 3 Comments

Here is a massive trip I hope to take in 2018. With health issues right now I do not think this will happen in 2017 like was planned, but you never know. I still have a lot of planning to go into this adventure. It will be at least 45 days long. Heading north on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains I will be vIsiting Lassen National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Glacier National Park, Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, Dawson, possibly Prudhoe Bay?, Haines, Glacier Bay National Park, and Skagway, Then south to Whistler, the Cascades, Mt Rainier, and Mt St Helens. With the final leg of the journey back along the pacific coast to So Cal.

I know very ambitious but it is something I truly want to do. Any comments or recommendations?

June 2016 Alaska – Days 8 and 9

July 24, 2016 / Terry / Leave a comment

Today we have a cruise to Victoria and will not dock until 6:00 PM. So after getting up early for breakfast the buffet and aft decks are empty as everyone on the ship sleeps in. It is wonderful to be out here on the last day of breakfast with my son, peaceful, relaxing and enjoying the early morning with pastries and hot chocolate. It is so empty when breakfast finally opens, there must be about only a dozen of us in the buffet area, so I take out my pocket camera and start getting photos of the food service and dining areas while they are empty (these were shared in a previous blog post).

The family trickles in slowly and we enjoy our last full morning together.

Today I am going to take it easy, in the morning while everyone else on the ship are still resting I walk to get photos of the different areas of the ship, watch a documentary on the Alaskan Gold Rush in the Theater then just mosey around enjoying people watching.

At lunch they are having a Bavarian BBQ by the pool and that sounds pretty good to me. Everyone else is doing their own thing at lunch so I gorge myself on pulled pork, pork sausage, breads, sides and wonderful Bavarian desert cakes.

When we finally dock in Victoria at 6:30 PM I am exhausted, I was going to walk the couple of miles to downtown but just decide to stay on the ship, find a quiet spot to relax to do some reading and writing. Boy am I getting old, but I am missing Jodi so much today. It has been a difficult but very enjoyable trip and a real re-learning experience on how to take a vacation alone.

I decide to go to the room early to pack my bags as we will be docking and leaving the ship early tomorrow morning.

Up early one last morning to grab breakfast and enjoy my last day of sitting on the Aft Deck with my son enjoying the cruise into Seattle. We dock and leave the ship at around 7:30 AM and I say my goodbyes to the family and make my way to the Light Rail Station about ¾’s of a mile away.

After the 40-minute ride to the airport I exit the train for the long walk to the terminal through the parking garage. Going inside the terminal I head for the announcement board to determine which gate my plane will be in, but my flight is not until 3:15 PM and does not show up yet for the gate location. I see which gates Delta flies out of then head to the crazy long security line. Boy this makes Disneyland’s lines look short but at least it keeps moving and is well organized. About an hour later finally through security I walk the Main Terminal looking for an interesting establishment for lunch. Finding one or two that interest me I find an empty gate to relax and do some more reading until I am hungry.

Early afternoon and I am finally hungry so I head for a gourmet Hot Dog stand and get a dog, fries, candy bar and drink. Not good for you but it sure hit the spot and tasted real good and I have eaten bad all week so what is one more day. I’ll worry about good nutrition next week.

Boarding the plane at 2:30 PM I settle into my seat at the rear of the plane, read, gaze out the window and think about the week I have just had and what to do for my future adventures while just trying to keep my mind busy and not wander.

This would have been a vacation Jodi would have loved but hated at the same time as it would have been very difficult for her to walk and use the wheelchair with all the hilly terrain and crowds in the towns.

Well I am rethinking the BUCKET LIST and will be posting it presently along with a some of the past adventures I have been on.

STAY TUNED THIS RIDE IS NOT OVER YET!

June 2016 Alaska – Day 7

July 18, 2016July 19, 2016 / Terry / 5 Comments

Well after the fun evening I wake up at 4:30 AM and head to the buffet for another pre-breakfast. Grabbing my goodies I make my way to the aft deck as we are in the channel entering Ketchikan. My son joins me and we eat our breakfast as we dock at 7:00 AM and are able to leave the ship at 7:30.

We are the last ship on the far end of the dock and walk along the Waterfront Promenade to town. Heading straight through town we turn away from the water to Creek Street along Ketchikan Creek. This is an interesting area of town as it was the red light district at one time. Once prostitution was banned in Alaska the houses of ill repute relocated themselves to the creek as the law banned this practice on land but not over water. The Madams’ were resourceful and built the new houses over the creek bed to skirt the law. Now a pedestrian tourist shopping area there is one house left that is a museum to the ladies of the night.

: Ketchican

At the end of Creek Street there is the Tongass Historical Museum exhibiting artifacts, text and photos telling the history of this first city that was a Native fish camp, mining hub, salmon-canning capitol, fishing port and timber town.

Further along the creek inland is the Totem Heritage Center with a collecting of unrestored totem poles of the Tingit and Haida villages.

We walk back to town and make our way over to stop for a snack back at the waterfront; I purchased a Mountain Dew and a very large thick piece of Snickers chocolate fudge, YUMMY. We go out side the store to sit on a bench and eat our food while we rest as we wait for the rest of the group to exit their show, “The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show”. Still having some time until the show finishes we walk through several stores to see if I can find anything for my grandson, no luck again.

At 11:00 the show ends and we all decide to go to a little food shack on the dock next to the Visitors Center for some fish and chips. The food was vey good but expensive as it was fresh halibut caught that morning and they catered to the tourist crowds, I must say that I was not disappointed it was that good.

We head out to do some additional shopping but must be back on board by 12:30 PM so walking back down the seaside walkway I stop in one of the shops along the Promenade and there is the gift, a nice baseball style hat for the grandson.

The boat leaves for our final destination Victoria, British Columbia at 1:00 PM. So having an afternoon to rest I notice there is a show in the theater at 3:30 PM on “30,000 Years of Art History” which was fun, educational and very relaxing. I almost fell asleep during one part in the dark theater with comfy seats; I guess an old man needs a nap every so often.

We have a quiet restful dinner with everyone in the Main Dinning Room then my son , daughter-in-law and I head to the theater at 6:00 PM for a musical highlighting 3 Rock Legends; Michael Jackson, Madonna and my favorite of the 3, Elton John. It was a very good, entertaining show, which we all enjoyed.

After walking 20,359 steps in 7.5 miles and climbing 25 stories today I head back to my room after the show to rest and I fall fast asleep very quickly around 10:00 PM.

June 2016 Alaska – Day 6

July 12, 2016July 13, 2016 / Terry / 6 Comments

Leaving Skagway last night we retrace our route down Lynn Canal going around Point Couverden heading to Glacier Bay on our last full cruise day to a dramatic, remote, beautiful wilderness reachable only by boat or plane. Cruise boats ply this bay to fulfill the multitude on the Inland Passage route, I can only imagine staying here at the campsite or lodge, and enjoying the area in a kayak or small ranger led boat tour (bucket list). Glacier Bay National Park is 3.3 million acres of the 25-million acre UNESCO World Heritage Site that stretches from Alaska into Canada.

Up early again to watch the sunrise at pre-breakfast. My son makes sure to join me today and we enjoy a beautiful peaceful morning with outstanding scenery on our cruise to the National Park. Later in the morning we all head to the main dinning room for an enjoyable breakfast.

Before we enter the park I grab a quick lunch and have some snacks in my pocket as I do not want to miss anything. Even though there are excellent window views from different parts of the ship it is not the same as being outside for photo opportunities in this magnificent landscape.

There is a ship following us all the way in and as we get closer a National Park Ranger joins us onboard to provide a history and background talk of Glacier Bay and to explain to us over the Public Announcement System what we are viewing as we are cruising bay.

We head to the aft of the ship to Deck 7’s outside perimeter walkway where we can go from Port to Starboard of the ship as it sits and spins several rotations at each spot. Everyone must be up on decks 12 and 13 as we have very few people on the lower deck with us.

Well I am just going to let you view some photos of the bay, explaining the beauty is difficult as I will run out of adjectives and adverbs for this wonderful landscape.

ENJOY

: Glacier Bay

After cruising Glacier Bay we have dinner at the restaurant we ate in the first night then part ways to explore different activities that night. I go to a throwback musical of the songs of 1969, ah Woodstock and the Hippie era when I was 14. They do snippets for one and a half hours of all the good songs that year and I relax to enjoy myself. After the show lets out I walk to the front of the ship to head for a closer Stairway to my room but the wind is blowing so hard the group of us walking are huddled together and fight our way there. Made it back and rest comfortably as the ship is really rolling in the wind.

June 2016 Alaska – Day 5

July 9, 2016July 9, 2016 / Terry / 10 Comments

If this is Wednesday it must be Skagway.

Skagway is a small city in southeast Alaska, with a population of 920 residents as of 2010 that is set along the popular cruise route, the Inside Passage. This city is part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park that is home to many gold-rush-era buildings and the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, finished in 1898 that runs vintage locomotives past the famously steep Chilkoot Trail and offers sweeping mountain views during its climb into Canada.

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June 2016 Alaska – Day 4

July 5, 2016 / Terry / 3 Comments

We continue our day at sea as we will not dock in Juneau till 2:30PM. So we use the morning to watch for whales and just enjoy the restful morning. We are fortunate to see numerous whales, orcas and sea lions, such a wonderful sight.

We are finally able to disembark the ship at 3:15PM and I walk the 1-mile into downtown Juneau. Quickly I walk through the crowded tourist shopping area as there are 4 other cruise ships docked today and the streets are packed with people.

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June 2016 Alaska – Day 3

July 1, 2016 / Terry / Leave a comment

Alaska trip 6-13-2016

It is Monday and a cruise day so not much going on except for exploring the ship. There was a time change last night but I did not catch it so I was up at 4AM showering, doing laundry and getting ready for pre-breakfast with my son.

Yes I said pre-breakfast. Up to the buffet for fruit, bread and hot chocolate we sit on the aft deck watching the scenery pass by in quiet solitude. I do not get to see my son much, as he lives in Washington, so we catch up on life and family. At about 7AM the full buffet opens for breakfast so we head in for our full breakfast courses with the family joining us shortly after we sit down with our meals.

My son, his wife, his son and I start walking the Decks 12 and 13 after breakfast and notice some whales spouting close to the ship. This makes it a great day seeing these majestic creatures in the wild.

After a while I start exploring the the interior of the ship and then get ready for lunch. Yes the theme of the cruise is eating, walking, exploring and then eat some more. I walked a total of 6¾ miles, 17,500 steps and climbed 48 floors on my exploration of the ship today.

Well enough of the day, here are some photos of the ship for you to enjoy as tomorrow we visit the capitol of Alaska, Juneau.