Trying Wow over again!

Sorry if you were looking for any messages or pictures last night - the internet on the ship was terrible - it took 10 minutes to try to post one picture and it still wasn't done so I just closed it down. Today we are using an internet cafe in Skagway. This morning we took what is called the White Pass and Yukon train to the Summit along the path the the gold miners had to use to get to the gold fields. Pictures from that may come tomorrow - if we can find a cafe in Sitka - our next port.

It has been totally awesome so far. This is the most incredible country and just the few pictures below will not do it justice - so these are the highlights!

Our big excursion in Ketchikan was a float plane trip to Misty Fjords - words cannot descirbe!

The day was a typical Alaskan day - some clouds, alot of mist and some rain! But even with the weather we were able to get the most amazing views of the mountains, fjords, lakes, waterfalls, etc. as our pilot took us soaring over the treetops and banking to follow the granite cliffs.

The flying foursome!

As soon as we started talking about Jane going on the trip with us, there were many jokes about her travels as a single - and Bub was born. Many months ago we decided that a blow up doll would be her main guy! Unbeknowst to her, we had brought a "bub' with us and she had brought her own! The "introductions" were made after dinner in Ketchikan! Here is Jane with both Bubs

This is the view from the top of Mount Roberts in Juneau - we were surprised at how small Juneau really is.

One big attraction in Juneau is the Mendenhall Glacier.

The really cool thing we did was to took a whale watching trip with a small company called Harv and Marv's. Our captain was Steve and he did a terrifci job of finding the whales for us. We saw quite a few and were pretty pleased - the boats have to stay fairly far away from the whales to protect them. On the way back, we ran into what we think must have been a teenage boy whale judging from the way he was showing off! Here he is waving his fluke at us!

And here he is jumping way out of the water!

Later!

Wow and double Wow!

Sailing Away!

Our last day in Vancouver was like all the rest - Great. We took the sky train out into the "burbs" just for the fun of it and then Oliver and the girls took the quick way back and rode the seabus across to North Vancouver while Mark and Gary went on down the line to see a bridge. Then it was back to the condo to be out of there by check out at noon. We decided to walk the eight or so blocks to the cruise ship pier (pulling our suitcases!) After a stop for lunch we got on with the business of boarding. It wasn't too bad except for Oliver's setting off the alarms! He had a nuclear stress test before we left and is very radioactive at this point and for some reason the immigration people don't like people who are "hot"! Slight delay - which we also had when returning from Victoria. Oh well....

The Spirit from the seabus - our cabins are 4th floor up right in the middle.

Our first sunset!

We probably won't be adding to the blog very often or adding much because internet time is expensive and takes forever to download the pictures!

Canadian money

The blog from Monday told about the funny money incident with Kathy trying to pay for the bus with what she thought was a Canadian $5 coin - which they don't have! After going back and looking at what she had in her purse, Kathy discovered that what she was paying for things with was pesos leftover from Dara's trip to Mexico. So she was trying to pay for a $5 bus ride with 5 pesos- funny thing is she had done the same thing on the bus on the way to Chinatown and the bus driver didn't even say anything. The buses don't take bills and Karen and Gary didn't have change so he just told to go on and sit down - think that bus driver was ready to go home?

Perfect Day in Vancouver

The rain that the Northwest is so famous for finally caught up with us. It rained most of the morning but not enough to stop us. We rode the trolley down to Granville Island Market. The Market was amazing and we spent hours just looking around.

The fruits and vegetables were wonderful and were so artistically arranged.

This is the mushroom pot pie that Karen and I shared for lunch at the market. Since we shared, we had room for a wonderful tangarine lime gelato. Ymmmmm! By the time we finished at Granville Island, the sun had come out and the rest of the day was mostly sunny.

Gastown is the site of the original downtown area. It is now the home of shops and restaurants. This is a steam run clock that is one of the icons of the area. We ate outside at the original Spaghetti Factory and (surprise!) did a little shopping. It should be noted here that Oliver and Gary were very patient with the ladies today since a bit too much time was spent looking and shopping! Mark went his own way early - he must have had an idea that shopping was on the plan for the day.

This is the view from our condo window on the 24th floor.

Stanley Park - Vancouver

Great day in Vancouver. We went to Stanley Park which is a huge wonderful park that is right in Vancouver. It sits on a point and is surrounded by the water on three sides. There is a seawall that serves also as part of the walkway that goes almost all the way around the city of Vancouver. We took the Hop on/Hop off trolley in and got off at the Totem Poles - a collection of Totems from all the groups from the area.

From the totem poles, we walked around most of the park on the seawall - it was a beautiful morning and there were lots of walkers, bike riders, and roller bladers.

We figure we walked over 5 miles of the seawall. After we met up with the rest of the crew, we came back to Stanley Park and did it again - this time without the 5 mile walk - just rode the trolley around.

As kids, the Keiser girls took many fun trips to Chinatown in San Fransisco and when we found out that there was a Chinatown in Vancouver we knew we had to go. The best I can say is that we went! It was pretty sad - nothing to do ever again. We had a recommendation for Hons House of Noddles for dinner which also ended up being pretty sad! Not one of us got a noodle. But we had a good time - the bus ride back was pretty funny when Kathy tried to pay the driver $.05 for a $2.50 each ride - the finer points of Canadian money had escaped her - she thought she had a $5 coin but they don't have one of those! We got several comments from other bus riders about "being from Kansas" and Dorothy!

PS - there is a link at the bottom to Karen's blog - check it out

OK - maybe a few pictures!

Here is a really bad shot of the eagles from the train - there were so many so close together.

O & K on the very long, very high bridge that we walked over to get to Granville Island. We got smart on the way home and took a water taxi and didn't have to walk about 10 blocks out of the way!

Granville Island - grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to the condo.

Sunset over False Creek

Vancouver

No pictures today! I did try to take some pictures of the eagles feeding along the ocean that we could see from the train but try taking a moving eagle from a moving train! Not easy. We saw dozens of eagles - it was pretty cool! Our condo is great -we are on the 24th floor - floor to ceiling windows - great view. We took some time to relax this afternoon after we got in and are going to go out to look around and find some dinner after a while.

Van Aukens, Robertsons and Jane S. made it in last night and were looking forward to a great day in Seattle. Tomorrow they take the train tomorrow morning and we will all be together to take on Vancouver.

More from Seattle

We decided that we liked our trip over to Bainbridge Island so much that we wanted to go to Victoria which is on Vancouver Island. Instead of spending 8 hours (each way!) on the Washington State Ferry that we would spend the extra money and take the Clipper which only takes 2.5 - 3 hours.

Parliament Building Sailboats in the harbor

The Empress Hotel More sailboats in the harbor!

The Empress is a famous landmark. You can have high tea there in the afternoons which we didn't do. We opted for lunch at a tea room instead. Victoria was settled by the British and has a definate English flair. We wandered around quite a bit and did a little shopping - there were a lot of shops. We were actually a bit disapointed in Victoria - had expected something a little more quaint and instead there are condos all over the place and everything was quite expensive to do.

We watched the float planes land in the harbor while waiting for the Clipper back to Seattle.

LAST DAY IN SEATTLE

We have walked so much in the past three days and thought we would take it a little easier today. HA! We did sleep later and had a leisurely breakfast and then decided we would walk over to the big REI store which is very close to the hotel. And then we walked some more ..... back down to Pikes Place Market area and went to the Aquarium which was pretty good but very crowded being the Memorial weekend - tons of kids.

After the aquarium we ate at Iver's again. There are two parts to Iver's - a really nice place inside where we ate the first night and an outdoor walk-up fast food area. We ate outside this time and the big thing is to feed the seagulls and they part much know that you are going to share your french fries with them! They will take them right out of your hand.

The city of Seattle was originally built too low and would "flood" twice every day when the tide came in. After the city burned down in a big fire in the 1880's, the city planners decided to "raise" the level of the city - but the merchants couldn't wait for the seven year plan and went ahead and built they stores back up at the lower level. Eventually the project to raise the city caught up with those buildings and new streets were built above the lower levels and the sidewalks. Those remain below the streets and one of the "things to do" in Seattle is the Underground Tours - which we did. It was interesting.

Seattle is a great place to people watch! There are these bike taxis all over the place.

Our time in Seattle is up. We are on the train to Vancouver early tomorrow morning. We both agree the trip to Bainbridge Island was the best thing we did while here but enjoyed the Space Needle, Pikes Place, seafood, drinking coffee, seeing Puget Sound and more. The Robertsons, Van Aukens and Jane should be here anytime. It will be interesting to hear what they do and what they think.

Day Two in Seattle

We started the day at the Starbucks (there really is one on just about every corner) and then to the Space Needle. It was really sunny but a little too hazy to see Mt. Ranier very clearly.

The best part of the day was taking the Washington State Ferry over to Bainbridge Island - it was sunny and a beautiful ride over. It only takes about 35 minutes and only cost about $7 for both of us. We ate at Doc's Marina Grill - fish and chips and clam chowder and wandered around a little and then headed back.

Seattle from the ferry

The marina on Bainbridge Island

The return trip

Not Sleepless in Seattle

We (K and O) left KC on the 20th - great flight - no problems. As you come into Seattle, you have a great view of Mt. Ranier (if it is not too cloudy!). We also could see Mt. St. Helens.

After settling into the hotel, we had plenty of time to walk down to Pikes Place Market - a Seattle landmark - the fresh fish vendors put on quite a show throwing the fish around.

We walked along the waterfront and had dinner at another Seattle favorite - Ivers Acres of Clams - our first fresh seafood - it was so much better than Kansas seafood! After dinner we walked up to Pioneer Square and by then the two hour time difference was catching up with us so we called it a day. And we slept great - not sleepless at all!

Not about Alaska!

For those of you who might interested, these are pictures of Kurt and TIffany's new house as it looked the first time we saw it. The picture inside is from that day also and looks entirely different now with the kids' own stuff. It is a great house, wonderful yard and they love the location. Mike walks right through the backyard to the parking lot of the high school.

Aunt Caroline and Oliver's will love these steps next Thanksgiving - much easier to navigate.

A note - my (Kris) picture is pretty lame - Kate and I fixed a tea party to take over to Aunt Carolin's last summer and Kate was very sure we needed to dress up for that - so we did! Unfortunately that was the only useable I could find on the computer - I was pretty glammed up!

KS signing in

Just look at us old folks, blogging away. Next thing you know, we'll have Facebook pages and Twitter!

Our Itinerary

Seattle - Beckers/May 20 - 24; R's and V's/May 23 - 25

Vancouver - Becker's/May 24 - 27; R's and V's/May 25 - 27

May 28 - at sea Inside Passage

May 29 - Ketchikan (Misty Fjords seaplane adventure)

May 30 - Juneau (whale watching boat trip)

May 31 - Skagway (White Pass and Yukon train)

June 1 - Sitka

June 2 - at sea

June 3 - Talkeetna

June 4-6 - Denali National Park(flightseeing to Mount McKinley, white water rafting, tour the park)

June 7 - 11 - Anchorage - V's home on 6/7; R's home on 6/10 and B's on 5/11

The planning continues!

Last week before the trip. It is hard to believe that this much anticipated event will actually happen. It is hard to know what to take. A friend of Kathy's said to leave half of what you plan to take at home ..... but which half! A great thing - Jane S. is joining us after all! Project at work completed, time off available - amazing what can be accomplished in one week and to think it has taken KSKAKL a whole year to do what Jane has done in one week!

Kris and Oliver leave on May 20 and the R's and V's follow on the 23rd. Seattle is first. Then a train to Vancouver and then the cruise - May 27 sailing.

Much more to come