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