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June 15 Cruise to AlaskaDay 1: We arrived in complete style aboard the Norwegian Pearl having been offered an amazing upgrade a couple of days before our departure. We had a VIP drop off point for our luggage, avoided the crowds checking in by being escorted into a separate check-in room and then got escorted by our butler (!) to our fantastic "stateroom" (not called cabin; maybe because that is something up in the mountains?). The sun streamed onto us our front facing balcony on a beautiful Seattle day and we enjoyed champagne and canapés as we departed north! Day 2: At Sea. Unfortunately, we found out from the room maid that we had picked the wrong week: excellent weather the previous two weeks but the forecast for our week was rain and cloud. We adopted the renowned "happy attitude" and enjoyed what we had, which included a private restaurant for breakfast and dinner! Mid-afternoon we entered the Alaskan Inside Passage which looked very similar to scenery we have seen in Norway. Having expected to be in the Inside Passage since we left Seattle, we were a little disappointed but found out from the Captain that certain passes have to be taken at certain water levels and we would never have made it to our destination and back again. Day 3: Juneau. As we travelled up to Juneau through wonderful scenery, we saw whales off the boat and a juvenile bald eagle flew right over us. Marble murrelets were all around us and flapped on the water noisily, trying to take off (we found out later from a park ranger). Before arriving in Juneau we reminded ourselves of some Alaska history. First English discoverers were James Cook in 1778, then George Vancouver in 1794. The Russians had it as a territory for many years and negotiated boundaries with the US & Britain in 1824 and 1825 – how the ports we went to did not end up in Canada is quite amazing. The Russians sold Alaska to the US in 1867 for $7.2m, apparently not choosing the Brits because they were at war with us (Crimean War). Alaska became the 50th state in the Union in 1959 – only 50 years ago! Juneau itself is a town of around 30,000 people and is the capital city of Alaska. We went to view the Governor's Mansion (nice pad) and can confirm that the Governor certainly can't see Russia from any of those windows. We went to the Russian Orthodox Church – small, no chairs, 4 or 5 families attend and say services in native languages. It was quite something to see the map of Alaska with all the pins in of Russian Orthodox Churches and to get our minds around the fact that Russia was for so many years the arch enemy. Juneau was like visiting Whitby (a seaside town in Yorkshire) and it felt totally incongruous that this should be the capital city! And it rained; a lot; even the crows were sheltering! We got a tour bus out to the Mendenhall Glacier, 12 miles north. Mark said "you won't be able to see it in the rain" and then gasped at the sight a mile away from the glacier! Well, it was half a mile wide and 12 miles in depth; part of the Juneau Icefield, which is approximately the size of the state of Rhode Island. Our time at the glacier was brief, peaceful and wet. We saw nesting arctic terns – the same species which had bombarded us when we visited Spitsbergen in 2005; but no bears. They had been around about a week before hand. On return to Juneau, we stopped in for a pint of Alaskan Amber at the Red Dog Saloon – a spit and sawdust pub with huge bears hanging on the wall. Not the type of local we're used to! Day 4: Skagway. This was one of two major Alaskan ports en route to the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada. We took a walk in the town which was like walking back in time and visited the National Park visitor centre, finding that it was not as good as the sister one in Seattle! The Gold Rush made Seattle as prospectors needed a ton of goods to be let across the US border. However, few prospectors made any money and it was a really grim experience. I was looking forward to our afternoon ride of the White Pass Railway to see the route many of them took, but 1.5 hrs before we were due to leave there was an announcement of a landslip and cancellation of our train. We were very disappointed. Our departure from Skagway through the Lynn Canal was spectacular as we dined and watched the mountains float pass. Day 5: Glacier Bay National Park. I was up at 6am to see us enter the park. It was freezing cold and grey, which explains why I was the only one that seemed to be up! It was so quiet. At 7am, a ranger talk – yes, those folks with the hats - started in one of the lounges giving us background on the park. The scenery as it developed was magnificent and the sun came out! Glacier Bay is 3.5m acres and is part of a wider World Heritage Site of 25m acres (approx the size of Maine!). When George Vancouver sailed past this area in 1794 the whole area was covered in glaciers, so there was no bay! We sailed 65 miles (1.5 times the distance London-Basingstoke, the commute I did for many years) from the inlet to the Margerie Glacier at the end (1 mile across, 250 feet high, 25 miles into the mountains). We heard and saw it creaking and crashing, but missed a very large bit falling into the water. It was stunning. Going down the bay we saw two brown bears on the beach. Although they were small, once identified you could see them moving with the naked eye. We travelled to a second glacier, Lamplugh Glacier, and thoroughly enjoyed the sun beating down on us as we took in all the beauty. The whole day was magnificent. Day 6: Ketchikan. We were on a tour to the Misty Fjords National Monument at 6.20am! And boy was it misty! It was pouring. Misty Fjords (another 2.5m acres) is in the Tongass National Forest (17m acres stretching 500 miles). Visibility was poor but the trip worth it when we arrived at Rudyerd Bay where the cliffs were vertical and there were wonderful waterfalls all around us. Another stunning place, although I think our photos don't do it justice. Arriving back we walked around the small town for about an hour before heading back to the boat for our departure southwards. Day 7: Victoria. We arrived in port at 6pm after a mostly sunny day of sailing. Here it was somewhat chaotic getting off the boat and picking up a shuttle bus into town. The driver told us that tourism was Victoria's number 1 industry. There were 3 cruise boats in dock yet when we got into the centre of town most tourist attractions were shut! This seemed a bit odd to me so our time was short and sweet – mainly a walk over to see the Legislative Building and the Empress Hotel. Arriving home: I watched us come into Seattle at a 5.30am dawn! Even at that time the Alaskan Way Viaduct seemed noisy. Our disembarkation was very smooth and we were home in 15 mins after leaving the boat J, giving us plenty of time to unpack, have a nap and get in a quick kayak before church. Unfortunately, the day afterwards I was very sick (no more details I promise you) with what we suspect was the norovirus, often found on cruise ships, and I ended up in urgent care for rehydration L. Not a great end to what had been a wonderful week. April 20 March & April 2009: The Grand Canyon & More!Finally fingers have got to keys to remember the highlights of the last 8 weeks or so. On March 11, Sarah & John arrived from England for 5 days with us before heading to Whistler for skiing. Sarah & Claire were housemates at university so there is a lot history and we laughed a lot. Claire accompanied them on ski boot shopping and now knows more about ski boots than she ever wanted to. On one of our shopping trips we came back to the car to find the same type of car we have in England parked next to our US car. Claire could not resist a photo! Last time Sarah & John visited they spent a fair bit of time number plate spotting and only failed to see plates from Hawaii and Rhode Island! All the US car plates include the state they are registered in and we can see cars from all over the country. On this trip, there were some very excited Brits when we spotted "Rhode Island" near our church!!! By the end of the weekend, we were sad to see them go north to ski.
However, the following day we headed south to some welcome sun in Las Vegas, as Mark was again speaking at a Microsoft conference there. This was our 2nd trip to 'sin city' and this time the whole visual nature of the place hit Claire as we got off the plane. We were amazed at the number of people on 'the Strip'. It seemed like a recession proof place but maybe they all had cheap rooms. Surely there is nothing else cheap about Vegas. Everything is overpriced for a captive audience. The moto is 'what goes in Vegas, stays in Vegas'...hm, not the credit card bills. Given the current economic situation, the whole place made us feel uncomfortable.
We were both ready to leave town on Friday as we headed east towards the Grand Canyon, which is about 300 miles from Vegas, This trip and just flying into Vegas reminded us again how big the US is. We drove 100 miles to the next small town in Arizona called Kingman. There was nothing much in between Kingman and Vegas except the Hoover Dam, which we visited last yer. Kingman is a smallish town and we enjoyed some excellent bbq pork at a newly opened place called the Redneck Southern Pit BBQ. Kingman is a 'Route 66" town and we decided the next morning to drive on that road instead of the new Interstate. It was excellent! We were in the middle of nowhere and saw very few cars as we drove through rural Arizona and Indian Reservations. We stopped in an even smaller town called Seligman, which is the town the film Cars is based around. After about 3hrs driving we stopped in Williams for lunch at the Pine Country Restaurant. The pies were supposed to be legendary. They looked great but the taste was not as good as we expected.
Replenished, we set off for the last hr or so of our journey. Folks have asked us if we went and stood on the new 'skywalk' over the Canyon. We did not. All the trip reviews we read said it was not worth it and very expensive (about $100 by the time you payed for everything) and no cameras. So we decided to drive straight to the National Park section of the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Wow! It was worth it. We stopped at the first pull-out and our jaws dropped at the shear scale of the place. Everytime we look at our photos we know that they just DO NOT capture the scale. On the South Rim, the National Park consists of two drives, Desert View Drive going east and Hermit Road west. These two cover about 32 miles in total, but the Canyon is 277 miles long!!! On Saturday we drove along Desert View, stopping at Shoshone Point for a walk to the rim. This was one of the 'treasures' recommended by the Rough Guide and it was excellent. Since it involved walking to the point, there were very few folks there and at the first look-out we sat alone on a log looking out at the immensity and variety of stone structures. Just the two of us, watching the giant condors flying below us. Our solititude was repeated at sunset when we stopped at Lipan Point and we climbed out to a rock and watched the sun go down.
The only disadvantage of our exploits was that it meant we arrived at our hotel (El Tovar) in the Grand Canyon Village in the dark; and it was very dark. After a few false starts we got there and ate dinner (OK) at the Bright Angel restaurant in the lodge next to ours. Walking between the two we were conscious that literally feet from us was a very large chasm! Sunday morning dawned rather windy but bright and we had the first glimspe of the Canyon again. We went west, walking along the rim edge path for about a mile or so. We watched folks heading down into the Canyon on some very steep paths and saw others on mules through the binoculars. Seeing others in the Canyon reminded us again of the scale of the place. Just HUGE. Walking along the rim so that the Canyon was in view all that time was fantastic., but after a while we found we could not take in another view! We did the rest of the west section via the bus and went to the end and back, just in time for it to start snowing, lightly. Definitely time for lunch. We had a very good meal in the Arizona Room of the Bright Angel Lodge, but while we dined at our window seat overlooking the rim (wonderful), the power went out. It dawned us on, rather slowly, that this could be a very uncomfortable night! Arriving back at El Tovar the staff had no idea when power would come back on and were cancelling reservations. We decided this was time to make an exit stage left when we could at least still see our luggage, as the snow had started to fall heavily and settle. Disappointing but the safe option. We headed back to the Best Western in Kingman and enjoyed a good dinner at the Dambar & Steakhouse.
Monday we arrived back in Vegas much earlier than expected because of our change in plans. We enjoyed lunch at The Bellagio besides its tasteful indoor conservatory and spent some time afterwards in the sun enjoying the fountains which "dance" to different music; then to the airport and back to a wet grey Seattle. The following weekend, Wayne, Sarah, Amy and Nathan visited us for a long weekend which proved wet except for Sunday, which was Wayne's birthday. After a nice breakfast out, we boarded a ferry to Bainbridge Island (one of Mark's favourite pass times!) and headed to Port Gamble for a cream tea. Cream teas are a rare luxury here. The Tea Room at Port Gamble is very Victorianesque but the hot chocolate is good and we all wore hats that they have there "for the ladies", yes including Mark & Wayne. We had a lot of fun and some good food!
Our most recent outing was April 4, when the sun was shining brilliantly - one of three days when we were deluded that the rain and grey had stopped. Mark fancied a drive to the top of Snoqualmie Pass to see the mountains and snow sparkling in the sun (an hour there and an hour back). However, we had not really through that the impact of a lot of snow the previous week and sun was not a good combo. We got to the top to find westbound traffic was down to one lane for avalance control and there was a two hour delay to get back home! So much for a quick drive before church. We decided to continue heading east and go home via Leavenworth, a town built on a Bavarian theme and looking very alpine this time with all the snow on the mountains. It was indeed a beautiful drive, but very lengthy. Worse still we ended up in another line of traffic coming home that way which added an hour and a half to our journey! Ahh...
The rain returned with vigour over the Easter weekend. Monday 13th we had a hail storm, Wednesday 15th we bbq-ed for the first time, and tonight we have sat outside eating our evening meal after a day of absolutely brilliant sunshine! The trees in the garden are coming into blossom and it really feels like spring is sprung. Our raccoon has been a lot more evident this winter/spring than recently. The snow has made the raccoon tracks very obvious (see our first picture) and Claire came nose to nose with one on our drive...she kept a prudent distance and let him/her move (actually limp) away before she ventured any further forward. Raccoons are generally considered pests and can be quite vicious, but they are still a novelty to us. Over the weekend, we saw the raccoon sitting having a wash in one of the trees. As soon as Mark got the camera out it retreated into a crevice in the tree and that was that - we have a photo shy raccoon. January 11 Western Washington WeatherWeather has continued to dominate Washington. After the Christmas snow, it snowed again on Sunday evening. Coming off the I-90 off ramp near our house, our windscreen wipers stopped working and it was impossible to see where we were going! It was compacted snow that were stopping the wipers working so after some "de-snowing" we were on our way again. We feared another "snow day" and our rubbish not being picked up again, but by the morning most of it had disappeared. Tuesday it blew a Hooley (at least for here) and we lost power twice for a very short time. But by comparison with many in the local area we have been fine. A lot of folks have been flooded by record river levels. See here for pictures. In December 2007, the I-5 south towards Oregon was closed and that happened again this week. It is estimated to cost $4 million a day in lost revenue. Last time, truckers were able to drive an extra 400 miles and go over the mountain passes. Not this year. All the passes were closed due to avalanches and mudslides. For a couple of days, residents of Washington could not travel by road south or east out of the state. The governor has extended the "state of emergency" of many areas which allows residents to claim federal disaster money. Today we went to see Snoqualmie Falls as there was a fantastic picture of the Falls in the paper this week. Here's a link to the pictures we took last May. At that time it was the most water we had seen, but today the Falls were even more magnificent! But there was so much spray being blown about that it was impossible to take good pictures! At both of the observations decks we were rained on from the spray!!!!!!! I wanted to walk part of the longer trial but that was closed due to hazardous conditions, which wasn't surprising as there was a waterfall off to the side gushing water that we had never seen before. On the way home, we tried to test out the Snoqualmie brew pub but were unable to get it to because the road was closed due to flooding. So we came back via the XXX Root Beer Drive In which we visited in the summer with Sarah and Sam. Here's the picture we took then. Personally, I really don't like root beer as I think it tastes like germolene, a British antiseptic pink cream! Mark, on the other hand, loves it. The Drive In is an incredible American diner full of 50s and 60s memorabilia and a gathering place for classic car shows through the year. January 01 Happy New Year!Before we say farewell to 2008 we have added some more Christmas pictures and put together a list of some of our "best/most memorable" moments of the past year, mainly focused on our travels around the US. The Best… Best Bathroom of the Year: The Venetian, Las Vegas – the first time we've had a TV in the bathroom Best New Adventure: Kayaking together around the top of Lake Washington on Claire's birthday Best New Place: New York Best Day Trip: Kennedy Space Center Best Meals of the Year:
Best boat trip: Exceptional whale watching with Capt Jim from San Juan Island…followed by watching the whales from Lime Kiln Point at sunset. Miscellaneous Memories One of the most amusing: Mark trying to turn off smoke alarms at Dan's cabin in the middle of the night… One of the least amusing: a chicken flying into our windscreen near Winthrop. One of the most relaxing: Sitting in a natural hot spring in Tecopa, California, staring at the stars. One of the more bizarre: Claire cooling down by standing on snow at the top of the North Cascades Highway in temperatures of 90-100 degree F. One that involved a lot of laughing: Claire and her sister, Ali, kayaking on Lake Chelan. We nearly capsized just off the beach from so much laughing! The hoarsest day: Watching the Mariners (baseball) beat Minnesota by 11 to 6 in the middle of a terrible season. Lots of cheering and yelling. Most Unexpected Day: Going to Emergency and Claire having her gall bladder removed. Most historic day: US Presidential Election Night with Jena and Patrick. Christmas: the "Whitest" we have ever known! December 22 A White Christmas in Seattle?Snow has been thin on the ground in Western Washington and the ski season delayed....until now!
We were forecast 6in during the night of 12th December, but nothing arrived. I persuaded Mark to walk round Green Lake on the 13th with lots of others in an illuminated walk...lights not only along the path but on people, dogs and canoes/kayaks. By the end of the walk it was snowing and by the morning we had a couple of inches at most. Nevertheless, services ceased (no rubbish collected Monday) and the whole world seemed to have gone mad!
Thursday the six inches did arrive, just as friends from Tadley who are living in Canada for a year, were heading our way. My eye test got cancelled Friday morning when we could not get the car up the drive (45 degree angle). Mark & Greg went to find out how to put snow chains on our car and when they had the drive was successfully conquered. Mark has been gung ho since then because he "has chains". Our bravery only extended to busing it downtown on Friday and going to Bainbridge Island on the ferry Saturday and no further because there was literally a hurricane forecast at Hurricane Ridge. Snow and severe wind was due to start at 4pm and we arrived back home with supplies and videos at 3.10pm just as the snow started to fall again. Sunday morning we woke relieved that the wind had never arrived but looking out on a winter wonderland (8 inches on the deck). We managed a stroll to the lake before more snow started. Today, Greg & Sue have managed to return to Canada and we have driven to the shops for more supplies. The temperature is rising so the snow is melting but more is forecast for Tuesday night. The local children are having lots of fun tobogganing down the street next to us, but since I fell on my derriere somewhat hard on one of the Bainbridge side streets, I am looking at ice with a lot more respect!
Hope you enjoy seeing the snowy scenes and the birds who are flocking to our feeder. We've also put two pictures at the end of our Christmas tree cutting. These really are "p.s" pictures - pre-snow!! The W-Ts.co.ukAdventures in Seattle and Other Stories... all content Copyright 2006-2007 (c) Mark & Claire Wilson-Thomas |
The W-Ts.co.uk Adventures in Seattle and Other Stories... from Mark & Claire Wilson-Thomas |
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