Rather than go into a whole bunch of reasons why this took me 4.5 months, I'll just post the pictures and get're done....ur, at least it was the same year ;)
But before I do, I'd like to comment on what doing this blog has done for me...I had actually gotten down somewhat, on this vacation, since we had a bad time in managing Joe while we were on it. If you remember we almost didn't go because he was sick the days before...we went anyway and because of the constant calling and worrying, it had left a bad impression that we didn't have a good time and wouldn't go away agin if Joe was sick. Well, after seeing these picture again, it jogged my memory that this actually WAS a great trip, and an awesome time. Shows me something about myself - that good memories can be overshadowed by bad ones if I let it happen. Ugh. So here are the best ones; I picked these out of about 60 that I had on file waiting for this day!
For starters we stayed in the city of Seattle for a day and a half before our trip and while there we went to the Pikes place market. While we were aware that they have a famous fish market where they throw fish to each other, we didn't know about the beautiful flowers for sale very cheap! A huge bouquet for 5 or 10 dollars.
One of the highlights for us in Seattle was the Chihuly exhibit of colored, blown glass in a variety of impressive settings.
A similar Chihuly exhibit had been in Phoenix displayed at the Desert Botanical Gardens amidst cactus - and to see it in Seattle was a real treat.
By the way, we almost took this trip to Seattle and Vancouver as a Pacific Northwest tour, but when we started looking at the cost for a city trip, the cruise idea popped into my head, and when we priced it, the cruise turned out to be cheaper, and it included all the food. So if you are on a limited budget don't forget to check these out. Just make sure you ship is going round trip if you know what I mean!
Since this was our first cruise I really had no idea how large these big ships are. Here we are at port. You can see the Space Needle in the background.
Cruising itself was really fun. The motion wasn't bad at all for me and Vickie wore the prescribed patch...was it needed? Who cares, neither of us got sick. It's a good thing too as the food and service were terrific, and it would have been a real bummer to have missed one of the delightful meals. We took all of them that we could in the dining room instead of the buffet, which was just average from our assessment.
The entertainment was a mixed bag. Generally we enjoyed having shows to go to and the talent was pretty good, but the general age on the cruise started to become more apparent as we looked as the shows that were aboard...before our time is the best way to describe them, and we're old! They say that Many Alaskan cruises are like that because they are more about cruising and less about the stops at beaches and the like. We had fun anyway and made the best of it all.
First stop was Juneo, and to be honest I'm not certain about the order of the rest of the stops. While Alaska is a very beautiful place, you don't see much from the port cities. They are mostly touristy and have tons of jewelry stores rumored to be owned by the cries lines. We don't buy that kind of thing much, but we did buy a ship charm for Vickie's Pandora bracelet along the way.
We stopped at Ketchecan and Skagway too. Here's a shot of the Red Dog Saloon at one of them. It looked like fun to me but Vickie wasn't too interested due to its seedy connotation so I settled for a picture. Point noted.
Another of the ports, kinda interesting, but when we walked into town we saw this amazing scene nearby where salmon were running upstream.
From the bridge we were able to watch hundreds or maybe thousands of them as they made their way back to their point of origin to spawn and die after living their entire lives hundreds of miles away somewhere in the ocean. This really showed us Gods' creative handiwork.
Not to mention Glacier Bay, which was a stop that was all about these huge masses of sliding ice. Very scenic, and we got close enough to see and hear some chunks falling into the bay. But if you know the saying "glacier speed" you will understand that this is not like going to a race track or anything. Just a pretty spot with some interesting shades of blue from the compressed ice. I spared you a number of the shots from this location where we had plenty of time to take pictures in 30-40 degree weather.
We took a train ride as one of our excursion choices, which turned out to be a great opportunity to see some of the interior. Good views from the narrow rail car that afforded some scenic shots. This was not the track we were riding on by the way, although it wasn't a high-speed ride either. A little sleepy on the way back since it took the same route. If I had it to do over with I'd look more closely at a bus ride back instead, just for more variety.
Probably the highlight of our trip was Victoria, where we visited these beautify Gardens. After a very l-o-n-g taxi ride shared with some other cruisers, we arrived, and it was well worth the trip. We only spend a few hours in this namesake of the queen...
...but you wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
Nor would I have wanted to miss this entire trip, after all how many times does one go to Alaska, anyway? It will be a long time before I ever go back, and if I do I'd like to stay for a few months inland and really see it...but not outside of the summer, for sure. Sunny and 75, that's for me!
Or maybe Hawaii next? Or the Caribbean? What about you?
(Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
