Category: vacations

After a tiring day at the zoo it was time for a tiring day at Legoland! It was probably even more tiring because there was a lot of walking round a very big park and it was very hot – much hotter than the day before.

We got up early-ish and set off up the I-5, north of San Diego towards Carlsbad which is almost half way up to Los Angeles. We did debate whether we should stay on the I-5 for a few hours (quite a few hours) and drive all the way up to Seattle! Strange to think you can get on the I-5 in Seattle and stay on one road and it will take you all the way to the Mexican border (and the infamous zonkeys!).

Once we had bought our tickets for Legoland we were off! First stop a photo of two boys next to a fat tourist – must be American!

After that, we almost managed to get past a shop, although Harry did just pop in to get his photo taken with a lego Harry Potter and Hagrid. We wanted Toby in the photo too but he was too scared to stand next to them – not sure why, big whoosey!

Our first ride of the day was on something that I cannot remember the name of! Basically you got in a lego rocket type thing and then you had to pedal your way round a short course. The track was up in the air so we got a nice view over the top of the park.

After this it was down to the Legoland driving test center. Harry passed his test at the UK Legoland but now they needed to try driving in the US. There were two circuits to learn to drive on – one for under 6’s and one for over 6’s. The younger version looked a bit too basic for Toby so we told him that he had to tell a little white lie and say he was 6 if/when he was asked. He said that was ok – and it was only a fib by about 3 weeks so not too bad – and it has to be said that when the official asked how old he was the answer “six” tripped off his tongue without so much as an after thought!

The selected their cars and then after some simple instructions they were off! They managed to stay on the correct side of the road, the stopped at the traffic lights and they obeyed the stop signs! It was a very impressive driving display from both and at the end of it they both passed their tests and got their Legoland driving licence!

From cars to helicopters! We left the driving track and got straight into some helicopters. These were much easier to fly – it was up, down and around – simple!

Harry and Toby then posed with another of the characters around the park. Harry particularly liked this one and gave him an affectionate rub of his tummy!

After some lunch and a few rides on Lego pirate ships (which Toby refused to go on, dissolving into a mix of tears and tantrums) and some normal Lego boats, Tracy, Harry and Toby went on a water squirting pirate ship. Basically you get in a boat, go round on a track while people on other boats squirt you and people standing around the edge of the ride squirt them.

As you can see they got quite a soaking but then the sun was hot and they soon dried out. After a brief stop for ice-creams, the boys went round a track on a lego horse and then they found their rightful home:

Shame we don’t have one of these at home – they’d probably spend a lot of time in it!

After a brief walk round some Lego cities, including, New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco (including the crookedest street and the sea lions) we went on one last boat ride and then set off back to the car via a brief visit to a shop.

So there we go, Legoland, done! Another fun day in San Diego and it was all wrapped up with another couple of hours in/by the pool and then an absolutely fabulous mexican meal down in old town San Diego.

It’s a tough old life!

For all the photo’s, including the view from our hotel balcony, check these out!

With so many parks to go to in San Diego, it was tricky deciding which ones to go to. On Saturday morning we decided we should visit San Diego zoo because it is a world famous zoo. I’m not 100% sure why it is famous but it is and having spent the day there I have to say it is definitely a very impressive zoo!

Once we parked up and bought our tickets the first thing to think about was breakfast! Having checked out the flamingos we bought two chocolate muffins and two apple and cinnamon. Considering it was zoo/park food they were very nice and the same can be said about the burgers we had for lunch later!

After demolishing the muffins we set off along the monkey trail. The good thing about the zoo if that there is no set way to go round the zoo – you follow trails and they lead you all over the place. There were all sorts of colorful, bare bottomed monkeys about and some with very long arms, there were also some very human like gorillas. Their feet and hands are just like humans but they are also the most incredibly muscular things – I wouldn’t like to mess with one!

After the monkeys we saw a few eagles including the Andes condor:

This eagle is pretty impressive, mainly for its soaring ability. Apparently it can 100 miles without flapping its wings.

After the eagles we saw zebras, something that looked like it was half zebra, half pygmy giraffe, and polar bears – who must have felt slightly out of place in the heat of San Diego. Then we took in a 15 minute Ice-Age movie in 4d which basically meant we got covered in water, bubbles, snow and other concoctions.

Once the movie had finished we onto the Skyfari which was a cable car ride across the top of the zoo. Toby wasn’t overly keen on going on this but we ignored him and went on it anyway – unbeknown to us he was to have his revenge the following day at Legoland when he refused to go on a ride!

The Skyfari took us to the other side of the zoo where we tucked into some lovely burgers and hot dogs. The it was back across on the Skyfari and Toby was a little more relaxed about it this time.

When we were back on the ground it was time to check out the elephants and jaguars. The jaguar was my favourite animal of the day – he’d look lovely stuffed in the house! Only kidding! He did look mighty impressive though and another animal I wouldn’t want to meet in the jungle – not that I often find myself there.

Just by the elephants I saw some proper wildlife and managed to snap another eagle. I’ve no idea what it was but it was clearly taunting the other eagles by flying around over the top of them:

By this time it was starting to get very hot and we had been walking for a fair old way. So we took in a quick look at the pandas, checked out the meerkats and then we did Toby’s favourite thing of the day. Instead of walking up a hill by the road and steps route we took an escalator! Of all the animals he saw, the 4d movie and a cable car ride the true highlight was an escalator – nothing is wasted on him!

After checking out the shops because Toby wanted to get a cuddly toy – no idea why or where he will put it – we got back in the car and went back to the hotel. After all the walking and the heat there was only one thing to do – hit the pool! Harry and Toby demonstrated their range of swimming and diving skills and after a couple of hours there it was back to the room.

What an exhausting day! We only just had enough energy to walk down to the restaurant and get something to eat before retiring to bed and some well deserved sleep.

Check the animals out here!

 

I’d tried getting a picture of a hummingbird in our back yard without much success. Tracy had had reasonable joy snapping Robert the Hummingbird up at the school bus stop but it was still proving fairly elusive. Until we got to San Diego. In the trees just outside our hotel room Tracy spotted the hummingbirds buzzing about and making their funny noise.

Although I didn’t have the ideal camera lens with me – when do I ever – I did manage to snap a few, a mixture of in the tree and zipping about in the air. A definite improvement I’m sure you will agree!

As is the way when we have a visitor we have to go on a trip – and this time, Aunty A had selected San Francisco (or San Frandiego as Toby called it – he was getting our two August trips somewhat confused!).

We set off for the airport, parked the car, went through security and were ready to go – and then the flight got delayed an hour. Never mind – it gave us the chance to sample breakfast at Wendys again. Hashbrowns were the order of the day but clearly we placed our order too late because they didn’t have any. We stocked up on other goodies and then did a spot of shopping – a common theme throughout the first 2 weeks of August!

Fortunately there were no further delays and we were soon in the air on the way to San Francisco. The flight wasn’t particularly eventful – other than it being everyone’s first flight on Alaska (apart from me) – and an hour and 45 minutes later we landed. San Francisco airport has an interesting approach to landing. It feels like your going to land on water and then at the last second, just before you actually do land on the water the runway appears! What a relief!

As we only had hand luggage we were soon in a cab on the way to our hotel. We were staying in the touristy area of Fisherman’s Wharf but the Holiday Inn was more than satisfactory for our needs. After unpacking the first thing on the list was food! Obviously! We went round the corner from the hotel and found an italian type restaurant and enjoyed some very good food. After food it was a stroll along the front, visiting the shops and then walking out along Hyde Street pier. It was nice and sunny but also pretty windy – wearing the right clothes was proving quite tricky!

We then went along to the small beach by the harbor area and while watching people swimming we got our first good view of Alcatraz – something that was clearly starting to intrigue Harry and Toby:

From the beach we went along past some more piers and saw a submarine, Naughty Marietta “doing her stuff” (which had Tracy in hysterics) and Sally’s Famous Fishwiches:

Next stop was pier 39 with the sea lions. There weren’t as many as usual but they were noisy and pretty stinky!

We then slowly made our way back to the hotel, taking time to stock up on beer, wine and biscuits and tehn settled down for an evening in front of the TV and DS’s. The evening in front of the TV was only briefly interrupted by a trip over the road to the Codmothers, where we got some Baha fish tacos, some fish and some proper English chips. It was lovely!

Next morning we were up early and on the cable car. We went from the bottom of Hyde Street to Union Square.

Obviously we were ravenous so we walked around, sort of aimlessly looking for a good place to have breakfast. By complete fluke we stumbled upon a place called Lori’s Diner which is somewhere Tracy and I had had dinner one evening the last time we were in San Francisco together – just over 10 years ago on our honeymoon.

We had a fab breakfast here which set us up nicely for a day walking the streets of San Francisco. First we went down through Chinatown.

We had a lucky escape in Chinatown. Tracy was clearly suffering from a lack of sleep or something as she went in lots of Chinese tat shops trying to find a gold waving cat. They were truly, truly hideous but for some reason she was most insistent that she wanted one. Fortunately we couldn’t find quite the one she was looking for and then when she did, she discovered that they were battery operated and she went right off the idea. Thank god. I really cannot say how disgusting they are!

From Chinatown we went up to Coit Tower. Sally and the boys posed for a picture at the bottom of the tower and just a couple of seconds after this was taken a couple of fat rats went leaping past behind them. They weren’t overly impressed:

After going up and down the tower we then set off towards Lombard Street, and in particular the wiggly, crookedest part. Despite the fact that San Francisco is mainly hills the boys decided they wanted to run up and down them all – silly boys – but they should have well toned bottoms after all the walking they did.

As usual the crookedest street in the world was chaos but still very lovely. I wouldn’t mind living on this street if it wasn’t for all the people that were there and the fact that the houses probably cost millions!

After walking the streets for a bit longer and then having a drink and a snack in a bar near the hotel we then continued our day of walking. This time we went towards the Golden Gate bridge. It was a bit to far to walk all the way there but that didn’t matter too much as the bridge stayed pretty much in the cloud for the entire time we were in San Francisco.

After all this walking we were starving! So on the way back to the hotel we stopped at a restaurant near the piers and enjoyed another scrummy meal. After this, it was time to stock up on more wine and then back to the hotel for drinks and DS’s.

The final morning arrived and we packed up our belongings and booked a cab for the airport later. Then we walked along the front to Pier 31 to catch the boat to Alcatraz. Harry was very excited about Alcatraz and had spent most of the weekend talking about it. Fortunately it didn’t disappoint him or Toby.

We landed on the island and then took the audio tour round the prison.

We heard about the attempted escapes, the prisoners, the fights and deaths. It was very interesting and a bit creepy at times but before we knew it, it was time to get the boat back to the city so we could get our cab to the airport.

And then that was that! San Frandiego done! A good time was had by all and another visit will be required before we leave I think. I’d like to go to Muir Woods, see the painted ladies (houses), go to Sausalito, visit the Napa Valley and get back to Yosemite. Crikey – there is a lot to do!!

And here are all the photo’s.

 

… The Great Wolf Lodge!

So there we were. Sat in the lounge, me playing football manager on the ipad and Tracy and Sally watching crap American TV. The boys were upstairs sweating in their sleep, when all of a sudden on came an advert for the Great Wolf Lodge.

Sally > Is that were you went?

Tracy> Yes. Shall we go tomorrow?

Sally> Ok

Tracy> Neil check if it’s available

Neil> It is

Sally> Shall we go?

Tracy> No, it’s your worst nightmare. Hundreds of screaming children and nowhere to escape to?

Sally> Have they got a spa?

Tracy> Only for under 14’s

Sally> Do you think I’ll pass for that?

Neil> Am I booking it?

Sally & Tracy > Oh go on then!

Or it went something along those lines anyway! So, that, in a nutshell is the power of TV advertising!

The next morning after I’d left for work, Tracy, Aunty A and the boys packed the car and went to the Great Wolf Lodge. They didn’t tell the boys though – they told them that they were going shopping at a really big Macy’s that was off down the I-5. The boys fell for it for pretty much all the way there.

As they pulled off the freeway to go the last mile or so to the Lodge, Harry rumbled that they were going to the Lodge but what had been planned as a surprise did nearly turn into a disaster! As we had only booked the room the night before the booking hadn’t made it through to the lodge. It took a few phone calls to finally get the Lodge to accept that we had made a reservation and then the fun begun.

I can’t write much more about it because I wasn’t there but I know that:

1. They had a lot of fun
2. Aunty A love the slides
3. Toby got very upset about having to wear his Chelsea shirt wet in the pool
4.Toby was a bit scared of the slides and had to be bribed with TWO build a bears to go down the big one
5. The lady behind the bar who served giant glasses of wine was still there.

So once again the Great Wolf Lodge delivered! Fun was had by all, even Aunty A, and they can’t wait to go back again!

Whales, dolphins, bears, puffins, eagles, porpoise, seals, sharks. You name it, we saw it. We also saw some other, slightly more unexpected creatures. For example, one night we saw a penguin:

Then we saw a mouse:

Which scared the elephant:

Followed by Tracy’s favorite, a monkey:

And finally a giraffe (with a bit of an imagination):

It’s amazing what you can see on an Alaskan cruise!

Our final day. Hasn’t time flown/floated? Another late-ish start to the day, waking about 9am. The forecast was for sunshine once we arrived in Victoria at 2pm. This would make a change from the last 2 days we spent there in February when we had some very wet weather.

After breakfast, we went back to the cabin and packed a couple of our bags as we had an early start the next day to prepare for. We took a brief walk up to the bridge viewing deck to watch them “drive” the boat and much to Tracy’s surprise it wasn’t much like the deck of the Titantic. It actually looked a very nice relaxed place to work – I think when I come back in the after life I might be a captain of a ship.

We watched the boat come into dock at Victoria and then went down to disembark at 2pm. We took a cab to the inner harbor by the Empress hotel and it all looked very different in the sun compared to the grey of our previous visit. Being creatures of habit we walked back up the shopping street, went in the same shops, was surprised again at the price of a carved wooden box (it was still very nice though) and then headed down to the same pub for lunch. And then just to make sure I definitely was a creature of habit I had the same lunch – blackened halibut in a wrap – it was just as yummy as I remember it.

After lunch we walked back down the other side of the shopping street, went in the posh chocolate shop, bought some Victoria/Canada t-shirts and hoodies and then stopped for some mango ice-cream. Much to the boys disgust though they had sold out of mango so had to settle for strawberry. We then caught a taxi back through the very British streets and onto the ship.

We went back to the cabin and the boys got changed into the swimming shorts and then we went back up to the pool area. Another couple of quiet hours were spent watching the world go by and more cruise ships arrive until it started to get a little chilly at about 7:30pm and we went back down to the cabin.

From our balcony we then got a brilliant view of a thunder storm passing over Victoria, out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and across to the Olympic peninsula. It was a truly spectacular storm and I must have taken about 150 photos trying to capture an image of some lightening. I finally got a few but they definitely didn’t do the storm justice. It took a long time deleting all the lightening-less pictures though!

With the boys showered and in their pj’s we ordered a pizza and spent our last evening in the room relaxing ahead of disembarking for the final time at 7am Saturday morning and crashing back into reality (Harry has a soccer tournament starting at 9:30am!).

The end of a fabulous vacation! Excellent choice Tracy!

A few more Victoria pictures here!

Clearly this cruising lark is starting to take its toll on us as we slept through until 9:30am – apart from Tracy who was awake much earlier and was getting annoyed with the rest of us for not waking up! But eventually we did and we had to rush off for breakfast before it closed! Not that the food ever really stops but the notion of breakfast would be over soon.

With four filling four bellies we did a quick spot of onboard shopping as it was our last chance. We stocked up on gin, bacardi, aftershave and cadburys fruit and nut and went back to the cabin. Exhausted by this tough morning we relaxed until just after midday when we went up to deck 11 to the bridge viewing area however something shady was obviously going on because the blinds were pulled and there were no viewings to be had! So we left here and went to the theatre to learn how to do magic tricks. The comedian/magician from the night before was teaching children (and anyone else who turned up) how to do some tricks. Having both wanted to go to it the night before neither of them wanted to now but the magic of the magician soon worked its magic and before Tracy and I knew it both hands their hands up volunteering to go on stage and help with the tricks! Unfortunately for them neither got picked but they did go up on stage at the end to buy a magic book (which he signed for them) and some magic red balls. Be prepared next time you see them to be amazing you with all sorts of magical tricks!

The excitement of the magician made Harry hungry so off we went, back to deck 12 to eat some more. As we sat eating we saw a couple of humpbacks and lots of dolphin going past. That’s $5 for me from Toby – shame I will have to give him the $5 to pay me my winnings with.

Toby then wanted to spend the afternoon in Kids Club (little Mr Sociable!) but Harry didn’t want too and Toby wouldn’t go without him. As a compromise they got changed into their swimming gear and we went up to the sun and pool area. They both then disappeared into the kids jacuzzi and slide area for the next 2.5 hours and Tracy and I finally got a little peace and quiet! Again a few signs of being sociable seemed to appear as whenever we checked on them they were playing with other kids (mainly girls it has to be said!).

After a quick change out the of their wet clothes it was back down to the cabin for a couple of hours before dinner out tonight at Teppenyaki which is meant to be one of the top 3 restaurants/dining experiences on the Alaska cruise ship circuit. It has to be said that it was a pretty good meal too! We selected the food we wanted and then the chefs came out and cooked it in front of us. We started with a nice seaweed salad and then had a mixture of garlic egg fried rice, steak, chicken and jumbo prawns. As the chef prepared this in front of us he played egg basketball with us. As he flicked a bit of fried egg from his utensil through the air and Harry caught it in his mouth. I tried twice and failed miserably, so did Tracy. Toby was the most sensible out of us all and said he didn’t want to play!

Full of lovely food and Japanese cocktails we retired to the lounge next door and Harry, Toby and Tracy hit the dance floor. Harry was a complete disco diva, singing and dancing away – Toby was a little less so – although we did get the occasional glimpse of his bottom wiggle. At just after 10:40pm Toby and I were too tired to stay out any longer much to Tracy and Harry’s disappointment and back to the cabin we went for a nice sleep and to prepare for our final day of the Alaskan cruise tomorrow.

Day five began with a lie-in. Well that is if you call 7am a lie-in but it was definitely welcome after two successive early starts. As we woke from our slumbers we were already docked in Skagway along with 3 other cruise ships which meant the the population of Skagway was about to increase considerably – it’s normally 900 people!

Skagway is at the northern end of the Lynn canal and in the late 19th century it was the starting place for a steady stream of prospectors beginning the long trek into Canada’s Yukon territory, seeking the vast quantity of Klondike gold at Rabbit Creek.

It has to be said that Skagway doesn’t appear to have changed that much in the time that has passed. There are two main streets (Broadway and Alaska St) with 8 Avenues along them and that was it. If you looked one block to the side of Broadway there was just grass, trees and few gravel tracks and a train track. That was it. The buildings and sidewalks were all made of wood and it looked just like the old American town that it is.

We were docked at Skagway all day and with no shore excursions planned, an easy day was in store. After all my camera and my camera taking finger needed a rest!

After a lazy start and a breakfast of the usual omelettes, pancakes, bacon and eggs benedict we took the 10 minute stroll into Skagway. It may only consist of 1 main street of shops but they sure have crammed a lot of them in and mostly jewellery shops selling Alaskan gold, diamonds, totem poles and all sorts of tourist tat (but not cheap tat!).

We slowly worked our way up one-side of the street of stores including one which Tracy went into to look at a gold Cartier watch and came out with a new ring! The sales guy pulled the perfect sales trick by promising Harry and Toby a present each if we bought the ring! At that point the sale was effectively closed! Tracy had a new ring and then spent the rest of the day making it twinkle under shop lights and waving it in our faces!

With only five hours left until the ship left dock Harry started worrying about whether we should start making our way back (it was a good 15 minutes walk away!). Eventually after a few more purchases we made our way back and boarded the ship – Harry could relax again.

The afternoon was spent relaxing in our cabin and on the balcony. Skagway was a lovely old town and the weather was exactly as we had been told it would be – sunny and windy. In the town it was nicely sheltered so it felt warm but on boat it was windy as it blew up the channel straight onto us. Sheltering away we waited for the ship to leave dock by watching the webcam on the front of the ship and looking at all the passengers running up the dock and onto the boat. Repeated messages went out for one couple to contact reception. We’re not sure if they made it on but the ship didn’t wait much longer!

The views down Lynn canal were pretty impressive. It looked like there were more glaciers, huge amounts of snow fall and just a lot of very wild land.

I don’t think I would have fancied trekking over the mountains in search of gold. Although it has to be said that our time in Alaska has made me relate a lot more to the wilderness and the untamed conditions that these early prospectors must have endured – I’ve been without the internet for 4 days now. Unbelievable.

The evening was spent in true cruising style – taking in a show (a comedic magician who was very good) followed by dinner in the restaurant. After that it was time for the cabin and bed. Another lovely day was complete. Tomorrow is another day at sea heading back down to Victoria, Vancouver Island. To add a little spice to the trip Toby has bet me $5 that we won’t see another whale. I don’t know where they get their money to make all their bets but either way I intend to spot at least one more whale before this cruise is over!

Here are the pictures…

After a truly amazing morning there was just enough time to get back on board the boat, have some lunch, throw some additional layers on and then head off back on another excursion. This time we were off to see the glaciers in the Tracy Arm wilderness. The cruise ship went quite close to the glaciers as well but the excursion allowed you to see both glaciers (the Sawyer and South Sawyer) and up close (although not so close that the underwater ice shooters can get you).

We boarded out catamaran just before 1pm, half an hour before the cruise ship left Juneau. We then sped off down to Tracy Arm – Fords Terror Wilderness Area to explore before boarding back on the cruise ship which would catch us up 5.5 hours later. The first 2 or so hours were spent bumping our way down Stephens Passage. The wind was blowing and the sea was pretty choppy for a while. They had to hand out chewy ginger sweets which are a natural smoother to motion sickness. I wonder how they find these things out?

As we reached Harbor Island we took a left into the wilderness area and almost immediately we encountered Toby’s worst nightmare! From the moment we had told the boys (not pronounced boo-eee’s) Toby had been worrying about ice-bergs (mainly because Harry had told him that there were lots of ice-bergs in Alaska and we’d probably sink). Fortunately these were only small versions and probably not capable of sinking our catamaran but they were however quite incredible to see. Although I had seen pictures of them before it had never really struck me what an incredible shade of blue they were. They were completely out of place with the rest of the environment but here they were, giant blue blocks of ice floating their way out to sea. Amazing and slightly odd!

As we continued on up the fjord (a French word according to one lady that Tracy overheard) we started seeing more and more of them. Just bright blue blocks bobbing away to sea. One interesting thing we noticed about ice-bergs is how the all get shaped differently by the water as they sail along and mainly they get carved into the shapes of animals (apart from one giant berg that looked like an 18oz New York strip steak! I think between us we saw whale, swan, horse and crocodile shaped ice-bergs along with one that looked like an angel!

At one point we sailed across to a gorgeous waterfall that was exploding out into the fjord. We were all stood up on the top deck and the captain took us closer and closer until the waterfall spray was covering us with its icey cold water. After giving us a soaking we then went further up, dodging the far more frequent bergs and taking loads of pictures of the incredible glacier carved cliff faces. Thank god for digital cameras – I don’t know how much these photos would have cost me in film and printing costs 10 years ago!

Eventually we reached out first destination – Sawyer glacier. I’m not really sure how to describe. It was half a mile wide and 250ft high from the surface of the water with another 300ft under the water. It looked amazing. And it sounded pretty awesome too with the booming thunder like cracks of the ice splitting and cracking. You can’t go any closer than a quarter of a mile because of the ice falls that happen off the glacier. The ones above the surface are not such a problem because they just fall down into the water and if they are really big cause a bit of a wave to come down towards the watching boat. But the same thing also happens under the water – the ice cracks and big chunks break free. This type are called shooters because the break off the glacier and shoot up towards the surface a bit like a torpedo from a submarine (at least that’s what I imagine). So if your boat is any closer than a quarter mile it runs the risk of getting tanked by a giant lump of glacier ice.

After taking countless photos we set off back down the fjord to South Sawyer glacier. This one looked even more impressive to me. You can see the glacier snaking backwards up the mountain and it also had hundreds of small ice-bergs in front of it. Lots of these bergs had harbor seals on them have a relaxing bob about. Here we stayed taking in the most incredibly sight until our cruise ship arrived. I’m sure they had a pretty good view of the glacier but it was definitely not as good as ours – ours was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Wowsers!

Now for the slideshow. Probably best to get yourself a cup of tea before sitting down to go through all these!

Expectations were high. Very high. Today was the day. Today was the day to see a whale and get the perfect picture – a humpback leaping out of the water. Well, first things first we just wanted to see a whale. When I say we I mostly mean me. I think Tracy, Harry and Toby wanted to see a whale too but probably not quite as much as I wanted too.

The day started even earlier today than it did yesterday. The alarm went off at 5:30am and so the day began.

First we were out on the balcony to check where we were. Once again we were ahead of schedule and pretty much at dock in the state capital of Alaska – Juneau.

The capital was named after one of the early prospectors called Joe Juneau. They hadn’t decided what to call the town and the 70 miners were going to vote on the name. Joe Juneau offered to buy them all a drink and so they all voted to name it after him. Simple!

After quickly getting dressed we went up, or maybe down, to the restaurant deck and had a nice breakfast to set us up for the day ahead. Straight after breakfast it was back to grab our stuff from the cabin and then down to deck 4 to leave the ship. We walked off and over to the buses which would transfer us 25 minutes to Allen Harbor. While on the bus, the driver Ray kept us entertained with all sorts of stories, including the one about how Juneau got its name. It took a while to get to the catamaran as the boat didn’t seem to go faster than 25 miles an hour but it did give us an opportunity to take in some views and spot an eagle or two (or more like 25 when we went past the the Juneau rubbish tip!).

Once aboard the boat we were off and fingers were crossed as we hoped to see the elusive whales! It was a lovely day in Juneau or at least so we were told. Juneau has 300 days a year that are completely overcast – not even the slightest pocket of blue sky. The fact that today was quite chilly but had blue sky made it a lovely day. The guide on the boat was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and sandals which seemed a bit extreme but they don’t have many days like this so they made the most of it!

We didn’t have to go far until the boat slowed in anticipation of our first whale. And there she blowed! It was a humpback. As I found out across the day, humpbacks are reasonably easy to photograph – you learn their routine fairly quickly. You start by seeing the spurt of air from the blow hole. I always thought this was water but it’s not. It’s just where the air of the whale is blasted out and when it hits the different temperature outside it makes the smoke like affect. Humpback whales have lungs the size of a small car – like a VW beetle – but their throat is only the size of a small soccer ball, so when they come up for air they blow a giant blast of air out and that causes the water squirt effect. Anyway, after you have seen that blast, then you see the back of the whale appear out the water. Then depending on how steep the curve of the last three quarters of the whale body dictates whether you are going to see the whale tail come out.

After the first humpback sighting, we continued north taking in some bald eagles and then some sea lions playing on a buoy (pronounced boo-eee in America).

Continuing in a northwards direction we soon encountered more humpbacks – two more to be precise. The followed the same pattern and everyone had the hang of how and when to take a whale tail photo. There were other boats out with ours and at one stage a humpy was heading straight for one of them. It was only a small boat so it backed off quite quickly and I don’t blame them!

Northwards again and the excursion took an exciting twist! Killer whales! Alaska doesn’t have any resident pods – not this part anyway. So it is quite rare to see them – they hadn’t seen any on their daily excursions for three and a half weeks. And if that wasn’t enough to get us all excited (and quite frankly it was more than enough) the guide on the boat started running to the top to see them the moment the captain said “killer whales” – and she should know better because at the start of the trip she had told everyone that running on the boat was not allowed!

They were quite distant to start with so we could only make out the fins sticking out the water but there was no need to worry we got closer. Killer whales are much harder to take a photo of – there’s none of this lazy sliding through the water like the humpbacks – they dive up and back in before you have a chance to say “orca”. Persistance and sports mode on the digital camera are the key! As the orcas came closer the number of fin shots increased – almost to Yosemite levels (the day I took 6 rolls of photos before about midday!).

There were a couple of groups of the killer whales, one on either side of the boat. It was difficult to know where to look. As I stood waiting patiently on one side of the boat I heard a loud oooo’s, shrieks and claps from the other side of the boat (including Tracy)! As I reached the other side I found out that an orca had leapt right out the water. In amongst the excited chatter there were various mumblings along the lines of “I hope my husband got a picture of that”. Tracy’s didn’t.

Patience was the key though and a little while later the baby orca jumped out. I got a picture but it wasn’t as close up as I’d have liked – still I can’t complain, at least I got one. As it turned out, on reviewing the pictures later, I also got a second one.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, one of the groups of orcas decided to give us a close fly past. The boats aren’t allowed to go closer than 150ft of where they see any of the whales. If the whales decide they want to come closer though – they can. And they did. They must have swam past no further than about 4 foot from the side of the boat. It was amazing and I got pictures!

I don’t think it could have been any better really – other than if an eagle and swooped down and caught a fish right behind them. The boys loved it and Toby is desperate to go whale watching again! So am I – it was absolutely awesome. Super awesome!

And finally, check this awesome photo! Look carefully and you will see killer whales, the air spout of a humpback and an eagle!

For the other photos check this gallery out.