Category: vacations

Ketchikan is the 4th wettest city in the world. It averages over 13ft of rain a year and only has about 31 nice days a year. Today was one of those 31.

Tracy woke at 5:30am and the rest of us soon after. We watched from the balcony as we were slowly escorted into Pier 1 ahead of schedule.

With our first shore excursion due to start at 7:45am we threw on our clothes and set off to find our breakfast. With eggs, bacon, pancakes, whipped cream, sausages, cranberry juice and coffee duly dispatched, we went back to the cabin, collected out waterproofs, cameras and binoculars and set foot on dry land again.

Because we had docked slightly ahead of time if gave us to enough time to check a couple of shops out – one of which was the Alaskan Christmas shop. Fortunately Harry and Toby were just about behaving (despite the late night/early morning combination) because sat in the corner of the shop was Father Christmas. After exchanging a few brief words with him, they both got a candy and then off we went to our next boat.

This excursion was the Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer and was planned to last about five hours. When we first left the harbour we went across the passage to see the nest of a bald eagle. The eagles weren’t in it but they were nearby trying to distract us. The largest bald eagle nest that had been found was 14ft wide, 9ft deep and weighed 2.3 tonnes. Unsurprisingly the eagles use their nests for several years until they fall to pieces. What was surprising was that they can build these size things in about a week!

After leaving the eagle nest we went a little further before we saw a deer having a morning mooch. Then, once out of the slow speed section, the boat cranked up to 35mph and we sped down past Bold Island through the Revillagigedo Channel. At the bottom of Point Alava we took a left and went up the Behm Canal. Although called a canal it was made by a glacier rather than man. Man isn’t really welcomed in this part of Alaska – it was declared an area of wilderness by Jimmy Carter in 1978 and that means that no building or roads (permanent or temporary) can be built.

We slowed down near New Eddystone rock and Harry and I without knowing had a “who can take the most photos of the rock” competition. It was a close battle but in the end I just won it by 18 photos to 15!

As we continued on up the canal, Harry and Toby spent most of their time inside the boat, downstairs. They were enjoying the hot chocolates and they both got a cuddly toy each. Harry got Sam the Seal and Toby got Fishy the Bald Eagle. Fishy was originally called Baldy but he got renamed to Fishy for reasons that will become apparent later.

Shortly after New Eddystone Rock we took a right into Rudyerd Bay which was a truly beautiful part of the journey. The huge sides of the fjords looked all freshly carved by the glacier and lovely waterfalls came down from the melting snow to give them a lovely sheen. We saw Harbor Seals enjoying the sun on the side and there were some nice looking black and white birds nesting on almost sheer rock faces. I’m not sure what they were but Harry thinks they were definitely called black and white pigeons. He may be right.

After cruising about for a short while looking at the work of the glaciers we set off back towards Ketchikan. The trip as a whole was 140 miles which was pretty impressive really for such a short period of time. There were no real stops on the way back other than to see a 300-500 year old painting on a cliff face.

It was a picture of a sun and I nearly missed it because I couldn’t for the life of me see it. I took photos of most of the cliff area so that I could see it later but in the end I spotted it just before we left. Good job I did because it was the one part of the cliff I don’t think I had got an image of! For the rest of the journey back we stayed in and Toby stuffed himself silly with Alaskan Sockeye salmon. He ate so many of the sampler pots that had been handed out that the women next to us was laughing at him. He didn’t care!

We arrived back in Ketchikan at about 12:30pm and there was still no rain, in fact it was quite a pleasant temperature. We went for a walk over to Creek Lane which apparently is one of the most photographed streets in Alaska. I’m not sure if that is true or not but I nearly managed to walk away from it without remembering to take a picture! This is because I was completely distracted by a bald eagle sitting down by the side of the creek eating a fish (which is why Baldy got renamed to Fishy). I took lots of pictures but in the end I had to stop because I think Tracy, Harry and Toby were all bored of looking at the eagle! It was good though – it should definitely be on my post of best eagle photos!

After finally remembering to take a photo of the most photographed street we went a did a spot of shopping. We were almost tempted with a totem pole that was about 3 foot high. The shop owner lowered the price from $900 to $700 but it was still a bit too much – despite Harry walking round the shop saying we should just buy it! He is very free and easy with other peoples money!

In the next shop he continued offering to spend other peoples money as Tracy was collared by a salesman trying to sell her a nugget of Alaskan gold on a necklace. It was very nice and again they lowered the price from $316 to $199 but in the end she just wasn’t convinced and much to the salesman’s disgust we left the shop empty handed.

All the time we walked around Ketchikan Harry was worried that we were going to miss the boat! So in the end we gave in and went back on board with a half hour to spare. Oh the stress a nine year old can go through!

With a quick bit of lunch tucked away we took a bottle of wine down to the balcony and sat watching as we set sail from Ketchikan. It’s very tiring this cruising business! Against all the odds we made it through the afternoon without taking a nap. Having spent the afternoon relaxing we showered and then went on the hunt for food! The highlight of the food hunt was walking along the 7th deck when we spotted a whale. It gave us a couple of blow hole snorts (technical term) and then it leapt out of the water, did its little twist thing and landed back in the water. The deck erupted as if there was a firework show with lots of “ooohs” and “aaahs”. At dinner Toby announced that that (the whale) was the best thing of his day (the 6th best thing of his day was me wearing the new shirt I had bought which Toby chose!). Not surprisingly I didn’t have my camera with me but that was ok. Clearly these humpbacks are just warming up and getting me in the mood for our whale watching excursion tomorrow morning.

With that early morning adventure in mind – the alarm is set for 5:30am (some vacation this is!) – we decided upon an early night. The camera battery is on charge. Tomorrow is the day!

Wildlife sightings..

Eagles: loads and with photographic evidence

Harbor Seals

Photos: 154 (check them here)

After a reasonably good nights sleep – the ship was a bit creaky which I suppose is to be expected – we all woke up just after 7am. After tuning into the ships TV channel to get our bearings, we had a cup of coffee and some showers and set off in search of breakfast.

We went down to the 6th floor and munched our way through omelettes, eggs benedict, pancakes and bacon. And what better way to round off a hearty breakfast than to hit the shops! So back up to the 7th deck we went and into the duty free. There was a lot of tat – in fact Alaska looks like it could possibly be the home of tat – but also some bargains on gin, so we will stock up on the way home. Cadburys fruit and nut was not a bargain but we bought a giant bar anyway. Then, as we sniffed our way round Hugo Boss and Marc Jacobs smellies Harry spotted the next wildlife of the the cruise. Out the porthole we saw a small school of porpoise leaping their way down the side of our ship. Typically I didn’t have the camera to take a picture so we’ll just have to accept this as another sighting!

After finishing with the shops we went back to the room and the boys got their swimming gear and we were up to the pool on the 12th deck. Despite it being an overcast day they were off into the pool straightaway. First stop was the kids jacuzzi and then once I’d been back to get their googles they were off into the main pool which was a lovely 30 degrees. Toby was desperate to show off his newly acquired swimming skills and, without his tummy band, he was off and swimming. I decided to join them in the pool as Toby was showing a little too much confidence for my liking and as soon as I was in he was off again, swimming underwater and showing us the range of strokes that he had learnt. It was mighty impressive. Toby learning to swim has also had the added effect of making Harry up his game in the swimming stakes. He doesn’t want to be out done and so he was swimming around like a fish as well – there’s definitely no more talk of tummy bands!

After a couple of goes down the water slide – how different from a couple of weeks back at the Great Wolf Lodge when Toby didn’t want to go near them – and then another hour or so in and out of the jacuzzi, it was time for lunch! Burgers, lamb kebabs, hot dogs and chilli did the trick and then it was time to cash a voucher for a bottle of wine and head back to the cabin but not before we had seen what looked like a couple of dolphin leaping about. No more photographic evidence though.

Back in the cabin the boys hit the DS’s and Tracy and I sat on the balcony. Tracy then took up the wildlife spotting role by seeing a whale – probably humpback or maybe grey – swimming not far from our ship. We saw a couple of blow hole squirts (that’s the technical term I believe) and I did just manage to get a photo of a small blob which is definitely a whale.

I was only lucky enough to get the second picture because Harry and Toby stood on the balcony and spoke in “whale” and made it jump out the water again. The count was starting to grow! Come on whales!!

I then sat for another hour or so waiting for the next sighting but it didn’t happen until I stood up to go inside. I looked down over the side and saw what appeared to be a shark shaped creature in the water. I snapped a couple of photo’s and you can just about make it out! Definitely a shark!

After relaxing for a while in the room Harry and Toby decided they wanted to go up to the sports deck and play soccer. Despite the fact that there was a game of basketball going on, they plucked up the courage to enter the court and started playing soccer at the side. Eventually them and a band of others took over the court and had a match while Tracy and I went down a deck to the bar at the back of the boat and drunk pina coladas. While we were drinking people started gathering and pointing so we went and had a look and although they were a little way off, there must have been a good 20+ dolphins flooping about to the side of the boat. Again I had no camera with me but the wildlife was doing it’s best to show off. Even a small group of puffins decided to give us a fly past. Hopefully the whales are saving their best (and nearest) performances for the next couple of days when I will have my camera with me (but probably the wrong lens!).

After relaxing in the cabin for a couple of hours we went to the theatre to participate in Deal or No Deal. We bought our ticket and kept our fingers crossed. We needn’t have bothered though because we had no luck. The very noisy American sat behind us did though. Todd, from Sarasota, Florida, got called up on stage for the second half of the show and he was as suitably annoying on stage as he had been sat behind me! Luckily for Todd he ended up a winner though, winning $322 – “that’s a lot of money” or so he kept telling everyone!

After the entertainment had finished – Deal or No Deal anyway, we didn’t stay for the 70’s music – we went to get a glass of water from the 12th deck. Despite only going for water we somehow found ourselves sat at a table with curry, salmon, pizza and beef on our plates! All this at 9:30pm – why the boys weren’t asleep I don’t know! It was still light though so I suppose it was ok – the sun didn’t set until 10:13pm this evening. As we sat eating we saw a seal leaping acrobatically out the water – Toby has promised to emulate this in the swimming pool tomorrow!

Food finished, we went for a stroll round the sports deck and then came back down to our cabin. The sea was as still as bath water this evening – and had been most of the afternoon. It was eerily calm but made the perfect whale viewing weather – unfortunately they didn’t show up – I think they are waiting for the next couple of days.

With the sunset, the boys got into bed ready for our early start tomorrow morning. The alarm is set for 6am, we get into Ketchikan at 7am and we start our first shore excursion at 8am. It sounds exhausting just thinking about it. Lucky the clocks go back tonight as we enter Alaska time and we get an extra hour in bed.

Whale sightings: 1 (with photographic evidence)

Shark: 1 (with photographic evidence)

Seals: Several

Porpoise: Several

Dolphins: Several

With the forecast looking a bit iffy for the weekend we had decided we needed some sunshine. Tracy was left in charge and did us proud! Much research ended with us booking an apartment for the weekend at Crescent Bar Resort which was a couple of hours away over the mountains to the east.

After leaving work a little early, the car was loaded and off we went. The beauty of trips in the US is that you get in the car, set the GPS and basically you get about 3 directions (get on the freeway, stay on the freeway, get off the freeway) and you’re 133 miles away at your destination!

The last time we went up the mountain, never mind over it, was taking the boys ski-ing. This time as we went past the slopes, the tubing slope and the snow park it was just an area of grass and mud. It didn’t look very impressive at all. The journey across was nice and uneventful and we arrived at about 6:30pm, unloaded the car and then, as we were all ravenous, we went for dinner at the nearby golf club.

The food was fabulous! We scoffed steak tips in a peppercorn and jack daniels sauce, risotto, burgers and fish and chips before rounding it all off with ice-cream and a particularly yummy fresh raspberry pie. There was only one slice left of this which was lucky otherwise I would have had five helpings!

In the morning we woke and went for a stroll along the bar to the resort at the other end. There was something very relaxing about the whole place. I think it was because there were not many people about and those that were there just drove around everywhere on golf carts. During this walk, everybody either remarked upon or just stared at my fabulous new trainers! After a little while Tracy and the boys got quite embarrassed by it all, particularly when a group of 12 year olds said how great they looked! Not only are these trainers the very height of coolness they also have a device in them which hooks up with an app on my phone and tracks how far we have walked/run/mooched and plots it all on a map. They thought they were cool and they didn’t even know the half of it!

On our walk we went past cherry trees that were absolutely dripping with fruit. They looked great and despite signs warning us of snakes we picked a few and ate them as we walked – tasted as good as they looked. The sign about snakes didn’t go down very well with Toby who preferred to walk down the middle of the road than anywhere near a field with snakes in!

Once back from the walk we changed into our swimmers and hit the pool. It was a little bit chilly in the pool to begin with but a quick dip in the jacuzzi first took the edge of it and once you were in it was lovely. Luckily for the boys someone turned up at the pool with an inflatable turtle and that was the last they saw of it as Toby and Harry then spent hours playing with it.

While the boys played in the pool Tracy and I lay by the pool listening to conversations of others. There wasn’t a lot going on as there weren’t many people about but the award for the most interesting thing was a question that one woman asked another. It was a question neither of us have heard asked before but we now ask each other it on a fairly regular basis… “how are your triceps?”, “really good thanks”. Odd.

It wasn’t staying by the pool because it was incredibly hot – despite some clouds being about. It was actually so hot that my phone came up with a message saying it was too hot and wanted to go into a cool area – it’s never done that before. By 3pm we gave in – it was too hot. We went back to the apartment to cool down and relax.

Obviously it wasn’t long before we were starving so we walked back along to the other end of the Bar and went for a pizza. This was followed by a round of pitch and putt golf which including bumping into a resident of 15 years who was from Stamford. It’s a small world.

Sunday was Dad’s day and began with presents and cards for me! Yay! I got some batman lego, a baseball glove and a liverpool football. What a lucky me! After breakfast we went back to the pool for a while but it was even hotter today and the only downside to the pool area was a distinct lack of shade.

We didn’t stay too long. Instead we went and packed up the car before playing some basketball, watching Euro 2012 soccer and then heading off home.

The journey home included a few stops for photo’s of views, driving through a couple of dust storms and going through a wide range of temperatures. We left Crescent Bar at 84 degrees, bottomed out at the pass over the mountains at 50 degrees and then ended up at 63 degrees when we pulled into the car park at Red Robin in Issaquah. It had been a long weekend of sunshine, eating and drinking – so what better way to round it off than with a burger at Red Robin!

Happy (hot) days and here’s some pictures!

For Memorial Day weekend we decided to remember those who had served by taking the boys to the Great Wolf Lodge. We couldn’t go on the Saturday as Harry had to go to Evan’s birthday party. Evan has moved up to Bellevue not that long ago from Texas. Clearly they haven’t left their Texan beliefs behind as Evan’s dad was most surprised that I was comfortable wearing a pink t-shirt!

After waking up early-ish on the Sunday morning, we packed the car and set off down the I-5, past Olympia to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was only about an hour and 40 minutes away but it felt a long time because two little boys were in a “non-stop talking about absolutely nothing” mood in the back of the car! Once we arrived we checked in but our room wasn’t ready so as we were absolutely starving we went to eat before heading to the water park. We had intended to have a reasonably light lunch and just ordered some nachos however we were presented with a pile of nachos like no other!

We munched our way through as many as we could and then got changed into our swimmers (not a pretty sight!) and headed into the park. I’d expected the Lodge to be like Center Parcs and it sort of was except the water park was much bigger and better but it didn’t have any of the non water park activities. After the boys got used to the noise and water round the kids pools, Fort McKenzie and some smaller water slides we convinced Toby that going down River Canyon Run was a good idea. It took quite a bit of convincing (and a $10 bribe) to persuade Toby but in the end he gave in and we started the climb up the stairs to the top of the ride.

At the top, a large four person inflatable raft thing arrives and we all climbed in. While I was expecting to go reasonably fast I wasn’t quite prepared for what followed. And if I was quite prepared, I think it is fair to say that Toby had no idea what he’d let himself in for. We shot down the big tube on our inflatable, whizzing up the sides, with Tracy squealing, Harry clinging onto the sides for dear life and Toby looking like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh, scream or cry. I grabbed hold of him as I feared it was the latter and clung on to him as I think he was on the verge of falling out as we shot round all the corners and banks! After what was probably no more than 30 seconds we landed in the pool at the bottom, coming to a very sudden halt. Unfortunately for Harry it was a bit to sudden a halt as I wasn’t expecting it and ended up slipping across the raft and crashing into him. Poor Harry – he certainly knew what had hit him!

Surprisingly Toby didn’t cry at the bottom – he just laughed – but he also made it quite clear he wasn’t going down it again! We then went into the giant wave pool and then back to the kids area to relax on smaller slides. It was then time to get out and find our room. We relaxed for a short while before we set off to the games area and Toby and Harry spent much more that $10 playing on slot machines, grabber toys and all sorts of other money wasting things in order to win tokens to exchange for tat! Then it was time for dinner although why I ordered a big steak sandwich I have no idea – I was still full from the nachos and some cookies which I had accidentally eaten in the room!

With dinner partially consumed and some cocktails easily taken care of it was back to the pool. I couldn’t go back in as I felt like I had got half a tonne of bricks in my belly and so could do nothing except lie on a lounger feeling sorry for myself! Tracy, Harry and Toby spent another hour or so going down the slides (small ones) and playing in the pool.

At 9pm the water park closed so it was time to eat ice-cream – but only if your name was Harry or Toby. After demolishing that it was back to the room and a nice nights sleep.

The bank holiday Monday started with some over tired tantrums (from the children) and then more time in the pool. No more scary slides, just some fun in the wave pool, swimming pool and Fort McKenzie with it’s big splashing bucket of water:

httpv://youtu.be/MfyQbJp4HS8

We left the pool behind, squeezed a little more food into our tums, went back to the games center and won enough tokens to exchange them for an green angry bird basketball before setting off for home.

The Great Wolf Lodge was fun. We shall be heading back there again and we will try to convince Toby to go down the River Canyon Run again – I think it will take more than $10 to convince him next time!

 

On our first afternoon we found some interesting “things” on the beach but we had no idea what they were. The next day in the Cannon Beach visitor center the very helpful lady told us exactly what they were. Now I can’t remember exactly what she said but I think it went something like this:

The term sand dollar (or sea cookie or snapper biscuit in New Zealand, or pansy shell in South Africa) refers to species of extremely flattened, burrowing echinoids belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are known as sea biscuits. Related animals include the sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.

I may not have got that exactly right but it was definitely something along those lines.

On our way home we stopped at a little place by the sea called Seaside. One of the things that Seaside is known for is a large population of sand dollars and so after doing some shopping (to keep Grampy happy) we went on the beach to search for some perfect sand dollars.

As luck would have it, we found quite a few:

Which was lucky because there were a lot of people out on the beach looking for them:

So now we have our collection of (what turned out to be quite smelly) sand dollars the only thing to decide is what on earth to do with them!

So the title is not strictly accurate. It is a beach but it wasn’t sunset. We missed sunset by a few minutes and for that I blame the bullfrogs. If I hadn’t spent so long looking into the reeds trying to spot one of those noisy things then we would have seen the sunset but I did, so we didn’t.

But never mind. Despite missing it by a few minutes it still looked fabulous. It was a perfect temperature, the color of the sky was beautiful, the waves were crashing and the sea was just right for running in to (if you were a little boy!).

Check out the full sunset slideshow here.

Cannon Beach is one of the most photographed spots on the Oregon coast and that was before I’d even started! I think the ratio of the amount of photos taken in the space of time spent there probably puts the beach and the Haystack up there near Yosemite. And I took an awful lot of photos at Yosemite!

We couldn’t go straight to the beach in the morning because Grampy was showing signs of shopping deprivation symptoms. So after a quick trip to the visitor center and some shops we then went and checked out the Haystack.

I won’t prattle on too much about the beach as I will let the pictures do the talking. If a picture speaks a thousand words then this slide show should equate to the works of Shakespeare!

The photo above was Toby’s best moment of the few days in Oregon, and I quote, “Harry getting his butt soaked by the sea”. He has also lived in his sun glasses since  buying them!

 

Our second trip to Vancouver and we were just as lucky with the weather. The first day was spent getting there, checking out Gastown (and the old spaghetti factory) and walking round the waterfront with its local eagle.

The day ended with some alcoholic coffees and cable car cocktails in the hotel bar, followed swiftly by falling asleep in our rooms!

Day two started with sunshine and so, after a lovely breakfast, we set off up Grouse Mountain. Despite it being a weekday it was very busy with skiers and incredibly bright with the sun reflecting off the snow. I clearly wasn’t prepared as I didn’t have any sun glasses and spent the morning shielding my thin eyelids from the bright snow!

As the bears were still asleep for the winter – lazy bears – we took the cable car back down and went to see the wolves instead. After a brief stop off at the dam we then took a tour round Stanley Park. The buses weren’t running all that frequently so we took the car round and it was much easier – although it helped that it wasn’t so busy.

After the Park we retired to the hotel bar for a few more alcoholic coffees followed by dinner at the Cactus Cafe, where Tracy had the best fish taco’s ever. As we left there Tracy and Toby went to the loo and came back very excited. They had been to, what they both claimed, were the best toilets ever. What an evening this was turning into! Could it get any better? Well, the answer was yes because a few minutes later we were down on the waterfront again when Tracy saw the nicest looking car park she had ever seen! At this point things reached their pinnacle – there was nothing left to top the car park! It was too much excitement for everyone to take so it was back to the hotel for some sleep!

The next day was more yummy breakfast – the corn beef hash was scrummy – and then it was into the car and back across the border (after a brief stop at the duty free shopping where we stocked up with some Cadbury’s chocolate).

We took a brief detour on the journey back to enjoy Chuckanut Drive, which is a purpose built scenic drive along the coast with views across the San Juans. Unfortunately the views were a little hazy so we didn’t have the greatest photo opportunities – lucky for Tracy who didn’t enjoy Chuckanut at all – it had far too many steep cliff drops from the side of the road.

On the journey home the children watched DVDs until we were about 40 minutes from home. We decided they should look out the window instead of starting to watch anything else. What a mistake! They turned into monsters. Right, proper monsters! The only good thing is that they did have the odd interesting conversation. For example:

Harry … are we where I think we are?

Toby … where do you think we are?

Harry … none of your business

But that was the odd highlight, the rest of the time it was first class monsters! Thank goodness for TVs in cars!

So that was Vancouver for the second time. Each time the weather was fabulous, as was the food. A very nice city but who knows if we’ll go there again! All the photo’s are here…

 

So the best place to see an American bald eagle is clearly Canada. We’d seen tens of them as we’d driven up the freeway from the border crossing to Vancouver and I thought that would be it for the trip but I was wrong. After a taking a stroll round Gastown we went round Canada Place on the waterfront. Their were no cruise ships this time but at the end of the pier/place/whatever it’s called was an eagle. It sat there quite happily posing for photo’s and I happily took them.

Typically I didn’t have the ideal camera lens with me, it was back in the hotel room, but never mind the results were pretty good even though I do say so myself:

The eagle refused to fly, even when attacked by a couple of crows:

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, how about this…

An eagle, a tanker, a mountain, a seagull and a helicopter. All that was missing was an orca leaping out the water and a bear scooping a salmon out of the water. Maybe next time?