This from Teresa's Daily Diary on our recent Florida Alaska adventure. It's long. If you like, just skip over to photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/
07 Aug 2008 Thursday
What a crazy trip we have planned. A reunion with my family in Ft Myers, FL,
then we fly to Anchorage, AK, drive up to Denali National Park, then another family
reunion of sorts as we catch a cruise ship with Andrew's parent's Jack and Ellen
and his brother Todd and his girlfriend Meghan. The cruise will take us down
the Alaskan coast to Vancouver, BC. Then we fly back to Denver.
We knew we'd be in cars and airports all day, so we started off our day with a quick
bike ride up to the top of "S" mountain and back home. It took about
an hour and a half. We then dropped off Simon at Wag-N-Tails where Doug and
Trish will pick him up next week. A long drive to Denver where we will catch
our flight about 5pm Mountain time. We arrived in Tampa about 10:30pm Eastern
time. OMG!! A miracle occurred!! My bag was the first off the plane!!
Andrew's was tenth or so. When we got to the hotel, I realized my bag had
been searched by the TSA! I wonder what was in there to attract attention?
Or was it really a random search? We'll keep track on this trip to see if
were searched more. Our cheap Wal-Mart luggage is falling apart, so we'll
spend some time tomorrow morning getting some new bags.
08 Aug 2008 Friday
A late night = a late morning. Andrew had made an appointment to pick up our
rental car by 8am and we didn't make it there until about 10am. Since we were
late, we didn't get the car we wanted, we got a V8 extended cab pickup truck.
It was a nice ride, but with gas over $4. gallon, this trip all over the state of
Florida is looking painful. It reminds me of a joke I saw recently, "Congratulations!
You've been upgraded to a sub-compact hybrid!"
After a brief trip to
Ross for luggage and a bite of lunch, we're off to Ft Myers. We arrived
at Pioneer Village about the same time my sister Sue and family arrived. Pioneer
Village is kind of a seasonal mobile home park, but they have several "cabins" for
out-of-towners to rent. The cabins are really small, one bedroom mobile homes,
but it's perfect for a weekend. They also have a big recreation center with
ping pong table, billiards and a swimming pool. And what gathering place in
Florida would be complete without Shuffleboard Courts!
We made some impromptu plans for dinner and went off for some groceries. Sue
had a cart overflowing with groceries in a matter of minutes. She assures
us she'll be back at the store four more times at least this weekend. Sue
and John have their two boys, Nick and AJ with them and two of the boys' friends.
Four teenaged boys seventeen to nineteen will eat an amazing amount of food!!
Richard and Kim drove in shortly with their son Adam. Ashley is still at classes
in college. They joined us for the feasting. The local family, Dianne,
Bud and Debbie, nephew Jonathan and his new wife Amanda with little Kaylee were
also there. This is just an impromptu dinner on the grill, the real reunion
is tomorrow.
09 Aug 2008 Saturday
We awoke to thunder rumbling. It's raining with lightening and thunder early
this morning, finally calming to a steady drizzle. The reunion is planned
about 1pm and family started showing up around noon-ish. All of my brothers
and sisters came and many of the nieces and nephews, a few great-nieces and great-nephews.
Ann and Kenny, Gay (Dave didn't make it), Bud and Debbie, Richard and Kim, Sue and
John and Dianne. My niece Cathy was there with her new boyfriend and two babies,
Jonathan and Amanda just moved back from North Carolina, Mindy, Mike's daughter
that I haven't seen in more than 15 years was there! Tony and Jackie, Sue's
kids, Nick and AJ (plus two of their friends), Richard's son Adam is now 17 years
old and 6'-5" tall!! We all ate too much and chatted with everyone there.
Later, our lunch leftovers became dinner for most of us. More talking, family
gossip and telling tall tales!
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-09+Ft+Myers/
10 Aug 2008 Sunday - Our Anniversary
The sun was shining early in the morning, but rain clouds moved in quickly for another
downpour. The rain were having doesn't seem to cool things off, it's still
95+ degrees and the hot rain just makes the air steamy and unbearable. Richard,
Kim and Adam headed back to Orlando, Sue, John and crew head off for airboat rides in Everglades
City, Andrew and I checked out of Pioneer Village and went to Dianne's for lunch.
We're staying with Dianne tonight. We helped Dianne with some simple home
improvements and rested (in Air Conditioned comfort!). A smaller group of
us got together again for dinner. This family has mastered Recreational Dining!
(Not much of an Anniversary though)
11 Aug 2008 Monday
Everyone in Ft Myers is back to work and we're off to Boca Raton to visit with Andrew's
90 year old Grandma Rose. On our way out of town, we stopped for a minute
to put some flowers on the graves of Mom, Dad and Momo. The little angle I
put on Momo's grave several years ago is still there.
Our long drive across from the west coast to the east coast of Florida was accented
with intermittent downpours and sunshine. We met Grandma Rose and Yolanda
for lunch at a place that looked out on the beach. Rose is doing better than
last time we saw her. Her eyesight is still bad, but she's no longer seeing
people that aren't there anymore. I think the cocktail of drugs she was on
was causing much of the problems. After lunch we visited a little more with
them and headed back across the state via the Florida Turnpike, this time heading
north- west to Tampa. We're due to return our rental car tonight and catch
our flight out in the morning. Florida gets pretty big when you drive from
coast-to-coast-to-coast all in one day!
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-11+Boca+Raton/
We got back to Tampa about 8:30pm and grabbed a fast-food sandwich to go. We returned
the car, got a shuttle to the airport, called for a hotel shuttle to pick us up
from the airport and was told the driver was "out of commission". We
grabbed a cab and the hotel paid for it. We relaxed, showered and went to
sleep. We've got a REALLY long day ahead of us tomorrow.
12 Aug 2008 Tuesday
5am Eastern time wake up call. UGH! The sun is barely rising in Tampa.
We had a quick coffee and caught the shuttle BACK to the airport. Our flight
leaves at 8:30am, but we have to allow enough time to get thru security. It's
a game of "Hurry up and Wait". Our flight from Tampa to Anchorage has a long
layover in Denver (where we started, of all places!). So we've planned to
fly from Tampa to Denver, leave our bags checked while we leave the airport for
lunch.
We ate at Jack and Grill's in Denver, a place that was recommended by a few friends.
It was good, more of a traditional Southwest fare rather than a gourmet Mexican
fare. Andrew ordered some fried jalapenos and I tried a small bite of one.
Big mistake! I couldn't feel half my mouth and part of my throat! OMG!
This was hot!
We next went to REI
in downtown Denver to spend our dividend coupons. We both needed new rain
jackets. We got our jackets and went for a short walk outside along Confluence
Park, a water park of sorts on the river. The building REI is in was an old power plant for the
trolley lines. The power for the trolleys was generated by a small dam in
the river. Today we saw kids playing in the water and floating downstream.
It was hot and I really looked refreshing.
It was time to head back to the terminal to continue our flight to Anchorage.
We found out from some Denver natives that we could park for free at the RTD park and ride lot at 40th and
Pena. Most of the buses go from here to DIA and return here, continuing on
to points beyond afterwards. We showed up and found a couple of TSA
workers and other airport workers there catching the bus. This is the way
the locals do it. This time we left the car at a cheaper RTD park and ride
lot and swapped out our carry on luggage filled with dirty laundry from Florida,
shorts and sandals with an Alaska carry on bag filled with hats, gloves and jackets.
We headed back to
DIA via
RTD, thru security and on to Anchorage. Once again, "Hurry up
and Wait". We have to be early enough for security, but now we have a couple
of hours to kill. So we kill a few beers.
It was a long 5 1/2 hour flight to Anchorage. It was still daylight when we
got to the hotel. We started our travels in Tampa at 5am Eastern time; that's
1am Alaska time. We arrived in Anchorage about 10pm Alaska time, that's 2am
Eastern time. We just had a 21 hour day of traveling. UGH! We
knew this was going to be tough.
13 Aug 2008 Wednesday
I still woke up early, even though it's only 5am local time. I got up, dressed,
realized the time... and went back to bed. But I still couldn't sleep.
Jet lag does weird things to your body clock. After tossing for a while, I
finally got up about 6:30am. Andrew was still asleep, so I snuck out for coffee
and breakfast. I wondered thru the hotel and found the restaurant. The
hotel restaurant is across the street via a tunnel under the road. Going from
a pretty traditional hotel to a pretty traditional restaurant, this tunnel is painted
in some funky wild colors, with stylized images of salmon all over it. Cool!
I sat in a stupor with a cup of coffee in my hand staring at the TV with some Olympic
coverage. Until I realized I was staring in a stupor. I found the workout
room and spent a few minutes on an exercise bike. Andrew found me after a
few minutes and we went to see if Jack and Ellen were up yet. We all met for
breakfast and repacked our bags for 2 days in Denali National Park. The larger
bags we stored at the hotel's storage room.
It's a long drive north to Healy where our Bed and Breakfast is. The Denali Touch of Wilderness
is just north of Denali Park. We drove into the park and got tickets for the
shuttle bus for tomorrow. The then checked in to our B&B. We all
went on a short walk near sunset, about 10:30pm before bed. The days are really
long up here!
Pictures here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-13+Denali/
14 Aug 2008 Thursday
We started off early. The B&B gave us a good breakfast and packed a lunch
for us. We talked to the B&B owner about how bad the winters are, if they
lived here year round. She said they are surprisingly busy for winter.
Hunter come up and they hold retreats for different groups. And many people
want to come up "to see the school bus where that kid died", it's just up beyond
the end of this road. This is the area where Chris McCandless,
the guy that "Into
The Wild" was written about, came out to live and tragically died.
Right here, out Stampede Road. People take snowmobile tours out a few miles,
about 15 minutes, to the bus that's still there. We looked at a map and
can see that Stampede Road juts out deep into Denali Park, into a very little touristed
area. It was little touristed until now, anyway.
And so we headed off for
Denali National Park and caught the shuttle bus at the park headquarters
that will take us to the Eielson Visitors
Center deep in the park. You can't drive into the park, traffic is
limited to the shuttle buses. The animals have grown accustomed to the buses
and aren't spooked by them. Along the way, the bus stopped many times for
people to photograph all sorts of wild animals. We saw moose, caribou, grizzly
bear and cub, ptarmigan (a type of bird), and fox. We also saw sheep on the
cliffs, but they were LWD's (little white dots). I got some great photos of
peoples elbows as we all were craning to get a photo of some animals. We were
really lucky with the weather, it's beautiful! It's a long 66 mile drive to
the Visitors Center and with the incredible weather, we had the most beautiful views
of all the surrounding mountains. And then it happened (gasp!)... we rounded
a corner... there it was.... Denali. The base of the mountain was surrounded
in mist and clouds, but the top of the mountain magically appeared, peaking through
the clouds. It's said that the mountain only shows itself to less than 20%
of visitors. We heard one woman say she's been here 6 times and this is only
the second time she's seen it. Everyone on the bus is trying to get a photo while
the mountain it still visible. It's so tall, at 20,320 feet above sea level,
it actually makes it's own weather. At the visitor's center, we all get out
and take lots of photos. We can see the wind blowing across the face creating
a cloud of snow off to one side. At 20,000+ feet, it dwarfs the 10 and 11
thousand foot peaks surrounding it.
The last time Andrew and I were in Alaska, we experienced 30 year flooding.
Mudslides closed roads and rail lines, streams breached their banks and roads washed
out. We made it as far as Talkeetna when we got word that the Park Road, the
only road that goes to Denali National Park, had washed out in TWO PLACES!
It was at that point that we determined Alaska didn't want us there, we'd come back
later. We're glad we did!!
We ate our packed lunch and caught our shuttle bus back. It was a long beautiful
drive, with long stretches of green hills with snow-capped peaks trailing snow-melt
streams and waterfalls. We were exhausted by the time we got back, but we
had a great day, seeing lots of wildlife and the top of the mystical mountain, Denali.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-14++Denali/
15 Aug 2008 Friday
Another beautiful morning at the B&B. We got our stuff packed up and checked
out. We took a short hike near the Denali Park Headquarters around Horseshoe
Lake. We have to meet up with Todd and Meghan who are flying in today, so
we loaded up the rental car and headed back to Anchorage. It was a long drive,
several hours, but we had to get the car back this evening. We checked back
in to the Quality Inn and picked up the bags we had stored there.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-15++Denali/
16 Aug 2008 Saturday
We all met up in the lobby and caught two cabs (too much stuff and people for one
cab) to the Elgan Center where the cruise buses will pick us up. The
Sapphire Princess will dock in Whittier, about an hour away. We checked
in and had some time to kill, so we walked two blocks to the Glacier Brewhouse,
Anchorage. Todd and Meghan had "researched" it previously and insisted the
calamari was fabulous. We ordered some and completely agree!! They slice
the body of the squid into strips and soak it overnight in buttermilk. Then
lightly batter it and fry it just perfectly. The beer sampler was impressive,
but we're still spoiled by our local Colorado Brews.
The bus loaded and our driver gave us a brief history of Anchorage as we drove south.
The last final leg of the ride was thru a long, 2 1/2 mile tunnel, blasted thru
the mountain by the military in the 40's. In all the wisdom of the government,
the tunnel is only 1 lane wide. It's the only route into Whittier. All
of the cars and buses line up in order of occupancy. Because of the length
of the tunnel, several "Safe Houses" were built into the walls along the tunnel.
In case of some event that might close the tunnel (they have had earthquakes here),
they only allow the number of people in the tunnels that can be housed in the Safe
Houses. Only one tour bus is allowed per 160 yards, and there is a red light
to space the vehicles. Passenger cars are allowed to enter a bit closer, but
they monitor this closely.
We got to Whittier, a tiny town of a few hundred residents. The cruise ship
is there waiting for us, the
Sapphire Princess. We had to go thru security, similar to airport
security. We were herded onto the ship, trying to take in everything at once.
Total sensory overload. Of course, this is when they shove us in front of
some fake background and take our photo.
We found our stateroom, dropped our bags and went out to explore the ship.
This is HUGE! We had a map and went from floor to floor, fore and aft, back
and forth several times. We were exhausted! They announced a drill would
be at 8pm. We had a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants on the
ship, the Pacific Moon. The drill is called Muster and it's In Case Of Emergency,
how to put on your Life Jackets and DON'T go for the life boats unless it's a last
resort and you're instructed to do so. Andrew and I didn't have anything like
this on the ferry, but then, it was a fraction of the size. This ship is nearly
the size of Salida!
We set sail about 9:30pm and leave Whittier.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-16+Whittier-Sapphire+Princess/
17 Aug 2008 Sunday
We woke up in
College Fjord in Prince William Sound. One of the TV channels in the
stateroom is a live camera on the ship. We turned on our "window" to the outside
and found we were in the midst of glaciers. We got dressed and headed out
about 7:30am, just as the ship was leaving College Fjord. We saw an area loaded
with glaciers, one next to another. We later met up with Jack and Ellen, Todd
and Meghan at breakfast.
Since we're on the ship all day, the cruise line has lots of different activities
to keep you busy, in case the four swimming pools, eight hot tubs, fitness room
and spa aren't enough. I took a "Ceramics at Sea" course in which I bought
a piece of greenware,
a covered box, and painted it with paints they provided. I kept joking about
it being my "ashtray" that you usually made at camp on summer vacation.
Tonight is "Formal Night" and we made reservations at Sabatini's, one of the nicest
restaurants on the ship. It was an interesting dining experience in that we
got ALL of the seven appetizers, a little of each, a choice of soup or salad, a
small bit of two pasta dishes and an entree. It was a little disturbing to
Andrew and me that they cleared all the silverware and tableware about every two
courses. With about eleven or twelve courses, each of us used more silverware
than we OWN in our house! The "green" in us started having problems with that.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-17+At+Sea-College+Fjord/
18 Aug 2008 Monday
We stayed on the ship again today. We're cruising thru Glacier Bay National Park. It's
beautiful and untouched, except for the cruise ship we're on. They limit the
number of ships and boats allowed in the bay at any time to reduce the impact on
the animals and the area. We saw several glaciers, some coming all he way
to the water's edge. We saw some glacial "calving",
where huge chunks of ice fall from the face of the glacier and drops into the bay
as icebergs. The Marjorie Glacier is very active, moving as much as seven
feet in a day. We slowly moved thru Glacier Bay Park, seeing some wonderful
snowcapped peaks and glaciers flowing down the valleys. The weather has been
fabulous! It's cool and a little misty, but not raining and foggy. We
have great weather for viewing.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-18+Glacier+Bay/
19 Aug 2008 Tuesday
Our port of call today is Skagway. Skagway
is a tiny town of about 800 residents. There are four cruise ships docked
here today, each carrying approx. 2,000 passengers. This town is inundated
with tourists! We have a trip reserved this morning for a train tour on the
White Pass Narrow Gauge
rail. This is along the path that Gold seekers took during and Great Gold
Rush of 1896-1898. Within two years, Skagway "boomed" to over 20,000 people,
then "busted" to a few hundred when the gold ran out. Our train ride took
us up to the summit of White Pass, on the Canadian boarder. The scenery was
magnificent. We were told about all the horses that died at the hands of the
gold seekers, who knew nothing of handling horses, they were bankers and merchant's
from back east. They'd load down their horses and mules with way to many provisions
and the horse would slip and fall, break a leg, and there was one account of a horse
simply walking off a cliff to his death rather than enduring any more abuse.
The locals say that you can still find the bones of many horses at the bottom of
this steep valley. Molly, our tour guide, told us of a tradition for guides
on this line to take a swim on their last day here at the summit. This happened
to be Molly's last day, she was leaving for college. Ok, it was really more
of a "dip" than a swim, but I'm sure that water was cold!
After getting back to the ship for lunch, we headed back into Skagway to rent some
bikes. Jack and Todd stayed on the ship, so it was just Andrew and "the girls".
Andrew was able to rent a mountain bike, but the rental place was out of bikes our
size for the rest of us. Ellen, Meghan and I rented some one-speed cruiser
bikes with coaster brakes. Andrew went off on a more serious ride to the ghost
town of
Dyea while the rest of us went tooling around town. After having 2
gears on a road bike and mountain bike, I felt really awkward and clumsy on this
cruiser. We rode from one end of town to a small park on a point of land near
the airport. It was a cute little park and lots of people are out enjoying
the rare Alaskan sunshine. We cannot believe the luck we are having with the
weather on this trip! Alaska is known for being cold and rainy this time of
year and many people have said they've had several weeks of solid rain before today.
The whole time we've been in Alaska, even in Denali, we've had great weather!
Amazing! After we cruised around the point park a bit we headed all the way
to the other end of Skagway, about 23 blocks. There we found a gold rush cemetery
we saw from our earlier train ride. It looks like most of the wooden headstones
are regularly replaced. Some of the granite and stone ones are still there.
Most date 1890-1900 and most of the people only lived to be 25 to 45 years old.
Life must have been incredibly hard then!
We returned our bikes and Ellen was in search of coffee. Many of the local
coffee shops were closed by now (about 4:30pm), so we ended up at Starbucks.
Andrew soon joined us and he and I went off the Skagway Brewing Company and tried
out a few local beers. We headed be back on board the ship for dinner.
More good food!
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-19+Skagway/
20 Aug 2008 Wednesday
Today's port is
Juneau. We're up early, but we're not sure what we're doing yet.
At breakfast, we decided to check out a shuttle bus to the Mendenhall Glacier.
The shuttle bus raced through the city of Juneau, a town of about 200,000 people.
The driver/guide gave us little bits of info about the city as we drove through.
We pointed out the local Wal-Mart which has a glacier behind it. The city
has many glaciers hanging out in he surrounding mountains. Juneau is the capitol
of Alaska, but has no roads to the outside. It can only be reached by boat
or by air. The Mendenhall Glacier is huge, flowing into the Mendenhall Lake,
with the majestic Mendenhall waterfall of to one side. It rests in the Mendenhall
Valley and can be reached by the Mendenhall Loop Road. So who was Mendenhall?
A noted scientist, Mendenhall also served on the Alaska Boundary Commission that
was responsible for surveying the international boundary between Canada and Alaska.
And now you know.
On a boardwalk near the glacial lake, Meghan saw a bear! It walked slowly
by, from one bunch of bushes to the next. It scared her, but of course, everyone
else wanted to go searching for it. We all walked around, photographed and
lake, glacier, waterfall and the thousands of people there, but no bears.
All of these small towns are packed with tourists from several cruise ships every
day. But tourists are the lifeblood of these towns. If the ships weren't
here, the industry would only be logging and fishing. The local artists and
artisans are supported by all the tourists.
At the Mendenhall Glacier we escaped the crowds a little and walked across the street,
looking for a short hike and bears. Meghan was secretly hoping we didn't see
any more bears and she got her wish.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-20+Juneau/
21 Aug 2008 Thursday
Next stop,
Ketchikan, one of the wettest places in Alaska getting an average of nearly
200 inches of rain per year. We're in port by 10am and have plans for a flight-seeing
tour. Once again, we have amazing weather! In Juneau, we got reports
of it raining before we got there and after we left. Here, it's been raining
every day for weeks and it's beautiful today. There seems to be a ray of sunshine
following our ship! The ships naturalist, born and raised in Alaska, said
this would be considered a "Sunshine Holiday", schools would be let our and stores
would close and everyone would be encouraged to get out in the sunshine! I
can't even imagine living with that much rain!
We caught a float plane to the tour at Trader's Cove for a bear watching tour.
Even though we're enjoying the sunshine, it seems the bears don't. We got
to a viewing platform and wait. Another tour group is there and we watch with
them for a while, watching salmon jump by the dozens in he river. After the
other group leaves, a small black bear comes out and swats for a while before snagging
a fish. We checked out two other areas, a bridge and a lake where our guide
says he's seen lots of bears, but it seems the bears don't like the sun as much
as we do. Our flight back took us over some wonderful scenery, but the clouds
and fog are moving in. It's also getting really chilly.
Everyone else headed back to the ship while Andrew and I stepped into the Artic
Bar, the home of the "Happy Bears", for a beer. We split a small beer, a decent
IPA and bought a pint glass to take home. We saw this place two years ago
when we were here, but the ferry's schedule didn't allow us to try it out.
It looks like a typical locals dive bar.
Back on board, I dragged Ellen and Meghan up to the Skywalker's Lounge, the disco
lounge on the ship. There are several lounges/bars on board, probably as many
as Salida. The Skywalker's Lounge is not very busy and a great place for viewing
the ship disembarking. Andrew and I watched from here as we left Juneau and
it was really beautiful, waterfalls hundreds of feet tall along the coast.
Ellen and Meghan agreed it was a great place to watch the ship come into and leave
port.
Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-21+Ketchikan/
22 Aug 2008 Friday
We're ocean cruising toady. The ship has a formal "Tea" at 3:30 that we haven't
made it to et, so we did so today. The wait staff all had on white gloves
and trays of tiny sandwiches and petit fours. And, of course, tea. We
chatted with some other ladies at our table, they were telling us about other cruises
they had been on. We started packing before dinner, since this our last full
day on the ship.
Cruise Impressions:
The cruise was nice, but Andrew and I had some issues with it's sustainability and
"green-ness". Beyond the food waste on the buffet, the restaurants provided
lots of extra dishes; three plates under a bowl of soup, extra plates under appetizers
and lots of silverware. We spoke with several of the staff, all internationals.
They had staff from the Philippines, Russia and other Slovak countries, Germany,
Mexico, India and many other places. It seems Princess Cruises heavily recruits
overseas. Cruise ships are tough places to work. the staff worked seven
days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day for 9 to 10 months at a time per contract.
They get only 2-3 months home and then they can renew their contract for another
9-10 months. The new guys work in the buffet and restaurants, working three
meals a day starting at 5am. My only guess as to why they accept such conditions
is that it pays much better than what jobs they can get in their own countries.
It made us a little uneasy to have so many people catering to us. We'd sit
at a restaurant and the waiter would grab our napkin and place it in our laps.
The cabin person made our room up in the morning and turned it down in the evening,
leaving little chocolates, of course, every day of the cruise. If we asked
for something now on the menu in the restaurants, we got it, no problem. If
you didn't like your entree or just wanted another, no problem. If you wanted
both soup AND salad, two appetizers, extra desserts, no problem. We all really
ate WAY too much.
23 Aug 2008 Saturday
We got to port in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Andrew and I got up early to get
breakfast on the ship before departing. We're all packed up, although it was
a challenge to get all our stuff back into the suitcases. We were in the first
group to disembark and got lucky, we were near the exit door. Andrew and I
were the 5th and 6th people off. We still had to wait for Todd and Meghan.
We're all staying overnight in Vancouver, leaving tomorrow morning. We go
a cab from the port to our B&B where we dropped our bags and took off to see
the city. Catherine's Bed and Breakfast is right on the bus route and Robert
gave us the bus numbers we needed to get us downtown and back.
Ok, I'm an idiot. We head out to see the city and I forgot my camera!
Our ray of sunshine has followed us to Vancouver and again we have great weather.
Our first destination is Water Street. The bus trip to downtown took us through
a rather sketchy part of town where three women got on, started yelling at each
other, rode about three blocks and then got off in front of a homeless shelter.
They were calling each other drunks, messed up, whatever. The shelter had
lots people sleeping on the sidewalk out front, a woman leaning against a post,
swaying with her eyes rolled back in her head. Oddly enough, a few blocks
further, it was a typical downtown. Of course we had several people panhandling
us, asking for money. Todd said one guy asked for a drink of water because
he was terribly hung-over. He didn't feel real sorry for him.
We had researched a brew-pub, Steamworks Brewery,
that Andrew and I want to check out later. It's too early right now, but we
noted where it was. We found the Visitor's Center a block or so from there
and looked for other things to do. We're back at the port where we got off
the ship and the Sapphire Princess was still there.
We caught another bus and headed for Granville Island
and their famous Farmer's Market. The market was huge, with all kinds of vendors,
prepared foods, vegetables, and all types of arts and crafts. We found the
Granville Island Brewing and stopped in to check out the beer sampler.
It was ok, kind of traditional styles, not the "Over the Top Ales" that we like.
We had lunch and wandered a bit. There's a large Asian population here and
the foods are represented. Canada seems very tolerant of many cultures blending.
The signs on the buildings reflect Polish, Asian (Japanese, Korean, etc.), Sikhs (or other turban wearers),
women in
burkhas. But the dark side to such tolerance, we also saw a lot of
homelessness and mental illness on the streets. It's still a big city, after
all.
We left the market about 3-ish and headed back to Water Street downtown. We
found a steam powered clock built in 1900. This steam clock is powered
by underground steam vents that are still used to heat many of the downtown buildings.
The clock plays
Westminster chimes on steam whistles every fifteen minutes and a larger
chime on the hour. It gathered quite a crowd while we were there. We
walked a couple of blocks back to Steamworks Brewery
for a sampler, purely for research, of course. The sampler had 7 beers.
They were good, but we still have our Colorado favorites. We're just too spoiled
as beer snobs. The brewery overlooks the dock where our cruise ship landed
and I noticed the Sapphire Princess had already set sail. They're on their
way back up to Whittier with a new load of passengers.
It's getting about dinner time so we asked for directions to Chinatown. At
the Visitors Center earlier we were told about a "Night Market" in Chinatown tonight
along Keefer Street. We were told that the best route was to walk. We
found out that for a big city, Vancouver is really pretty small and compact.
The bus system is great, going pretty much anywhere you'd want to go. Even
though the maps aren't good, the bus drivers are great! Very helpful and very
friendly. In Chinatown, we found many places closed. We asked for a
restaurant recommendation and were directed to Hon's Wu-Sen Restaurant. We
got less than stellar service. We asked for forks and got plastic, though
we saw other customers with metal forks. We had to ask three times for water
before we finally got it. The food was interesting, but not great. A
few blocks away, at the Night Market, we saw far better food that smelled great.
We regretted our dinner choice. We got bac to the B&B kind of late, about
8:30 or so. We were exhausted!
24 Aug 2008 Sunday
We woke up to find our ray of sunshine has moved on without us. It's raining
one of those steady drizzles that's going to be around for a while. Robert,
our B&B host had called a cab for us. We talked with a few of the others
staying at the B&B over breakfast. We talked with a guy from London, Stu,
who was trying to move to Vancouver because the weather was better than in England.
There, he said, it rained like this all the time. We told him about Salida
and how much sun Colorado gets. He said he may try to visit sometime.
Once we got on the plane, the flight back to Denver was uneventful and much shorter
that the flight out. I guess we had the Jet-Stream working with us this time.
Once again, I'm an idiot... I was kidding Andrew about having to drink his tea before
getting on the plane and I had forgotten all about a 16 oz. water bottle I had in
my pack! "Ma'am, is this your bag? Could you step over here, please."
Idiot!