Summer 2013: Part 1 - Holland America to Alaska

About the end of March or early April, L's folks started talking with us about taking a cruise to Alaska via Holland-America cruise ship. Oh course we said "Yes!" but we were a bit nervous about this being an "old people" thing. Nope. Rest assured if you are thinking of taking such a cruise, that it is geared for all age groups with plenty to do. We had a great time. Would we do it again? While we'd like to do it under our own keel, we'd go with Holland America again.

Trip run down: Left on a Sunday afternoon from Vancouver, BC. Arrived back to Vancouver, BC the following Saturday morning. Up the Inside Passage with the first stop at Juneau, Alaska (where it poured! "Just like home," we said as we trudged off to the wonderful museum), then onto Skagway (were we took a bus following the old gold rush trails to Caribou Crossing and Carcross, Yukon and then a train ride back), then it was onto Glacier Bay where we got to see some of the glaciers calve! The next stop was Ketchikan (where we joined them for their 4th of July parade). Then back to Vancouver via the Inside Passage.

Some reflections:
~ What a great - dignified - way to travel
~ Amazing that in one week we did what can often take a Merganser size boat 2-3 weeks to do, one way!
~ A little strange to look outside and not know where we are on the chart! We realized we are really used to navigating!
~ All around awesome experience.

Some pictures follow.

Thanks, Mom and Dad. It was a wonderful time!

Starting from Vancouver
Here we are on the aft Ledo deck as we set sail.

Lion's Gate Bridge
which we pass under at the start of our voyage north.

Mom/Nana with a ship's bench. We were aboard the Zuiderdam.

The kids loved the two pools. One was outside (aft) and one was inside mid-ship (with a polar bear statue).

First "Formal Dinner" on the way up north ...

Juneau in the rain

This is a typical (AMAZING) dinner aboard. The food was out of this world good!

Skagway and our tour via bus then train of the old Klondike Gold Rush Trail to Caribou Crossing, Yukon Terr.

M & I with an Alaskan (Yukon?) Sled Puppy

Then the train ride back down to Skagway ...

Some fun photos of the bed decorating / room service

Glacier Bay ...

No, this isn't a shore plaza, but the bow deck of the ship.

Marjorie Glacier in the midst of calving!

It was great to see humpback whales later, although most of them were too far off for a good picture.

2nd formal dinner night with ...

... Baked Alaska for dessert!

Ketchikan ... (on the 4th of July) and what do you know, no rain. Amazing!

The joke about Ketchikan:
An older couple disembarks from a cruise ship. It's raining. They see a child and ask him how much it rains here. "I don't know. I'm only 6."

Some of the wonderful desserts!





Our two waiters really loved having an inter-generational family at one of their tables. They kept teasing the kids about how many desserts they wanted.

Our two dinner waiters on the last night, during the Baked Alaska Parade. These guys were awesome!

Sunset coming south down the Inside Passage.

Coming back into Vancouver and heading back home ...

2013 Ballet Recital

I. and M. have been so excited for this recital. They passed their en pointe test in September, and this is their first recital up on point. Their recital was amazing! As the choreography is copyrighted, here are photos from after the show. It was great to have the entire family here - even their 98 year old great-grandmother.

Enjoy the photos.

With Great-grandma

With their teacher

January Sun & Ice - Drayton Harbor

Early this morning as I left in the pre-dawn, it looked like our end of the marina had a skim of ice on it. Sure did by the time the rest of the crew were up and about.

As I came home for lunch, there was a bit of ice still on Drayton Harbor down by the end of the "spit" and over by the museum. Decided to take a walk and snap some pictures. Any excuse to get out in this marvelous sunny weather! Does make for cold nights, however. Outside temperatures were in the high 20's last night. Glad our Dickinson stove keeps us at 70+ degrees Fahrenheit!

These were all taken with my phone camera - so the quality is not the greatest, but fun to look at anyway. Believe it or not, but these were all taken between 11:35-11:50.

This phenomenon seems to happen about three times a year or so here. I believe the top layer of fresh water (from the two creeks flowing into the Harbor) freezes while the salt-water doesn't. Usually it breaks up in a wind, like the edge is doing here.








And then, why not take two pictures with Mt. Baker in the back ground? Why not, indeed.

Today was such a spectatcular and clear day.

Hope you get a chance to get out on or around the water. While cold, some of these high pressure winter days are just what we need!

Blessings into your new year!

J.

Happy New Year - 2013

We wish all of you a happy new year. May 2013 be full of blessings and fair winds.

Wishing you peace.

J.L.I.M.E. + the cat