Winding down vacation

As we neared the end of our vacation, we tried to make the most of our remaining days. We had only one more stop, Victoria, British Columbia. We weren't scheduled to arrive there until 7:00 pm, so we decided that Anastasia would stay on the ship with Marilee while we went out to explore the city.

Once again, it was very foggy in the morning, so we heard the fog horn a lot. Anastasia was a little scared at first, but then she learned that it was just the ships way of letting other ships know we were there. Then she walked around shouting "out of my way other ships!"



Most of the day was spent running around the ship and playing with Anastasia. We also had to make sure that everyone got their afternoon naps. Anastasia and her two friends, Dog and Bear, enjoyed a little Backyardigans while Mommy snoozed.



The fog burned off relatively early in the day, so we went to the deck to enjoy the view of the inside passage, then, it was time for a snack and a spin at the bar.



We watched the pilot ship arriving to steer us into Victoria. It was the first time Myney got to see the ship ease its way into the dock. It was bedtime for Anastasia, and then the rest of us were off to town for dinner and a tour of the city. We decided to walk to town, since it looked like it would take a while to get a cab. The walk turned out to be a nice one through one of the most expensive and historic neighborhoods in Victoria. We headed straight for the horse drawn carriage tours and took a 1/2 hour tour through downtown.

Our horse, Molly:



The riders:



Thelighted parliament building and Empress Hotel were two of the first sights on our tour.



Next we went passed a street performance and our horse did a little dance for us.



Then we went through Chinatown, which was very impressive for it's cute Bonsai trees (nevermind that bonsais are Japanese, not Chinese).



At the end of the tour, we picked a restaurant for dinner (Myney and Orlando really wanted oysters, so that was the deciding factor in our dinner destination.) The oysters hit the spot, and it was back to the ship in time to sail back to Seattle.

The next morning, we were all sad to have to say bye-bye to the ship. We had one last big, rich breakfast and got all of our things together for our disembarkation.



Once we'd gotten off, we called the driver who'd delivered us to the cruise ship terminal and settled ourselves with our baggage to wait. It only took a couple minutes, and then we were on our way to the airport. We had a long while to wait at the airport, but I soon discovered that SEA-TAC is the greatest airport for children ... ever! Right in the terminal, there is a playroom for kids Annie's size, filled with stuff for kids to climb on, slide down, and crawl through.



Anastasia loved it, and even made a couple of friends. After a while, she decided she could take care of flying us home.



The flight was long, we landed after 11:00 pm, and then had an hour drive home. Needless to say, we were all very tired and ready for our own beds. Fortunately, we had Saturday and Sunday to relax and get ourselves ready to return to the real world. We all continued to sway a bit with the imagined waves of the cruise, and we began planning our next vacation almost immediately. Anastasia can't wait.

Juneau and Ketchikan

After leaving the glacier, we sailed for Juneau. The afternoon and evening were fairly relaxing, and when we woke up the next morning, we were there! There were 5 other ships in Juneau on the same day, so downtown was very busy.

Our new friends suggested a place where we should stop for lunch, but that was the only thing on our itinerary for the day. We wandered around downtown, and moved out a bit past the touristy shops and found a bit of the Juneau flavor.

The town is built right on the base of several mountains, and it turns out that it's actually built on rubble from the gold mines in the area. The main downtown streets are fairly flat, but people live up on the sides of the mountains. The only way to get home is:



up all those stairs!

We wanted to take the tram up to the top of Mount Rodgers, but it was very foggy and misty, so we didn't think we'd be able to see anything. Instead, we stayed on the ground, and took in the mountains from there.



As we walked around town, we learned that the town is serious about keeping bears away from garbage. The garbage cans are very difficult to for people to open, which I guess means that bears have a hard time, too. The box next to Orlando that looks like a newspaper vending machine is actually a trash can.



After a couple of hours of wandering around town, we were getting hungry and Anastasia was tired enough to fall asleep in her stroller. We made our way to the crab shack we'd been told about, and I stopped at the creperie that was two shacks down.



Orlando got a t-shirt that says "Tracy gave me crabs" and he and Myney shared this:



Meanwhile, Anastasia looked like this:



After lunch, it was time to make our way back to the ship for our trip to Ketchikan. Annie took us to the bar so she could bust a move before dinner.



We arrived in Ketchikan early the next morning, to very rainy skies. We decided that we'd take a look at some tours before deciding what we wanted to do, and in the end decided that Dolly's Museum on Creek Street was the best option for us.



Creek Street, was an easy walk from the ship, on the opposite side of the creek that runs through the town. This is a walking street that's really more like a boardwalk and is lined with wooden houses that used to make up the red light district of this old mining town.

When we got to the creek, we to watch the salmon swimming for a little while, and got to see two seals eating at the "all you can eat salmon buffet" and such a glut of salmon that it was almost possible to walk across the creek on their backs.





As we walked down Creek Street, we found some really cute artist studios and shops. This town is a really funky artist community. The people there were wonderful and fun. It didn't take long for us to decide that this was our favorite ports on the whole cruise.

At the end of Creek Street is Dolly's. Dolly's Museum is the only house that remains as it was when Dolly was working out of the house as a lady of the evening. It was a really fascinating tour through a bit of history. Dolly was a resourceful woman whose house was an interesting place to visit. The tour guide said she charged $3, and wouldn't go to bed till she'd made $75-$100 in an evening. Wow, is all I can say.



After leaving Dolly's, we walked back through town and stopped at Ketchi-Candies to pick up some treats for ourselves and an box of candies to bring back to DC with us.

After leaving Ketchikan, it was time to get ready for our second formal night. Anastasia was contentedly sleeping with Marilee in her and Myney's room.



And we went down to have a cocktail before our dinner. We made a dapper group, and enjoyed a very relaxed evening that included a Baked Alaska Parade.

Sitka and the Hubbard Glacier

The first stop on our cruise was Sitka, a town with rich Russian heritage and a lot of rain!



It rained the whole time we were there, which made wandering much of the town very difficult. With Anastasia in her stroller, we took a complimentary shuttle to one end of the main drag and started walking. We were surprised at how little there was to see there. The Moose Lodge and movie theater right next to the typical cruise gift shops.

We came to a stand selling reindeer hot dogs and just had to try them. Turns out, they were excellent! Anastasia loved them. Right next to the stand was a giant stuffed bear (not taxidermied, stuffed like a teddy bear). Anastasia was afraid of it at first, but then finally let Orlando hold her so we could get a picture.



We'd been given a tip that we should go to a bar called the Pioneer to play a bit of pool with the locals. Unfortunately, our tipster didn't know that a new smoking law has been passed and the Pioneer is now one of the few smoking bars remaining in the town. The law is such that children are not permitted in bars where smoking is allowed. So, we bought a six pack of soda to take back to the ship and headed back to the main drag.

It didn't take long for us to decide that we were all getting wet and not really interested in wandering around much more. We decided it was time for lunch and it was best for us all to head back to the ship to enjoy it after getting into dry clothes.

It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon, filled with naps followed by bouncing on Daddy.



Anastasia enjoyed her dinner of pasta with meat sauce (shared with mommy) while Daddy and Grandma enjoyed a plate of sushi. Soon enough, it was time to get Anastasia ready for bed, then it was time for the babysitter Marilee to take over so we could head off to dinner.

The next day, we would stay on the ship the whole day and cruise the Hubbard Glacier. The ship's naturalist narrated the tour, which was excellent. Anastasia went down for a nap shortly after the glacier cruise began, so she missed it all.

The glacier cruise started with the ship moving into the Bay of Discontentment around this beautiful green island, through waters that became just a bit icier with every couple of minutes.



The captain assured us that he had a very good line to bring us into the bay, and the ice was working with us on the day. It was a little bit intimidating with so many really big chunks of ice coming so close to the ship. The pictures we have don't really give scale, but they were big. This piece came within inches of the ship.



After sailing through the gauntlet of ice, we came into the bay to see this:



Eventually, the captain got us to within 1/2 mile of the face of the glacier. To say this was awe inspiring is an understatement. There are two smaller glaciers that feed into the Hubbard, and combined, they are among the most active glaciers in the world. Hubbard apparently moves with opposite tendancies to most other glaciers. When the world warms, Hubbard grows while most other glaciers are receding. It grows at an amazing rate (growing 30 feet and calving off more than 29 feet each day.)Here's some video that might give a sense of the size of this amazing site.



A few more photos:





The dark lines in the glacier are the deposits from volcano eruptions 200-400 years ago. The blue hue of the ice was surprising to all of us. Now, can you spot the harbor seal?



We were very fortunate to have cabins on both sides of the ship and just steps from each other, so we were able to see the views from each side of the ship. As the ship turned around to leave the glacier, we were given some wonderful panoramic views, and got to hear more calvings (imagine an extremly loud crack followed by the loudest clap of thunder you've ever heard lasting for 10 seconds.)

Anastasia woke up just in time to head to the bar for a cocktail and chat about the amazement that nature inspired and the experience we just shared.

Anastasia's Vacation part 1

Part one of our Alaskan vacation.

Anastasia's vacation was a real treat for her. Starting on Thursday morning, she had 11 full days with Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Myney. It was the most one-on-one time she'd had since she was 3 months old, and she definitely reveled in it. She couldn't get enough of her daddy.



When we arrived, we spent the afternoon wandering around Pikes Place Market. She was tired, but she liked seeing the giant piggy bank.



We had a night in Seattle before boarding the cruise, so we planned to go out for a nice dinner. Anastasia looked beautiful, and seemed to be ready to behave herself in this grown up restaurant. But, shortly after this picture was taken, she fell asleep, and didn't wake up again until dessert. Her timing is impeccable.



The next morning, we had some time to kill before getting on the ship, so we wandered around town a bit more and stopped for the required Seattle coffee. Anastasia loved her smoothie.



Then we went back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle to the ship. Anastasia played ball and ran around the lounge, just what she needed after spending so much time in her stroller.



Once we got on board the ship, we wandered around and then made our way to the cabins. Anastasia crashed. She got up for the safety drill, we got her a little dinner and then she went back to bed before the babysitter arrived.

Next day, Anastasia led the way as we explored the ship.



The ladies went to lunch in the main dining room, which Anastasia enjoyed thoroughly, especially when she got the ice cream for dessert.



After lunch, we went to the children's play area and enjoyed some more running around. Anastasia loved the slide and the pirate's tower. She really wanted to play in the ball pit, but that was the only place she wasn't allowed. Instead, we spent extra time on the slide.



After a day at sea, it was time to land in Sitka.