Day 26 Wed 11 June Vancouver, then homeward bound

(Greg writes .... ) This morning, visited University of British Columbia, incl Museum of Anthropology (overwhelming exhibits - should have allowed 2-4 hours, at minimum!).

30-40 minute bus ride from town. Sprawling university grounds entirely on First Nation land. Museum has First Nation historical and cultural exhibits, displays, histories, etc - breathtaking. Almost impossible to take it all in. An absolute must for anyone visiting Vancouver (who has the time to spare, to do it justice).

Just finished - make that 5-6 hours if you want to, there's some outside exhibits in the grounds around the museum building.

 

 

 

 

 

Then hired bicycles for a 2 hour ride in and around Stanley Park

 

 

 

 

 Absolutely buggered by now, too tired to lug suitcases even 500m to the airport line station so taxi to the airport.

And now, after all that hectic activity, a hot shower at the airport!! Tks to the heads up from Anne and Bob who turned up at the airport last Saturday for their 11.30pm flight only to unfortunately find that Air Canada international business class does not have showers at Vancouver airport. Hiss!! Boo!! Only showers are in the domestic lounge. Uh duh! Bit of a no-brainer, what!

We had investigated alternatives, like $179 for day-room at the Fairmont Airport Hotel (which is actually IN the Vancouver terminal) but had also found that the terminal has a separate service, independent of any airline, with a passengers lounge (food, showers, nap areas, etc) for 2, 3, 4 hours .... at  fee, of course.

We had intended to go for that.

However, some redemption by Air Canada international check-in staff who suggested we should(?) be allowed to use the domestic facilities. When we got to the domestic security checking, after some discussion between the security supervisors (private company, who are not answerable to check-in staff anyway), we were let through.

Probably not the most luxurious shower (clean, tidy, fresh towels of course, etc but a couple of patches of grout or sealant wouldn't have gone astray ... although we've been spoilt for comparison after last year's trip and the Japan Airline business lounge showers at Tokyo's Narita airport had everything but a masseuse with a bare-foot back massage - and that was probably available if you wanted!!!). Air Canada are now runing a very por 4th behnd our previous airlines - 1st. Qantas, 2nd. Japan Airlines 3rd. Air France and 99th. Air Canada.

But, a hot shower is a hot shower and we can now happily sigh ......"Aaaahhhhhh!". Now ensconced in the international business lounge awaiting our flight.

(Val writes ...) Thanks Anna (Hunter Wetlands) for suggesting Museum Of Anthropology. It is very impressive. There is also botanical gardens and Japanese Gardens to see but it came down to a choice between them and a ride in Stanley Park and I opted for that. It was great as Greg had done a guided ride 10 days ago so could show me all the sites.

Day 25 Tues 10 June Seattle, back to Vancouver

Seattle Centre - Chihuly Glass and Garden Museum
Olympic Sculpture Park
Walk along Alaska Way (Seattle waterfront)
Bus back to Vancouver (3 1/2 hours)

Chihuly Glass and Garden Museum

Day 24 Mon 9 June Seattle

Sight seeing day in Seattle

Seattle Public Library

Cruise Lake Union Lake and Lake Washington

 

 

 

Museum of History and Industry

Wooden boats museum

Norstrom and Macy's

Kerry Park

Dinner at How to Cook a Wolf

Day 23 Sun 8 June Vancouver to Seattle

Off to Seattle
Another restless night, this time waiting for the alarm to go off at 5am. We had to be at the station no later than 6 am to clear US customs before the train departed at 6.40am. We arranged to leave our suitcases at the hotel and just packed 3 days worth of clothes into our backpacks. There was a cab rank at the hotel so no waiting and it was only a 5 minute drive so we were there in plenty of time.

We had business class tickets and the train itself was very comfortable with clean washrooms, dining car, power points to recharge ipads. Luggage could be checked at no cost. Once again another country demonstrates just how poor the NSW  train service is.

The trip along the coast wasn't as scenic as I expected. The day was overcast so that didn't help. Just out of Vancouver and just before Seattle were the best sections. The tide was out in one section and we saw dozens of  eagles sitting on the edge watching the water.

We arrived at King St Station in Seattle to find the information booth closed as it was Sunday. We left our luggage at the station and wIth some vague directions on how to get downtown from one of the men in ticket office we headed off towards the bus stop. It was really the dead end of town with some 'derros' around and we weren't comfortable asking anyone for directions so we decided to go back to the station and catch a taxi. Then we spyed a suburban train station with some maps on the wall. Greg worked out where we had to go and how to work the ticket machine and we were off.

We found Pike Place Markets, an amazing warren of shops of all kinds. On the way we picked up some maps and visitor guides so we sorted through them over lunch at the markets.

 

Then back to pick up our backpacks before we caught the bus to our accommodation. Our first problem was trying to work out which side of the road we needed to be on. We knew we had to go north but which way was north? A kind man with a phone app sorted us out.

The bus driver was also very helpful. Turned out he' d been to Australia about 3 years ago and had a great time. We are staying in a basement apartment under a house in the suburb of Queen Anne, a lovely leafy area. I booked it on the internet through Airbnb which is a website for people who want to rent out rooms, apts, granny flats, houses etc to travellers. It's an alternative to staying in a big impersonal hotel in a tourist area. This apt is great. We have a bedroom, bathroom and large lounge dining area, plus access to the yard. There is a great cafe strip nearby.

We ate at the Hilltop Ale House. Bob, the waitress put a bottle of tomato sauce (ketchup actually) on the table and asked if I wanted chips or pasta salad with my meal. I opted for chips and thought of you. Tricked again - they were potato crisps that arrived at the table. But they were the best crisps I have ever had - Tim's Cascade Chips, the waitress told me.

Day 22 Sat 7 June Vancouver

Back in Vancouver
Farewelled Anne & Bob this morning as they head home and we continue alone. They have been great travelling companions!

Disembarkation ran smoothly and we didn't even have to wait long for a taxi. The organisation was impressive. We dropped off our bags at our hotel at about 10am and set out to do our chores. Dropped a bag of washing at the laundrette $10 for it to be washed and folded and ready in 2 hours. Next we found our way to Central station to collect our tickets which I had booked online, for Seattle.

The day was warm and sunny and we could see alot of people on the walkways and decks around False Creek so we walked over to check it out. It was the qualifying races for the national dragonboat racing championships. There were hundreds of people of all ages there, all dressed in colourful team uniforms, lots of cheering and team chants.

From there we took an aquabus to Granville Island. As well as tourists there were lots of locals doing their shopping. The fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg looked great. We wandered through the shops and then found somewhere to sit for lunch and just watch the people going passed.

  We caught the bus back to town and dropped into the Vancouver Public Library which is 2 blocks from our hotel. An impressive building and very busy, open till 6pm on Saturday. I couldn't resist having a look at the children's section. I've never seen such a big picture book collection, although most were shelved spine out rather than face out and many of those that were cover out were not at child height.

It was a big area with lots of activity spaces. As I wandered I spotted quite a few Australian titles. There was a display of Emily Rodda books and I saw picture books by Allen, Dubosarsky, French and Graham on the shelves cover out.

Hotel check-in time is 4 pm (not 2 pm) here.  We checked in - room was fine but we are no longer living at the Fairmont standard!

Collected our wasing and had dinner at the hotel in Moxie's Bar & Grill. Food good and I could watch the ice hockey game on any of the 5 screens within range of my table!

Day 21 Fri 6 June At sea Ketchikan to Vancouver

Last day of cruise
Awoke to cloudy misty day. Slept in and missed the final stretch class this morning. At 3.30am we were all awoken by the ship's alarm system. Smoke had been reported in the midship stairwell on level 3 (we were level 5). We were informed it was a level 1 alarm for the crew fire response team and we should stay in bed and await further announcements. The captain updated us every few minutes, his voice coming through the speaker between our pillows, so no nodding off even if you wanted to. It took about 20-30 minutes to resolve - a burnt out fan giving off smoke.

As well as that disturbance we had to put our clocks forward 1 hour so that's why I missed my class.

Spent morning relaxing and chatting in the Crows Nest. After lunch it was suitcase time - drag them out, fill them up ready to be put outside the door before bed.

Holland America Line organises fund raisers for a number of cancer charities - On Deck for a Cause. Anne and I made our $20 donation, donned the t-shirt provided and walked the deck with about 50 other people. It was supposed to be a 5 km walk (9 times round the deck) but we forgot to count (too busy talking) so not sure how many laps we did.

Greg and I still had one of the bottles of wine we brought on board left so A & B joined us in our stateroom to polish it off before the APT farewell drinks in the Crows Nest.

During dinner the waiters and dining room staff ( mainly Phillipino) sang farewell to us and danced a congo line through the 2 levels of the restaurant.

 

Last drinks in the ............... you guessed it, before we turned in.

Day 20 Thur 5 June Ketchikan

At last, internet reception good enough to do some blogging. Created a few empty previous days to "reserve" the daily sequence, but will be filling these in over the next 24 hours or so. But thought we would just grab this chance to let everyone know all is well .... no, it's better than that, it's FABULOUS!!

EDIT : I lied. A momentary abberation. Back to extremely poor internet reception, if at all. Impossible to do anything other than a few lines of text so it looks like another 24 hours until we get closer to Vancouver (on our way "home" now, towards end of cruise) before we can even think about serious updates with pictures.

Arriving in Ketchikan, we find we're once again sharing the port and town with 3 other cruise liners - the Westerdam, Crown Princess and Golden Princess. This continuous procession of varying and different cruise liners to Alaskan ports will now continue (it started about mid-May) until September

Lucky, lucky! Of all the towns we visit Ketchikan has the highest rainfall but we arrive in perfect conditions. I am on the pier at 11.15am ready to go sea kayaking. As Greg is going on a crab boat excursion  I am on my own. We will be in two person kayaks so I am hoping there will be a 'spare' strong guy to be in the group, who I can team up with. Two of the couples from the train/bike ride turn up, then another couple and finally a woman about my size - so much forr my plan of an easy time. It turns out she works on the cruise ship doing acupuncture. The kayak venue is about a 30 minute drive out of town and our coach driver gives us a commentary as we go. It's good to see more of the area than just the downtown tourist part. 

The canoists are kitted out with life vest and skirt to keep us dry and after some initial confusion about direction, Christo and I get our act together and make a good team. It is just perfect weather for kayaking, sunshine and no wind. We paddle around several islands stopping to take photos, mainly of eagles. Someone sees a seal but it does't hang around to be photographed. The water is clear and we see sea cucumbers and star fish. 
As we are paddling back to base 2 banana boats full of tourists pass by and we are buffetted by their wake. Didn't realise it at the time but Anne & Bob were probably on board- will have to check photos to confirm. 

Christo and I were very pleased with our effort - we were the last kayak back at the end of the 2 hour paddle but only just. I thought I'd be stiff the next day but wasn't. No blisters either.

 

Back in town I found some good presents for Christmas in July (in August). Yes Dinah & Jen, expect presents from Alaska this year.

This was one of the best days. I think I might take up kayaking when I get back home!

Meanwhile Greg went off on a Bering Sea crab boat experience ( Based on some TV show on Foxtell). He said it was interesting and informative but was disappointed that there were no free samples for him eat, although the sea eagles were treated to a great feast,

 

Met with Anne & Bob for Happy Hour in the Crows Nest. After dinner we tested ourselves at a Pub Quiz - came 2nd - missed out by 1 point. So what if there were only 3 teams! Later Anne & Bob joined us for Name that Tune trivia - boy did we bomb out on that - embarrassing!