Concrete Police Department

The front of the Police department declared Concrete to be the centre of the universe! We didn't stop long to argue with them! Did find an old fashioned 50's diner and had a delicious Concrete burger and fries!

Concrete Welcomes You!

Who could resist a town called Concrete marked on the map? We had to visit and as it was at the end of a scenic drive, that turned out to be not that scenic, we thought it worth the detour!

Oh deer

It was nice to spot that someone over the other side of the pond has the same problem with deer in the garden as I do!

Chucking it down on the Chuckanut drive!

We drove south from Vancouver to the the American border and then crossed into Washington State. Here we were heading for Bellingham and the beginning of the Chuckanut drive. Bellingham wasn't that pretty so we moved onto La Conner but no hotel rooms as there was a huge Pow Wow taking place in the area.

We carried on to Anacortes and from there started the drive. The heavens opened at about mile 6 but we carried on up the mountain and marvelled at what the views would have been! The road was originally opened in 1896 and joined two communities that up until that point had been paddling down the coast to trade with each other.

Terra Firma

With the ground still swaying beneath my feet we hit dry land and the Hertz office in Vancouver. Despite pre-booking a car we still waited two hours for it as they had run out of cars and had an office full of people getting increasingly frustrated. We waited patiently and came out with this magnificant Impala with a 3.6 l engine! All for the price of a compact! American border here we come!

PS the boot just swallowed a wheelchair, two suitcases and a large soft holdall!

Back to the beginning

Two nights and a day of sailing the Inside Passage and we were back to Vancouver. I had plans to swim and take a jacuzzi but lashing rain during the day closed deck 11 completely as it was too wet and slippery. So we went to the leaving show party, listened to the nature specialist, Mark had a haircut and of course we made sure we took full advantage of the eating opportunities available! Had a wonderful meal at the speciality restaurant with pink champagne and a delicious rack of lamb. Back to normal travel from now on!

You're never far away from a rat or London Bus!

Look what else we found at the totem museum!

Creek Street

Creek Street is a wooden boardwalk along the creek, (obviously!) with pretty wooden houses and shops along one side. In 1903 nearly every building was a brothel but today just plenty of Alaskian souvenir shops to part you from your dollars. The sun was still shining, (a miracle) so we enjoyed a stroll along the creek hoping to see the salmon spawning but no luck even though it is the beginning of the season.

Totem from back in Time

This Totem Pole was one of the oldest in the museum from 1847. You could still quite clearly make out the carving and standing upright it dominated the entrance hall. Poles were carved for several reasons: to contain the ashes of the deceased, to the memory of a family member who had died or to pass down the stories and history of a family.

Totem Musuem

This museum was a bit of a walk up quite a steep hill with the wheelchair but it burnt off a few CSCs! (Cruise Ship Calories). The effort was worth it to see some really old totem poles from the 1850's which were being preserved. Many had begun to rot and the original paint was all weathered away but the stories that they told were fascinating.

Totem Poles

Ketchikan is famous for it's collection of totem poles which are to be found around the town. When the first white man arrived here bringing illnesses that the Native Americans had no resistance against the villages around Ketchikan became depopulated and fell into disuse. The totem poles from these villages were relocated to Ketchikan to keep them in the public eye I suppose. None of the ones today are originals, they are recarves, an exact copy. This is the practice when a pole eventually rots so that the stories and family histories that they tell can be preserved.

I was just glad to find something that didn't move to photograph easily after the last couple of days!

The dockside

Ketchikan is spilt into two areas, Downtown and West End. It was quainter than Juneau but in what felt quite a staged way. As we waited on deck for clearance to leave and for the gangplank to go down we watched the UPS man arrive on board and looked out over the local outlet store!

Coming into Ketchikan

The day after Juneau we arrived in Ketchikan by mid afternoon in brilliant sunshine. The crew were amazed, it always rains here and this is the third day of sunshine! Local joke goes: Visitor to child " How long has it been raining here?" Child, "I don't know I'm only five!"

Brunch, Ice and Cheese Carvings!

As we had been off the ship all day the previous day and were going to be off for the afternoon that day, missing numerous eating opportunties, we filled up at the Saturday brunch which was quite honestly over whelming! You could have anything from bacon and eggs, to roast lamb and ham, to shrimp and fresh salad, to sushi and two types of chocolate fountains! Oh I forgot the desert options, too many to mention!

Wild Forget-Me-Nots

The state flower of Alaska and the only ones we have seen!

Tlingit Culture

The Native Americans who live in this area belong to the Tlingit tribe. Our guide's name in the cable car in Tlingit translated to "the rainbow colours of the salmon fish". We watched a short film about their culture in the visitor's centre and learnt a few words. Ax xooni means my friend.

Compare to a Bear

According to the height chart in the nature centre, (where we saw the bald eagle's nest), I am a sub adult in bear height! I would argue I am sub nothing after all the eating on board but there you go! My arm span is also the same width as that of a red tailed hawk, that measurement I am fine with!

Sealions and Porpoise too

The sea lions were sunbathing on this buoy on our return trip from the whales and seemed quite happy to pose for the cameras. The porpoise were a different story. First we were lucky to see a group and second they were very, very fast dipping and diving in the waves. Far too quick for my camera.

More whales

They just kept coming and coming and we couldn't believe our luck!

Humpback Whales

Lots of photos of blue water later and I eventually managed to capture some pictures of the whales we saw. Swimming in groups of three, four and five were mothers and babies who are in the middle of a feeding frenzy before they swim south to warmer waters. Bubble net feeding involves the females diving and blowing nets of bubbles around the herring to group them into a ball and force them to the surface. The whales then swoop up from below scooping vast numbers of herrings as they go. We watched for the gulls descending on one spot on the water which is a sign the herring have been forced to the surface and the whales are just about to appear.

From Glaciers to Eagles to Whales

We didn't take the cruise ship trip but arranged a much smaller and disabled friendly whale watching tour ourselves. Captain Larry was in charge and we spent two wonderful hours following groups of humpbacked whales around the waters of Juneau. There were only fourteen of us aboard the boat and we got perfect conditions to spot mothers and calves bubble net feeding and diving.

Bald eagles galore!

We were told by the nature expert on the boat that if we couldn't find bald eagles in Juneau then he didn't have much hope for us finding our luggage at the end of the cruise. They were everywhere and within 5 minutes of being in the mini bus on the way to our whale watching experience we had seen half a dozen. Quite a sight but difficult to photograph with my camera but you might be able to spot the white head, looking like a golf ball, in this photo.

At the top of the mountain we were able to look out over the temperate rainforest vegetation and saw a bald eagle's nest high in a tree top. These can weigh up to four tonnes and are added to year after year by the same pair of birds. With the binoculars we could see the adult quite clearly and two black fluffy chicks. AMAZING!

View from the top!

Well not quite at the top as there I was too scared to go too close to the edge of the open deck high over the Juneau temperate rainforest to get a decent picture!

Juneau

Juneau gave us our second opportunity to get off board this time for the whole day via the gang plank not tenders. Our first activity was to take the cable car up the mountain to get a good view of the area. Not as high as the Whistler Peak to Peak but still high enough to make your ears pop.

Sunset at Sea

A perfect end to a spectacular day watching the wonders of the natural world.

Fancy a Swim?

It was really very strange to be positioned half a mile away from a glacier, with beautiful snow covered mountains surrounding us with people in the swimming pool and jacuzzi! I didn't take part in the polar bear competition where you had to jump into the unheated pool after kissing a 15 pound salmon! Didn't think it was worth it for another tacky souvenir!

Glacier Calving

The first you know is a rumble like thunder that they call white thunder. Then a "Woooah", from the deck lets you know which direction to look and if you are quick enough you catch on camera a huge chunk of glacier just dropping off and sending up a huge spray of ice and water into the air. This was happening constantly around us as the sunshine warmed the ice.

The Glacier Face

This is known as the nose of the glacier. To the left it extended in a sharp cliff for another four miles and to the right following the edge of the fjord for two. Can you believe it, six miles of glacier face standing 100 metres high and the same depth below?

Can you tell we're excited!

The ice at the face of the glacier is estimated to be about 400 years old. Constantly the glacier was calving right in front of our eyes which means huge chunks were breaking off and tumbling into the sea, causing a wave to spread out and a loud ooooooo! from the boat! Once or twice we saw a shooter which happens when ice from underneath the 100m high wall of ice breaks off and sends a fountain of water shooting up from underneath.

Close up!

Blue ice, the popping of the ice flow, the white thunder sound of the glacier calving and depositing huge chunks of ice into the sea was all we saw and heard for a good two hours as our Captain kept us rotating 360 degrees half a mile from the glacier. We got thoroughly sunburnt on our faces but that could not detract from the majesty of the view. Harbour seals lounged around on the ice flow no doubt enjoying the rare sunshine and not worried about getting burnt!

First glimpse of the Hubbard

This is taken five miles away from the glacier. Despite the sunshine we were wrapped up well against the cold and the wind. I had to go and buy a fleecy handband as a double layer on my ears as my earache was so bad, another tacky Alaska souvenir, but who could miss a minute of the beauty of this area?

Approaching the Glacier

It was a WOW moment when I walked up onto deck and saw in the distance what looked like a grey line along the horizon. In fantastic sunshine, which is very rare for this part of the trip, we slowly approached the Hubbard Glacier, the only advancing glacier in the Northern hemisphere. With a hot chocolate in one hand,(another tacky souvenir mug!) and the binoculars in the other, Mark and I spent the next 4 hours up on deck taking in the awe and wonder of the scene. First signs of the glacier close up were these floating blocks of ice that had calved off and were making their way back to the sea.

Icy Strait Point

We took it easy at Icy Strait Point in the afternoon but some mad souls took to kayaks and if you were truly insane you could take a 45 minute ride in a bus up a mountain and then a 90 second ride back down on a zip wire!

Icy Strait Point

After a day and a half and two nights sailing we arrived at Icy Strait Point and our first opportunity to get off board. We took a small tender to this quaint collection of shops and a museum in an old canning factory which orginally employed hundreds in the salmon canning process. Just my sort of thing if you understand my fish phobia! However I had no problem shopping and bought a few local souvenirs and a few made in China!

Vancouver Harbour, Au Revoir

Vancouver Harbour retreated into the distance as we sailed away under the bridge heading for the icy north! Found our sea legs very quickly but haven't hit the ocean waves yet!

Sail away party

Not a great photo but an amazing cocktail in a souvenir glass with flashing lights at the bottom! OK I got sucked into the tacky souvenir sales trick within half an hour of being on board but you really only get to go to Alaska once!

We boarded at one o'clock but with only one hour between the first new passengers getting on and the old ones leaving we couldn't go straight to our stateroom. So in true cruising style when there is nothing else to do you eat! So we had nachos and cocktails on deck 11 waiting to sail at four o'clock. Three thousand pieces of luggage loaded later our suitcases arrived and we were able to settle into our cabin. The sail away party entertained us as we left Vancouver and then retired to deck nine to unpack our bags.

The Celebrity Century

The Celebrity Century was our home for seven days and what a home! You can play basketball on the basketball court, run round the jogging track, swim and take a jacuzzi, go to the gym, get your hair cut, see a show, watch a film in the cinema, listen to live music, shop, get a beauty treatment, play cards, go to the library, gamble in the casino and eat, eat, eat, and eat! And if that isn't enough you can also order room service!

Ready for the Off (again, again!)

Feeling very excited about our impending cruise to Alaska we were up bright and early on Sunday morning ready to embark the Celebrity Century and begin our adventure to the North!

Olympic Rings

We walked in the rain to the Olympic Plaza to see the rings which were quite impressive. The strange thing is Whistler doesn't seem big enough to cope with the number of people who attended the games, the public spaces seem quite small. However there are a staggering 50,000 hotel beds in the town. Needless to say we didn't have trouble finding a hotel!

Tickle Trunk

Every home in Whistler would have had one of these. A trunk filled with winter waterproofs and warm outerlayers so you were always prepared for snow, rain and having fun!

Olympic Torch

Our second day in Whistler was wet, wet, wet so, grateful for the fact we had taken the Peak to Peak the previous afternoon, we waterproofed up and headed for the local museum. Dedicated to the history of the town and the Olympic Games we got to learn about the wildlife, local characters and development of the town. The Olympic torch was pretty heavy and difficult to balance aloft. Can't imagine running while holding it, there again can't imagine running that well!

But it was worth it.

Not for the faint hearted, and you know who you are Mr B, but how often do you leave 95 degree heat one day and find yourself suspended nearly half a km over a valley surrounded by snow the next?

From sun to snow!

Here we are right at the top of Blackcomb mountain in the cloud and the snow. It was cold, cold, cold! Was also rather scared to let go of the wheelchair as we were quite close to the edge!

Now for the really exciting part!

The Peak to Peak Gondula spans the distance between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, breaking a few world records along the way. It is 436 metres above the valley floor, (the highest lift of it's kind) has the world's longest unsupported span of just over 3kms and is the longest continuous lift system in the world. And I survived!

View on the way up!

Just to give you some idea this picture was taken only about five or ten minutes into a 35 minute climb. It was quite exciting in a terrifying sort of way!

To the top of the world

This cable car from Whistler village to the top of Whistler mountain takes 35 minutes to complete the climb! Our ears popped numerous times as we climbed over 5000 feet, about a mile high, over lush green valley then over black ski runs through the cloud and to the top of the mountain. We were in the snow at the top but still had the most exciting part of the journey to do.

Scenic views along the way

From logging activity to waterfalls to a copper mine to granite cliffs to a magnificant canyon to pretty beaches we saw it all on the Rocky Mountaineer.

The Rocky Mountaineer

The Rocky Mountaineer takes 3 and a half hours to travel around 75 miles from Vancouver to Whistler. The scenic sea to skyline journey has wonderful views of the shoreline and climbs significantly to the Winter Olympic resort. We had to board by 8am and during the journey enjoyed a hot breakfast, (my second of the day!), drinks and a commentry on the highlights of the trip.