Pacific Northwest and Alaska

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旅行の開始
2018年9月3日
Pacific Northwest and Alaska 旅行者
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2018年8月30日木曜日
⛅ 15 °C
海抜: 47 m
イングランド Holmes Chapel 53.209126, -2.37396753°12’33” N 2°22’26” W
1
Planning our trip
2018年8月30日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
1st February 2017. Location: The Tasman Sea, midway between Milford Sound, New Zealand and Hobart Tasmania, onboard Celebrity Solstice. A day at sea. Time to look at future opportunities to cruise, and (why not?) on this beautiful ship. It's our first sea cruise and we're enjoying it!

In the 2018 northern summer season, Celebrity ships sail in northern Europe, but the Solstice runs between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, making its last journey north in early September. Then it crosses the Pacific to start again around Australia and New Zealand. So, with a promise of a good deal, and only 100 USD deposit, we booked the last trip to Alaska.

Fast forward to December 2017. Flights for 2018 have been on sale for a while, and British Airways have announced a sale. Time to think about how we get to Seattle to catch the ship, and what we might do before and after.

Airlines: BA - simple and we could go out and back from different places (but from Heathrow, so shuttle required); Icelandair via Keflavik (not actually cheaper, but giving a chance to also see Iceland - before or afterwards) - too complicated, and we decided we'll do a short visit another time; Thomas Cook to and from Seattle from mid 2018 - cheapest, but using the RAF's air tanker fleet, so sharing a movie on a pull down screen (hmm); Air Transat - a bit complicated, doing one leg via Toronto, and similarly priced; Aer Lingus via Dublin?

Where to go before and afterwards? Sailing from Seattle, so Vancouver, being just 100 miles away, seems an obvious choice; Seattle itself? - we last went in 1996, with the boys, saw the sights, went up the Space Needle, it's a nice city; Chicago first, then on empire Builder train to Seattle, over 3 days (not sure about bunk beds, though); a chance to catch a repositioning Celebrity ship from Vancouver, via the Aleutians to Tokyo, but who wants 2 weeks at sea in the autumn North Pacific, and disembarking at Yokohama at 4 am? Visiting the Olympic National Park? The clincher was the Pauline wants to leave the trip with the last memory being disembarkation from Celebrity Solstice and straight home.

So, then? BA to Heathrow; then Vancouver; 3 days there; the train (or bus) to Seattle; then direct back from Seattle to London and then on to Manchester.

We booked the flights, then Andrew realised he was a day out! Luckily, it was online, so you get a free change within 24 hours. Used Trivago to book in Vancouver, and that was it, until...

...in February, BA said that they were cancelling our return shuttle, and so we needed to wait 5 hours for the next one. The to-ing and fro-ing is a story in itself, but suffice to say, that we are driving to Heathrow - our choice, as we'll be home when we'd still be waiting for our connection.

All's now paid for, the final link is that we're on a bus from Vancouver to Seattle (faster than the train!), checked in to all but the flights, just about to start packing.もっと詳しく
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旅行者 ... and as far south as Orleans in France
2018/08/30返信する
旅行者Sussed it out! Have a wonderful trip😎
2018/09/03返信する
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2018年9月2日日曜日
⛅ 20 °C
海抜: 47 m
イングランド Holmes Chapel 53.209136, -2.37391753°12’33” N 2°22’26” W
Tomorrow, the sun will rise in the west
2018年9月2日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
The book: "Skyfaring: A journey with a pilot." The author: Mark Vanhoenacker (a BA 747 pilot). Page 263:

"Leaving London for Vancouver on an autumn afternoon, we start by roughly heading north, and the sun is already setting to the west; to our left. In the middle of the flight, it might be ahead of us, on the nose. Then, near the end of the flight, when we approach Vancouver heading nearly south, the sunset is on our right, having moved around the horizon as ordinarily as the hand of a clock or the shadow of a sundial".

Investigate further, find route and sunrise / sunset calculators (yes, really), and you find that, tomorrow, not only does the sun move around, but it also almost sets, rises again, then starts to set. What a great view they'll get from the flight deck!もっと詳しく
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2018年9月2日日曜日
⛅ 20 °C
海抜: 47 m
イングランド Holmes Chapel 53.209123, -2.37388253°12’33” N 2°22’26” W
Pre-Travelling
2018年9月2日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Checked in, but the flight goes from Heathrow T3, not T5, so we need to factor in a little more time to park the car, then get from terminal to terminal. On the return, we arrive at T5, so we'll not change car parks, as we're in the Meet and Greet, and all we'll want to do is get home. Four hours should do it, and if we set off after the Monday morning rush, we should be there with plenty of wriggle room.

Our flight (BA85) is at 17:20. At 8:20 pm, today's is en-route, having left 34 minutes late, but expected to arrive 16 minutes early. FlightRadar24 tells us that the very same Airbus A380 has flown this route 6 days on the trot. We wonder if there'll be a 7th.もっと詳しく
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旅行者Safe trip, have fun ❤️❤️
2018/09/03返信する
Safe journey and have a wonderful time. We shall follow you on 'Find the Penguins'
2018/09/03返信する
Forgot my name!!!! Good start! Lots of lov Dave and Jane
2018/09/03返信する
love /Jan!!
2018/09/03返信する
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日1
2018年9月3日月曜日 21:17
🌙 15 °C
海抜: 31 m
カナダ Victory Square 49.282539, -123.11195449°16’57” N 123°6’43” W
Pauline's definitely a patient traveller
2018年9月3日, カナダ ⋅ 🌙 15 °C
So, we got to Heathrow in good time - just as well, as we only saw this morning that the flight went from T3, not T5.

Anyway, it was a different Airbus (so, not 7 days in a row for the other - it went to Singapore instead - ours had come in from Hong Kong this morning) and the flight was beautifully smooth, up over Glasgow, Skye, Iceland, Greenland and then Canada, in sunshine all the way.

What a pity that Pauline had someone in front who seemed hyperactive - maybe it was the 10 cups of coffee he had - and one behind whose legs were long, so he stretched them out next to her seat and took his shoes off - you can imagine.

Very, very efficient immigration, and a quick journey to our “Vancouver Original” hotel. It’s 9 pm here, or 5 am there. Let’s see how we get on with sleeping.もっと詳しく
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旅行者Lovely to follow your trip Have a wonderful time xx
2018/09/04返信する
旅行者Have a great time, Mike and Mo x x
2018/09/04返信する
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日2
2018年9月4日火曜日 14:00
⛅ 19 °C
海抜: 31 m
カナダ Victory Square 49.282589, -123.11195449°16’57” N 123°6’43” W
Vancouver HoHo and Stanley Park
2018年9月4日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
We're in The Victorian Hotel - built in 1898, just 90 years after Vancouver was established. It has "stayed true to her roots, accentuating features of her past..." so, it's quaint, we've got a sunlight (but it doesn't open), and a stand alone a/c unit. The bed's very comfortable.

There's a book to be written about Vancouver, a dense, glass fronted, high rise city. Or, at least, a Wikipedia page, which is here and does better justice than we could do in this blog:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver

As usual, we took up the HoHo Hop-On, Hop Off to see the downtown part of the city and its famous Stanley Park. There are two routes - City and Park, and we got a combined ticket for both, as we're handy for Canada Place, which seems to be the tourist hub.

So, read the wiki for the details. Our highlight was Stanley Park, where we got off to see a Totem Pole display, ate a Japanese hot dog, then walked the Sea Wall, all around to Lions Gate Bridge - and we saw our first sea life!

Lots of lovely beaches and water traffic, we then had a selection of beers at a local brew house, before heading back for a nap.

Tomorrow, we're going whale watching, and visiting Victoriaもっと詳しく
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旅行者Hi pop keep your eyes peeled for the sea eagles we saw quite a few around the harbour. Sitting on some of the log piles, and look out forthe sea planes going out to vancouver island phyllis,s mary and dave now live on there to be near one of their daughters
2018/09/05返信する
旅行者Luv mike and mo
2018/09/05返信する
All sounds wonderful!
2018/09/06返信する
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日3
2018年9月5日水曜日
☀️ 21 °C
海抜: 31 m
カナダ Victory Square 49.282467, -123.11205349°16’57” N 123°6’43” W
Whales seen in the Salish Sea
2018年9月5日, カナダ ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Up at the crack of dawn, and ready, checked in, for our Prince of Whales cruise across the Salish Sea, through and past the Southern Gulf Islands to Victoria, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island. And we’d hoped to get a view of whales.

Well, we did! First, quite near to Victoria (in front of the grand houses), then, later, on the way back, we diverted along the coast of Valdes Island and wow!

There was even another watching boat next to us, and he had a hydrophone in the water, so we heard the whales sounding to each other.もっと詳しく
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Looks fantastic.Amazing creatures. Tony S
2018/09/06返信する
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日3
2018年9月5日水曜日
☀️ 21 °C
海抜: 海水位
カナダ Victoria Inner Harbour SPB 48.424026, -123.37426848°25’26” N 123°22’27” W
Victoria and Butchart Gardens
2018年9月5日, カナダ ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Apart from the whale watching, our day took in Victoria (British Columbia's capital) and then a 30 minute bus ride to Butchart Gardens.

Victoria by Wikipedia:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_Briti…

Victoria was very nice (small) and worth spending a lot more time there. Oh yes, we'll be back next Thursday evening on the Celebrity Solstice, making our last stop before the end of the cruise. We've just realised how it might work that we only have from 5pm to 11pm in port - it's quite possible to walk around, but the best is that the Butchart Gardens are open until 9pm and they've got lighting!

The Gardens, built mostly in a disused limestone quarry (well, the sunken gardens are), are fabulous and definitely worth a visit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butchart_Gardensもっと詳しく
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旅行者Absolutely stunning it really does look wonderful xx
2018/09/06返信する
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日4
2018年9月6日木曜日 12:29
⛅ 17 °C
海抜: 1,077 m
カナダ Cleveland Park 49.379089, -123.08350449°22’45” N 123°5’1” W
Grouse Mountain - bears, lumberjacks
2018年9月6日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
So, we’ve seen the whole Pacific Northwest wildlife tourist treats, and we haven’t even got to Alaska yet!

Grouse Mountain is a winter ski resort, only about 5 miles from Vancouver. The enterprising owners have made it a year round destination, with a fabulous brown bear habitat as its centrepiece.

We took the chair left to the very top, at just over 4000 ft - looking down, we could only assume the run from there was a Black one....

Oh, yes, on the way, we went over the Lion’s Gate bridge. Built around the same time as the Golden Gate Bridge (it looks similar, but it’s green), it was financed by Guinness (yes, that one), and it’s just 3 lanes, with a tidal flow on the middle lane. Not AS impressive as San Francisco’s, but iconic in its own way.もっと詳しく
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日4
2018年9月6日木曜日 16:30
☀️ 25 °C
海抜: 25 m
カナダ Vancouver Harbour SPB 49.288803, -123.11251149°17’20” N 123°6’45” W
Vancouver - some reflections
2018年9月6日, カナダ ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We sat on the cruise ship pier, admiring the Silverseas ship which was about to sail. An old timer struck up a conversation with us: Dennis Black is Vancouver born and bred and spends his time admiring the outdoors, and his indulgence is “cruising”.

So, we’ve got some insights to help us with the next week, and an urgent task to bring forward our travel in the morning to Seattle - he said enough about possible delays at the border to give us the wobbles. So, a phone call later, and we’re setting off on the 0530 bus - in Seattle by 0900.

We’d been wondering about the pile of yellow minerals across the harbour - “sulphur” he said - extracted from “sour” gas and oil (this making them sweet - and off to make fertiliser.

Here’s a take from a letter to the Yukon Times, about the yellow pile, from 2013:

https://www.yukon-news.com/letters-opinions/per…

Maybe tells a story...もっと詳しく
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日5
2018年9月7日金曜日 4:57
⛅ 15 °C
海抜: 10 m
カナダ Pacific Central Station 49.273529, -123.0969749°16’25” N 123°5’49” W
Simon & Garfunkel moment
2018年9月7日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
“I’m (we’re) sitting in a railway station, got my (our) ticket(s) for my (our) destination....”

0500, Pacific Central railway station, Vancouver. The early starters are gathering for their adventure across the US.

The train (leaves at 0630) has border checks done before they get on, whereas we have to get off the bus at the “line”, remove our bags, go through the usual questions and passport stamping before reboarding.

Yet it will take us 1 hour less than the train. Any thoughts, our followersもっと詳しく
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旅行者My guess is the train will go all around the wrekin because of the mountains the border was quite near abbotsford canada side where the americans pushed the aircraft over the border into canada during the start of the 2nd world war , have a guess at that one enjoy the train journey through the mountains mike &mo
2018/09/07返信する
旅行者Thanks, Mike! We asked our bus driver, and he also thought there we two other reasons - passenger trains MUST give way to freight; and the trains don’t go more than 40 mph.
2018/09/07返信する
旅行者Jan All sounds fascinating. enjoy!
2018/09/09返信する
旅行者What an absolutely wonderful time you must have had it all looks spectacular really enjoyed following you around 😘 x
2018/09/14返信する
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日5
2018年9月7日金曜日 10:19
⛅ 17 °C
海抜: 海水位
アメリカ Smith Cove Waterway 47.627293, -122.38321747°37’38” N 122°22’60” W
1
Home of Microsoft, Boeing, Frasier, ...
2018年9月7日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
... Starbucks, and now, the shopper’s friend, Amazon!

Arrived in the city at 9 am - learned a lot about paramedics (that was our driver’s full time job) - and he said that the principal cause of call outs is seniors (!) falling - keep up, or start the Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates.

Drove past landmarks from our last visit (in 1996).

Just waiting to boardもっと詳しく
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旅行者Relax and enjoy the cruise, your weather looks great, its rubbish here today we have rain all day luv mike and mo x
2018/09/08返信する
旅行者Looking forward to hearing all about Alaska , loving your blog ! X Verene
2018/09/08返信する
旅行者 Stayed here in 1996, with the boys
2018/09/16返信する
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日6
2018年9月8日土曜日 17:26 UTC
🌧 15 °C
海抜: 海水位
Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia 52.040703, -129.91880852°2’27” N 129°55’8” W
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Porpoises at 10 o'clock!
2018年9月8日, Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia ⋅ 🌧 15 °C
So, a day at sea, and a fascinating talk this morning by marine researcher, Brent Nixon. He said: if you see birds, then there’ll be whales nearby!

As the day went on, we looked for signs of animal life and eventually, Pauline saw what looked like birds. No, it was a massive school of porpoises, rushing along, trying to keep up with the ship!もっと詳しく
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Jan
2018/09/12返信する
Wonderful photos. So glad weather good .Pleased you was the puppies! Lovely photo of you and the 'mutt'!!!xx
2018/09/12返信する
旅行者 Actually, they were dolphins
2018/09/16返信する
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日7
2018年9月9日日曜日 13:01
☁️ 15 °C
海抜: 海水位
アメリカ Ketchikan Harbor 55.342632, -131.65106255°20’33” N 131°39’4” W
Ketchikan - salmon & seals
2018年9月9日, アメリカ ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
14,000 year long population, swelled by cruise ship passengers. Our trolley bus guide told us that, last week, there were 4 ships in and the visitors almost outnumbered the residents. Today there are 4 ships in..

It’s been raining this morning - in a typical year, they have 15ft of water (so, 180”). By comparison, Glasgow, which is at the same latitude has 43”, but the total is similar to the highest peaks in the Lakes.

There’s so much salmon and great feeding for seals and black bears. In The Creek, which runs through the old town, it was like “shooting fish in a barrel”.

They’re 90 minutes by air from Seattle and over 2 hours from Anchorage. With only 60 miles over road on an island 100 miles x 60 miles, they rely on air, but mostly tug towed barges to bring all their supplies (including fuel) from Seattle. We saw a couple of these near the islands around Vancouver and wondered what they are. Now we know!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan,_Alaskaもっと詳しく
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旅行者Sounds really interesting -enjoy😃
2018/09/10返信する
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日8
2018年9月10日月曜日 8:24
⛅ 7 °C
海抜: 16 m
Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia 57.503109, -132.92071557°30’11” N 132°55’15” W
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Spectacular light and ice
2018年9月10日, Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
Well, we were unlucky last year when we sailed up Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound in NZ: it rained and rained, we didn’t see anything of Doubtful, but we did see the waterfalls in Milford.

Not unlucky this time! Crystal clear viewing all up the Tracey Arm to the Jarvis glacier. Bright blue icebergs, sun coming over the mountains, and the ship being put through 360s so we could all see the glacier. On this trip last week, they had fog, mist and low clouds, so it’s our turn for good views!

All that happened before 9 am this morning, so we’ve now had breakfast and coffees, and we’re seated on our balcony, rugs on our legs, watching more beautiful scenery slide by as we sail to Juneau.もっと詳しく
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旅行者All worth waiting for. It looks spectacular 😀
2018/09/11返信する
旅行者Hi Pauline and Andy it looks amazing, spectacular scenery, Mike says all that ice and no Gin. So glad the weather is brill for you, we have rain today. Luv Mike and Mo x x
2018/09/11返信する
looks stunning and sounds amazing ! A wonderful experience xx
2018/09/11返信する
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日8
2018年9月10日月曜日 15:25
☀️ 21 °C
海抜: 14 m
アメリカ Nugget Creek 58.417858, -134.54649558°25’4” N 134°32’47” W
Retreating glacier and WHALES!
2018年9月10日, アメリカ ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
23C in Juneau today - unusually warm and sunny, and we’re so far North!

The Juneau Ice Field feeds a number of glaciers, and the tourist attraction is Mendenhall Glacier, about 5 miles out of town. When we were visiting, there were 15 coaches from the 4 ships which were berthed up today. This glacier has retreated by 9,480 ft since 1957 - it’s a sign of something!

Out on a large whale watching catamaran today, and, hurrah, we had several hump back whale sightings. With the beautiful weather and the fantastic, clear views, it was quite spectacular.

Fewer pictures to upload today (the data connection is slow), but took less anyway - it’s much better to see a sight like a whale with you own eyes, rather than a viewfinder - and they always look further away in a photo than they really are!もっと詳しく
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日9
2018年9月11日火曜日 6:24
⛅ 9 °C
海抜: 海水位
アメリカ Skagway Seaplane Base 59.437515, -135.33451859°26’15” N 135°20’4” W
Skagway and the Iditarod dogs
2018年9月11日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
A very small town with an interesting history and pivotal role in the Klondike gold rush:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagway,_Alaska

Our first stop if the day was to the Iditarod sled dog demonstration: the dogs are Alaskan Huskies - not an official breed - it’s “a mutt that will haul”

Iditarod? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_…もっと詳しく
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日9
2018年9月11日火曜日 9:51
⛅ 7 °C
海抜: 862 m
カナダ Bernard Lake 59.717725, -135.04359559°43’4” N 135°2’37” W
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Canada again, then W P & Y R
2018年9月11日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
After the dogs, the bus took us over the White Pass at 3200’ to Fraser. So, we left the US and entered Canada (briefly).

On the vintage train back - the W P & Y R (White Pass & Yukon Route), we more or less followed the White Pass route which was the final breakthrough for the hopeful (but mostly hopeless) tens of thousands who tried to bet to the Klondike in the last years of the 19th century.

The scenery was absolutely spectacular (at least up with the Glacier Express), and photos really couldn’t do it justice - we have had atypically settled weather and fantastic visibility. Here’s a link for more:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Pass

Maybe we’re getting lazy with these links...nah, we’re on holiday!もっと詳しく
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Spectacular ! Love Verenex
2018/09/13返信する
旅行者 59 42' 52" N 135 02' 48" W, 2800 ft above sea level, in Canada
2018/09/16返信する
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日11
2018年9月13日木曜日 16:37
🌧 14 °C
海抜: 海水位
Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia 48.354061, -123.41260548°21’15” N 123°24’45” W
Aurora "smudge", more and more whales
2018年9月13日, Coastal Waters Of Southeast Alaska And British Columbia ⋅ 🌧 14 °C
Coming to the end of nearly 2 days at sea, we got all excited on Tuesday night, as we’d been told there was a high chance of a Category 6 (?) Aurora Borealis between 11pm and 3 am.

So, after a beautiful sail away, down the fjord from Skagway, we ate, watched a show, wrapped up and sat at the back of the ship and waited. We saw a glow in the sky for an hour or so, then gave in and went to bed.

“Bing bong” at 2 am - “Northern Lights seen”. And we saw them, as a distant curtain of green glow - too faint for photos (at least on our camera), but there nonetheless.

Another talk by Brent Nixon this morning, this time about Orca. 2 resolutions:

(http://www.naturetalksbybrentnixon.com/brents_b…)

- never again to be called “killer whales”
- boycott anywhere that keeps them in captivity.

(Oh yes, update to an earlier post on being chased by porpoises - Brent told us that porpoises don’t jump out the water: they must have been dolphins)

He also said that, as we cruise up the Strait of Juan de Fuca this lunchtime - “of you don’t see whales, you’re dead!” And was he right! Dozens of hump backs, spouting and fluking, and, in the distance, jumping out of the water!

About to dock in Victoria for our last stop. We probably won’t go ashore - instead, a relaxed final dinner, get packed by 10 pm and prepared for disembarkation and off to the airport for the 1330 flight.もっと詳しく
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旅行者Hi Pauline and Andy great your saw the whales again, enjoy your chill out time and a safe journey home luv Mo and Mike x x We went to Liverpool on Wednesday to see the Terracota Army really enjoyed the visit x x
2018/09/14返信する
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Pacific Northwest and Alaska 旅行者
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2018年9月14日金曜日 11:54
⛅ 15 °C
海抜: 124 m
アメリカ Bow Lake 47.438965, -122.30246747°26’20” N 122°18’9” W
People
2018年9月14日, アメリカ ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
We’re off the ship, waiting in departures to board our return flight, so this may be the last Footprint.

People - we’ve met LOADS. The ship was full, and it was overwhelmingly US people - after all, they didn’t actually leave the USA! All shapes, sizes, fashionwear (loose description!), and boisterous - as we think they are, they really are! And so many families and travelling groups - there must have been many good deals out there.

We chatted to people like this: a Delta Airlines pilot (we were looking at sea planes landing - we said “would you fancy that?”. He said that he was on holiday, to get away from flying); Gerry and his wife from Edmonton Canada - his website is gerrys.ca; an Irish descended builder from Virginia; semi-retired insurance broker from Kamloops, Canada; a night club owner from Nevada; a Brit from Folkestone who said he hadn’t enjoyed the cruise (?!) - we don’t think he left the ship; a gentleman from Boston who helped to clear the mystery of the circular plaster behind the ear (it’s to alleviate sea sickness, btw); a Part 91 pilot (whatever that is), who seemed boring; two recently married male realtors from Las Vegas one of whose mother was a retired professional golfer; a family group who had a “companion dog” with them. It goes on

And finally, the crew. Different from last year in NZ (except for a small few), but just the same quality, attentiveness, and ability to remember names (ours, at least). The Captain wasn’t Tasos and that was noticeable in the approachability of the officers.

The ship’s off to San Francisco today, back in a week, then to Honolulu, Hawaii, ultimately Sydney for the Antipodean summer. And so, the cycle restarts.もっと詳しく
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2018年9月15日土曜日 18:25
⛅ 16 °C
海抜: 47 m
イングランド Holmes Chapel 53.209089, -2.37383553°12’33” N 2°22’26” W
Journey home
2018年9月15日, イングランド ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
BA - In economy (us), 2 of the 4 “washrooms” unserviceable, headphone socket not working, people allowed to bring on more than one case and some with ones so big they took up the whole overhead bins.

Before boarding, Andrew got a call from the desk agent- “great”, we thought, “maybe an upgrade!”. Nope, they just wanted to tell him that he wouldn’t get a pillow. Laughable.

The good thing has been that the tailwind has been massive and we’re going to land 35 minutes early - so, just 8 1/2 hours.

And, to finish on a positive note, it’s only 30 minute so nice touchdown, we’re through passport control (no queues for us, despite it being Heathrow and much better than Manchester).

Bags quickly too, in the car, and home by 1025 - faster than if we’d got the connecting flight!

Thanks for reading!もっと詳しく
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旅行者I have enjoyed seeing your photos and reading the blog. Welcome home.
2018/09/17返信する
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旅行の終了
2018年9月15日