01. 2010 North America

Entries from our Original Blog July 2006 to August 2010

First up will be our 2010 North American Holiday.

25 June 2010    8 Days until we leave for North America

Saturday 3 July 2010  Very Early – We leave today for our adventure

Hi this is Deb

Mmm I did the blog and then lost it!! Here we go again!

I was awake at 4.30am, did well I thought, we were picked up at 6.30am and now we are in the Qantas club lounge Sydney, Greg finally has his drink, we were here 20 mins though before he got it, he is slipping!

Has been a very smooth morning, sssh, don’t tell anyone!! We board in 30 mins and fly out in 90mins.

We fly to San Francisco, then Salt Lake City before getting a flight to Kalispell Montana, we arrive there at 7pm tonight, 29 hours after leaving home, mmm we have only just worked that out, bit arduous, but I am sure we will manage!! (was 34 hours from Rio to Adelaide!)

It is great to share our adventures with you, we look forward to hearing your news too!

We will have a cheers or two to you all when we get on the plane and begin our adventure!

Enjoy your weekend

Love from both of us xoxo

PS Dante how was the footy??

3^rd July 2010  And the day goes on!!!!

Saturday 3^rd of July – keeps going on it is 6.45am Sunday at home and 3.15pm Saturday here!

Just after we got on the plane in Sydney the guy sitting behind us was asked by the flight attendant to leave the plane, you can imagine the stories floating around our heads!! But when we got off in SF we saw him leaving first class!! That was not one of the stories we had invented!!

Arrived in San Francisco at 9am, and sailed through immigration and customs without any problems. SF airport was a bit humid, and the A/C didn’t seem to be on, go figure huh!

Our flight to Salt Lake City was on a small plane , 76 seater. Going over the Rockies in Utah was amazing, there are HUGE salt lakes everywhere. Very unimaginative to call a city after them!!

Arrived SLC at about 2pm ( another time zone change) and promptly sort out the Delta Sky Lounge, (very nice, spacious and quiet) for $90 US you can get a months membership for both of us (access to all the Delta Sky lounges world wide, free drinks and snacks, net access and a comfy place to wait for your flight away from the masses and hard plastic seats )

So here we are cool comfy , a Corona for me and an OJ for Deb , life’s good. We are getting tired, have been travelling for over 24 hours – we got about 2-3 hrs sleep on the plane, will be good to get into a bed tonight!

John and Georgiana have already made it into Kalispell, and if the plan keeps coming together we will meet up with them when we land at 7pm and begin our adventures with our very good friends.

Sunday 4 July 2010  Independence Day  Kalispell, Montana USA

Our very first Independence Day in the USA. They’ll be fireworks tonight. ? (But we will probably be asleep by then, it doesn’t get dark here until after 10pm.)

We both got a good night sleep and woke around 6.30am. We had breakfast with John and Georgie, and planned our day.

We got on the road around 8:30 and went into Glacier Park to go to the information centre and get maps and find out the best things for us to do in the way of walks/hikes. On the way in we had to buy a 7 day park pass, while we did this John asked about the “senior” offer they had, turned out he got a lifetime USA wide National Park entry permit for $10!! Good score. Funny thing when we were queueing to get into the park, of the 2 lines of cars our was moving about 1 car for 3 cars of the other queue, we had our answer for the cause when we got to the window. The guy serving our lane was ancient, and nothing in this world was going to get him to speed up, not that he probably could of anyway! We all had a great laugh and smiled lots when we saw him.

We got our maps and brochures, and planned our day.

Our first hike was Rocky Point and then a walk along the side of Lake McDonald. Just as we set off we came upon a sign declaring this to be “Grizzly Bear, Black Bear and Mountain Lion” country, and not to feed them!!! The walk was interesting. As we pulled up at the car park we saw our first native wild life, a deer was feeding just into the undergrowth. John stopped the car and Deb managed to get a couple of nice pics of it before it scampered into the forest. (Yes, its forest over here, not bush). Apart from a couple of moderate hills the walk was easy and very picturesque. We got a rock for our collection at the waters edge. A forest fire had swept through this area of the park in 2003 and pretty well burnt out the side of the mountains. The forest is still recovering, I guess the cold climate makes recovery slow.

After the walk, we went to Lake McDonald Lodge for lunch before heading to Avalanche for a walk up to another lake and to see some hanging waterfalls caused by the glacial action. After lunch we were walking towards the car when we saw some (OK well, a) Marmot stick its head up out of the ground and then jump out of it hole to feed. A curious creature that was very nervous and fled almost as soon as we saw it.

The Avalanche walk was mostly up hill and I am sure it was much longer than the 2 miles they say it is! But it was so worth it. On the way up we saw some pretty good rapids in a small creek and then eventually made it to Avalanche Lake. It was beautiful, surrounded on 3 sides by snow capped peaks and very steep sheer cut sides. At the far end of the lake you could see 3 waterfalls streaming down the face. The setting was magnificent, looking across the lake to the sheer cliff walls and the waterfalls cascading down. While there, we saw a few people fishing, one Fly Fishing and another using a lure. We saw the guy with the lure pull in a small (what looked like a trout) fish and throw it back. As we were watching the fishing I noticed a movement about 10m away on the banks of the lake. It turned out to be a couple of Chipmunks. I went to get a pic of them and they ran away, so I stood still for a moment and they came back, one eventually came to within a meter of me, before running up a tree.

While we walked back down the hill to the car we saw a reindeer nibbling on plants just to the side of the path we were on, it startled very easily. Unfortunately, it was so dark in the forest by then that I couldn’t get a reasonable pic of it.

We got back to our cabins around 5:30pm. At about 7:30pm we left for dinner at the Belton Chalet, an old historical building near the entrance to the Glacier Park. After having drinks at the bar while we sat at our table. Deb ordered Duck, Georgie Salmon and John and I Elk. I treated myself to a “Moose Drool” to wash down the Elk. An aromatic silky beverage! LOL It’s BEER. All the meals were very tasty and we all enjoyed them (the Elk was not a gamey as I had thought it might be, and was most like a rich steak and the Moose Drool was the perfect drink to go with it )

We finished dinner by sharing an Independence Day dessert. A vanilla and raspberry layered Icecream cake with Blue Berries on top (Red White and Blue). While we were eating it the local “Lads” started letting off their fireworks, most were pretty tame, but every now and then they let off some pretty professional looking fireworks.

It has been a great day exploring this part of the world and just generally having a good time with John and Georgie. There are going to be a few sore legs tomorrow.!

Sunday 4 July 2010  Independence Day  Kalispell, Montana USA

Our very first Independence Day in the USA. They’ll be fireworks tonight. ? (But we will probably be asleep by then, it doesn’t get dark here until after 10pm.)

We both got a good night sleep and woke around 6.30am. We had breakfast with John and Georgie, and planned our day.

We got on the road around 8:30 and went into Glacier Park to go to the information centre and get maps and find out the best things for us to do in the way of walks/hikes. On the way in we had to buy a 7 day park pass, while we did this John asked about the “senior” offer they had, turned out he got a lifetime USA wide National Park entry permit for $10!! Good score. Funny thing when we were queueing to get into the park, of the 2 lines of cars our was moving about 1 car for 3 cars of the other queue, we had our answer for the cause when we got to the window. The guy serving our lane was ancient, and nothing in this world was going to get him to speed up, not that he probably could of anyway! We all had a great laugh and smiled lots when we saw him.

We got our maps and brochures, and planned our day.

Our first hike was Rocky Point and then a walk along the side of Lake McDonald. Just as we set off we came upon a sign declaring this to be “Grizzly Bear, Black Bear and Mountain Lion” country, and not to feed them!!! The walk was interesting. As we pulled up at the car park we saw our first native wild life, a deer was feeding just into the undergrowth. John stopped the car and Deb managed to get a couple of nice pics of it before it scampered into the forest. (Yes, its forest over here, not bush). Apart from a couple of moderate hills the walk was easy and very picturesque. We got a rock for our collection at the waters edge. A forest fire had swept through this area of the park in 2003 and pretty well burnt out the side of the mountains. The forest is still recovering, I guess the cold climate makes recovery slow.

After the walk, we went to Lake McDonald Lodge for lunch before heading to Avalanche for a walk up to another lake and to see some hanging waterfalls caused by the glacial action. After lunch we were walking towards the car when we saw some (OK well, a) Marmot stick its head up out of the ground and then jump out of it hole to feed. A curious creature that was very nervous and fled almost as soon as we saw it.

The Avalanche walk was mostly up hill and I am sure it was much longer than the 2 miles they say it is! But it was so worth it. On the way up we saw some pretty good rapids in a small creek and then eventually made it to Avalanche Lake. It was beautiful, surrounded on 3 sides by snow capped peaks and very steep sheer cut sides. At the far end of the lake you could see 3 waterfalls streaming down the face. The setting was magnificent, looking across the lake to the sheer cliff walls and the waterfalls cascading down. While there, we saw a few people fishing, one Fly Fishing and another using a lure. We saw the guy with the lure pull in a small (what looked like a trout) fish and throw it back. As we were watching the fishing I noticed a movement about 10m away on the banks of the lake. It turned out to be a couple of Chipmunks. I went to get a pic of them and they ran away, so I stood still for a moment and they came back, one eventually came to within a meter of me, before running up a tree.

While we walked back down the hill to the car we saw a reindeer nibbling on plants just to the side of the path we were on, it startled very easily. Unfortunately, it was so dark in the forest by then that I couldn’t get a reasonable pic of it.

We got back to our cabins around 5:30pm. At about 7:30pm we left for dinner at the Belton Chalet, an old historical building near the entrance to the Glacier Park. After having drinks at the bar while we sat at our table. Deb ordered Duck, Georgie Salmon and John and I Elk. I treated myself to a “Moose Drool” to wash down the Elk. An aromatic silky beverage! LOL It’s BEER. All the meals were very tasty and we all enjoyed them (the Elk was not a gamey as I had thought it might be, and was most like a rich steak and the Moose Drool was the perfect drink to go with it )

We finished dinner by sharing an Independence Day dessert. A vanilla and raspberry layered Icecream cake with Blue Berries on top (Red White and Blue). While we were eating it the local “Lads” started letting off their fireworks, most were pretty tame, but every now and then they let off some pretty professional looking fireworks.

It has been a great day exploring this part of the world and just generally having a good time with John and Georgie. There are going to be a few sore legs tomorrow.!

Monday 5^th of July 2010   Going to the Sun Highway, Glacier National Park, Montana

We were a bit slow getting started this morning, didn’t wake until 8.15am, was good to have a good night sleep. We have adjusted well to the time difference. Still taking me a while to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road!! And these light nights are very nice, tis 10.30pm before it gets dark. We aren’t having dinner until after 8pm, which is late for us. But because it is so light is doesn’t seem like 8pm!

Anyhow after our late start we caught the free shuttle bus for the Going to the Sun Highway. I am not sure if the road is on the great road trips of the world list, if not it should be. The scenery is stunning. The road is very narrow and is on the edge of a steep cliff, mountains everywhere – many snow covered, glaciers, waterfalls and the lushest deepest green vegetation we have ever seen. Magnificent.

I found this today, might help you picture it – Montana’s Glacier National Park is 1.2 million acres of shining mountain ranges, deep valleys and lakes carved by prehistoric ice rivers. The park features glistening glaciers, alpine meadows, dense forests, waterfalls, majestic hanging valleys and over 200 sparkling lakes.

The Going to the Sun Highway is 52 miles long and crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, the last time we did that (cross a Continental Divide) was on the Mine Canal which joins the Mine and Danube Rivers last year. Logan Pass was like a winter wonderland, snow and alpine trees everywhere, beautiful.

We had lunch at Rising Sun Restaurant about 2pm (I told you we had a late start to the day!) Then it was back on the bus for the 2 and a half hour trip back home, after we got back to our car we stopped and had some huckleberry pie and ice cream (oh yes and for lunch Greg had buffalo) so we are doing well at trying the local food and drink!

Saw a fawn today on the road and Greg saw a mountain Goat up near Logan Pass, we also saw squirrels and marmots and a dead skunk on the road! We are really enjoying all of the wildlife and the beautiful scenery. If it wasn’t for John & Georgiana we would never have come to this part of the world, we didn’t even know it existed. I love visiting unplanned, delightful places like this on holiday that were never on our list of places to visit. There is so much beauty in the world and it is a joy to be sharing it with such wonderful friends.

Thankyou for your lovely messages, it is pleasing to know Aiko is not running down the street, she could certainly lead Hannah astray on that score! We were thinking of you Ben down at Hayborough, hope you all have fun, no doubt the children are having a ball. I heard on twitter that is was very cold down there it was 46F in the mountains today, you do the math!! Is it foggy going through Mt Compass, I can remember not being able to see the end of the bonnet!

We leave here tomorrow and head for East Glacier for two nights, hope it warms up for you at home!

Our love to you all, tell the little ones we have postcards and are posting them tomorrow, or maybe don’t cos I think they might take a while to arrive! xo

Tuesday 6^th July 2010  East Glacier, Montana USA

The alarm went off at 7am and as is often the case we did not sleep very well as we were waiting for the alarm to go off!!

We were on the road just after 8am, posted the post cards and then we were on the Going to the Sun road – only one direction today. The road is undergoing some major repairs, and the signs at the beginning of the works read:

Putting America to Work

Project Funded by the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

(some things stay the same no matter where you are!)

We stopped and took lots of photos of the mountains – they do not do it justice though, they just don’t capture the whole panorama. Up near Logan Pass a Nanny Goat and its kid strolled across the road in front of all the traffic, lucky for them the road works had slowed it all down. We did a couple of lovely walks, to St Marys falls then Virginia falls, which were my favourite, it amazed me the way the rock was that the water ran over. Reminded me of dad’s slate walls, only on a grander scale. It really looked like someone had built the walls and steps that the water flowed over. It was peaceful and I could have sat there all day.

Next we went to the Baring falls, was a lovely walk by a lake onto the falls. I was mesmorised by the rocks and pebbles on the river bed, I have never seen such varied and bright colours. I chose two small pebbles to bring home, but an hour later when I looked at them they had lost all of their sheen!! Just not the same out of their environment – Karma!

Before we did the walk Georgie and I spoke to a lovely ranger, she said how amazing the Canadian Rockies were, she whet our appetite. It amazes me how different the terrain and vegetation is in every country, they are all very beautiful in their own way. I have never seen so many wild flowers as there are here, so many colours, must be all the rain they have!

We drove onto St Mary and had lunch at 3pm(it is getting later!) it was very nice, then it was onto our accommodation for the evening in East Glacier. It was about an hour out of the way – the drive was very nice, a lot of Prairie country. We were rather horrified when we pulled up. The owner was a character, when we got to our accommodation it looked a bit better than others we saw and inside while very basic it was very clean and the bed was firm, so all is good. We decided however not to stay here two nights, so tomorrow night we are staying in Waterton at Waterton Lakes Lodge Resort, Waterton Park, Alberta.

Then on Thursday we are heading to Vulcan – Greg will be in his element (Beam me up Scotty)!! Then onto Calgary to see Carolyn and Margaret, we should hopefully be there around 1pm Carolyn as we will be a bit closer in Waterton. (But we will ring you from Vulcan and work out where to meet up.) We are looking forward to a hug and to catching up.

Dinner tonight is sure to be interesting judging by the look of this town. Not sure what the food is going to be like, will venture out later and check it out!! Hope it isn’t too dodgy!!

Comments:         McDonalds 7 July 2010                  How was dinner??

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening?? :-S It is so confusing!!!

How was your dinner?? Sounds like another new experience for you!! Bit like being on the amazing race!!!

Ash and I started the day with a 45 min ride into victor at 6:15 this morning. Was a great way to start the day! I am staying at home tonight to have a rest.

Is still cold here although warming up a bit!

Luv ya

Ben

Wednesday 7^th July 2010  Waterton, Glacier Park Canada

Dinner last night was delicious, it was always going to be, our waiter was Ben!! He was personable and very much in control of the floor!! He got a good tip!! We went back this morning for breakfast before heading off around 9am.

It seems everywhere we go there are lots of baby boomers on large touring bikes. From every model of Harley you can think of to big Honda Golden Wing tourers. Many have trailers and most seem to have head phones and microphones built into their helmets (if they are wearing one!) Every now and then you run into a group of real bikers with worn leathers and big flowing beards, keeping it real.

The sun is shining today and it is glorious, the warmest day we have had so far, I would say around 70F (low 20’s) We drove to Many Glacier was a lovely drive – the Glaciers are really receding there are only about 20-30 in the park now, 50 years ago there were around 300, by 2020 there won’t be any more left!!

On the drive out of Many Glacier we saw two elk in a stream, stopped the car to take photos, there was another guy taking photos with a lens at least 2 foot long!! Was great seeing the elk in their natural environment and not on a road!

We crossed the Canadian border around 1pm, we were through customs – (stayed in car) in about 4 mins, the guy in front of us just took off really fast down the road – customs was fairly casual, no police, so the guy just got away!

So we were in Canada, I have wanted to come here since I was 12, only took me 39 years – but I am here! Feeling euphoric ! Happy girl ?

We went and checked into our hotel, rooms are nice, bed comfy. Georgie really wanted to go and have a meal at the Prince of Wales Hotel, which is this magnificent old world style hotel built in 1926 at the peak of the railway boom in Canada. It is on the top of a hill overlooking a lake and the mountains. It is stunning, the view doesn’t get much better! So we asked at reception and he said they did High Tea, so we dropped our bags off in the room and I quickly got everyone in the car and off we went. Then I realised it was just after 1pm and maybe we would be early. But all was good, High Tea started at 1pm. We had a lovely French speaking waitress show us to our table right by the window, overlooking the most amazing view. We were in our element. It was John & Georgie’s first High Tea, and it was an impressive one. We have many photos so I am sure some will make it on here.

Afterwards we had a lovely walk around town – it is only little but very lovely. There are elk roaming the streets and lake foreshore, and the general feel of the village is VERY relaxed, right down to the shop giving away watermelon slices (They ordered too much for July the 4^th) .

We relaxed for a few hours in the afternoon, before going out for a delicious Italian meal which we shared over a bottle of wine. Georgie spoke to Carolyn and we will meet up with her and Margaret after our visit to Vulcan – Greg is hoping to be beamed up! Will let you know how he goes tomorrow night – if not he will be reporting on his adventures in Vulcan!!

Mmmm I am very much looking forward to the week ahead, I have a feeling I am going to love Canada – has been an amazing first day!

Thursday 8 July 2010  Calgary Canada

We were packed and ready to leave by 7am, we went to have breakfast before we checked-out, only to find breakfast didn’t start until 7:30am. So we thought rather than wait around we’d check-out and grab some breakfast at the next town, Pincher Creek, about 45 mins away. Bad move!!!!

On the way out of Waterton we stopped and took a few last pics of the Prince of Wales Hotel, and then headed for Pincher Creek.

Coming into Pincher Creek, we saw a cafe with lots of cars parked out in front and though that was a good sign, so we pulled in. When we got inside the cafe was empty, this was a hotel as well, apparently, and all the guests must have still been asleep (or in their rooms eating take away from somewhere else!).

So we sat down and ordered, Deb, John and Georgie ordered Oatmeal with Raisins, and I got the special, ”Benny with Hash Browns”. Benny is the local slang for Eggs Benedict. My eggs were sweet, the hollandaise sauce was “interesting” and the hash browns were like grated potato. The Oatmeal came out and Deb, John and Georgie were told that all the waitress could find was about a tablespoon of raisins( we were dubious about where she found them. The general comment was that the oatmeal was not the best they had eaten. Its 4pm and Deb’s Oatmeal is making it presence felt, .

After that, we set off to Vulcan, the legendary home of Spock, (or a small country town just south of Calgary). As we came into town I was the first to spot the large mounted model of the starship USS Enterprise in a park in front of the Vulcan Tourism and Trek Station, and the Enterprise Family Restaurant. There were many signs around carrying the old Vulcan saying “Live Long and Prosper”. Signs around the Starship Enterprise were multilingual, with messages in English, Vulcan and Klingon. The Tourism centre looks more like a space station and was full of Trekkie displays, you could even dress up as an Enterprise crewman if you wanted to, LOL, I declined!! Although I did try on a pair of Spock ears and sat in a mock-up of the bridge of the Enterprise! It was lots of fun. (you should have all seen Greg he was in his element!!)

With me smiling from ear to ear we blasted off from Vulcan and headed to Calgary to meet up with “Mom and Sis” (Margaret and Carolyn) whom we had met in Italy a few years ago.

After we checked into our hotel, I went down to reception and found them there, it was such a surprise, we had huge hugs and many welcomes. It was good to see them, they are such beautiful friends. Once we settled a bit, I took them up to John and Georgie’s room and we all had many warm hugs and chatted for ages. We eventually went to lunch at a grill next-door and sat chatting for a couple of hours. We have dinner tonight at Margaret’s place and they have planned an amazing time for us during our stay. We begin tomorrow with the Grand Parade Opening of the Calgary Stampede. Yeee-Haaaa.

It was only a short 5 min drive to Margaret’s place, where we had a very nice home cooked dinner of ham and 4 different salads, followed by rhubarb pie and ice-cream. So yummy. We sat and chatted for ages outside in Margaret’s beautiful garden, just catching up with our Canadian Mom and Sis. It seemed like it was only weeks ago they were staying with us back home in Adelaide. Deb and Georgie both got all our laundry done, and almost dry, while we were there. It’s nice to have the opportunity to have our laundry done other than in a hotel or Laundromat. After a wonderful evening, we said our goodnights and went back to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow is a big day, with Mom and Sis picking us up at 7am.

Friday 9 July 2010   Calgary Stampede

This was our biggest day yet, and possibly of the whole holiday.

We had an early breakfast and met Margaret and Carolyn at 7am in the lobby. John then drove us all to a train station and we went into the centre of Calgary for the Opening Parade of the 2010 Calgary Stampede. Carolyn had got us reserved seating in bleachers set-up along the route. We got to our places by about 8:00 and the parade was due to start at 9 on the other side of town. The parade takes a circular route around the CBD of Calgary.

After waiting for a while and doing a good amount of people watching (a favourite past-time of ours), pre parade entertainment started around us. Besides the obligatory Airforce Acrobatic squad flyover, there were cheer squads doing all sorts of acrobatics, line-dancing groups, clowns, and other random acts to keep the crowds amused. Was all fun. We learnt that in Canada cowboys apparently go “ Yaaaaaa Hooooooo” rather than the Yeeeee Haaaa we were doing, LOL.

At about 10am the parade started to pass by us. They had two Stampede Ambassadors for this year, I guess you could call them Calgary’s best know cowboys, Jet and Cord McCoy from this year’s Amazing Race. The parade had almost everything Western in it, from Real Indian Chiefs and Princesses, to Line Dancing Troops, a Horse drawn hearse, to community groups in period costumes and of course a good dose of politicians soaking up the lime light. The parade was really interesting and the 2+ hours it took to pass us went in no time at all.

We then made our way to a train station and went to the Stampede grounds. A huge purpose built arena and show grounds. My best description would be the Sydney Royal Easter Show/Adelaide Show on steroids.

We walk around sideshow “highway” (way to big to call it an alley) and then had lunch in the biggest foodhall I have ever been in. After lunch, I had a Corn Dog and ketchup ( a close approximation to a Dagwood Dog and sauce), it’s a must to have some disgusting food to get in the show mood, the others all had variations on a burger. Once finished we headed off to the main arena for a feast of cowboy thrills and spills. Carolyn had got us reserved seats undercover up on Level 5 of the grandstand around about the middle of the stand. We spent the afternoon watching Bucking Bronco riding, bull riding, barrel races and a junior event too complex to describe, other than to say it was hysterical.

The afternoon program finished at about 4:30, so we headed off and had a look around some of the exhibitions and displays. I bought a ticket in a lottery to win a house and land package in Calgary. Will be a nice holiday home. J While we were looking around through a new Western Art themed pavilion, we saw a group of secret service guarding some military guy people (not very good at being secretive!!) Turned out he was the Commanding Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. Anyway, Deb and Georgie decided they would stalk the Secret Service guys, apparently they were much more attractive than the guy they were guarding! LOL

After dinner in the same food hall as lunch we went back to our seats in the main arena to watch the Chuck Wagon Races. There were 9 races , each having 4 wagons in them. The races were amazing. All the horses involved were thorough-bred horses (mostly ex-racing horses) and they drag the wagons around the track at a great speed. ( they said around 35 MPH). Each wagon had a group of 4 “out-riders” who raced behind them. It was utter chaos at the start, with wagons having an almost Le Mann start and the out-riders having to load some stuff into them before they did a partial figure 8 before heading off around a track that was about a mile around. Absolute madness but really enjoyable to watch.

After the races there was a concert/show. I don’t really know where to begin, it was one of the best “show” events we have ever seen. It was an amazing combination of dancing , singing, motor jump stunts, a motor cycle ball of death with 4 bikes in it at one stage, aerial acts, fireworks, a comedian, a winner off American Idol, small children dancing and singing, a Michael Jackson Tribute (a bit scratchy) and so much more. Brilliant!

After all that we made our way back to the hotel via the train and were in our room around midnight, bringing to an end a fantastic day spent with good friends.

Saturday 10 July 2010    Spruce Meadows, Calgary

We had a gentle start to today after our big day yesterday.

For the last few days I have had a worsening mouth/tooth ache, and this morning Deb organised a dental appointment for me at 3:30pm today.

After a late breakfast we met up with Margaret and Carolyn and we all set off to Spruce Meadows, owned by a local guy by the name of Ron Southern. It’s the biggest and best horse jumping arena I have ever seen. He opens up to the public each year to coincide with the Stampede and they have show jumping contests with prizes in the 100’s of 1000’s of dollars. It was a great day. After lunch they had a big ceremony saluting the Canadian armed forces and then more jumps. We had a great day.

We left around 2:30pm so I could get to the dentist. By 3:30pm I was in the dentist chair being told that I had a very bad abscess around a tooth and that I had 2 choices, have it extracted or have root canal therapy. When I told them of the time I had to get the work done they said that I still had two choices, have it extracted or be in agony with :-)each flight I had before I got home. Hard choice huh!!!

By 4:30 I was one tooth less, and had a very numb face. But it was the only decision I could make and the holiday rolls on.We have dinner tonight at the Calgary Tower Revolving Restaurant, I hope I don’t dribble too much.

He didn’t dribble and by 8pm was able to take the packing out and tentatively eat some mushroom soup. We had a lovely evening, It was raining and cloudy when we arrived but the rain stopped and the cloud lifted and we were able to enjoy the view, was particularly good to be able to see where we had been yesterday for the stampede.

Dinner was delicious and we (with the exception of Greg who was not allowed to drink!!) enjoyed an Italian bottle of wine, which was fitting seeing that was where we all met 4 years ago!

To finish off Carolyn organised a small ice cream cake with candle for Greg for us to sing happy birthday to him, (only 7 more sleeps, this birthday keeps going on and on ).

Was another great day in Calgary, tomorrow we start with brunch at Priddle Green Golf Club.

Happy birthday Destiny, we hope you had a wonderful day

Sunday 11 July 2010  A Sunday in Calgary

A lazy start to the day, we all met down in the foyer at 10am and then set off for brunch at the Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club.

After a 30min drive into the very green countryside to the west of Calgary we arrived at Priddis Greens, a 36 hole championship golf club, which hosted this years LPGA championship.

We walked into the dining room to see a feast laid out before us, this was brunch in grand style. J We took our time and indulged in all the fine foods from fresh fruit, waffles, to cold meats and prawns to cakes and a good selection of cheeses.

Once we had had our fill we went for a walk around the residential part of the course. There were a few houses for sale, a large duplex was priced at $485,000, which I thought was pretty good, but am not sure if that got you club membership or not, but I doubted that it would. Memberships were on an equity basis.

After a few group pictures on the course we took off for a drive in the countryside and passed another 3 or 4 golf courses. Apparently there are long wait-lists for joining most clubs.

We got back around 3pm , just in time to see Spain defeat the Netherlands in the Soccer World Cup 1-0.

After a bit of a relax in our room, we headed off to Carolyn’s place for dinner. Carolyn’s place was, as warned in reconstruction mode. Still recovering from a burst water pipe while she was away on holiday and subsequent flooding. But she is slowly getting it back, hopefully all the reconstruction will be done by the end of Aug.

She has a beautiful open plan home, with small colourful gardens front and back that she maintains very well. We had pizza and salad for tea, followed by one of Margaret’s Rhubarb pies and ice cream. Yummmmm

We gave both Margaret and Carolyn a Chrysanthemum, so they could plant them in their gardens and then when they come up again next year it will remind them of us. J

After dinner I helped Carolyn with her iPhone and the others chatted. We left at around 9:20pm.

After breakfast with Mom and Sis tomorrow, we head off for Banff, and the next part of our North American adventure.

We feel very lucky to have been able to see Calgary through Carolyn & Margaret’s eyes. A great place and we have done things we would never have done had we been here on our own. Thank you so much for sharing Calgary with us has been lots of fun xo

Von, Greg will be off getting his card when we get home!!

Ben, glad you are all home and that you enjoyed your holiday down south it is a beautiful part of the world

Hope you all have a good week xo

Comments: McDonalds 12 July 2010

Yummy Breakfast

YUMMMM…. that breakfast sounded great…. and all at a championship golf course!!! How Wonderful…… Sounds like we are pretty spoilt with our golf courses here!

Have a great week.

Luv ya

Ben

Monday 12 July 2010     Calgary to Banff

We met Margaret and Carolyn for breakfast in our hotel this morning. It’s our last time together before we head out of Calgary to Banff. It was great to be able catch up with them one last time. Over breakfast Margaret explained the best way west to John and gave us some pretty good clear notes on the turns we should take.

Our final farewells were in the car park, and surprisingly no tears were shed, it was sad to be parting, but we know we will be seeing them again in the future.

Our trip to Banff was pretty easy, we had a bit of a hold-up with some road works, but other than that it was an easy drive, and we were soon surrounded by the Rockies. On the way we saw the 1988 Winter Olympics Ski Jumps, they were awesome, and so close to Calgary and the highway. It amuses me that they have as many “Elk” warning signs on their roads as we have “Kangaroo” signs. Makes sense I guess but still makes me smile. Back in Glacier it was Elk, Bear and Moose signs!!!

We arrived in Banff at around 11:30, but had to wait until 2pm to check-in. So we went for a walk around town, calling into the Tourist Information Centre. It worked out well, we got an idea of what to do and when to do it, where the most animals (bears and elk) might be and what the weather was going to be doing for the next few days. We also picked up some post cards for the little ones and then went to the post office to post the cards, then we went and had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. It was very tasty, and then we strolled around town for a bit longer before returning to the Poplar Inn B & B to check in. Our accommodation is pretty good, a two bedroom apartment on the ground floor of a house looking out to the Rockies through a bay window. There isn’t much snow up high and it’s trying very hard to rain. The weather for the next few days looks dry and getting warmer, so it should be good for doing a bit of hiking in the National Park around Banff and up around Lake Louise.

Tuesday 13^th of July 2010  Banff Canada

We had a lazy afternoon yesterday then went for dinner in town at Giorgio’s Trattoria. It was Italian, very nice!

Today we had a lovely breakfast, chatted to our host Susan and were on the road by 9.15am. It looked very bleak outside so Greg bought a couple of rain ponchos for us, then it was off to Johnston’s Canyon. The mountain tops showed signs of a fresh dusting of snow, in the middle of summer! We walked to the lower and upper waterfalls, took about 50 mins one way – just over 5km altogether. Was a lovely walk, very scenic, we saw a few small Golden-mantled ground squirrels, a couple of ordinary squirrels as well, and a small (chubby) native mouse along the way and lots of lovely wildflowers, including Alberta’s flower “The Wild Rose” . The weather was very kind to us, it drizzled for the first 5 mins then cleared for the rest of the walk! The falls were in a fairly steep sided narrow canyon surrounded by tall pine trees, where a creek had cut its way through the local limestone. The trail to the falls was in part on steel gantries set into the canyon walls and often over the creek.

( I have noticed on our walks that most people don’t look at you when they pass and of those who do only a few will smile and acknowledge you. I would have liked to take a survey of people’s nationalities and count the number of people we passed and the number that smiled or acknowledged us. I wondered if it was a cultural or personal thing – something I would like to understand more about. In Australia most people acknowledge you or say hello on hikes, I found it quite disconcerting, that people could just walk passed as if you weren’t even there (like in a city)! I am sure it was less than 10% that would acknowledge you, and only half of those that smiled! What do they say? When in Rome do as the Romans do! But I couldn’t help myself, I eyeballed everyone and anyone who took a sidewards glance I smiled at! )

On the way back to Banff we saw a couple of elk on the side of the road, when that happens it gets very congested, it is called a bear jam!! People stop on the side of the highway taking photos of animals, causing chaos. Would be nice to see a bear one time, we live in hope!! Maybe in Alaska!

Back in Banff we went to the supermarket and bought some lunch and went to Lake Minnewanka for a picnic, it was a bit drizzly though, we managed to finish our lunch and take a quick look at the lake (it is a glacial lake) before the drizzle turned to rain. We were cold – even Greg’s hands were cold and he had a jumper on!! It was about 5C this morning when we set out and at lunch it was around 9C.

We came back to the B & B and the rain has really set in. J & G have gone to the movies. If it clears we will do a few more little walks near town before dinner. But I am not sure if this rain is going to stop! Our host told us this morning that they have not had many days of sunshine this summer.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be warmer 6C to 22C with a bit of rain. We are off to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake tomorrow, so hopefully the sun will shine. On Thursday we do the Icefield Parkway (on the road to Jasper) and it is supposed to be a beautiful day! It is Tara’s birthday on Thursday, we hope you have a lovely 20^th birthday (no longer a teenager!) we will be thinking of you.

Wednesday 14^th July 2010  Lake Louise and Lake Moraine

Thank you for your lovely message Carly, it was all I could do to get Greg to wear the ears! What does Ella think of her sleepovers? I am sure they will have fun at Von & Toms, we look forward to hearing all about it. I am not sure who is going to enjoy it more Von & Tom or Ella & Ethan! Please give Susan our love and let her know we are thinking of her. Greg’s birthday will go on for over 36 hours I am sure with the time difference. But it has been going for 6 weeks now anyway what are a few more hours!! We hope Kieran enjoys the rest of his holidays. Have you been to our house? I presume not as we have not been gone very long. I was just wondering if there was any damage with all of the storms you seem to be having over there? Hope Hana is fully recovered from her op.

Des we were pleased to find out that Karlien is printing off our blogs and posting them to you. We are thinking of you as we travel around and hope that you enjoy reading about our adventures

We have been enjoying everyones messages and emails and chats on messenger, it is always nice when we log on to have news from home!

Tessa Nan sent us some pics of you and Dante and I didn’t recognise you, you have grown up so much in two weeks!!! Try not to grow up much more until we get back

We had a lovely dinner last night at the Maple Leaf Grill & Spirits. I had Duck and Greg had Lamb Shank and we have just discovered it is owned by the same people who own Giorgios where we had dinner the night before!

We have had an amazing day today, it started with a lovely breakfast. We left by 8.30am and headed to Lake Louise. We were all pleased to see the sun and the sky and no rain and it was much warmer today ranged between 12 and 20C, much better. We were at Lake Louise before all of the crowds. The lake is this amazing aqua/green colour, from the leaching of the limestone rocks by the glacier at the end of the valley, and has mountains all around it (as everything around here does!) We walked around the edge of the lake on one side – was about 5km – we took lots of photos, it was very beautiful.

Afterwards we went to the Fairmont Hotel, which is on the edge of the lake and had a walk around. The windows at the front of the hotel have the most amazing view of the lake from them, quite magical. While we were in there we asked the concierge for directions to the gondola ride.

The ride up the mountain was 1.8km and the view was spectacular, we could see over Lake Louise and the mountain ranges. In the cost of our ticket up the mountain we paid an extra $7 and had lunch in the ski lodge it was pretty impressive for that price, was a smorgasbord, had a main and some cake and tea/coffee.

After lunch we went to Moraine Lake, it was also very beautiful, but in a different way. The water was much bluer, I have never seen water like we saw in either lake. At both lakes, every time the sun came out from behind the clouds the colours intensified and changed, quite magical. If you ever come out this way, you need to visit both lakes, I don’t think you could say one was better than the other. After our walk around the lake Greg climbed up the Moraine (boulders that dammed the lake) only took him 10 mins (signs suggest 1hr return!) and saw the lake from above.

We then had an hour ride back to Banff and then went to see the Cascade Gardens which were very beautiful, they planted 50,000 seedlings just this month!! Then it was off to Bow falls, about 200 metres long and 20 metres wide, the falls are a continuous set of rapids formed where there is a sudden drop in the elevation of the river. We didn’t have to walk an hour to see these, just a few steps from the car park!! Behind the falls was the Banff Fairmont hotel, also very impressive from the outside – took photos we didn’t go in.

Afterwards we stopped in at the supermarket and bought some lunch for tomorrow – we go to Jasper tomorrow along the Icefields Parkway and there are not many places to purchase food.

We got back to the B & B at 6pm, Greg went out and took some photos of the street names, he wanted to get one of Squirrel Street for Carly, there are also Wolf St, Bear St, Caribou St, Lynx St Gopher St … you get the idea!! He also called into the Christmas shop and got a decoration for our tree, to add to our growing collection of decorations bought on our travels.

Well we are off to dinner in a min, so it is goodbye from Banff, we will be reporting from Jasper tomorrow night!!

Wed 15 July 2010  Icefields Parkway Canada

This morning for breakfast we had French Toast laced with Grand Marnier (yesterday Georgie had a Hot Chocolate with breakfast, it was laced with Baileys!). We checked out of our Banff B & B and were on the road to the Icefields Parkway by 8:05am.

As we began our journey to Jasper there was much talk about what we might find along the way. Most conversation was about the possibility of seeing our so far elusive prey, bears and moose!!

The Icefields Parkway is renowned for its abundant wildlife, and so our expectations were high.

We had soon negotiated our way through the road works between Banff and Lake Louise, and made our way onto the Parkway.

It wasn’t long before we scored our first wild life, well nearly, a squirrel paused on the road in front of use running to safety just in time. We called into a few trail heads along the way, the first was Bow Lake, a beautiful creamy blue lake set in a very deep valley that was overhung by the Crowfoot Glacier. The glacier has receded so much that now the glacier has one less toe on its “Crowfoot” than it should!

From there it was a short drive to Peyto Lake. In the car park we saw a Clarks Nutcracker bird, it seemed pretty used to people and just got on with things like we weren’t there. The path to the viewpoint was very steep at the beginning and got our hearts pounding, but after the initial shock the path got easier and we got to the top without the need for any “Packer Wackers”. The view from the top was well worth it, an extensive glacial lake extended out along the valley before us and into the pine valley next to the Parkway. The water in the lake was a deep creamy blue. A great contrast to the greenery all around it.

Back on the road and it wasn’t long before we hit our first “Bear Jam” of the day, at 10:45am. We pulled in with all the other cars, probably about 20 or so, and peered off into the distance to a lightly wooded hill. There we spied a “Black Bear” minding its own business and just casually feeding. We took many pictures, a few of which you can see it was a bear, LOL.

After taking in our first bear we set off again for the Columbia Icefields, arriving there at about 11:20am. As we walked up to the Icefield Centre we noted a small plaque at the end of the carpark showing the position of the end of the Athabasca Glacier in 1844. The sign was about a km from where the end of the glacier is today. The glacier has been steadily receding since that date at what looks like a steady rate. (at the moment it is receding 10metres per year)

We bought tickets for the Icefield Bus Tour and had a look around the centre before getting our bus to the Icefields at 12:15pm. Firstly they take you on a conventional bus to a staging area just to the side of the lower end of the glacier on the lateral moraine. Here we boarded a purpose built SnoCoach (Ice Explorer, cost 1.1 million and they have 21 of them – they are made in Calgary and there are only 22 in the world, the Americans have one in Antartica) for the ride up onto the Athabasca Glacier. The drive onto the glacier took in the steepest “road” in North America, a stretch of road about 400m long and at a gradient of 18 degrees. VERY steep, the bus went down in a locked gear setting and almost 100% on exhaust brakes. Once down the slope it was a relatively smooth ride to the “walking circle” area (an area surveyed to be safe for us tourists) at the breakneck top speed of about 18kph.

It was pretty cold out on the ice, the wind was picking up and the clouds were starting to come in, blocking out the sun and cooling things down somewhat. There was a significant amount of water running on the glacier today, as the temperature was up around 10 C. On Tuesday, they had 150mm of snow on the glacier in the afternoon. This is the middle of summer remember!!

OK here come the facts. LOL

The glacier is approximately 5.5km long x 1km wide x 300m deep. It exists in the altitude range of 2700m down to 2200m.

The Columbia Icefields are a hydrological apex, its melt water feeds streams and rivers that feed into the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. (a Triple Continental Divide if you prefer, the only one in the world) and the Icefields cover an area of 325 square kilometres and have a max depth of 350m. The Athabasca Glacier would fill a mere 2% of the Icefields.

Glaciers produce 3 types of moraine, Terminal (at their most extreme downhill point ever), yearly moraine (the point at which they recede during summer every year) and lateral moraine (materials pushed to the side of the glacier as it moves down the valley). On the Athabasca Glacier , the lateral moraine is up to several hundred meters high, and is very crumbly.

After we finished on the glacier we headed up the Parkway for 5 mins and then found a pullout with a view down over the glacier and valley to have lunch. As we pulled in we almost ran into a Mountain goat grazing in the pullout. After a while it jumped the safety rail and headed down hill, and I mean a VERY steep hill, with no problem at all, amazing creatures.

At about 2:30pm we came upon another “Bear Jam”, this time it was a “Grizzly Bear”, when we got there it was hiding in the middle of a bunch of trees and we only got a slight glimpse, but it was there and we all saw it!! We were on a bear roll.

Back on the road we called into see the Sunwapta Falls and the Athabasca falls. Both were very spectacular, even allowing that they weren’t big, they were very powerful.

At about 4:20pm we saw the smallest Bear Jam ever, a solitary car by the side of the road, just as we drove by we we got the best sighting of the day of a Black bear 5 or 10m from the edge of the road, by the time we stopped and reversed back, it had gone into the forest another 10 to 15m and was more difficult to see.

Coming into Jasper we saw our last wild beasties for the day, a few Elk on the roadside, surrounded by snap happy tourists, we resisted. By 4:50 we were at our B&B in Jasper. Deb and I have a front facing suite, with views to Whistlers Mountain on our right and Tekarra Mountain straight in front and Roche Bonhomme to the left.

The Icefield Parkway took us almost 8 hours to complete, in all it was 289km from Banff to Jasper

A few observations we have made on our journey so far:

It seems you can take dogs into National parks in both the USA and Canada, as long as they are on a leash. What’s with that??

A few English / French sign differences I have noted in Canada:

In English you are a “Trail Blazer” while in French you are only a “Pioneer”

In English we have Upper and Lower falls, but in French they are Superior and Inferior

Friday 16 July 2010   Jasper, Canada

A lazy start to the day, a little after 9am we met with John and Georgiana, and our host Annelies, and worked out a plan for the day. Annelies helped us by marking the way on a map of the area.

We set out and headed for Pyramid Lake and Princess Island. It was very pretty there first thing in the morning, with the lake being very still, the reflections from the surrounding mountains were superb. There is a small shelter on the island, constructed during the great depression which is now a national monument.

From there we set off to Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake. We were told, by Annelies, to make sure we got to the first of the six bridges over the Canyon, as it had the best waterfall. We started off by stopping and having a look at Bridge No. 5, a small suspension bridge over a widish stretch of rapids in the creek. The bridge was fun, very wobbly!!

We then went up to the car park at the Maligne Canyon Restaurant, after first making a quick call into a viewpoint just before it. The viewpoint gave magnificent views over the Jasper area and highlighted the hung valley created by the glacial actions here in the distant past. From the carpark we followed the trailhead to a very deep narrow canyon (more like a chasm) that had been eroded by a creek over many years. The creek was about 30m below the top of the canyon and was at most 3 or 4 m wide, and flowing very quickly. We followed the creek downstream for some distance, and we walked over 3 bridges set up over the chasm. We finished our walk down stream at a point where an underground stream poured out of the hill side at the level of the creek. It was fascinating to see pure clear spring water meeting the milky blue water of the glacial fed stream. It was a bit of an effort to walk back up to the top, many steps and steep inclines to climb. We walked up past our starting point to bridge No. 1, as advised by Annelies. It was the best waterfall of all. (There was a waterfall at each bridge). Going by the signs the falls were about 20m+ and very powerful.

We then decided to have lunch up at Maligne Lake. So we drove up to Medicine Lake on our way to Maligne. Medicine Lake was thought to be mystical and inhabited by spirits by the local natives because the level of the lake falls dramatically during late summer, it drains to an underground river.

Between Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake we saw another Bear Jam and found it was a Black Bear causing all the excitement. We managed to get up close, but had to stay in the car because the bear was just off the road. Deb had the camera and was finding it hard to get a good shot, and all of a sudden launched herself out the window so she was almost standing on the seat of the car and wedged outside. We all laughed and she did get a couple of good shots.

After all the excitement we travelled onto Maligne Lake and had lunch ( Burgers) sitting on a sundeck overlooking the lake. A magnificent setting for a peaceful lunch. While we had lunch we wrote some postcards for D, T E & E. After lunch we went for a walk along the lake. On the drive up we had noticed fresh snow on the side of the road and in the forest. The snow was also in the forests up at the lake. On our walk John got a good handful and threw a large snow ball at Deb grazing her neck and ear!!! LOL We all had a great laugh and it didn’t take her long to get John back. A little later I was walking quietly along when all of a sudden I had this lump of snow down the back of my shirt trapped in place by the backpack I was wearing, yes that little child Deborah again. I figure revenge is sweetest when served unexpected. So I am thinking Alaska sounds good! But don’t tell Deb.

From Maligne Lake we went to have a look around the locals summer playground lakes of Jasper, Lake Edith and Annette. On the way we saw another Bear jam, this time it was for a big buck elk, with a massive set of antlers, they must have been over 2m wide, very impressive. Both lakes had sandy beaches scattered around them and are where the locals come to swim. I tried the water, and although its mid summer it still felt a bit icy to me. They must breed them tough up here!!

From there we went to have a look around the Jasper Fairmont Hotel. It looked very ritzy, and very grand inside. They claim to have the best golf course in Canada. A stay and golf from around $300 a night. The grounds were very well kept and had numerous elk wandering around.

On the way back from dinner we introduced John and Georgie to Geocaching. (google it if you don’t know what it is). I have the app on my iPhone. We found a cache near our B & B and with a little searching we had found it. An international first for Team The McG’s. (Our grand-children will be proud, although it would have been much quicker if they had been with us, Dante Pa was telling us how much further it was – he just wasn’t as accurate as you are!! There were also a few muggles around so we had to be careful!). We are going to try and do another tomorrow at the Jasper Tramway up Mt Whistlers. Should be fun.

Ella and Ethan, thank you so much for your messages, we have just got them you have melt our hearts. We love you too. We have taken lots of photos, I think you will like the ones of the animals and all of the pretty wildflowers. How was the Ballet Ella, I would have liked to have gone to it, but we are away, so you will have to tell me all about it. How did you go Ethan fixing Daddies bike, is it all fixed. I bet Daddy enjoyed you helping as you are a very good fixer. There is not a letter box on the aeroplane, although the postcards we send you from North America go in a big bag on the aeroplane with all of the other mail for Australia, and eventually end up in your letterbox. Daddy will be able to tell you how your emails get to us in North America! We posted a card to you today, from Jasper, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get to you. We are glad Aiko is doing well. It is time for bed now. xoxo

Only one more sleep although Carly rang Greg on Skype just before 9am here this morning, think it was sometime after midnight at home!! So the good wishes have begun!

Sat 17 July 2010   Jasper – Last Day

We woke to the most beautiful day we have had since we have been here, was not a cloud to be see. Our host Annelies had told us it would be a good day. She is 72 and amazing, she never stops and has done so many interesting things in her life. I presume she is Austrian as we are staying in her B & B the Austrian Inn.

We set off for the Jasper Tramway around 9.15am, we were on the way up The Whistlers Mountain (named after the sound that the resident Marmots make) just after 10am in the Gondola (about 20 of us all squashed in!) When we got to the top (2277 metres) we could see Mt Robson, (the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies – it is over the border from Alberta in British Columbia) evidently you can only see it 6 times a year as the top is usually covered in cloud – so we got some pictures and within 15 minutes I noticed the top of the mountain was covered in cloud. Because we were up the top early we were given a cooked breakfast in the price of the ticket. So we ate breakfast in the restaurant with lovely views over the valley and mountains.

The walk to the top of The Whistlers Mountain is 40 mins long and it is straight up, normally I would not have climbed to the top as it was very steep – but Annelies insisted that we had to as we would have 360 degree views! She was also doing our washing for us so I felt compelled to climb!! So off we set and little by little we got closer to the top – the views on the way up were stunning – but every time you thought you were getting closer there was that little bit more to go, then we got to the snow line and trudged through the snow then on some more until 40 mins later we finally made it!! Very proud – I thought of you dad when I got to the top!! And it really was a wow moment at the top, not just that I had made it, but the view, it was like we were on eye level with all of the mountains around us, just spectacular. We savoured the moment for at least 30 mins, taking some great photos before we descended.

That took us 4 hours altogether, we then went to Lake Beauvert, there were people scuba diving, reading at the side of the lake and fishing, the water was so clear you could see the bottom so clearly. On the way back Greg and I both drove a little bit (on the wrong side of the road, and the car is still in one piece) then headed into town where they were having a celebration of Canadian National Parks, we had a bite to eat then headed back here to relax and start packing.

We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate Greg’s birthday with J & G (I think this is his 3^rd birthday dinner – and it is only the 17^th!!) Then J & G are dropping us off at 7am tomorrow at the train station when we will catch the Rocky Mountaineer, stopping at Kamloops tomorrow night, then onto Vancouver the next day. It will be nice to reminisce about our holiday with J & G tonight as it will be 2 and a half weeks before we see them again in Minnesota where they live. Has been fun travelling around with them, John has been wonderful with the driving and they have both been good company and we have had many laughs together and seen things and places we would otherwise not have. They are doing a 9 -10 hour drive tomorrow back to Kalispell to drop the car off and fly home the following day.

Sunday 18 July 2010  Greg’s 40½ hr Birthday on The Rocky Mountaineer

We got up this morning at about 6am and finished packing ready to get the Rocky Mountaineer to Kamloops and Vancouver, on the Yellowhead Route. Hey, and it was still my birthday.

We got a skype call from Carly , which was a great surprise and got us both smiling. I also spoke to mum and dad, they had been trying to contact me since yesterday.

We got to the Train station at about 7am, and said bye to John and Georgiana, our travel buddies, and wished them a safe trip back to Kalispell and home to Minnesota.

We checked in and were given “Gold Leaf” pins to wear on the train. The train arrived in Jasper around 7:30am and was backed up into the station. We boarded at around 7:45 and left about 8am. Breakfast was served in the downstairs dining lounge around 8:45am.

Our trip today takes us from Jasper to Kamloops. The train travels past/ through, Jasper National Park, Yellowhead Pass, Yellowhead Lake, Moose Lake, switching onto the Robson Subdivision, Cross the Fraser River, through a 510m tunnel, past Mount Robson, the highest Canadian mountain in the Rockies, Valemount, Premier Range, the site of The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Accident (the site where two trains collided in 1950, killing 12 members of the Royal Canadian Artillery), Albreda, Albreda glacier, Pyramid Falls, Blue River, Little Hells Gate, Vavenby, Clearwater Boulder, Little Fort, Barriere and finally Kamloops.

Our train left Jasper with about 6 carriages, overnight in Kamloops, when another train will be hooked on behind us. We are in the last carriage and have magnificent views from both upstairs in the glass domed carriage and from the viewing platform at the back of the bottom level of our carriage. (tomorrow the view to the rear will disappear ).

Not long after the train pulled out Deb gave me a small pile of cards and presents she had bought on the holiday for me. There were cards from all the family and from the office. It was wonderful to read all your wishes and so very thoughtful of everyone. I had a huge smile while I opened them all. A big thanks to all our children for the great present (part 2) you got me. Looks like a Thai Dinner party must be on the agenda!! And I can’t wait to go BBQ shopping with Deb when we get home, more feasts I am sure!! And thanks mum for the pressie, I am sure to keep a clean nose. And thanks for all of your messages and your phone call Eileen & Brian. Thank you all, I was very touched by you all.

We were served breakfast in the dining car around 9am.

At about 10:20am just as we were approaching Moose Lake, we saw 2 moose by the roadside on the left of the train, our first ever Moose sighting. It was all too quick to get a photo, but hopefully we will get many more opportunities in Alaska for Moose photo opps.

We passed by Mount Robson, it’s clear of clouds only 1 day in 10 during summer ( or 1 in 6 over the whole year, winter has much clearer skies than summer, not six days a year as Deb thought.) Well today was another of those clear days, and it was picture perfect from the train.

We just moved into British Columbia, and a different time zone, watches back an hour and my birthday just hit 40 1/2 hrs . We are travelling through the Rocky Mountain Trench, a subsidence between the Rocky Mountain Range and the Columbia Ranges, apparently it is one of only a few things on earth visible from the moon ( like the Great Wall of China and the Great Barrier Reef)

First drinks served at 10:30am, a Whistler Original Pale Ale was my choice, a nice light hoppy brew. (hic!!)

We spent the later part of the morning winding our way through valleys between the mountains and along side rivers fed by glaciers. ( You can tell by the Glacial Flour discolouration of the water making it a cloudy green colour)

We had a lovely 3 course lunch and we both had some wine. Drinks were served all afternoon so it was a well lubricated birthday!!

The afternoon was much the same until we got close to Kamloops, the terrain began to get a bit flatter, although we are still surrounded by mountains. The trip was very relaxing and it was good to just sit back and watch the world go by while being looked after all the way.

We got into Kamloops around 5pm and were quickly settled into our hotel. We went down to the bar in the hotel and got a drink each and a pizza for tea. Very relaxing.

After dinner we walked down to the local park where they had a free music concert. As we got there the storm that had been threatening in the afternoon began to come in. There was a lot of lightening, a lot of it horizontal and thunder and then it started to rain, lightly, but very big drops. So we decided to call it quits after ten minutes. And my birthday, the longest I have ever had, came to a close.

Thanks so much to everyone for all your wishes and thoughts.

Ella and Ethan, I have played the recording I have of you singing happy birthday to me, and I loved the drawings in my card and Dante & Tessa thanks for the messages you wrote in my card, it made my day just so special.

Vonnie and Tom, you will be pleased to know I opened your card on the train, in a full carriage, only to find out it was a talking/singing card, , thanks LOL

(Greg forgot to mention that he had to stand up while it was announced to the whole carriage that it was his birthday to which he got a loud round of applause – you can imagine how much he enjoyed that!)

Monday 19 July 2010 Kamloops to Vancouver on Rocky Mountaineer

I had a great sleep last night, the best I think I have had, Greg’s was not so good though!

We got an early start was on the RM by 8am

I really got into it today and enjoyed it a lot more. The scenery changed today which was nice, yesterday it was similar to what we had seen the 6 days previously when we were in Banff and Jasper.

In the morning we were on the Thompson River, we both loved watching it. The river is amazing the water is flowing in all directions and it is flowing quickly. There is white water rafting along the river and evidently rivers are rated 1-6 (for white water rafting) – 6 being a waterfall, Thompson River is 2-5+ I could have watched the river all day, have never seen one like it. The river ran along side the train for most of the day it was very picturesque.

Drinks were again served at 10.30am, Greg had a coke today, when I asked why he said he thought it was a bit obscene having beer that time yesterday, but it was his birthday! The English love their alcohol! There are a lot of Gin & Tonics being had!! We thought of you Carly. (there are at least 6 drink opportunities on the train in the day!! Then there is wine at lunch and you can have your glass filled at least 3 times! The English people on the train could certainly hold a lot of liquor!!

We are in the second seating today for our meals, so at 8am we had a cinnamon scone and tea/coffee to tide us over, then at 12pm we had cheese and wine all the while soaking up the scenery, tis terribly decadent and very relaxing, but we are coping!!

There were a lot of cargo trains going the opposite way to us, they are a couple of km long (165 carriages counted by one couple)

We got into Vancouver around 5.30pm and had enjoyed our first Train Journey.

We caught a taxi to our hotel and were in our room around 6pm. After putting our bags in the room (we have been upgraded – and it is very nice!! Must be because I told them it was Greg’s birthday!) we went and got a map of the city and some ideas of what to do for the rest of the day and tomorrow.

We headed off to the Vancouver Art Gallery Cafe for a light snack – it was very nice sitting outside reminded us of the Adelaide Art Gallery Cafe. Then we headed down to English Beach to watch the sunset. We spent well over an hour doing some of the best people watching we have ever done as we watched the sun set into the Pacific Ocean.

Back in our room now, have done the washing!! Am starting to feel a bit weary, should go off to bed, we are going to Granville Island tomorrow then off to Stanley Park, for some bike riding and sightseeing. We like what we have seen of Vancouver, reminds us in many ways to San Francisco.

Tuesday 20 July 2010  Vancouver Canada

Today was all about exploring as much of Vancouver as we could in a Day.

We decided to see the main three touristy areas, Stanley Park, Granville Island and Gastown, in that order.

We set off by walking from our hotel to Stanley Park, a left and right then straight down Georgia St. We got there in about 30 mins and had a good look at the Map sign of the Park, and decided to go to the Rose gardens and then onto the Totem Poles, Brockton Point and then see how we were travelling.

Leading the way I set out along the edge of the Lost Lagoon (this was an omen!!). After a while I was a little concerned that we hadn’t come to the garden, but we continued on anyway. We finally knew something was amiss when we came to Second Beach!! We had basically missed the Park, yep a park 1000 acres big and we missed it!!! LOL

Not to be put off by our near miss, we then walked along the foreshore following English Bay Beach and Sunset Beach (where we were last night) to the Water Tax / ferry wharf under the Burrard St Bridge. There we caught a taxi over to Granville Island (which isn’t actually an Island, but they just call it that!) . There is a largish fresh food market there, which reminded us of the Adelaide Central Markets, just a whole lot smaller. Some of the fruit, particularly the fresh berries of all descriptions looked so good. There are also many craft and gallery type shops and quirky clothing and touristy shops. We enjoyed just walking around taking it all in. We got some lunch from the food court and sat outside people watching and listening to a busker play. Deb had Sushi, and mistook some Ginger and wasabi for Salmon and Avocado! She is breathing a lot clearer now.

After lunch we got another water/ferry taxi (is really good on the water lovely views of Vancouver) to Plaza of Nations, to walk to Gastown. We passed the Mr Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens on the way. We decided not to go in ( seen one you’ve seen them all, up to a point), but as we walked through the courtyard we came to a second entrance where people just seemed to be walking in and out, so we had a look and it was a Chinese garden. We are not sure if this was the same one we decided not to pay to see or not, but it was your typical Chinese formal garden, very pleasant, but not outstanding.

From there we continued our walk to Gastown, as we approached Hastings Street, the flavour of the neighbourhood declined. This area is renowned for the number of homeless people who call it “home”. An amazing place for people watching as all facets of humanity seemed to co-exist side by side, and just get on with their own lives, not impinging on each other. (I have never seen so many homeless people on one city street before – I was surprised when the concierge mentioned the homeless people on Hastings Street, but when I saw the numbers of them I understood why. There appear to be a large number of homeless people generally in Vancouver – Greg said the government cleared them all out before the Olympics! It appears they are all back)

A block later and we were in Gastown, a funky upmarket trendy district with lots of flower baskets hanging from replica gas street lights and freshly renovated and restored buildings bursting with colour. The centre piece of this neighbourhood is an unusual piece of history, the world’s first Steam Clock. We were lucky, it was just on 1pm as we approached the clock, and we heard it doing its thing, steam driven chimes rang out down the street, and masses of people were standing around watching the spectical. (Gastown is a very beautiful part of town – I could not get over the fact it was only one or two streets away from a street where the homeless locate themselves – such opulence and such poverty side by side – it felt wrong on so many levels!! )

Feeling a bit hard done by, for missing Stanley Park, we grabbed a cab and headed down to the Park, we gave the driver instructions to go to the Rose Garden ( so we would at least see that before we got lost again!!)

Just on an aside, we have caught 3 taxis so far and all have been Indian drivers, but these guys seem to know their way around!!

After a successful walk through the Rose Garden, we headed off further into the Park to see if we could find a Tea House Deb had seen a sign for and thought a cuppa might be good. Well, we found a Bar and Grill ( no I didn’t go in!!) and they told us the Tea House had shut! So we decided to try and find the Totem Poles. Deb, with a worried look on her face followed me off into the Park, me without a map, and not on a good record for directions today. Well we eventually came upon an Information kiosk and got a map. Turns out we weren’t too far from where we were headed and in a short time we had found and looked at the Totem Poles. The Poles are a mix of replicas and modern interpretation of ancient traditional Totem Poles. The skill was almost lost to the First People (that’s what the Canadians call their “aborigines”) due to white religious teachings when the whiteman came to their lands.

We then continued to walk along the sea wall to Brockton Point. And watched seaplanes take off and land on the bay. We then continued around the Foreshore to the “Girl in a Wetsuit” statue, before heading back out of the Park.

Once back at the bottom end of town we grabbed a cab and went back to our Hotel to rest and freshen up for a nice seafood dinner tonight at “The Blue Water Cafe”

(we walked for 5 hours at least today!! I am one very tired girl! Greg on the other hand took it all in his stride – he will have no trouble doing the City to Bay with you Carly! )

Tomorrow we fly to Fairbanks Alaska and onto another adventure!

Wednesday 21 July 2010   Fairbanks Alaska USA

We had a lovely dinner last night at the Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown. It would rank up there as one of the best meals we have had anywhere. Fresh seafood cooked really well, can’t beat it! All washed down with a Grossett Watervale Riesling from the Clare Valley, yum! (And one of the best coffees Greg has ever had )

We left our hotel this morning at around 8am bound for the Vancouver airport and our flights to Fairbanks Alaska.

Our flight was a little late leaving due to Fog in Seattle, but we eventually got there only 15 mins late. We tried to get an upgrade to first class, you normally get them for around $50 a seat if there are any available, but the plane to Fairbanks is full, but we ended up in exit row seats, so it’s not too bad. (Was really good flying from Vancouver to Seattle, so many islands between them, very beautiful. We also saw the flying saucer in Seattle as we came into land, so we were pleased with ourselves and decided it counts as having been to Seattle!)

Seattle airport is pretty large, they have underground automatic shuttle trains running between terminals, they run every 2 minutes and make it easy to move around from terminal to terminal.

It looks like we arrive in Fairbanks around 4:30pm and it’s a smooth flight. We are on Alaskan Airlines, and they have free WiFi onboard. I have just finished chatting with Mum on messenger from about 11km up in the sky, ain’t technology great!!

Our first view of Alaska was the sight of snow covered mountain peaks poking through the clouds as we flew by. (If the mountain peaks are above the clouds, how do they get snow on them??)

We were met by some Cruise West people and taken to our hotel Pike’s waterfront Lodge, right on the Chena River. We have a very open outlook over the river from our west facing room.

We went to an orientation meeting for the land content of our tour around 6pm. We had cheese and Australian wines during the presentation. Our group for the initial part of the tour is a mix of an Australian couple (from the Central Coast in NSW), a British couple from Norfolk, and the remainder are from the USA, 16 in all.

After the talk we went for a walk along the river, saw where the local “Ice Bridge” is in winter (Some locals always get caught at the spring when the ice is melting and finish up in the river with their cars!), we saw one of the local Paddle Steamers go up the river full of young American/Canadian tourists who sounded as though they had been on board all afternoon drinking, LOL A very cheerful bunch.

Our hotel has also been the start point for the Iditarod ( the very famous Dog Sled race in Alaska). They have a few memorial things around the Hotel and some memorabilia (old sleds etc) as well. Pretty interesting in itself.

It’s getting on now and we have a very full day tomorrow with tours in the morning, afternoon and a flight into the Arctic Circle and a visit to a village there tomorrow night. It’s going to be HUGE!!!!

Thursday 22 July 2010  Fairbanks Alaska

We met up with the rest of our tour group at around 8:15am, boarded our bus and headed off for our first day of exploration.

To start we had a drive through tour (with commentary) of Fairbanks. It’s not a very big town or all that attractive (population 35,000). A lot of the local historic buildings don’t exist anymore, so a lot of the commentary was about what used to be on a site, and the history of the boom and bust economy of the area. It has seen boom periods of gold mining, oil and the presence of the military, and then busts when the resource s dried up or the forces moved out. Fairbanks today is very much a service driven town with the main industries being it’s University (about 10,000 students), tourism and the oil industry.

From Fairbanks we went out to have a look at a section of the Alaskan Pipeline, the same one that caused all the environmental concerns back in the late 70’s early 80’s. The pipeline is about 800 miles long +/- about a mile depending on the expansion and contraction of the pipeline. It is 40” in diameter and made of Stainless steel. After an initial estimate cost of $1 billion, and after all the resolution of the environmental concerns, it eventually cost $8 billion to build in the very early 80’s. The engineering considerations and conditions under which it operates were very extreme, and to date the Main pipeline has never had a leak or accident (except for some crazies who have shot holes in it and tries to blow it up, both with very limited effect, and very long subsequent gaol sentences).

From the pipeline we went to visit the home of Mary Shields, a local legend in “Mushing”, or Dog Sledding as we might know it. In 1974 she was the first woman to complete The Iditarod Dog Sled race in Alaska. Our visit started by touring/walking through and sampling the produce in her vegetable/flower garden. She is a very proud gardener, and among other normal fruit and veg, she grows very big cabbages (often 20kg+).

From there she took us down to meet her Sled Dogs. They were all very friendly and very well trained. She trains them on the basis of positive behaviour reinforcement, and it works very well for her. She explained how she trains them and cares for them and what the dogs do in pulling her sled.

She doesn’t race any more, after suffering a brain aneurism about 3 years ago. However, she still spends about 5 weeks in the late winter here sledding her way around the local country side, camping out or travelling by sled to her other cabin about 20 miles away.

She showed us some of her old retired gear, including an old sled, all the gear for harnessing the dogs and her old canvas tent complete with stove and chimney in it. At the end of her talk she asked us to talk to her dogs and see if they would talk back to us, we were asked to “HOWL” J , and howl we did, both Deb and I with great smiles on our faces and definitely thinking of all, especially the little ones, our family at home. And sure enough her dogs howled back. J It was an unforgettable moment. (Greg has recorded the dogs howling on his phone) After we were given a picture opportunity with the sled.

We then moved inside where she told us tales of her adventures in the Iditarod and other races in which she had competed. She completed her first Iditarod in 28 days, getting by on 3 to 4 hours sleep a day to complete the 1000 mile course. When she crossed the line at 3am to the sounds of the fire sirens ( that greet every finisher) and a group of woman with a sign held high and proud, acknowledging her achievement.

She is also an author, she has written about life in the Alaskan wilderness and also done a few children’s books about the animals of Alaska and her beloved dogs. We will be bringing a few of them home with us.

She is an inspirational woman who has and is living her dream. We both came away from the visit on a high. (We have not many anyone like her, it was a privilege to be in her home and hear her stories, she is a wonderful spirit.)

We then went and had a bite to eat, before heading off to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks for a visit to their museum and Botanic gardens. The museum had some really interesting things on the Aurora Borealis, and the local history and animals. The Aurora displays were fantastic, a video display and then an audio /sensory room, where the energy of the Aurora has been converted into sound. It’s set in a “quiet room” and you can just sit and listen to the “music” of the Aurora, very peaceful. If you ever want to experience the Aurora Borealis you need to come up this way in March.

The botanic gardens were very interesting. They are full of very colourful flowers and some really interesting Arctic agriculture research. (How about solar heated beds for growing tomatoes?). Deb took lots, and lots, of photos of the flowers. Her flower album is getting bigger by the day.

We left the main group and got dropped back at the hotel at around 3:30pm, so we could rest up a bit before our Arctic flight this afternoon/night. We leave for the flight at 5:45pm and get back around midnight. The afternoon has had a lot of blue skies, so we are hoping they continue into the night. It looks like we are the only ones from our tour group doing the flight, I get the feeling others would really like to do it, but are in two minds about it, so have decided not to do it.

We got picked up from the hotel at 5:15 and were taken out to the airport. There were 10 people going on the tour, and the planes, twin engine Piper Cherokees, only sat 9, so they put us on two planes for the trip north. Our pilot was from Hawaii, up here for the northern summer. It took about 1 ¼ hrs to fly up to a small town called Coldfoot.( At 67deg 26min North, or about 60 miles north of the Arctic circle). On the way up we saw the Yukon River, the 3^rd largest river in North America, a few small native villages, two pump stations for the Alaskan Pipeline and the Brooks Ranges. We passed the Arctic Circle, at 66 deg 33 mins, on the way up. J

Coldfoot lies on the Dalton Highway, made famous by the TV show “Ice Road Truckers” and is about half way between Fairbanks and Prudoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean

Once there we all got in a small bus and headed north to a small gold mining village, Wiseman ( The most northerly gold mining camp in North America).The Dalton Highway is being upgraded, and there were lots of roadworks being carried out on the section we used, and we had an escort vehicle take us up and back. The highway is a mix of bitumen and gravel road, they are working on seqling more of it to meet the needs of the truckers that use the road, particularly in winter. On the way into the village we saw a moose and its calf crossing a river, they moved very quickly when we tried to get out of the bus for pictures, so missed good pics of them. We met a local resident who talked us through what it takes to live up in such an isolated area and how they deal with the extremes of temperature. Their homes are very well insulated, they use a lot of solar and wind power, fuel is expensive up there. They use a mix of wood and lpg for cooking and heating. In winter they turn their freezers off, to insulate their food from the extremely cold temps. (-60 F is not uncommon). They all hunt the local moose, caribou, bears, elk and smaller game for food. General shopping trips are down about 1 every 3 or 4 months and involve a 3 day round trip to Fairbanks (takes 7 hrs to get there). The ground up this way, from well south of Fairbanks north, has permafrost. The depth of the permafrost depends on where you are, but generally, the further north you go the shallower it is. In Wiseman, the permafrost is only a matter of inches below the surface, at which point the ground is permanently frozen rock solid.

We were up there for about 2 hours and then it was time to head back. On the drive back we drove through the rest of the village and then called into the “Truckers Stop” for a “comfort stop” ie flushing toilets and opposed to “outdoor dunnies”. Fuel was surprisingly cheap up here at only $4.55 per gal for ulp and $4.65 for diesel.( We have paid the equivalent of about $8 per gallon for diesel at Uluru !!) Finally we drove around and had a look at a kennel for Mushing dogs, about 16 of them, and all of them had a wolf look in their eyes, piercing eyes. We then drove to the airstrip and got on board our plane for the ride back at 12 midnight.

On the flight home we had an amazing midnight sunset, so strange to be able to read clearly at this time of night, but it was daylight/ dusk. We eventually got back to the airport around 1:20am and were given our Arctic Circle Certificates and then taken back to our hotel to finishing packing ready to leave at 7am this morning. ( On the way in I ordered a wake-up call, just in case).

During the trip we made friends with a couple from Delaware (the second smallest state in the US, near Philadelphia, Eileen and Tom. They were a very much like minded couple and we enjoyed their company. The following morning Eileen found us and gave us their address and email, and said if we were ever in the area to look them up, and an offer to stay with them.

Friday 23 & Sat 24 July 2010  Denali National Park, North Face Lodge

We both went to sleep last night as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We were woken rudely in the morning at 6:30 by the wake-up call I had booked, 4+ hrs sleep isn’t enough!

By 7:45 we were on our train to Denali, and were served breakfast around 8:30. Its a fairly slow ride through vast pine forests and low hills. We were the focus of attention for sometime this morning, with everyone else in our group wanting to know what the flight was like and what we saw, and what the scenery was like and the people and……. So many questions, most expected us to be up on vast ice fields and surrounded by polar bears I think, and were a bit surprised, but very interested, in what we actually did.

We boarded our bus for the train station and left around 7:15am. We boarded our train, “The Midnight Sun Express”, at about 7:45 and left for Denali around 8:15. Our seating on the train was in a glass domed carriage similar to the rocky Mountaineer, but not quite the same. The service and seating arrangements were below that of the RM, but it was a comfortable ride none the less. I guess the highlight of the trip down was a solitary moose sighting (our first) about an hour into our journey. We arrived in Denali at noon.

When we arrived at Denali, we were met by some staff from Cruise West, and escorted to our bus for the ride into Denali Park, and onto North Face Lodge. We left Denali train station around 1pm for the 7 hour ride to the lodge. Our driver/guide/naturalist (Drew, around 30) was an amazing guy. His knowledge and expertise on the area was outstanding and made the trip very enjoyable. It wasn’t long before we saw our first wild-life on the way in. Three Doll Sheep grazing very high up on a very steep, almost barren mountain top, they were followed closely by a Golden eagle soaring around the sides of a mountain and a ground squirrel playing on the side of the road ( as they do). Along the way Drew gave us a very good running commentary on the geological and geographical nature of the areas we travelled through. So while driving on the very winding, narrow and sometimes cliff hugging roads, he was giving us a commentary of what we were seeing while keeping an eye out for random wildlife. The landscape we travelled through was very dramatic, from mist covered ragged mountains, to vast glacial river valleys that look primeval, to landscapes that reminded Deb of visions of the Garden of Eden. Simply stunning landscapes. In the last 2 hours of our journey we saw two groups of three golden coloured Grizzly Bears, both were a mother with two cubs. It was fascinating to sit and watch them feed and run through the rocky river channel terrain. About 10 minutes before we got to the lodge we came across a large male Moose grazing on some willow bushes just up a hill from the road. It was an amazing looking animal, with a huge set of antlers.

We arrived at North Face Lodge at 7:45pm and were greeted with drinks and a light supper of fruit and cake. After a very brief welcome we headed to our room to settle in for the night after a very long day. The room had two single beds, L , and it relatively basic, but comfortable. There is no internet or in room phones. In fact, they have only one pay phone that is shared by everyone.

Saturday 24^th of July 2010  Denali National Park, North Face Lodge

Only 2 more sleeps until Pat’s birthday, but by the time we get to post the blogs it will have passed. Hopefully we can talk to him, Greg has bought a phone card from the lodge, so we can.

Today we woke at 7.25am, mmm breakfast is at 7.30, but we made it by 7.35 (yes we showered!) and I think we were only second last. We had a great sleep, made up for the 4 hours the night before.

This place is amazing, they are self sufficient in many aspects, it is the most environmentally friendly place I have ever been, and quite luxurious considering how far the lodge is from civilisation. It is a special part of the world and we feel lucky to be here. We are at 63 degrees latitude N, and in the Tundra. We went on some small walks today – they don’t have trails, we have never hiked without trails so that was interesting, but helped with the feel of being in the wilderness. There is so much moss and lichen underfoot that where you stepped compressed by 6 inches to a foot down! The views of the mountains and vegetation (black and white spruce trees, small willows – not like ours) is really beautiful – not in a pretty way – but I really liked it, probably because it is unlike anything we have seen before, and like everything else, it is something you have to experience for yourself.

We had lunch on a grassy knoll, covered in lichen – so we were well cushioned – overlooking a glacial lake, and for our enjoyment, a moose wandered by while we ate, what a way to spend an hour!

Our guide, Maria was very knowledgeable – was a great day soaking up the views and the information. After dinner tonight (yes the food is good here!) we have a lecture, then I think I will be looking forward to my bed!

There are around 30 guests here at the lodge, everyone is American except for 6 Australians.

Sunday 25^th July 2010  Denali National Park, North Face Lodge

We were woken at around 3am by someone knocking on the door, they seemed to be knocking on everyone’s door, eventually I thought I should get up, I opened the door slightly and there was a woman at the door saying, “The mountain is out!”. So I woke Greg, we both ventured out (pretty cold) and there was Denali in all its glory. It wasn’t completely dark

(although there was one bright star out and the sun was just to the right of the South face of Denali starting to come up. The view was out of this world, the sky was a shade of blue and the mountains were all covered in snow and reflected off the sky. It reminded me of a Japanese print. I don’t think I will ever forget that view – it was spectacular. After a while we went back to bed, with that view implanted on our mind.

We were on the bus by 9.15am and ventured off to the Eielson Visitors Centre. On the way we saw a Moose and her calf in a lake. 3 Merlin birds( a type of falcon) – this seasons chicks(evidently that is unusual), Then just by the visitors centre we saw a wolf feasting on a caribou that looked like it had recently been killed. We had only just been saying to each other that we would like to see a wolf and a caribou, little did we know! We sat on the bus watching it as it munched and tore at the carcass. It eventually tore a leg off, then went and sat under a tree, evidently very tired and very full. After a while it set off down the valley and around past the visitors centre and down the main river valley. This was a very/extremely rare event for anyone to see within the park.

After a quick look in the visitors centre, we headed out on our hike, we were braver today and did the moderate hike. We hiked up 500 – 600 feet, the first part was very steep but once we were up we walked on a plateau, visually it was quite sound of music like, very green hills where we walked and nearby over the river were snow covered mountains. We thought of you Ella singing and skipping along, it made us smile J There were lots of wild flowers – amazing what can grow in high alpine arctic regions (there were no trees where we were hiking it was too high). The views were spectacular over Denali, but as the day wore on the clouds slowly covered it. The Eskimos call the mountain Denali but the white people refer to it as Mt McKinley – it was named after a politician from Ohio that has never been to Alaska. They are trying to have the name changed but evidently name changes are the last items introduced into parliament, so it takes a long time. We hiked for about 3 hours, and enjoyed every minute of it. Along the way we spotted a Caribou, coming down the face feeding. Drew, our naturalist guide said if we put our arms above our head it may come closer thinking we are other caribou. Well, it sort of worked, it eventually came within a few 100 feet of us and after feeding for a while had a bit of a lie down. This is a day that will be always remembered.

On the way back we saw a Snow Hare, just sitting on the road, it was the first we had seen, so that capped a very good day.

Monday 26^th of July 2010  Denali National Park to Anchorage Alaska

We boarded our Anchorage bound train at 12.30pm, not quite the RM, but still, we do have a glass domed carriage. We stay overnight before a whistle-stop tour of the town in the morning, the head out to Juneau by plane around lunchtime.

There are still 9hrs of your birthday left here Pat, we hope you had a great day, we have been thinking of you.

We had to have our bags out at 5.45am this morning, following an early breakfast we were on the bus by 6.45am. The journey out of Denali National Park only took 5 hours, we saw a couple of wolves (one still gnawing on the caribou carcass), 4 caribou a Snow-foot hare, two coyotes and the same Merlin hawks as yesterday.

Denali was wonderful, pristine, few tourists, spectacular views, one of the best places we have visited in the world. If you ever come by this way, make sure you stay right in the park. Denali will stay with us forever.

Tuesday 27 July 2010  Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska

After breakfast this morning we were taken on a drive through tour of Anchorage and then at 9am we arrived at the Anchorage Museum. We were left there until 11am before being taken to the airport for our flight to Juneau. The museum had a new section to it, after the Smithsonian Institute gave back a whole lot of old Eskimo / Inuit artefacts. They had some fantastic old photographs showing Denali and many other mountains of Alaska. They also had the best hands-on section I have seen for a long time, investigating earth quakes and a whole lot of physical science, we know that Dante, especially, would have enjoyed it. (Ben add it to the list, ) We actually enjoyed the museum and managed to take about 1 ½ hrs to go through it, our normal time in museums is about ½ to 1 hr.

At 11am, we got back on the minibus, and were taken to the airport, checked in and made our way to the Alaskan Airlines lounge. We had some chicken coconut curry soup for lunch and then went to the gate. The plane left on time and we arrived in Juneau about 10mins early.

We didn’t have to worry about getting our bags, Cruise west looked after that for us. So we got on a minibus, again, and had a quick tour of town so we got an idea where everything was, and then were taken to the hotel, where we were already checked in, so we were just given our room keys and our bags arrived magically a little later. We took advantage of the free afternoon to do some laundry. Nice to have properly washed clothes again. While the washer was doing its thing, we took a walk down the street a little way to an old cemetery. It was fascinating. So many very old grave sites, most dating way back into the 1800’s. There was a mix of people there from all over the world, Russian, Dutch, English and Chinese. One person was about 104 years old when they died, and others less than a year.

Tonight we are going to “The Hanger” for tea. It’s the best seafood restaurant overlooking the water in Juneau, well that’s what the front desk told us, it may be just the only seafood restaurant overlooking the water in Juneau, who knows?? We are looking forward to fresh Alaskan seafood, King Crab

It’s 6pm and there are bells chiming in Juneau and seaplanes taking off on the waterways near our hotel. Tomorrow we are doing a Floatplane flight seeing tour. We are both looking forward to it, we have never ridden in a “Floatplane” before, and the scenery around Juneau was simply breath-taking as we flew in today, so to get up close and personal with it in a small plane should be amazing. There are so many glaciers around this city, it’s crazy!!! There is even one that seems to be right at the back of the main part of town.

After dinner we plan to have a walk around town, hopefully all the big ship tourists will be on board their boats by then.

(Just back from dinner, have never eaten at a place like it, must have been at least 70 people in there and they were constantly being turned over. The staff worked hard (frenetic!), there only seemed to be 4 people cooking in the kitchen, they were earning their money, the food we had was really lovely (we shared king crab cakes for starters (here an entre is main course) and Greg ordered clam chowder and King crab claws, both were very good, particularly the crab – sublime , we were impressed with the quality of the food coming from the kitchen. Was a lovely view over the water and we saw some floatplanes take off and land, that will be us tomorrow!)

After dinner we had a walk along the promenade on the foreshore and saw a couple of very large ships leave, The Celebrity Millennium, Norwegian Pearl and Coral Princess, earlier a Cruise West ship Discovery left, we will be on one like that tomorrow the Endeavour very much smaller than the large ones we saw leave. There are also a couple of very nice yachts out the front of our hotel too (probably fit about 12 people on – they are very nice Kieran!)

Wednesday 28^th July 2010  Juneau Alaska

Woke around 6am and saw our ship Spirit of Endeavour coming into the harbour, there are also some large ships that have come in (Statendam, Oosterdam and Diamond Princess) and our ship is dwarfed in comparison. We spoke to some of the people that have just come off the boat. They spoke with such high praise for the cruise and the staff and the wildlife they saw that I got very excited.

We had a seaplane flight at 9.40am, was our first time, we were surprised how smooth the take off and landing were. We flew over 5 glaciers, it was spectacular (I seem to be using that word a lot up here!) Oh yes, I got to sit next to the pilot which was exciting! I noticed when we were up in the air that some of the water running down in the mountains was actually coming out of the mountains, rather than from the top, I hadn’t realised that before.

We also didn’t realise that you can only reach Juneau (the capital of Alaska) by plane or boat, as there are no roads into, there is the sea on one side and large mountain ranges all around it up and down the coast. Evidently the rest of Alaska has been threatening to move the capital of Alaska elsewhere for quite a while now. If they did it would cripple Juneau, as about 60% of the economy here is based on the government.

We have just been out and had a delicious crab lunch, there is a little tin shed restaurant called Tracey’s that has won awards for it crab bisque, which was divine, we also had crab cakes. We are going to go back in a week when we dock back here and have some king crab legs.

We have searched all over Juneau for post cards for our grand children, we couldn’t find any we really liked so in the end we settled on a couple, then we wandered around searching for a post office – we ended up having a good look around town!! They are now in the post. Not sure how long it will take cards to reach home while we are on our cruise – but we will find out!

We will post this now and our next blog will be all about being onboard the “Spirit of Endeavour”, our home for the next week, and all the adventures we will be having. We aren’t sure when we will be able to post the blog(s), so it may be a big one when we do.

Wednesday 28^th July 2010 – Inside Passage Cruise aboard the Spirit of Endeavour

Woke around 6am and saw our ship Spirit of Endeavour coming into the harbour, there are also some large ships that have come in (Statendam, Oosterdam and Diamond Princess) and our ship is dwarfed in comparison. We spoke to some of the people that have just come off the boat. They spoke with such high praise for the cruise and the staff and the wildlife they saw that I got very excited.

We had a seaplane flight at 9.40am, was our first time, we were surprised how smooth the takeoff and landing were. We flew over 5 glaciers, it was spectacular (I seem to be using that word a lot up here!) Oh yes, I got to sit next to the pilot which was exciting! I noticed when we were up in the air that some of the water running down in the mountains was actually coming out of the mountains, rather than from the top, I hadn’t realised that before.

We also didn’t realise that you can only reach Juneau (the capital of Alaska) by plane or boat, as there are no roads into, there is the sea on one side and large mountain ranges all around it up and down the coast. Evidently the rest of Alaska has been threatening to move the capital of Alaska elsewhere for quite a while now. If they did it would cripple Juneau, as about 60% of the economy here is based on the government.

We have just been out and had a delicious crab lunch, there is a little tin shed restaurant called Tracey’s that has won awards for it crab bisque, which was divine, we also had crab cakes. We are going to go back in a week when we dock back here and have some king crab legs.

We have searched all over Juneau for post cards for our grand children, we couldn’t find any we really liked so in the end we settled on a couple, then we wandered around searching for a post office – we ended up having a good look around town!! They are now in the post. Not sure how long it will take cards to reach home while we are on our cruise – but we will find out!

We will post this now and our next blog will be all about being onboard the “Spirit of Endeavour”, our home for the next week, and all the adventures we will be having. We aren’t sure when we will be able to post the blog(s), so it may be a big one when we do.

We left the hotel at around 3:30 to go to the Perseverance Theatre for a performance of Cedar House. A reliving of old Sitka legends as retold by 2 young native actors based on the oral history passed on by tribal elders. The legend I enjoyed the most was that of “The Origin of Mosquitoes” (We saw an account of this by a totem pole in Fairbanks)

After the show we were taken to our ship, and boarded around 5pm. We were randomly selected for a security check of our luggage. This meant we had to wait to unpack our bags, so the staff on board could check it all to make sure we hadn’t brought any explosives or other security risk materials on board!! A pain but it all went OK. They didn’t check our carryon luggage, just the ones that had left our possession, go figure huh!!!

Once we had set sail, and gone through the regulation safety briefing and demonstration, it wasn’t long before we had our first wildlife encounter of the cruise. There were a couple of whale “blows” off near the coast. While we had dinner, there were more whale sightings, with everyone getting up 3 or 4 times to look at the whales.

The expedition staff are amazing for their enthusiasm, and knowledge.

After dinner and into the night, as the sun was setting we saw a mother and calf cruising around, and occasionally diving. After we went to our cabin, we turned the lights off and sat back and watched as up to 6 whales surfaced and swam within 50m of our window. Once a mother and calf both breached within 100m of our window, Deb was in total awe. J

What an amazing way to start what looks to be a fantastic cruise.

Thursday 29 July 2010  – Inside Passage Cruise – Tracy Arm & Frederick Sound

We woke this morning to beautiful blue skies and the sight of a 300ft waterfall just off the bow of the ship. We were in a place called Tracy Arm, a “Y” shaped fiord, in the middle of the Ford’s terror Wilderness area. As we had breakfast the Captain took us up the right arm of the fiord to the South Sawyer Glacier. While we were there we could hear the sound of the glacier cracking and groaning. We saw several carvings (ice-falls off) off the face of the glacier, creating ripples on the water in front of the ice wall. After we had been there for a while a huge chunk of the glacier carved off, and created a wave 1 to 1.5m high, big enough for the Captain to ask all passengers to get a firm hold of the ship.

After spending a while there, we went back down the fiord to the Y intersection of Tracy Arm, with South Sawyer Glacier up the fiord to our starboard and the Dawes Glacier up a fiord on our Port side. As we sailed on we passed through an area of sheer rock walls where you could see how the glaciers had cut their way through the rock, scratching and polishing it as they passed. The Captain twice took us in close to the sheer walls of the fiord, at a place called “The Wall”, so close some people could touch the walls from the bow of the ship. It’s amazing to be able to get up so close to the landscape without getting off.

The wild life we have seen so far today have been lots and lots of Harbor Seals basking on the float ice just in front of the Fiord’s Terror Glacier, lots of Terns flying around the area of the ice-falls, feeding on food stirred up by the falling ice, and a few families of Mountain Goats, living on the “vertical pastures” of the sheer rock faces of the fiords.

At the mouth of Tracy Arm, close to a large waterfall called Icy Falls, we went “cruising” in a D.I.B. (an inflatable runabout like a Zodiac). It was a bit underwhelming (compared to what we had done in Antarctica) and lasted about 45mins. It seems the main purpose of the runabout was to take-in the surrounds from a different viewpoint. We got up close to the vegetation at the edge of the fiord, and Bethany (our cruise lead Naturalist) got out and picked some Salmon Berries for us to try. (Apparently she was a naughty girl for doing that, but she didn’t seem to care J ) The berries were tasty with a tart finish. The only wildlife we saw was a nesting area for some local swallows, high up under a rock ledge. They had young in their nests, and the parents were out gathering insects to feed them.

In the afternoon we had a couple of Kayak Rangers for the Forest service come on board to give us a talk. I recognised one of them, a guy by the name of Zoltan, who was one of the expedition team on our Antarctic Cruise 2 ½ years ago. I went up and asked him if he worked the Ioffe, and he beamed a BIG yes. We chatted for a short while and most of the team that we had down there we still working there. It was such a strange coincidence, but a good feeling all the same.

During the afternoon the ship was taken to Frederick Sound, one of the largest feeding grounds in North America for the Humpback Whale.

As we sat and ate our dinner, we could look out the windows and see whale “blow” at almost every glance, both near and far. We quickly finished dinner and grabbed our camera and made our way to the nearest outside deck, the bow. From there we could see whales everywhere; I estimate that at one time there must have been in excess of 20 whales around the ship (within a km of the ship). At one point I was trying to photograph a whale some distance away , when a whale surfaced about 10m from the boat right in front of me, all I managed to get was a close up of its back (and that was out of focus!!). An amazing sight to see as the sun was setting on our day.

Friday 30 July 2010 – Inside Passage Cruise – Bears of Anan

We had an early start to our day today, we were off to see bears up close, we had signed on for the Bears of Anan tour.

We woke this morning at about 6am, just as we were pulling into Wrangle. By 7:15am we were off the ship and onto a jet boat for an hour ride to Anan Bay and the feature tour of the cruise. As we got there the driver edged the boat onto the rocky beach and we all got off (16 of us). We were then given a bear safety lecture by a Forestry Officer, before we set off with our guide (who was armed with a loaded shotgun) into the rainforest and onto a boardwalk. The entrance was a small tidal flat (the tide was out) and there were many Bald eagles and ravens sitting on fallen trees in the estuary. As we started our walk we found to our delight that we were sharing the walk with a brown bear. It was walking along the creek bed that the boardwalk followed. A close look at the creek revealed the reason why the bears were here. There were lots of fish, salmon, in the stream, and the further we went upstream the more concentrated the fish became, to the point where it looked as though you could literally walk over the water on them. After half a mile, we came to the viewing area, a set of wooden platforms above a narrow rocky stream, with a camouflaged stairway leading to a photographic hide right above the creek.

Once there it wasn’t long before we saw our first fish catch. There were bears all over the place. As they caught a fish, they would either take it into a cave (each bear seemed to have their own cave) adjacent to the creek, or off into the forest (we assumed the ones that went into the forest were feeding their cubs. We saw a cub come down the hill out of the forest following its mother, but it soon found things all too hard and disappeared back to whence it came. We spent about 2 hrs watching and marvelling at the bears as they gorged themselves on the fish. One bear seemed to have it pretty good; he would just stick his head and shoulders out of his cave and reach into the stream to grab a fish. We all laughed that he was probably so fat from all the fish that he couldn’t get fully out of the cave anymore!!! If we got a bit weary of the bears, we just switched to watching the fish or the birds. The fish were amazing to watch, as they struggled up stream against a very strong current and over high rapid areas. The birds just seemed to sit around a lot watching what was going on, feeding on bear leftovers whenever they wanted to. The bears seemed to only partially eat the fish they caught, they ate the meatiest bit of the fish and then discarded the less tasty portion and just grabbed another from the stream. The system seems to work, they don’t appear to make a dent in the fish numbers and the birds love it.

We returned to the ship at around midday. On the wharf, some local children were selling Garnets (non precious gemstones). Seems a long time ago the women of Wrangle set up the first all women business in Alaska selling Garnet, when the last one died she bequeathed the business to the children of Wrangle, so they now sell the “gems” to tourists, at $20 each for a rough bit of ruby red rock, they are doing OK.

After lunch, we had an emergency drill on the ship. Turns out there was a mock fire in the bakery pantry. We all had to muster on the 4th deck with our life vests, the make believe fire then got out of control and we were ordered to abandon ship, they lowered the lifeboats, and we got into lines of 20, and were directed to board the boats. Rather than actually getting on the boats we went to the lounge and then back to our cabins, or whatever we were doing before the alarm. It was all a bit of fun and laughs for the passengers, but serious for (most of) the crew. None of us imagined it would go to the lengths it did, with the actual launch of the lifeboats. Nice to see the system works! J It was also good to be reassured that the bakery hadn’t burnt, and that 3:30pm ‘Cookie” time proceeded as usual, yum, chocolate chip cookies!!!! Have we mentioned that 17 laps of one of the decks is a mile, we are yet to try it. J and not sure which deck. LOL

Dinner time is turning out to be our random whale spotting time. About halfway through our mains a small group (3) of Orca swam passed the dining room windows. A mother, calf and a young (3-4yr old) male, an apparently rare sighting. One thing we are starting to appreciate on this cruise is that when we are told an event is special or rare, you can really believe it when all available crew are out on deck with us with their cameras. And with this sighting I saw crew members I hadn’t seen before!!! Our lead naturist, Bethany, said that this was only her 3^rd sighting of Orca in these waters.

As usual, Captain Mike chased the whales for as long as he could, and we got to see them for a fair while.

The end to another magical, sun shiny day in the Inside Passage.

Saturday 31 July 2010  – Inside Passage Cruise – Mitkof

We woke around 6am and were landing in a fishing village called Petersburg on Mitkof Island. Petersburg was founded by Norwegians about 100 years ago. We were on a bus at 8am on our way to see some children perform some traditional Norwegian folk dances (this is not our favourite thing to do when we are away from home!) We then did an interesting rainforest tour with a lady who had lived here for about 30 years. (So many Americans we have met left home and family after school and ended up in Alaska). We had a walk through 2 forests, the first was a temperate rainforest, with very tall tree and lush undergrowth and the second was a Muskeg ( a Muskeg is a thin surface mat (of lichens and ferns) floating on a very soggy bog). We followed a path to a small tidal river. There we sat a had a nice quiet time, until the rest of the group arrived. It was very peaceful place, the sort of place you’d love to take a picnic and a book for a relaxing afternoon. We watched a lone salmon fight its way up about 50m of rapids to a pond where hundreds of others were, being low tide, the salmon was about 1/3 out of the water and struggled all the way, but it finally made it. These are amazing fish. One young guy in our group decided it was time for a swim, so he stripped down to his boxers and immersed himself in the water. It wasn’t very deep so he just laid down in the rapids. Crazy!!!!

Around 4pm the captain stopped the boat, we were in the middle of about 20-30 humpback whales, they surrounded the boat feeding on Krill, it was really spiritual, we were there for about 40 mins listening to them groan and blow as they came up to breathe. They are such large mammals but so graceful and slow as they come up out of the water, sliding back in ever so gently. Was a very long lovely moment that will be remembered.

Later in the evening we entered a very small bay, the entrance was very narrow. When we got in the captain took us over to a high waterfall that was cascading down the mountain, and all but dipped the nose of the ship under the falls. An amazing sight and feeling. We then went further into the bay and at the end we came to a small tidal flat, apparently there were brown bears on the shore and in the creek, but for us they were so far away that it didn’t really count.

As the night began to fall we experience our first taste of Alaskan weather, as the fog and light rain came over the ship.

Sunday 1 August 2010  – Inside Passage Cruise

I was up and about this morning by 6:30am. As I sat in the lounge having a coffee I looked out the window and saw many small fish jumping out of the water close to shore, and then following close behind them was a humpback whale, feeding on them only about 3m from shore, a Bald Eagle then flew out from the trees and caught a fish in its talons and flew off to eat it. What a way to start an another day

Sunday 1 August 2010   – Inside Passage Cruise

Sorry all, we accidently posted this first part of this update while we were in Sitka

“I was up and about this morning by 6:30am. As I sat in the lounge having a coffee I looked out the window and saw many small fish jumping out of the water close to shore, and then following close behind them was a humpback whale, feeding on them only about 3m from shore, a Bald Eagle then flew out from the trees and caught a fish in its talons and flew off to eat it. What a way to start another day.”

Now to continue,

We started our day with an excursion to see the Naa Kahidi Dancers. This is a group to local Tlingit (native Alaskans) who are trying to preserve their ancient culture and language. The performance was very interesting, and gave us a real insight into the local language and culture. It wasn’t a “cliché” tourist show, which was a great relief. They had performers from 2 (he was very cute!) to mid 30’s, and all of them got right into it.

After the show we were taken for a short rainforest walk, where we sampled the local forest berries, so yummy, and saw a large group of salmon in a creek, apparently waiting for the incoming tide before beginning to head up stream to spawn. We also saw some local totem poles and went to a cultural museum. We did the museum in 5 mins (maybe 2 mins too long, LOL), and then headed back to the boat.

We picked up the Netbook and walked into town and posted our blog and a few pictures. Once that was done we started to walk back to the ship to drop all our stuff off before going back into town for our Kayaking. On the way back we saw the shuttle bus coming our way, I flagged it down and found that it was “our” shuttle, so we hopped on board and went back into town. Nearly missed the kayaking!

Once there we got fitted out with all the life vests, splash seals, rubber gloves and spray jackets we needed for Kayaking. After a brief on shore demonstration and safety briefing we got into our double Kayak and were launched into the water. With Deb in the front setting the pace and me behind steering we followed our guide out into the main channel of this busy fishing port. We paddled across the channel to a series of privately owned islands just off the mainland, and then made our way along the channel looking at the homes and islands, while our guide told us a little about the history of the area and what we were seeing as we paddled. Eventually we paddled back towards town and under the bridge before crossing the main channel again and heading back to our start point. We covered about 5km on our paddle. Other than wet behinds, we had an incident free debut Kayaking session. We managed to stay in rhythm as we paddled and more importantly , upright!!! (I really enjoyed the kayaking and look forward to doing it again – my arms really ached that night but were ok in the morning. 🙂

After that we got picked up by our shuttle and taken back to the ship , where as soon as we were on board they cast off and set sail for Icy Passage, our destination for tomorrow.

Monday 2 August 2010  – Inside Passage Cruise.

Again we woke this morning to the sight out our window of humpback whales cruising along. There were 3 whales that we followed for about 30mins, just watching their antics. Around 8am we dropped anchor and the crew started launching the DIB’s ( our Zodiac type boats) for the mornings excursion of nature cruising followed by a rainforest walk.

Our DIB ride started with a little whale watching, there were 3 whales nearby and we saw them from sea level about 200m away. It was good to see them from a different viewpoint, There were also large numbers of seabirds floating around on the surface near a point  where two currents met, this sort of area makes a lot of nutrients come to the surface and the birds come there to feed on it, the same reason the whales are in this area, it’s just very food rich for all the marine life.

After a 30min cruise around we were taken onto an island. There we were given a short talk about how the local natives survived in the area on the foods available at different times of the year and then were taken for a walk through the rainforest along what were essentially animal (read bear) tracks. We were shown many different types of berries again, and tasted most of them. Then we came upon an inland fresh water pond, which would eventually turn into a muskeg. The ground in this rainforest is extremely spongy; it is composed of up to 4m of semi-decomposed plant matter sitting on top of bedrock. We then saw a forestry service emergency shelter in the forest, that is set up as an emergency shelter or as a place of relief from the weather for hikers and campers. We also saw a Bald Eagles nest way up in the trees, they can weigh up to a ton, it was huge. We then made our way back to the shore for our ride back to the ship. On the way we had our final snack on local berries, including a native strawberry, which was extremely sweet. We both love the variety of local wild berries, something we just don’t get at home.

In the afternoon we called into Bartlett Cove at the entrance to Glacier Bay to pick-up a park ranger and a local Tlingit interpreter. They are on-board until Tuesday night. From there we headed into Glacier Bay and while we made our entrance into the bay the ranger gave us an introduction into the history, geology and wildlife of Glacier Bay NP. As we passed by South Marble Island we saw our first Puffin of the cruise, and then there seemed to be Puffin everywhere! There were Sea Otters, sea lions, seals, and all sorts of huge gulls. As the sun started to set, around 9:30pm, we sailed into Sandy Cove looking for wild life, but all we got was magnificent scenery, the waters were dead calm and the reflections of the mountains and trees in the water was breath-taking. As the sun was setting we headed north and we got a perfect view of Mount Fairweather, the highest mountain in this part of Alaska, 15300ft or 4669m tall. Again this was a very rare sight, the ranger said it was only his 2^nd or 3^rd time he had seen it clear of cloud in his 11 years at the park. We stayed outside until after 10pm enjoying the view and the peace.

Tuesday 3 August 2010  – Inside Passage Cruise

We were woken at 6:15am by the Captain, as I peered out our cabin window I was greeted by a perfect view of the John Hopkins Glacier, it filled the full width of our cabin window (Our window is about 1.5 x 1.2m ), the face of the glacier was full of dirt due to the tributary glacier that feed into it bringing a lot of dirt and mud with them. After a quick shower, I was out on deck watching seals and their pups swimming around in front of the glacier and chunks of ice calve off the face of the glacier. After ½ hr we went for breakfast and the ship was taken down the John Hopkins Inlet passed some of the small former tributary glaciers (now just hanging above the glacial fiord). As we were finishing breakfast we passed by the Grand Pacific Glacier. It was a huge glacier in the past and now its entire face is covered by moraine material (so it was covered by dirt and rocks!) Just after we passed that Glacier the fog moved in for a short while. While cruising away from the Glaciers we saw a couple of brown bears on a beach, we stopped and watched them for a while before they walked off inland and we moved on. Around 9:30am we came to a point where a dead whale had washed up on the shoreline. This doesn’t happen very often, and the local bears had been feasting on the carcass for about a month.

Before lunch the Tlingit interpreter gave a talk on the Tlingit history and experience in the Glacier Bay area. It was fascinating and enlightening. (So many parallels with our aborigines).

The afternoon was spent very slowly cruising around the coastline looking for animals, with very limited success. A marmot, river otter, puffins and other birds were spotted. Around 4pm we stopped at Bartlett Cove to let the ranger and Tlingit interpreter off, to our surprise we were told we could get off the boat for 2 hours. We were a little stir crazy, we had taken to playing cards! We enjoyed a hike around a trail that was supposed to be a 1 – 1 1/2hr leisurely stroll. We needed the exercise – it took 15 mins!! At the info centre we watched a film on Alaska, looked at some exhibits that were there – then decided we would go back to the boat back along the same track – it felt so good to be out and exercising!

Tonight is our last night, we disembark at 8am tomorrow. Yesterday I started thinking about seeing J & G again – can’t wait to see them both again. It seems much longer than the 2+ weeks it has been since we have seen them. (everyone on our cruise we have told that we are going to Minnesota have all said how lovely it is there we can’t wait)

After the Captains Dinner we went out onto the bow deck and watched for whales as the sun went down. It was a bit chilly but the captain kept watching and steering us to within sight of the whales as we made our way to Juneau. We saw one whale that kept partially breaching on its side, so we could see all its under belly, white with black markings, it was like it was saying good bye, LOL

At 2:30am we got a very gentle wake up call from the Captain, the Northern Lights were out! Deb and I quickly dressed warm and got out on deck, and there they were. Like a 270 deg curtain dancing in the sky. What a way to finish our remarkable trip. The weather was superb, we saw so many rare sightings of both animals and landscape. It’s meant to rain 50% of the time here, and we had 8 days of no rain and 7 of beautiful sunshine.

We disembarked at 8am and are all ready for a new adventure to begin.

Wednesday 4 August 2010  Juneau Alaska

After we disembarked we walked across the road to the Cruise West hotel dayroom. We dropped off our backpacks (our bags had been forwarded directly to our B&B) and then set out to have another look around town.

We called into a yarn shop to get some yarn and things for Carly before going to Tracy’s Crab Shack for lunch. We got a Large Bucket of King Crab, 4 legs and a claw. Up until this point I never knew you could actually have too much King Crab. It was delicious. We saw them get the crab fresh out of the boxes from the fish markets and cook it on the spot. (We had to wait for them to get their days delivery before we could have lunch, it was that fresh!!!)

After that we waddled back through town and back to the day room. We said good bye to some friends and then got a shuttle down to Grandma’s Featherbed, our B&B.

Thursday 5 August 2010  Juneau Alaska to Minneapolis St Paul, Minnesota USA

After a quick breakfast we were on our way to the airport for our flight to Minnesota to meet up with John and Georgiana again.

The B&B was 5 mins from the airport and we were soon enough in the air and on our way to Minnesota via Seattle. We arrived in Minnesota at around 5:30pm and were met by John and Georgie at the luggage carousel. It was great to see them again and we all had big hugs. From the airport we went to “The Mall of America” for dinner. It’s the largest shopping mall in the USA. To say it was massive is an understatement (you should google it and have a look). It has a huge indoor amusement park, with waterslides roller coasters and heaps of other rides. There are four large department stores one at each corner and hundreds of specialty shops. It was crazy big. We had dinner there which was delicious and then went onto home for the next 10 days.

The B&B was 5 mins from the airport and we were soon enough in the air and on our way to Minnesota via Seattle. We arrived in Minnesota at around 5:30pm and were met by John and Georgie at the luggage carousel. It was great to see them again and we all had big hugs. From the airport we went to “The Mall of America” for dinner. It’s the largest shopping mall in the USA. To say it was massive is an understatement (you should google it and have a look). It has a huge indoor amusement park, with waterslides roller coasters and heaps of other rides. There are four large department stores one at each corner and hundreds of specialty shops. It was crazy big. We had dinner there which was delicious and then went onto home for the next 10 days

Our room was more like a suite, very comfortable after days at sea in a small cabin. We had dinner at the B&B and then went to bed reasonably early as we had a 5:30am wake-up call.

John and Georgie have a beautiful home on a large block that backs onto a nature reserve and feels so inviting. It’s easy to see it full of family and good times.

Friday 6 August 2010  Lake Louise, Minnesota

We left home by 8am and headed north to see John’s family up at Lake Louise, yes there is another Lake Louise.

On the way we drove through John’s home town, Cold Spring, and he showed us where he had grown up and where his old family homes used to be. We then went to his College, St John’s, where he studied at the seminary. The college had a magnificent church, with a huge “modern” belltower out the front and then a huge mosaic wall of hexagonal stained glass windows. The view from inside was amazing, in full sunlight the wall would really be something to be seen.

Minnesota is known as the State of 10,000 lakes (apparently there are more than 14,000, but that doesn’t scan as well). The lakes are all like the kettle lakes we saw in Denali Park, formed by the depressions left by glaciers in the last ice age.

When we arrived in Lake Louise we drove into the holiday homes (2 adjoining homes) that John’s family had rented for the week. The homes backed onto the lake and between them had everything you could possibly want for a week on a lake, fishing boat/pontoons, canoes, play equipment, bikes,…… John’s family (5 brothers & Sisters and their families (John has 7 brothers and sisters altogether)) had come from all over the US to spend some time together (they do this every year, a bit like we do down at Victor, but on a bigger scale and more travel ).

To say John has a large extended family is probably down playing it a bit!! After meeting all those who weren’t out fishing, biking or walking we settled down and relaxed with everyone. We had a delicious fish fry-up for lunch, straight from the water to the fryer to the table. The fish we had was Sunfish and Crappie (Not “Crappy”, it’s pronounce “Croppy”, LOL and was delicious).

During the afternoon we had a ride around the lake on the pontoon boat. The lake is about 1km in diameter and very picturesque. We played Bocce and then a game called “Tail Gate Toss”, where you toss small beanbags onto a board and try to get them through a hole in it. After a while a challenge developed, the Aussies V’s the US. I guess we played about 7 or so games (with John becoming an honorary Aussie when Deb retired tired!) I am glad to report that we are the “Official” World Series Tail Gate Toss Champions, winning the title undefeated. We have since retired from the sport, so we can now claim to be undefeated World Champions!! (it was lots of fun, I am going to see if we can find it when we get home)

We had a delicious dinner with all the family capped off by Apple Crisp and Peach Crisp for dessert. Georgie had refused to leave until she had had dessert. Now I know why. It was delicious. After a long good bye, they called it a “Sauer Goodbye”, we left around 9:30pm and after a smooth drive back getting home on the stroke of midnight.

We had a fantastic day, and felt very lucky to have been able to share the day with John’s family. They were all great and very welcoming.

Saturday 7 August 2010  Exploring around Minneapolis

We started the day off with getting haircuts. After waking at 8:20 ( due for haircuts at 9am) it was a little rushed start to the day, but we coped. We also posted some postcards for the little (but growing) ones back home.

After our haircuts we headed off to the Uptown Art Fair, a street art and craft show. It is staged in about 3 or 4 locations around the Twin Cities and was amazing for the number, quality and diversity of stalls. We parked a little away and walked down to it. On the way we pick-up a free can of “energy” drink from a promotions stall, well, it had so much caffeine in it that it had me buzzing for hours on ¾ of a can!!!

After the art show we walked and drove around the Chain of Lakes, a series of large connected glacial lakes within the city boundaries. There very large expensive homes lining the entire length of the roads around all the lakes. Lots of money up this way by the look of it.

We then went for a drive into town and had a walk over an old stone arch bridge over the Mississippi River. There were a series of lochs on the river to allow boats to move up and down through an area that had large cascades/waterfalls in the past. We walked down to the banks of the river and dipped our fingers in it ( then used some sanitiser after to clean our hands, water looked a little suspect!)

John then drove us around town a bit more and showed us around the grounds of his work place, The University of Minnesota. The grounds were very well grassed and treed, and it looked like a grand old university. We also drove down a street lined with “Frat Houses”. It was fun to see that they actually do exist and that most of them don’t look like they had wild parties the night before!! (I have never seen such a large university – it seemed to go on for miles in every direction, but Greg assures me Sydney University is as big!)

From there we went and sat in a park and listened to some good acoustic guitar and people watched then it was off to dinner at a very nice Italian Restaurant in St Paul. It is John’s birthday on Monday, and the restaurant had a deal on where you got a bottle of wine free, up to the value of your birthday years (being three score and six we got to choose a good bottle). We chose a bottle of Chianti, appropriate since we had met in Italy and it was an Italian Restaurant. The meal was very good and we enjoyed the occasion very much.

After we went across the road to see if we could see Georgie’s daughter, Katie and her husband Jon at a wedding at the, very flash, St John Hotel. We actually did see them, and Georgie even saw the bride at the wedding and got to sign the wedding book. It was great to meet them before John’s birthday party on Tuesday.

Tomorrow we are off to Lake Superior for a couple of days – cant wait!

Thanks Tessa for your lovely message – we like that bear picture too, you would have loved seeing all of the bears. We can’t wait to see you dance in your concert at the end of the year, we are glad you enjoyed your mid year concert – can’t wait to see you in 3 more weeks. We love you THIS ……………. much too xoxo

Sunday 8 August 2010  Duluth and Lake Superior

Last night there was a Tornado alert for the Twin Cities area and the areas north to the Canadian border. The alert was current until 1am, and then it was just warning of thunder storms. Well, no twisters eventuated (which was a good thing), but at about 3am we were woken by a huge lightening storm that lit up the entire sky, almost like daylight. It was very impressive.

Today we headed off to Two Harbors on Lake Superior for a couple of nights to explore the lakes area.

We got away around 9:30am, for the180mile / 3 hour drive north. Apparently, according to John, there is a ritual that all travellers heading north must abide by. You MUST call into Tobies Bakery (it’s about half way to Duluth, and next to a “Gas Station”. The purpose of this is to get your sugar fix for the day. The shop was unbelievably crowded, when we got to the front counter Deb asked, very innocently, “What have you got with not too much sugar in it?” the girl serving us got this glazed weird look on her face and looked around the counter, she then with a smile (holding back a laugh) said, “Sorry, nothing like that!” So we got a sugar encrusted Apple Turn-over (I can’t remember the American for it) and a packet of sugar free chocolate cookies (Yes, there was actually a packet hiding on a shelf that we spotted looking for something not dripping with syrup or sugar) (they were both nice!)

From there, all charged up on sugar, lol, we headed off to Duluth (D looth), the first major town on the shores of Lake Superior on the route we were taking. As we came over the rise to Duluth we drove into a thick fog, with visibility down to about 400m. We drove down and parked near an old Brewery (now a boutique Brewery) where we thought we may have lunch after a walk along the shores. Once down on the foreshore walk we made our way down to the waters edge and Deb put her hands in the lake waters. She was now feeling Superior I got a photo of her in her moment, and then got to feel Superior as well

Lake Superior was covered in the same fog we encountered coming into town, it was quite surreal. We walked around to the light house at the port entrance, and while walking back saw the “Lift Bridge” open to let a Tourist Cruise boat back in. Well, the walk went a bit longer than we had thought so we grabbed lunch at “Grandma’s” near the port entrance. As we sat waiting for our lunch to arrive a very large cargo ship went through the port opening, and the bridge had to lift open to its full height, it was an impressive sightseeing this large lattice-work riveted steel framed bridge be lifted high above the water by a counter weight system hung on the end of what looked like a set of huge bike chains.

After lunch we walked back to the car and then had a look through the “Leif Ericson” (yes the viking) Gardens. They had lots and lots of roses and Deb and Georgie had lots of fun taking photos of many of them. I got a pic of a statue of Leif, which proclaimed that he discovered America in the year 1000. Poor old Chris Columbus duded out there.

We then drove up to Two Harbors and settled into our Log Cabin B&B. It’s about 10mins out of town and very peaceful. After settling in we went out into town and had Pizza for tea and then headed back for an early night.

Monday 9^th of August 2010 Lake Superior and Two Harbors

It is John’s Birthday today and we have enjoyed celebrating it with him. After breakfast we were on the road by 9.30am, driving about 80 miles to our first stop for a walk to some waterfalls then a loop around to Lake Superior, it was very foggy and quite picturesque on the beach, pebble stones, rocks in a little bay and lots of people, reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel, just needed a dead body and a few less people!!

We stopped for lunch at a lovely little cafe in a resort, was really pretty had a table by the window overlooking Lake Superior and the food was delicious. Afterwards we visited a lookout over the lake, unfortunately it was rather foggy but after about 15 mins it lifted a little so we could see the lake and the beautiful granite cliffs we were stood on.

Then it was off to Split Rock light house, where we took a tour was very interesting. Then we drove to Gooseberry falls (Dont you love the name) we walked a loop around the falls – it was quite hot by now, about 90F + (32C) and humid, there was not a lot of water in the falls but enough that the children were having lots of fun.

Tonight we are off out to dinner to celebrate John’s birthday to a restaurant his son Pete recommended to us.

Just back from dinner at New Scenic Cafe – the food was really top class, and we shared a bottle D’Arrys Grenache (we have seen their wine in a few places and have bought a few bottles to have tomorrow night with John & Georgie’s family). The meal was a fitting way to top off a lovely day.

Tomorrow we head back to J & G and are celebrating John’s birthday with all of their family. We are looking forward to meeting them all.

Thanks for all of your news Ben, glad Tessa enjoyed her concert and we are not surprised Dante did well in Science comp, we imagine he would have enjoyed doing it. Hope he managed a cheeky grin for the cameras today. Looking forward to their school photos.

Ella, 3 weeks today and we will be home, Ethan Pa can’t wait to see your stig!

xo

Tuesday 10^th of August 2010  Back to Minneapolis St Paul

We left Superior Gateway lodge at Two Harbours on the North West of Lake Superior around 9.30am got back to J & G around 1pm. Just before getting back we stopped off to vote in J & G primaries (they get to vote for the people that will run for election) was fun to see their system. Voting is not compulsory, so there is not a very good turn out (about 10%, more people turn out to vote in elections – when Obama was elected the turnout was one of the best yet around 70%). The voting is calculated electronically, so it is quicker than our system.

J & G family started coming over around 4pm to celebrate John’s birthday. John has a son Pete, daughter Erica and her husband Geoff and children Nolan 6 and Amelia 2. Georgiana’s children are Lisa her husband Rich (didn’t come but we will meet him tonight) Ben 6 and Jacob 18 months, Katie who has just married to Jon and Emily who is letting us stay in her room while we are here we met her boyfriend Dan in the afternoon – he works in the evenings.

It was really lovely to see all the family together, they get on well together, we had a lovely evening with everyone. Greg played soccer with John and Nolan and Ben, they all came in dripping. It is hot here at the moment in the low 30’s but it is extremely humid. We feel very lucky to be here at J & G you get a much better feel for a country and its people when you get to stay in the suburbs as opposed to a hotel room.

We had another amazing lightening storm here last night, must be all of the heat (it is called heat lightning). It really lit up the sky, just as I was falling asleep there was a loud crack of thunder that must have been overhead, I am sure my body jumped off the bed, scared me! The lightning storms are common here in the summer and there was a bit of flooding last night at a local shopping centre.

Tomorrow we are off to Stillwater for the day and later to Georgiana’s sister Becky’s house for dinner.

Wednesday 11^th August  Exploring Stillwater and into Wisconsin

Today we went to Stillwater, a really lovely little touristy town with great shops which we enjoyed wandering around. Then we had lunch at a great cafe overlooking the St Croix River near the lift up bridge. Georgie got her pumpkin bread – I had some too, was very nice. But we would refer to it as cake.

On the way to Stillwater, John drove over the St Croix River into Wisconsin so we jumped out of the car so we could stand in Wisconsin!! After lunch John drove home the long way via Wisconsin.

Around 5pm we arrived at Becky & Red’s house in Lino Lakes for dinner. Becky is Georgie’s sister, as are Cathy & Theresa who were also there and her dad Jack and his wife Dolores. Lisa, Ben & Jacob were there and Lisa’s husband Rich – which was nice as he didn’t come the night before. Katie and Jon came too, so there was quite a houseful as Becky’s son Andy was there and his friend Ben and later Andy’s girlfriend came and another friend.

I was quite surprised when we were there because Andy and Ben (early 20’s) were being really helpful and getting things organised for dinner (I was even more surprised when I found out Ben was not a son!!) They were like your all American favourite son, really lovely, helpful, personable men. Just delightful! Later that night Andy set up some laser lighting in the lounge and he played guitar and they both sang, it finished off what was a lovely evening.

Georgie’s family are really lovely they made us feel really welcome, they were very interested in Australia, Becky got out a map and they asked lots of questions. Cathy kept commenting on our accent, I guess we stuck out like a sore thumb! She said, she wished she could talk like us! Minnesota people have a broad accent – but I can’t say I notice that.

Oh yes I must mention we had fried turkey for dinner. It is cooked in peanut oil in a deep fryer, it only takes 3 mins per pound. So only 50 mins to cook a large turkey. It was the most succulent turkey I have ever tasted – yum. All of the food was very lovely too.

Georgie has another sister and two brothers. The time we spent with both John & Georgie’s families were rewarding, they were easy, comfortable and inclusive. It was a privilege for us to be included so warmly.

Thursday 12 August 2010 Lanesboro – Amish Country

This morning, after a slow, start we headed off down to the southeast of Minnesota, passed the “world famous” Mayo Clinic in Lancaster to the small rural village of Lanesboro, in the heart of Minnesotan Amish country.

We started our day by having a walk around town looking in a few shops to keep cool, its 90 F and about 90% humidity. Once we had cooled down we went for lunch at The Das Brat Haus, Deb and I both had a very good German bratwurst with Sauerkraut. While we were eating, the owner and his wife played Polka type music, him on a piano accordion and her on a piano. Great fun.

In the afternoon we took an Amish Tour. A 3 1/2 hr bus tour through the countryside visiting Amish Houses and shops and discovering a bit (a lot really) about the way they live and some of their customs. A very interesting afternoon.

Then we checked into our B & B Habberstad House it was built in 1897, a beautiful old home, we have a lovely room.

In the evening we went to a performance at the local theatre, The Commonweal”. We saw Steve Martin’s (yes that Steve Martin) play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile”. It was very funny and enjoyable. It went for about 80 mins with no intermission and after we sat in the theatre cafe and met a few of the cast. The theatre is very similar but on a smaller scale to our Space Theatre – was a very impressive community theatre and the actors of a very good standard.

It has been a fun day of discovery and entertainment.

Friday 13 August 2010  Last days with John and Georgiana

Another slow start, this is getting seriously good.

We got away from the B & B around 10:30 and went into town to do a last bit of shopping. While we were there we managed to do a Geo Cache, so now Team “The McG’s” have done a Geo Cache in three countries!

We then spent the day having a lazy, slow drive back to St Paul along the Mississippi River. In places the river is huge, (very very wide) even so far up from the mouth and not all that far from the headwaters.

We got back around 4pm and had a quiet afternoon before heading out for dinner. We are treating J & G to a nice dinner, just our way of saying THANKS FOR EVERYTHING,

We went out to La Bella Vie, one of the better restaurants in Minneapolis. We all chose to have the five course “Tasting Menu” and shared a matching Wine Flight each. The meal, wine and company were superb. They even put a Happy Birthday chocolate on John’s dessert. (It just goes on and on )

Saturday 14 August 2010

We had a quiet day today, just spent time relaxing and catching up with things. In the morning we did another GEO Cache we couldn’t find the first one, but had more luck with the second one, just at the end of J & G street! In the afternoon I went with J & G to help them with getting new computers, a simple task you might think, but then that’s a whole story by itself. But we got it all sorted in the end.

In the evening we went to see the Twins play the Oakland Athletics at the Twins new home ground Target Field. It was amazing to say the very least. A capacity crowd 41,000, 99% behind the Twins. We both had a Brat on a Roll (a local equivalent to a hotdog, only so much better) and I had a beer. Things you do to fit in with local customs!!

The game was exciting with the Twins winning in a shut-out 2-0 (shut-out = other team didn’t score a run) and the game was over in only 2 ¼ hrs. Apparently they can go on for 3 or 4 hrs, and regularly do. It poured rain for about 15mins just after the game finished. We had been watching the spectacular build up of the storm for the last half of the game. After that we went for a drink with J & G, Katie and Jon, Emily and Dan and Pete. It was a great way to say bye to all of them. We have both really loved the way we have been taken in by J & G’s families and made to feel part of them.

On the way home we called in and saw Pete’s place, he bought it about a year ago, a 3 bedroom house about 2 miles from downtown Minneapolis. It was very comfortable and he is slowly adding his touch to it.

Got back about midnight, what a way to cap off our time with J & G in Minnesota. It is going to be sad to leave – but we know we will meet sometime soon somewhere else in the world!

After a good walk back to the hotel we checked our emails, they have a small free Wifi lounge, then headed back to our room to review some brochures and think about tomorrow.

Sunday 15 August 2010  Last day in Minnesota, First Day in Boston

We spent the morning packing and getting things together, like updating our blog and posting a couple of pictures. While we were doing all that we chatted with J & G about all our times together and all the fun we had. Around 10:30 we got in the car, but not before pre-final farewell hugs, and headed out to the airport. We got there in good time, John has excelled in getting us out and about all week, and we had our final farewells on the concourse outside the departure gates. It was more about until we meet again rather than goodbyes, We know we will be exploring again with J & G soon in some interesting part of the world.

We decided to try to get an upgrade to first class, after a long wait in a queue, we got to the counter and it seems we got a free upgrade, thanks Delta. (But no access to the lounge , you have to work on that Mr Delta!)

We boarded around 12:30 and were in the air on time for Boston. We arrived all OK and collected our luggage then got a taxi to our Hotel. When we arrived the first thing Deb asked for as we were checking in was a room upgrade. Which we got without any questions. So we now have a larger room, with 2 double beds and much more room. After settling in we went out for a walk around the local area. We took a stroll through one end of the Boston Common Park and then walked along a few streets just looking at the people, shops and buildings. Deb loves Boston already, it’s the age of the building, the character they have and the general streetscape they promote. After strolling around for a while we got to a food court and got some pizza slices for tea.

Comments:  

CAKEEH  16 Aug 2010      Hello

Hello to you both, the weather here is getting a little warmer and the colds are starting to go away 🙂 all ready for your return!
We have a count down going now 🙂 14 more sleeps 🙂
Sounds like you had a wonderful time with John and Georgie and Boston sounds like a lovely place to visit (And eat).
Ella and Ethan were at Kindy/occasional care this morning and are now nibbling on some lunch. Later we are heading to the park. Guess what? the cleaner is coming tomorrow 🙂 yay. And it is now 8 sleeps until my exam.The election is really ramping up with lots of junk mail and junk ads
lots of love and hugs

Comments

Monday 16 August 2010  Boston, USA

The previous evening we had seen the concierge and got a map and pointers for around town. We bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off Trolley Bus tour of the city, and were given the name of a good cafe for breakfast.

At about 8:30 we headed out through the Boston Common to the Paramount Cafe on Charles St. Breakfast was nice, but a bit of a drag, they took so long with Debs, but all was good eventually. Later in the day during the Trolley bus tour, we were told that the apartment above the Paramount Cafe was the scene of the last murder of the Boston Strangler. Who would have guessed?

After breakfast we headed off and did a walking tour of the Beacon Hill area. (Deb had downloaded a tour before we left home and we picked up another, the Boston African American (otherwise known as the Black Heritage Trail) walking tour. We sort of combined the 2 walks and had a self guided tour of maybe the wealthiest residential part of town. We also walked down what is reputed to be America’s most photographed street, West Cedar Street. It was interesting getting some of the local history, and getting off the main roads a bit and seeing the local housing, buildings (many were 200 years old) and parks.

After we finished our walk we hopped onto the Trolley Bus and rode it to the wharf area. It was interesting listening to the driver give a commentary as we rode along. Once at the wharf area we got on board a harbour cruise boat and spent a leisurely 45 mins cruising around Boston Harbour, and getting to see Boston from the water. We love seeing cities from a different perspective, and the water reveals a different view. We really enjoyed the ride and before long we were on shore again. It was 11:15 or so, so we decided to track down the James Hook Retail Shop, the makers of “The Best Lobster Roll” in Boston, or so we have been told. After a short walk along the harbour foreshore, admiring the view and the buildings along the way, we came to a very modest “shed” (the original building had burnt down a few years ago) and order lunch. We shared a Clam Chowder and a Lobster Roll. Both were delicious, I think Deb like the chowder best, me, I liked them both.

After lunch we crossed the road and had a look at a plaque commemorating the site of the Boston Tea Party. It was strange that such a historic event was marked only by a plaque on the side of a building in an out of the way place. We then walked up to the Old State House, where the Proclamation of Independence was read out to the masses of Boston on July 18 1776. (Another great event, on such a great day (Greg’s bd!). We also saw the spot of the Boston Massacre, an event that preceded the Boston Tea Party and the revolutionary war. Near this area is a building with a famous weather vane on top of its roof that has a grasshopper on it. There is another that had the cap on top of it made of a very precious and expensive material of its’ time, aluminium! We then walked to Union St, an old part of town, where there are many businesses that have been going on for years, notably the Union Oyster House, that had been trading as a restaurant since 1826.

We then jumped back on the Trolley Bus and took the tour all the way around the city, taking in such things as the MIT, campus’ of Harvard, Trinity Church, the Bunker Hill Monument, the Red Socks home ground (Fenway park) and eventually got off at the State House. We then walked back to the hotel through the Boston Common. We stopped off at the Frog Pond (a summer wading pool and winter ice rink) and at the lake where the Swan boats sail.

Tonight we have the meet and greet welcoming meeting with our tour.

Tuesday 17 August 2010 Last day in Boston

Last night we met our tour leader and the rest of our tour group. There are 30 on our tour, plus 4 trainee tour leaders. A bit over half are from Australia, with a couple of Brits, New Zealanders, Indians and the rest are American.

Today we started with a guided bus tour through Boston. We stopped at Trinity Church, it apparently ranks in the top 5 churches of the world for its design. We sneaked inside assured them it was to pray (they don’t like tourists) and sat down and just took it all in. It is a magnificent building and very peaceful inside. The bus tour was a pretty good orientation tour and followed a lot of the “Freedom Trail” (The history of the beginnings of the American Revolution and the Paul Revere story). We saw Paul’s house, a statue of Paul and went into the Old North Church where the lights were lit. We finished up down near the wharves area at around midday. We grabbed a Clam Chowder in a Roll and a Lobster Roll to share for lunch. We stood at an eating bench in the Quincy Markets Hall and people watched as we ate lunch. It really is a fascinating sport.

After lunch we walked up through the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, to have a look at all the stalls inside, and then onto the train station at Government Centre to get a subway train down to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. It is a purpose built museum to house the collection of Isabella Gardner, designed by herself, and essentially still as it was back in 1903. It has an awesome atrium garden in a central enclosed courtyard that looks as if it was lifted straight from Roman times, just amazing. Amongst the works on exhibition were artworks by Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Rubens, Bellini, Botticelli and many more, plus many antiquities. It reminded Deb of a similar Museum / Gallery we had been to in Paris, and we enjoyed that one as much.

From there we walked down along Huntington Ave to the Mary Baker Eddy Library and Mapparium. The centre piece of this establishment is a 30ft diameter scaled glass globe of the world. It was unbelievable to stand at the centre of the earth and see all the continents and countries of the world in true scale and geographical positions above, below and around you. The acoustics in the Mapparium were crazy. Equatorially you could whisper on one side of the world and be clearly heard on the other, and at the centre of the world your voice was reflected back at you from all sides and amplified. From there we went to have a look in the World Headquarters church for the Christian Science Religion (Not the Scientologists they kept reminding us, LOL). It was a huge church with a 3500 seat capacity and a very big organ behind the altar. It also had a huge reflection pond out in front of it and a large fountain at one end. The local children, big and small, were playing in it to cool down a bit when we walked past.

We then walked up and had a good look through the Boston Public Library (amazing place). It is a classical old style building. It has “Old World” library reading rooms, full of long reading tables in dark wood with reading lamps and the walls full of floor to ceiling bookshelves. There are also very classical frescos on all the entry walls, complete with lions guarding the stair case to upstairs. To top it all off it has a beautiful court yard complete with a fountain where you can eat, read and generally relax.

From there we walked across the road to the Old South Church, and managed to catch the end of an Organ recital/practice. It was very peaceful sitting in this very beautiful old church listening to the music.

Across the road we went to the forecourt of the Trinity Church, there was what seemed to be a farmers market set up. Deb got a few apples and we just strolled the stalls. We finished up in front of the church and watched children playing in a water fountain to the left.

Finally we left there and walked back to the hotel. We went to Legal Seafood Restaurant for tea. A good way to finish our last day in Boston.

Tomorrow we are off to Quebec via a 600km bus ride.

We hope Brian & Cook both enjoyed their birthdays

Wow 3 messages in one day, a record I am sure, put a smile on our faces.

Georgie, it felt so empty when we left you …. but we will have to get on with planning the next time we meet!

Hey Glenyce, hope you and Bruce have lots of fun on your next adventure, sure you will, look forward to catching up with you when we get back.

Carly, it is now only 13 more sleeps!! We cant wait to see you all, good luck for your exam. How do you feel about it? Will be thinking of you.  xo

Wednesday 19^th August 2010 Boston, USA to Quebec, Canada

Today we left Boston at about 8am and headed to Quebec (pronounced k-bec). It was a long day on the coach with stops every 2 hours. During the drive we were shown a video, on Boston, our Tour Director introduced it by saying it was a bit boring in parts but otherwise good. We all looked at each other and sat back to see what was coming our way. A little later after another video, he said we were coming in to Moose country and then went into graphic detail about what the results of hitting a Moose while driving a car are, and then he said “you don’t want to know what happens when a bus hits one!”(or something similar) We arrived safely at our hotel at a bit after 6:20pm

We had a quick change and then headed out to dinner at a restaurant down by the St Laurence Waterway . We had seafood and it was OK.

After dinner we walked over the road to watch a light and music show. It was a projection of a combination of photo’s, graphics and movies onto a very long wall of silos on the opposite side of the Waterway, all set to music. We got there a little after it had started and stayed until it finished around 10:10pm. It was an amazing show, a step up from the static show they do on North Terrace in Adelaide.

After the show we went to a bus stop to get an electric bus up to our hotel. They were meant to come every 12 mins, the first was full and the next eventually came at around 11:20pm. We spent a lot of the time chatting with a couple of French Canadians, who lived about 3 hrs from Quebec city. They were very nice and we had a very interesting time chatting with them. (their English was much better than our French)

As we got off the bus we all shook hands and said cheerful good-byes. The wait for the bus was worth it for just meeting them.

Thursday 19 August 2010   Quebec City

Today we were in Quebec City. It is a city divided geographically into the upper and lower cities, due to a steep cliff dividing the city on the river side. The lower city contains the oldest parts of the city including the oldest street, “du Petit-Champlain”. The lower city is connected to the upper by a series of winding roads and also by a funicular and a set of stairs beside the funicular call the “Break Neck” stairs, and for good reason due to their steepness. The top city is then again divided into 2. Firstly, the modern city of Quebec, like any other modern city, and then there is the old “Wall City”. The walled city is beautiful. It is UNESCO listed and like a time capsule, with many restrictions on what the locals can and can’t do with the buildings and streetscape. The largest and most prominent building in the old city, and the “highlight” of the city is the Chateau Frontenac. Built by the Canadian National Railways during the golden days of rail in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They were also responsible for the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterman (earlier in our trip)

We started our day with a coach tour of Quebec city (new and old), taking in a lot of local history and getting a good orientation of the city. We saw everything from old French/English battlefields, to the old Citadel (a fortress designed to defend the city), shopping areas and local quirky sights like Artist Alley and a few life-like murals. During our walk around the lower city, we paused for a while near a female opera singer busking. She had a magnificent voice and it rang through the streets so magically. She had Deb mesmerised. (Deb says “I had goose bumps!”)

Once we were done with the tour we went to the church “Notre Dame du Victory” (sic), and got some special gifts of prosperity for everyone, some are now in the post . We also got ourselves an interesting locally made bread knife, and had a bit of a look around the lower city.

We then got on board a large (2000 capacity) river cruise boat. Thankfully it was only about 20% full. The cruise took us downstream to the Ile d’Orleans, the site of the original French settlement in Quebec. It is said that most “old” Quebecians can trace their ancestory back to a settler on the Ile. We then made a very sharp turn to Port, which framed the “ la Chute Montmorency” ( a waterfall 150% the height of Niagara, without the width) about 100m high.

Once we got off the cruise we got the Funicular up to the old walled city and finished up having a late lunch in a small cafe. After that we walked around the old streets for a while, down along Artist Alley (where many local artists display their works for sale and the usual assortment of sketch artists, “Statues” (buskers, dressed up in various costumes and frozen in a moment) and we walked many beautiful streets with their old character beautiful buildings.

At around 2:45 we set out back to our hotel, exiting the walled city through one of the old gates and at our hotel. After getting up to our room, Deb put her feet up and I went out to have a look at the Quebec Parliament House across the road from our hotel. The grounds of the parliament House are beautifully manicured and feature statues of prominent politicians of the past through-out it. I eventually found my way to the front entrance and went in. An English tour was scheduled for about 4pm, but I didn’t have the time to take the tour and because I was alone, they let me walk around inside by myself, “As long as I didn’t go up or down any stairs!!” After getting past security I walked along a few corridors lined with portraits of politicians until I got to a small display area where they had a history of Quebec Postage on display, Fascinating, NOT! . After that it was a clear run to the exit. I did see some monitors showing live coverage of what looked like a committee session in progress, but it must have been upstairs!

We had dinner tonight at a restaurant on the Ile d’Orleans (it is a beautiful Island very green lots of trees, alot of land around beautiful cottage type housing – would be a beautiful place to live in the summer – bit cold in the winter!) On the way we called in to have a look at la Chute Montmorency. We walked over a suspension bridge over the top of the falls. Dinner was in an old mill that had been converted to a restaurant. Dinner was delicious and the company nicer than the previous night, we finished around 9:30pm and went back to our hotel. (I wanted to see the lights of the Old city, so we walked around the hotel trying to get a view, in the end we took the lift to the 23^rd floor there was a nice man who was locking up the private lounge up there, I asked nicely and he let us in and then set about describing the buildings we were seeing – was really pretty lit up at night. A great finish to the day.

Friday 20 August 2010  Montreal, Canada

Dad, mum tells us your on the mend it’s good to see you have timed it all while we are away and NOT while you are away on your holiday. Get well soon. Love ya. Xox

Happy birthday to Tom, we have been thinking of you, your day went on for about 40 hrs!!

Bags out at 7am on the bus by 8am. The joys of Bus Tours.

Our day had begun, we had a 31/2 hr drive from Quebec to Montreal, with a single stop on the way after 2hrs.

As we drove into Montreal we went straight to the 1976 Olympic Stadium for a group photo. The stadium was originally designed to have a removable , or raiseable roof. But the roof was only ever lifted 3 or 4 times before it refused to operate again. It also has a roof that is not designed to take the weight of snow on it, and Montreal gets a lot of snow in winter. So they have to manually make sure it doesn’t overload during winter. We had our group photo and drove into town to have lunch.

We were dropped off at Square Dorchester, and were told of the local cuisine that we should try for lunch. (As we do, we followed the suggestion). We headed off up the road to Rue Sainte-Catherine and a cafe called “Reuben’s “, and ordered, with the help of a delightful server, a “Reuben’s Original Smoked Meat Sandwich with accompanying Poutene (Ash, you and Ben would love this, Chips with melted curd and gravy!). It’s huge, so we shared it. It was delicious, but definitely not something you could, or should, eat everyday.

After lunch we went for a walk along Rue Sainte-Catherine, stopping to connect to the net opposite the Apple Shop, you have to love free WiFi. JThere was a very long queue outside the Apple shop, we presume it was people after the new iPhone. From there we walked up to Rue de Maisonneuve, it’s a street with a lot of older historic buildings and galleries. We found an old church that had a “Quiet Garden”, so we sat and enjoyed a small fountain and the peacefulness of garden. We then started walking back to join up with the tour group again and our afternoon guided tour of Montreal. On the way we passed some expensive apartments, at one we saw a woman pull up out in from in her new Jaguar, and the doorman came out with a trolley and loaded all her shopping into it, we didn’t see if he parked the car for her or not, but we would not have been surprised!!

We got a local guide for our Montreal city tour. It was a very interesting tour taking in wide sweeping city views from a park on top of Mount Real ( where the name Montreal comes from) to a drive through the posh suburbs, the more modest University accommodation areas and finally finishing at the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal, one of the most beautiful churches we have ever been in. Apparently it also has very good acoustics, Pavaroti filmed his last Christmas show there. If you are ever in this town you must see this church.

We then went back to the hotel and checked in, after which we spent a quiet hour and a bit relaxing ( had a chat with various family on Skype and Messenger, which we both enjoyed.)

In the evening we went to dinner in the old part of the city. It was a very interesting part of town, with cobblestone streets and wide open plazas. The plazas were filled with buskers and cafes and alive with people, lights, smells and sounds. After dinner we walked around and soaked up all the atmosphere before getting the coach back to our hotel and bed.

Saturday 21 August 2010 Ottawa, Canada

Its Federal election day back home, we bought internet access last night and set our wake up call for 5:45 am so we could get up and watch the results unfold before we left Montreal for Ottawa. It was great, we connected to the new ABC 24hr news channel webcast to watch the results come in. As we watched we were chatting with Carly and Kieran and Ben on Skype ( in conference mode). It was so much fun sharing the intrigue as the results came in looking like a very close result and a hung Parliament, but we will have to wait and see. Somehow we managed to fit in breakfast showers and packing in amongst all the election watching, but we did it.

After a non-eventful drive through uninteresting countryside we arrived in Ottawa, the capital of Canada at around 10:15am.Ottawa is the second coldest National capital in the world, with winter temps often around -30C ( -50C with wind chill), the coldest is Mongolia’s Capital! After a short break at our hotel, way too early to check-in, but useful to drop off our back-packs etc and to have a pit-stop. Deb and I used the 40 min break to get internet access. No free access at the hotel, but we found that if we joined the Ottawa Library we got free net there, so now we are both members of the Library here. J We basically just had time to download our tweets (to get the latest updates on our cliff-hanger election) and then we were back on the bus for a guided tour of the main landmarks of the city. We drove around a little before stopping off in front of the National Parliament buildings, all three of them. They are built in a neo-Gothic style, and look very distinctive. The actual house of parliament burnt down in around 1910 and was rebuilt in the same style and on the same footprint, but they made it taller. After another drive around we got off again at the Canadian National Museum of Civilisation. It is basically a museum of the last 1000 years of history of Canada. Again this was an impressive building both in design and on its content. Back on the bus and a drive by the National Art Gallery, the Ottawa Notre-Dame and eventually we were dropped off at the ByWard Markets. It’s a mix of fresh fruit and veg stalls, touristy stalls and small restaurants and cafes. It seems to be very lively, even on an overcast rain threatening sort of day there were lots of people around. We shared a seafood Platter for lunch at a restaurant recommended by our tour Director and the local guide. It was one of the nicest platters (4 scallops, 4 prawns and clam strips) we have had, anywhere.

After lunch we had a bit of a look around the markets and then headed back to the hotel to settle in before exploring some more. It rained a little on our way back ( it took us a little longer to get back as I took us on a small discovery tour before we headed in the right direction), once inside the hotel, the skies opened up and poured. Luckily we were inside.

We will be heading to Toronto tomorrow and will be there for a few days, only a short bus ride again

Sunday 22 August 2010  Totonto

Bags out by 7:30 on the road at 8:30. We managed to get around to the library (free WiFi on the footpath) before and after breakfast to pickup our emails and tweets. The election still sounds undecided and looks like the Greens will have the balance of power and be the “King Makers”. Twitter has been a fantastic way of keeping up to date with the election, getting real time news on the other side of the world is great. We got a few emails on our home email and will answer them soon. Thanks, we love to hear from everyone near and far.

First stop the RCMP Stables (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). We arrived there at about 9am and spent the next hour touring the stables and training areas for the “Mounties”. The RCMP are the Canadian Federal Police. They also form a ceremonial role as well, providing horse guards, parades and horsemanship performances. They require all their horses to be Black, allowing only small areas of white. Apparently only 5% of horses are black, so they breed their own and occasionally buy in horses. They also have a requirement for the horses to be within a height range, currently the smallest is 15 hands 3” and the tallest is 17 hand 3” (1 hand = 4”).The oldest horse in the RCMP stables is 25yers old, and the horses are generally around 5 years old before they are put into service.

From there we headed back on the road to Kingston, Canada’s original capital city, for lunch and a driver break. We both touched the waters of Lake Ontario (Our second Great Lake). We had to help each other as the edge was a bit slippery and we didn’t need to go swimming! On the way in we saw “Startrek Headquarters” (a freight company I think). Unfortunately we were passed before I could get a photo. ,

Just before Kingston we went past a region of the St Lawrence Waterway, called the 1000 Islands. It was here that the Thousand Island salad dressing was invented by a chef called “Oscar”. There is a restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria named after the same chef.

Monday 23 August 2010 Totonto

Next stop was the Big Apple Pie Shop about halfway between Kingston and Toronto. We picked up a small apple pie and ate half there and will have the other half tonight. We were both surprised that it wasn’t too sweet, and was actually pretty nice, with great short pastry. The shop has a sign out on the highway showing how many pies they had sold, it was at nearly 3,500,000. Back on the highway and we landed right on the end of a very long traffic jam, but at least the traffic was moving.

We arrived in Toronto around 5:45pm. Our hotel has 1600 rooms in it, one of the biggest hotels in North America. They even colour code the lifts to help people get to the right building and room. It is between Bay St and Yonge St, Yonge St is, according to our Tour Director and the Guinness Book of records, the longest street in the world, covering a total length of 1896km, starting in Toronto!

We had a walk down a couple of blocks of Yonge St to look for something for tea. They had a Philippine Festival in the central square, and there were lots of people, a band was playing and there were many stalls. We finished up having a very nice Vietnamese meal before heading back to do some washing and repack our bags, and , oh, finish off the apple pies we bought this afternoon, yummmmmmm.

We started the day with a city bus tour before going on a Lake Cruise around the islands of Toronto and to see the city skyline from the water.

Between the cruise and the bus tour we got in a couple of geocaches down at the Toronto waterfront. That was lots of fun and filled in an hour we would have otherwise probably spent people watching.

After the cruise we walked up Bay St to Union Station, a grand old train station. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat in the station and people watched while we ate. This city is so ethnically diverse, it is amazing. Apparently there are 180 different ethnic groups in the city, and almost as many languages spoken.

After lunch we walked out of the station and had a close-up look at the Royal Bank of Canada building, it has windows that have gold added to the glass during manufacture, to help with insulation. It gives the glass towers of the bank building a golden appearance, very different. They say the cost of the gold additive to the glass was recouped in the first year due to energy savings on heating and cooling.

We continued up Bay Street to the old City Hall, now used as court houses. There weren’t many courts running, but by the look of many of the people waiting in the building it was going to be an interesting afternoon of court sessions. The session lists featured mainly possession charges à firearms, drugs, stolen property, etc. The building was “old world” and very interesting, but not quite as interesting as its occupants.

We then cut across a block on to Yonge St, and gradually made our way back to our hotel, people watching and taking photos all the way. Was a very enjoyable couple of hours.

Tonight we are off to dinner to the CN Tower, so we should have good views over Toronto.

Tuesday 24 August 2010   Niagara Falls

We had a nice night last night at the CN Tower, was a bit foggy, but it lifted eventually, so we got a nice view of Toronto. Greg has this theory that all of these towers with revolving restaurants are really alien space ships – but he hasn’t been beamed up yet!!

Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Mets at the Skydome, which was right next door to the Tower, we were thinking of you John.

When we got back from dinner we went for a walk out onto Yonge street and all of the bright lights. Was about 10pm (I would not have liked to have gone out later) First we saw this black dude on a public telephone with a plastic bag wrapped around the receiver, so there was no DNA or fingerprints left!! We crossed the road. Then at a busy brightly lit four way intersection they were making some sort of a film, there were about a dozen or so 18-20 year old scantily dressed girls in single file walking diagonally across the intersection. They did this a few times while we were there, one time this older guy walked along side them, made the few hundred people watching on laugh, but the film crew were not very happy! Was fun. I was surprised to see a group of moslem teenagers stood near us really enjoying it (I guess I thought they would have been more reserved – but not the case)

We had a short day on the bus today but a lot going on. Today is Niagara Falls.

We left the hotel at 9am and got just the tail end of the Toronto peak hour traffic, but were soon on the highway to our first stop of Niagara on the Park. It was a very picturesque little village with a lot of charm. We browsed the shops and the streets, the streets were lined with colourful flower baskets and gardens. We then went onto have a look at the Niagara Flower Clock. When we got there, there were a couple of gardeners trimming the plants to maintain the display. It sort of spoilt our view, but I guess they have to do it sometime.

Next was our first highlight of the day, our helicopter ride over Niagara Falls. Of the 30 on our tour only 6 of us decided to do the ride. (Two of the trainee guides also did the ride). Deb gave me the front seat in the chopper and she sat directly behind me. As we took off the pilot did a little fancy flying, posing for the cameras, so everyone on board could get a picture with them in it. Our flight was 8 minutes long and it took in the giant whirl pool, the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, plus the rapids upstream (Niagara falls name comes from the Niagara River). The view was simply stunning. The power of the river was enormous, both at the falls and at the whirlpool. These days the falls is only getting about 1/3 of the water coming down the Niagara River, the rest is diverted to Hydro Electric power generation. The falls generators provide all, or most of, the power for Manhattan Island. If the falls were running full bore they would eroded the cliff face from which they drop by about 10 foot per year.(Effectively moving the falls upstream), but with the hydro diversions the erosion rate is now only 1 foot every 10 years. The ride was fantastic and we got some great photos.

We then drove onto view the Falls from close up. We got dropped off near the Flat Rock Visitors Centre , where we had lunch and got a few pics. We had an hour and a half, but couldn’t do the behind the falls tour as the next available tour was at 2:30pm and we had other plans. After lunch we went off to The Maid of the Mist boat cruise. We brought along our waterproof bag to put our camera, shoes and valuables to save them from the expected deluge. So, bare footed and clad in our little “smurf” blue raincoats we headed off on the top deck of our boat into the mist. First call was a close(ish) drive by the American Falls, where we got about the same amount of mist as you get up on “dry” land near the Horseshoe Falls, a taste of things to come. Then there was a calm area where we were between the falls and little spray. As we got closer to the Horseshoe Falls the spray began to intensify. And all the “Smurfs” on the boat began to smile and ohhhh and ahhhh, and even laugh. Then it began, it was like standing in the middle of 4 or 5 tropical rain storms all happening at once. Sooo much water!!! It was almost impossible to see, but exhilarating at the same time. When we emerged from the mist ( the captain did a very sharp u-turn to get us out of there) the crowd of “Smurfs” cheered, it was so much fun. Slowly everyone removed their blue rain ponchos and relived the experience with each other, lots of fun!

After that we grabbed an ice cream to use up the last of our Canadian dollars and sat in a park and enjoyed the afternoon for a few minutes, just the two of us. By this time it was a bit after 5pm, we soon got back on the bus and went to our hotel to check-in.

We were at the Hilton and we got room 911! We went over to Starbucks, where I got a coffee and we got on the net. We Skyped with Carly and Ethan for a little while (everyone else back home was asleep we think), Carly had an exam today, and we wished her well ( later she told us she did OK 😉 ). Ethan told us he wanted us home soon. It’s so nice to feel wanted.

In the evening we had dinner overlooking the Horseshoe Falls, was a magical place to eat, it felt like we could just reach out and touch the falls. It was interesting to watch the Falls disappear into the spray as the daylight faded.

After dinner we went to the building where they shine the lights from to colour the falls at night, and had the joy of changing the colours of the falls. As I promised, in a postcard we sent earlier in the day, I changed the colours on the Horseshoe Falls to purple for Ella. I hope she likes them that colour, we have pictures of them to show her when we get home (maybe we will post one on here). I guess there were about 20 of us playing with the lighting, and we spent about 45 mins there. The “shed” from which the lighting is done is very old and looks like it was in a time warp captured from the past. The lights are very large and look very old, but all the lighting is computer controlled via touch screens, and each light can be made to shine in only 5 colours. The Light Shed is also the home to a family of racoons, we saw one on the way in, but it had gone by the time we left.(Our first Racoon sighting )

We then went back to the hotel, topped up out tweets and emails at Starbucks and the called it a night.

Wednesday 25 August 2010  Niagara Falls to Lancaster

Today we have a long, long day on the bus, we finish in Lancaster, Amish Country. As it is a long day on board, I am doing the blog as we go, so please excuse me if I change tense from present to past as I go. (I know we have an English teacher reading this , Hi Sarah, I hope we don’t butcher the language too much 😛 ). We were asked to be on the bus by 7:15am to avoid long delays of up to 3 hours at the border going through US Immigration and Customs. As usual, one on the normal culprits was late and we got away closer to 7:25. ( It’s so frustrating for the majority who are always on time, I wish we could just leave the late comers behind!)

As it turned out we didn’t have any delays at the border and were on our way in the USA by 7:40am. The view of the falls, both of them (well OK, three of them, if you count the small bridal falls right next to the American Falls) was very different as we crossed the bridge over the Niagara River. The American Falls stretches a lot further out into the river than it appears to from the Canadian side, it sort of washes out into the river as the water cascades of the rocks at the bottom. As we drove away from the falls area, the Horseshoe Falls gave of a large plume of mist into the air. If you didn’t know better you would think it was a fire, or maybe a large factory causing a large smoke cloud. The country side beyond Buffalo ( the first major US town after Niagara) is a mix of farm land and undulating forested woodlands.

We have travelled from New York State into Pennsylvania, the roads have improved and the countryside is now heavily wooded hills, all very green. Our tour director, Gary, put on a Marilyn Munro movie, “Niagara” on the onboard video. Very melodramatic, it showed the lighting of the falls, looked like the same system we played with last night.

We stopped for lunch at Wegmans Supermarket, Williamsport, PA. It was a huge supermarket with a help yourself cafeteria, where you basically paid for lunch by the weight. Was a bit of a tussle in the food area, but we got there and Deb managed to get a table for us to sit at. Once on board John and Fiona shared a packed of chocolate covered Goobers with us. It wasn’t long before John was all Goobered out!!!

We arrived in Lancaster around 4pm and were pleased to find we had internet in our room, has been hard to come by on this tour, but we have been resourceful!!

Went to an Amish Homestead for dinner, (set up by Americans (I presume) selling a few Amish goods, other goods from Asia and USA!! We had dinner here, was supposedly similar to what the Amish would have for a wedding dinner. We had fried chicken which I quite enjoyed, pork meatballs – a bit sweet, mashed potato, beans and corn – it reminded me of a meal that might have been cooked about 60 years ago. We had iced tea to drink and apple pie and shoo fly pie and icecream for desert. Apple pie was good, the shoo fly pie a bit sweet. A lovely lady called Mary who is a Mennonite (don’t live as strictly as the Amish) discussed about life as an Amish and Mennonite. She had a shoo fly pie to give away to the couple married the longest and shortest. So we got one. As we would not eat it and no one else on tour wanted it, Greg offered it back to Mary and told her all our meals were provided and asked if she would like to share it with her family. She graciously accepted it. She has 7 children and 39 grandchildren all of whom live near her. It would have been really lovely to spend some time with her and just chat.

Tomorrow morning we are supposedly going to an Amish farm. I hope everyone on the tour gets to see an authentic Amish property. The tour we did in Minnesota with J & G was really very good, much better than what we saw tonight – which was disappointing as I (Deb) was really looking forward to this part of the trip. (it is hard to believe we only left J & G a week and a half ago, looking forward to skyping with you when we get home!)

5 more sleeps!! But then who is counting?? xo

Comments:  

25 Aug 2010        Carly                     Counting

ME I’M COUNTING 🙂

C

26 Aug 2010    Ben                 Counting

I think we are all counting!!   Lots of love to you!!

Ben

Thursday 26 August 2010  Washington DC

We hope Laura has a fantastic graduation day, celebrating the finish of her degree and all the work she put in. We are very proud of her.

We started the morning by going to the wrong breakfast, we went to the continental, rather than the full breakfast, after we found out we had all but finished, but we did go to the proper room for coffee and tea, we didn’t miss that much.

From the hotel we went to visit an old Amish House (no longer lived in, but very well preserved in the way it would have been if the Amish still lived there. The house was basic, with only the essentials, and no electricity or plumbed water. But the rooms were big and overall it looked pretty comfortable.

After a quick look around the old farm yards we were back on the bus for a drive through Amish land. Well, more like a drive through the country side where they lived, and no real opportunity for photos or a close look at anything.

Next stop was at an Amish Tourist village in Intercourse Pennsylvania, where they had lots of shops selling Amish looking goods (many made by the Chinese Amish, apparently!) We bought a roll each for lunch on the bus as we made our way to Washington DC. (Did you know that Washington is not actually in a State, is but rather the same as Canberra it is in a territory?)

On our arrival in Washington DC we were dropped off at the entrance to the National Art Gallery, across the way from the Smithsonian Space and Flight Museum. We went straight across the grass to the Smithsonian and I was like a big kid in toyland. It was gobsmacking awesome. LOL The first thing you see when you walk in was an actual Mercury space capsule in which John Glenn made is flight (the first manned missions by NASA), complete with charred heat protective shield, and the door was open so you could see the amazingly cramped conditions the astronaut had to contend with. That was followed by other real space capsules and models of everything from lunar landing craft from the Apollo missions to test simulators for the space station, full size models of soviet space craft, various rockets through history (all full size), the development of computing through space. They had a even section of the original Cray 1 Supercomputer. After going through exhibits of everything from the planets in close-up to the cockpit of an Airbus and the Wright Brothers plane and Amelia Ayrehart’s plane, we left to go to the National Art Gallery. (I/Deb really enjoyed the photos they had of the planets)

There we looked at the only painting of Leonardo da Vinci in the USA (Ginevra de’Benci), Raphael, van Eyck, Rembrandt, etc. It was a beautifully laid out Gallery and very classical., several other works by Bellini, Vermeer, de Goya, Downstairs they had a special exhibition of the Jester Dale Collection. He donated his entire art collection to the museum on his death in 1962. It was composed of many works by Monet, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, and so many more. It was a pleasure to walk through.

After dinner we went on a night tour of some of Washington’s monuments, starting at the JFC Performing Arts Centre, then onto the WWII Memorial and then finally the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. All were great. From the WWII monument we got a view of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument, both illuminated up. At the end of the night we had a drive passed the

South Wing of the White House ( from a distance) you can’t get close to the White House anymore, thanks to 9/11. (the south wing is where the president makes speeches from.

And that was the finish of a fairly long, but very enlightening day.

Friday 27 August 2010  Washington DC

We had a big day today, making the most of our one full day in Washington.

We started the day with a visit to the Arlington National Cemetery. We were given a very good history of its beginnings and the requirements to be buried here. It is huge, and it is the only cemetery in the USA that has peopled buried in it from every armed conflict in which the USA has taken part, even internal conflicts, including the civil war. We saw the graves of the 3 Kennedy brothers (and that of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis and two of their children) and the eternal flame. It is a very solomn place and very regulated.

We then went to see the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial, it is very impressive in real life, huge in fact. The sculpture contains an optical illusion that presents itself as you walk around it. It appears as though the flag is being raised as you walk from front to back of the memorial. Very clever. The memorial has the date of the finish of every war the Marines have been involved in, the last entry being 1994, the “War of Terrorism” ( as they call the current conflicts) haven’t ended yet so they don’t rate a mention here.

Then onto the Lincoln Memorial, one of the memorials I really wanted to see. I have seen it in so many documentaries and movies over the years that I just had to see it. It lived up to all my expectations. It is a huge statue of President Lincoln sitting down looking straight to the Capitol building, with only the Washington Monument obscuring his gaze. Looking from his seat, you look into a huge reflection pond in which you see a long reflection of the Washington Monument. They were preparing the foreground for a big rally on Saturday, with headline appearances by Sarah Palin and a “Right Wing” TV presenter. Bit of a shame really, as they are going to have their rally at the spot where 47 years ago on the same Saturday that Martin Luther King gave his historic “I have a dream” speech.

Next was the Vietnam Memorial, this was a memorial in two. A modest but very moving memorial to all the women that served and died in the war, then a memorial to the “Soldiers of the Vietnam War in two parts. Firstly a memorial to all those that fought in the war, both living and dead, represented by a statue of three soldiers, one a black American ( who comprised over 60% of all the American forces to serve in Vietnam, and who still didn’t have equal rights at home), a white American, and then a statue of someone of indistinct ethnicity (to represent all the other Americans who served in the war). Then there was the remembrance wall, which listed every soldier who died or was missing in action, from the first to the last.

Then it was off to the White House, north side. We could see the east wing (the first ladies offices and securities offices) and the West Wing (where the Oval Office is and all the Presidential offices). The West Wing is having some work done on it , so we didn’t get a clear look at it. There were a couple of protests on the street outside, one against America’s support of Israel and nuclear arms, some for more money for schools rather than war and another about the apparent ongoing abuse of human rights for the Black Americans. On the way to and from the White House, we both had a quick look into a small church on a road just nearby. It was the St John’s Church, otherwise known as “The church of the Presidents”, as many of the Presidents have used the church in the past, a short walk from the White House. (was a really beautiful, simple church with magnificent stained glass windows)

The Capitol Building was next. In the grounds in front of the Capitol there was a large protest brewing and an apparent miscarriage of justice against a very Prominent Black leader, Dr Malachi K York. On top of a whole lot of other stuff, apparently some Judge continue to run a case on a National Public Holiday ( Martin Luther king Day) which apparently is against the constitution or law?? But it sure has a few folk riled up!! It was a very colourful demonstration with so many interesting characters there.

After all that we were taken back down Constitution Drive and dropped off outside the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. We walked up to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, and sat and had lunch in the shade next to the large pond and fountains. The sculptures were very interesting and somewhat creative.

We then went to the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, where there were several sculptures by Rodin (our favourite sculptor) and one by Yoko Ono, called the Peace Tree, where you filled in a card for your wishes for peace and then tied it onto the tree branches. There were hundreds of messages in the tree, and we both added ours.

We continued into the Hirshhorn Museum and found they had a special exhibition on the works of “Yves Klein”. He is a very abstract artist exploring the subtle nuances of light and colour. We both have seen his work before (the last time in the Tate Modern in London), he is definitely an acquired taste, . (mmm I (deb) did not know until now that we had seen his work before, and I still haven’t acquired a taste!)

From there our intention was to go to the National Archives, the home of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution (and amendments) and many other famous American documents. However, the queue was just way too long (over an hour we were told) so we just kept going onto our next destination, the National Portrait Gallery.

On the way we passed by the J. Edgar Hover FBI Building, I couldn’t help having a hammy photo taken here. Close by was the US Naval Memorial. This memorial has a large water feature as part of it and it is said that the water is a mix of the waters from all the world’s oceans. We both put our hands into it just in case we miss one along the way of our travels!!

Up the hill from the FBI building was a Spy Museum, we didn’t go into the museum but we did go into the shop. It was full of lots of great stuff and we both thought Dante would have loved it.

Next, we finally made it to the national Portrait Gallery. To our pleasure we found that they had a special exhibition from the collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, of Norman Rockwell drawings and paintings (I thought of you all the way around dad, have you seen an exhibition of his work – I know you had that magnificent book of his work). It was an amazing exhibition, so much detail in his work, and Deb thought of how much Brian would have loved to have seen it. After spending quite some time in the special exhibition, we went upstairs to the Gallery of the Portraits of all the American Presidents. There was a great deal of change in the way portraits were done from the time of George Washington to the last we saw of Bill Clinton. It was an impressive collection and very worthwhile to see.

After all that we headed back to the hotel to cool down and get ready for our farewell dinner tonight.

Saturday 28 August 2010   New York

We left Washington at around 8am, leaving the city to cope with the Glen Beck / Sarah Palin “Restoring Honor” rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Thousands and thousands jammed the area around the reflection pond to hear them speak at the same spot Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech 47 years ago. Apparently Beck has the support of a group that go by the name of the Tea Party, a reference to the Boston Tea party and the revolt against unfair unrepresentative government. This may be the launch of a Republican Presidential candidacy.

Our first stop of the day was at Philadelphia, the home of the Liberty Bell, and the site of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. It was also at one time the capital of the USA. We visited the Liberty Bell Centre, where we saw the Liberty Bell. It is smaller than I thought it would be, between 500mm and a meter high. And the crack in it is BIG! It is said that the bell was rung in the tower of the Independence Hall to proclaim the first reading of the American Declaration of Independence in the square in front of the (now) Independence Hall. We also saw a copy of the Declaration, said to be the actual copy that was read that day on the 4^th July 1776. For lunch we grabbed a famous local “sandwich”. A Philadelphia Steak and Cheese Sandwich (with onion). It was actually pretty good.

We left Philadelphia at noon on our way to drop some tour members off at Newark Airport before going to NYC and finishing at our hotel near Times Square. On the way we passed a road jam going south (opposite direction to us) that went for miles and miles. It was due to a truck fire. It looked like a dump truck had caught fire and burnt very fiercely, the rear tray and all body work had melted under the heat of the fire. We dropped the couple off at Newark at 2pm.

Arrived at the Sheraton 53^rd and 7th NYC around 3pm. Settled in a little and then went out for a walk to Times Square, (out the front door turn left and walk 2 or 3 blocks to be in the middle of it. We played games like everyone else there, waving to ourselves on the huge video screen on one of the buildings, did a lot of people watching, saw the Naked Cowboy and ran into a few from the tour. We have worked out a couple of places to eat at tonight and are going to have dinner with John and Fiona, a couple we have becomes friends with from Melbourne. Jersey Boys is at 8pm and then the lights, sounds and sights of Times Square after. We have a 1 pm check-out and a 6:55pm flight, so tomorrow is going to be the start of one of those very long days travel. Scheduled to arrive home in Adelaide around 11am 31 Aug. (We leave NYC at 6:55pm on Sun 29 Aug which will be 4pm in Los Angeles)!!!

It was really good to have our last dinner in NYC with John and Fiona, they are a very much like minded couple. We finished dinner around 7pm and said our good byes (they leave for a few weeks in California with family early in the morning. We walked around the corner to the Theatre, got a program and went in to our seats. The theatre was moderate in size and the seating was a little tight (Festival Theatre is much more comfortable). It was a sell-out with standing room only tickets on sale at the door.

Jersey Boys is one of the best musicals I have seen, the music was great ( guess I knew 75% of the songs) and the story line was very good and very funny. The show went for just under 2 ½ hrs with a 15 min intermission.

After the show we walked out of the theatre onto Broadway and down to Times Square. It is an amazing place in the day time but at night it takes on a whole new dimension. The lights, the people and the atmosphere have to be experienced, but Deb and I both agreed it wouldn’t be somewhere we would choose for New Years Eve, it would be just way too crowded.

Sunday 29 August 2010  New York and Home

After a very lazy start to the day, we eventually got out and about and spent a couple of hours walking around Central Park and 5^th Ave. We strolled around to Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon “Imagine” memorial (my favourite part of the park), then around a lake and to the fountain in the middle (its name escapes me) and listened to a choir of African Americans singing in the pedestrian tunnel then walked along the avenue towards “The Rink” and sat and listened to a 4 piece Jazz group who were busking. The park is so alive; we both wished we had something similar in Adelaide.

After a bit of a relax, shower and final pack in our room, we checked out and got a cab to JFK airport. We got there at about 1:40, only to find our check-in counter didn’t open until 2:30pm, so we sat and waited and I managed to get this last part of our blog done.

It’s been an amazing 60 days, but we are both ready to come home. Reflecting on what we have done in that time is mind boggling, it really is hard to grasp everything we have done in, what is really, such a short time.

We hope everyone has enjoyed sharing in our adventures and look forward to seeing everyone.

On the way back to the hotel we ran into a few couples from our bus tour, we said our final good byes and headed off for bed.

Our next adventures will be a little more modest with camping in Sept and Nov, then an exploration of Western Australia next year. Bring it on

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