Seattle and Heading Home

Our last full vacation day was quite relaxing. We slept in a bit, got ready and headed for the border, less that 40 miles away. I had checked and it appeared there were tickets available for the Boeing Museum of Flight, but with the uncertainty of how long the border crossing would take, I did not pre-buy tickets. We arrive close to noon but the only tickets were for 3:30 and later shows so we skipped that event. It was quite overcast due to haze/smoke from the British Columbia forest fire, so we were glad we got the picture of Mt Rainier yesterday.

I always thought Seattle was close to the Canadian border, but it took nearly 3 hours to drive there. We found Pike's Market and managed to find a place to park. It was interesting to walk around this busy market. We had some clam chowder for lunch then headed for our motel.  Dinner was at a restaurant, a diner really, with a Route 66 theme, although that road didn't go through Washington at all.  Good food, though!
Getting up early Wednesday for our flight home.  It's been quite the vacation!  Loved our Alaska experience and really enjoyed the music cruise and getting to know Chris Nole, Diane Ireland, and the Currys better.  

Off the ship at Vancouver

We disembarked from the Norwegian Sun this morning.  All went pretty much as expected except for the rental car pickup.  The line was very long and it took nearly two hours to get our car. But in the end it all worked out and we headed north to the Sea and Sky highway.  We went part way up the coast toward Whistler, stopping for lunch in Horseshoe Bay at a Yelp-recommended fish and chips restaurant (which did live up to the recommendation). The drive was very pretty as to can see in this picture.

We then headed for our motel for the night.  Lots of traffic in Vancouver so the drive was not easy.  The motel was not quite as nice as we expected and their internet was very spotty at first.  I brought this to their attention and they did fix it which was a big help.

This evening we took a drive south to the village of Tsawwassen to get a view of Mt Rainier from Canada. The mountain is about 175 miles away so it was pretty amazing to get this view.  Not much else to do around Vancouver tonight so we're going to take it easy and head for Seattle tomorrow morning. 

Alaska John Denver Music Cruise Day 7

After our extended sing-along last night (and the time change), we slept in and woke to beautiful sunshine out our balcony door!  What a beautiful sight after not seeing the sun for nearly a week.  Activities for the day were a 3:00 concert, packing (Uuugh!), and a group dinner this evening in one of the main dining rooms.

 We really enjoyed today's concert - it went for a full 1 1/2 hours. Chris and the Currys played a lot of JD favorites and the crowd sang along with them.  They had a new intro to Eagles and Horses and merged the traditional piano introduction with the flute intro that the Currys use.  Chris told a couple of neat stories about touring with John. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon. 

After the concert we enjoyed watching the beautiful Canadian scenery pass by as we sailed the Inland Passage.  We were close to wooded islands like these all afternoon, seeing the Canadian Rockies in the distance. 

This evening we had a group dinner for all 50 of us in the main dining room. It was fun but also bittersweet to share our memories of the week.   

Tomorrow we are doing some sightseeing around Vancouver, and staying overnight.  Heading to Seattle on Tuesday. 

Alaska John Denver Music Cruise Day 6

We did not arrive in Ketchikan until 1 pm so it was a quiet and relaxing morning. (Posted Sunday morning for Saturday)

It's hard to believe the cruise ends the day after tomorrow.  In keeping with their "freestyle" motto, NCL disembarkation is also free-style.  Rather than giving the staff all your post-cruise plans so they can assign color tags for disembarkation groups, each cabin needs to go to the Atrium today and pick a color group for your disembarkation time, first come, first served!  With limited availability, if the tags for the time you want are gone,  you have to pick another.  I got there early and got our desired time.

We decided to have lunch in the dining room rather than using the buffet.  We arrived there at the same time as Jim and Anne Curry, who invited us to join them.  Enjoyable to have a down-to-earth meal-time conversation with musicians we'd only known from their concerts. 

We headed out to town for some shopping and to see if there were any salmon running in Cripple Creek.  The shopping was more successful than the salmon watching!  In a favorite jewelry store to buy a gift for a friend, the salesman "kindly" showed us a new item unique to their store... after some negotiations, Mary now has a new piece to add to her collection!   

Tonight was a party and sing along for our JD group.  It started at 9:00 pm and was scheduled for 1 1/2 hours. Well, at midnight Mary and I finally called it a night, especially since the time change on the ship meant we lost an hour of sleep.  It was a great time, singing lots of favorites and other tunes. We were surprised when Chris Nole, a pianist, picked up a guitar and played along!  All in all, a good time was had by all.  Being so late I deferred doing this blog post to the next morning. 

Today is a sea day and our last full day on the ship.  It seems like ages ago when we were in Denali and Seward!  

Alaska John Denver Music Cruise Day 5

We had a very early excursion today (had to be ready for pickup by 7:20!) to catch the ferry to Haines so we could do a 1 1/2 hour float through the Chilkat Engle Preserve.  The float trip went very well with beautiful scenery, and we saw well over a dozen eagles. None were quite a close as when we did this excursion 3 years ago. While we saw many eagles it was hard to get good, clear pictures with the raft turning and moving, so only one eagle picture to post.

Having visited Skagway many times, after returning from Haines, we headed back to the ship to relax for a bit before the ship sails at 5:00 pm.  Dinner tonight is at one of the specialty restaurants, La Cucina.  We enjoyed our meal there Wednesday and look forward to more Italian food.

I found out later that we almost left 5 passengers in Juneau yesterday.  They arrived 30 minutes after the scheduled boarding time and the crew had already pulled up the gangplank. The crew did extend it back out for them and they hurried aboard. Close call! 

Alaska John Denver Music Cruise Day 4

Today we visited Juneau and went to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was pretty, but not quite as nice as being up close to the others we've seen earlier.  Next to the glacier was Hidden Falls.  In the early 1950's, the glacier extended beyond Hidden Falls. Signs in the Visitor Center said this glacier has been in retreat for about 200 years. 

 As we headed toward the Visitor Center, we walked along a creek that had salmon running.  Mary snapped this picture of two of them preparing a nest for their eggs  We saw many more as we walked on.  

After doing some shopping in town, we headed back to the ship for lunch since our boarding time was 12:45, very early by most port standards.  But that is because we were heading out to cruise Tracy Arm Fjord this afternoon before heading north to Skagway. 

But before visiting Tracy Arm, we had a Chris Nole concert!  Chris is one of my favorite musicians and he did a super job of playing his music, some of John Denver's, and a number with Jim Curry. we completely enjoyed hearing his playing.  After the concert, Chris invited me to meet him and some of his wife's family, who are also doing the cruise, at one of the ship's bars.  We had a great conversation.

Later, Mary and I enjoyed cruising Tracy Arm Fjord with its high cliffs and amazing waterfalls.  A camera does not come close to capturing the beauty the eye sees when  viewing this marvelous scenery.

One last event for this evening is a sing along with the Currys.  It was a lot of fun as we enjoyed singing lots of favorites. 

Alaska John Denver Music Cruise Day 3

Today we visited Icy Strait Point, one of the more infrequent cruise ports.  We did visit here once before in 2010. The port is much improved from that visit as they have now built a cruise ship dock so tendering is not needed. That had to cost a lot of $$$, and hopefully works out well for the local tribe to attract more cruise ships. 

I think we have the breakfast thing figured out.  Today we found a small, uncrowded brunch area where they had fruit, eggs, and omelets, and that worked out very well. Also, navigating around the ship is getting easier. 

 Once docked, we took a walk on the nature trail though the very beautiful forest, led by Anne Curry, one of the musicians.  The size of some of the plants was amazing; we saw HUGE leaves on many plants as we walked the well groomed trail.  

After lunch there was a JD singalong with the Curry's, which was well attended. We sang John Denver songs to our hearts' content! 

Tonight we had dinner in the Italian themed specialty restaurant, La Cucina. Our cruise package included three speciality dining meals so we scheduled two in this restaurant and one in Cagney's their steakhouse.  After that, we heard a string trio playing Vivaldi and Bach, a relaxing end to the day.