Juneau

This town was first settled by Alaska natives, thousands of years ago. When the first white men, Joe Juneau and Richard Harris arrived about 1880, they found an Auk Indian fishing camp at the mouth of the Gold Creek. Chief Kaw.u helped them discover gold in Silverbow Basin and the rest is history.

Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, lies along the beautiful Gatineau Channel at the foot of snow-capped mountains Roberts and Juneau. We docked right in downtown and caught a shuttle to the Mendenhall Glacier, named for a scientist who helped survey and decide the border between Alaska and Canada. It is one of the 38 glaciers that flow from the 5000 sq. mile expanse of rock, snow and ice known as the Juneau icefields. Gravity pulls a glacier down slope, grinding the bedrock. It takes this ice 200-250 years to travel the 13 ½ miles to the lake. The glacier calves into the lake, filled with icebergs, where the ice retreats 100-150’ per year. Glacier ice appears blue because it absorbs all the colours of the spectrum except blue which it transmits. White also appears as the air pockets fracture the ice, scattering the visible light spectrum. Here you can hike trails up to the glacier. As glaciers move, they grind rock into a fine powder called rock flour, which is blown across the glacier causing it to look dirty. It also escapes with the glacier melt water to create the lakes’ murky colour. As we approached the glacier, we found a bear cub up a tree. Our driver hates them as they get into their garbage no matter what they do. You can see the icebergs in the lake. There was a great Interpretive Center that showed 2 movies. Our Native guide gave us lots of information and I was surprised by the wetlands up the channel.

We left Juneau at 3:30 and headed up Tracy Arm to the Sawyer Glacier. The icebergs were amazing and so numerous that the Captain was steering left and right going around them. We made the 'big bend' a 90 degree angle, then the S turn and were so close when we had to turn around.Too many icebergs, too dangerous. Spent a glorious afternoon on deck.

Ketchikan

After a day at sea, we arrived in Alaska’s First City, the Salmon Capital of the World at 8 a.m. in beautiful sunshine. Ketchikan’s name is an adaptation of the native name of the local creek. This island community, accessible only by sea or air, is located on Revillagegedo Island on the famed Alaska Inside Passage. As we had breakfast we were amazed by the amount of activity, boats and seaplanes in this very busy place. You land at the dock on Front St. which is lined with all the tourist specialty shops and about 30 jewelery stores, most which were giving away free charms. Walking around town, I toured the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center which was incredible. The entry has 3 exquisitely carved totem poles soaring to the ceiling, next to a stuffed brown bear. Next you walk through a rainforest with animals and birds calling and running water from the stream. The Ecosystem room showed the salmon on Ketchikan Creek on the underwater camera by the hatchery. There are exhibits on fishing, recreation, wildlife, mining and more. The whole town sits on a small strip of land backing into the Tongass National Forest, 17 million acres in size, the largest National Forest in the U.S., designated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. It is the largest temperate rainforest in the world, a land of beauty, mystery and untold natural resources. Ketchikan has 162” rainfall and 32” snow per year. My walk took me to Creek Street, built on stilts along Ketchikan Creek. In 1903, the city council ordered all the bordellos moved across the creek from the townsite so this area was the red light district from 1903 – 1953. There were more than 30 bawdy houses with 1-2 working girls lining the boardwalk. During Prohibition, rowboats slipped in on high tide and smuggled liquor slipped up thorough the trapdoors. Today ‘Dolly’ stands outside her house which is the same as she left it when she left town.

North to Alaska

It's been a busy time and now has Paul dropped us at the Pan Pacific Convention Center on Vancouver's waterfront where we embarked for our 7 night Alaskan cruise. We funneled through a very orderly line, through American Customs and had lunch on board. We met people from Mayne Island, Arkansas, Australia, U.K., North Carolina. P.E.I., Tennessee and it appeared, the rest of the world. My favourite was the Australian couple who flew to Denver Co. to visit family for a week, then took this ship from Miami to cruise to L.A., then the cruise from L.A. to Vancouver and now Vanc to Alaska. Being in the Vanc harbour was delightful, a view we’ve never see. The waterfront is fascinating with the shipping harbor and loading cranes, the heliport, the waterfront park, the Seabus crossing back and forth, the commercial activity in N. Vanc and all the activities going on. We sailed past Stanley Park following the seawall under Lions Gate Bridge. I was holding my breath, it appeared we cleared it by 5’. It was so much fun cruising past West Vanc trying to spot landmarks. And off into the sunset we went. Although it was cloudy, it was warm so people were already in the hot tubs and playing chess. We enjoyed dinner in the Summer Palace, the dining room which is the same as the Versailles when we were on the Norwegian Star in the Panama Canal. This ship, Norwegian Pearl has an Asian influence in the decorating but lots of the areas are the same as the Star. We enjoyed the evening entertainment in the Stardust Theater.

Last Day in Mexico

I was down at the pools with the kids by 9 a.m. while S and J worked. We played our way through 3 different pools and ended up by the restaurant pool where we met Suz and James later. Trey is now swimming underwater and can go across the pool. I told Hana and Lexi that I did 70 lengths a day so made them swim 10. They thought it was hard work. The girls and I do Sudoku together. I just love this complex. We had our last swims, then bussed to the airport and I flew home to rainy B.C.

Date Night

Another great day at the swimming pools, including a waterball dodgeball game where someone gets doused. The girls and I played Uno after dinner and laughed like goofs. I sent James and Suzanne out for a date last night and they had a great time at Mark's in Bucharias.

Major Breakthroughs in the Swimming Pool

Today I took the kids to 2 new swimming pools. Workers were repairing the tiles in one, fascinating. The 2nd one hung over the ocean. We had our breakthrough in the 3rd one after lunch. I showed Lexi how to float on her back and for a gal who doesn't like to get her face wet, she loved it and was amazing. Then Hana finally put her head down and did some great dives. Trey does a super cannonball. Wonderful day - I'm wondering where I can get a job as a full time nanny and live in warm swimming pools.

A Day at Sayulita

We jumped on the local bus up to the Sayulita beach again and loved the sun, swimming, and today Omi learned how to boogie board on the waves. Finally caught on and rode all the way to shore 3 times. Very fun. Here's Suzanne riding a wave with a 6' one coming in behind her. The kids had bracelets made with their names spelled on them. It was fascinating to watch the fellow move the strands of thread to form the letters very quickly. Another guy came by with his 2 canaries and for 100 pesos, a canary would come out of the cage and pick up a folded paper with it's beak and give you your inspirational message.