Sept. 18
As I am typing this, we are driving south on I-5 in northern California on our way back to Park Sierra. The sun is shining and we are enjoying that after fairly cool and occasionally rainy weather in Washington and Alaska the past few months. I haven’t posted since the beginning of our Alaska cruises on Sept. 2, so this update will be lengthy. Those of you who check this blog merely to see where we are and how we are, can quit reading after this paragraph if you want – we are both doing well, although I am recovering from a cold I picked up the last 3 days on the ship. Of course, we also picked up a few pounds despite the fact that we worked out in the gym nearly every day. Now the task is to get those off before the next two cruises start on October 14!
The Radiance of the Seas is a beautiful Royal Caribbean ship, which we were eager to compare to the Jewel of the Seas, her sister ship which we sailed on in April-May first to England and then to the Scandinavian countries and Russia. The Radiance had just undergone about 3 weeks in drydock before she started the Alaska season, so there were some major differences in the ships. Our cruise started in Vancouver, always a beautiful city and mostly sunny the day we sailed. Here is a picture of Elaine on the ship with the Vancouver downtown skyline behind her.

We sailed out of Canada Place, right on the downtown waterfront, with beautiful views all around the entire harbor area. It was exciting to sail under the Lion’s Gate bridge which connects downtown to North Vancouver. That evening we joined our cruising friends, David & Diane Wilson, Carol & Byron Hall, Mark Lorenzetti, and Pene DeMore at Chops Grille, one of the specialty restaurants, to celebrate David’s 65th birthday.

Diane had surprised David with these Alaska cruises as his BD present and secretly convinced all of us to join them on the ship. Chops is always the best restaurant on the ship and our dinner together was delicious and also fun.
After a day of cruising along the Canadian coast, and up through the lower part of the inland passage, we reached Ketchikan. I will let the pictures tell most of the story: Elaine and I are standing on the dock across from the gangway in Ketchkan in this shot, and you can see there are lots of small boats there and wooden rustic houses on the hill.

In most of the Alaska ports the hills and mountains rise dramatically up right behind the town buildings and the towns are small. Ketchikan is in what’s called the “rainforest”, and it rains at least part of the day, an average of 360 days a year! This rain gauge was near the docks

to remind us of this fact. Happily for us, it wasn’t raining! This is also “the king salmon capitol of the world” (self proclaimed), and this is the time of year when the salmon are returning to the rivers and creeks where they were hatched in order to spawn. So we headed up to the area of the creek where we could see them. This is a fish ladder.

It enables the fish to get off to the side of the raging river to swim and jump upriver in calmer areas created by the ladder. Here is a picture of some of the salmon resting in one of the fish ladder areas:

You can see the rushing water of the main river on the left. We saw quite a few dead fish lying alongside the river on some grassy areas too.
Proceeding down the creek on a wooden boardwalk, which is called the Married Men’s Trail, we came upon many wooden buildings built partially over the creek, which used to compose the Red Light District when this was a mining and logging town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Now most of them are either restaurants or shops to entice tourists. Dolly’s House was one of the more famous (or infamous) and long-lasting bordellos, and it is now restored as a museum with one of the “girls” offering tours for $5.

Of course, right where the cruise ships dock there are lots of gift shops selling genuine Alaska artifacts, tee shirts, jackets, etc. While we were on Creek Street, we started shopping for Ulu knives, which are implements used by the native people to do everything requiring cutting, even filleting fish.

We already have one which we mainly use to chop veggies. But ulu knives make great gifts because they are one of the few Alaska souvenirs which is useful. Diane wanted one for her daughter, so we started the search for a unique one which took us to a lot of stores in every port for the entire 2 weeks! While we were shopping, we saw a some very nice baskets, made by First Nations people, such as these:

Especially valuable and attractive baskets are made of baleen, which are the fibrous filaments found by the thousands in whale mouths, used to filter the krill that they survive on out of the seawater.

Later on we learned that many items being sold to tourists such as whale bone handled ulu knives, baleen baskets, carved walrus ivory, etc. are not allowed into Canada and would be confiscated by customs people when we returned to Vancouver. Many people had these items shipped, or mailed them home.
Totem poles carved by the First Nation people, or Inuits, are found in a couple of centers in Ketchikan.

We noticed some scattered around the downtown, and a few in front of people’s homes:

When we returned to the ship, I took this picture of a home located across the inlet from Ketchikan:

It shows all the methods of transport needed by someone living on the Inside Passage, where it is not possible to drive into the towns– you must come by boat or plane. These people have a float plane, several boats, and a car to drive into town.
Juneau, the state capitol, and our next stop, was overcast when we arrived but the setting was still stunning, since the mountains surrounding the city are so steep and waterfalls cascade down above the houses:

Some of the buildings have decorative murals on them

Our gang took the local bus out to the Alaskan Brewing Company:

Elaine and I like Alaskan Amber beer, and in the tasting room there were 9 beers on tap, with each person being allowed 6 free glasses to sample. There was also an informative talk about how the brewery got its start:

They have lots of colorful gear for sale and very friendly staff. By the time we left, it was raining, so we took the bus back to the ship.
We arrived in Skagway very early in the morning so we missed seeing the town as we parked, but later got this shot showing what a beautiful setting this place has.

Here is a picture of the main street, showing a cruise ship parked at the end of town and mountains with glaciers on top towering over everything.

Here is a closeup of the glacier:

Skagway developed as a gold rush town in 1897 because of its location near the passes leading to Dawson City and the gold fields. First it was a tent city, then wooden buildings and boardwalks emerged, which still exist today, after being restored, I’m sure. Most of the buildings are now shops selling everything tourists demand:

Because it was near the end of the season (our cruise was the last for Radiance in Alaska this season) there were huge sales in every town, with 50% off merchandise in most places. Having no intention of making this a shopping trip, we ended up buying some nice sweatshirts, shirts, and fleeces just because they were so inexpensive and of good quality. Shopping tip for the future: Juneau and Skagway were the best places to shop with the biggest discounts and the most selection. Skagway also has some creative ways to see the surrounding area such as the White Pass to the Yukon, the Chilkoot trail, and Emerald Lake :

The Red Onion Saloon is from the Gold Rush days and is a lot of fun today too. The White Pass and Yukon railroad takes you through a stunning area, but is a bit pricey at about $120 per person.

This picture shows the locomotive with the huge blower on the front which is needed to remove snow from the tracks in winter

We didn’t do any out of town excursions since we spent quite a bit of time here in 1995 in our RV and had explored everything then, including hiking part of the Chilkoot Trail. Here is a picture of our group heading back to our ship (in the background) with several full shopping bags, and you can see by the way we are dressed, it was a cool day!

Sailing out of Skagway, in the Inside Passage, we had some incredible scenery to watch.




This is when we really appreciated seeing Alaska from the water since people who drive up and back miss these water views. In 1995 we drove our RV up and returned to the USA by taking the Alaska Marine Ferry which you can see here:

It doesn’t look very big but it carries lots of trucks, RVs, cars and people all over the Inside Passage. We took our RV off at every port and spent several days exploring each place – it was great!
The next day the amazing views continued as we entered Yakutat Bay and our ship went very close to the Hubbard Glacier.

In this next picture you can see the front of the glacier and the “river” of ice behind it.

It is one of the longest glaciers at about 76 miles, and it starts in the Yukon! The face of it, on the water, is about 6 miles wide, and our ship got to within ½ mile of it. Ships don’t go any closer because of “shooters” which are ice fragments that break off under water and shoot up, possibly causing hull damage. There were several loud booms, and some big pieces of ice fell off the face, which is called “calving”. Here is a closeup of the Face:

Later the sun came out and shone brilliantly off the snowcapped mountains towering over the glacier:

The ship stayed at the glacier for several hours, doing 360 degree turns, so that everyone on the ship would have a good view and plenty of time to take pictures. Later, as we sailed away and down the Inside Passage again, we had many hours of scenic viewing of the mountain range running along there, and the tallest mountain called Mt. Elias.

On Friday, Sept. 9 we arrived in Seward, on Alaska’s mainland, where most of the passengers debarked. About 66 people stayed on board for the return cruise to Vancouver, and they had a very nice lunch for us in the dining room while the ship was being prepped for the incoming hoardes. Then Diane, David, Elaine and I went off to explore Seward

You can tell by our jackets and hats that it was very cold. Seward is also in a gorgeous setting:

Our ship was docked near the small boat slips and tall mountains with glaciers on top were all around. There are nearly 100,000 glaciers in Alaska! Seward is mile 0 on the Iditarod Trail.

Miners blazed trails to the gold fields in central and western Alaska and sled dogs carried supplies from ships to the goldfields using this trail. Now the Iditarod starts in Fairbanks and ends in Nome every year and is merely a strenuous race. Seward is the smallest town we were in yet there was a free shuttle from the port to the downtown. We walked around and noticed lots of RV parking right along the waterfront. At the boat slip area a charter boat had just come in and hung up the day’s catch for a photo:

I should have taken this picture with someone in it so you could see how big these halibut were – the center one weighs over 100 pounds!
The second week of cruising we visited the same ports, which worked out well because we mostly had different weather and/or experiences in each place. The Hubbard Glacier day was overcast this time and we could see the colors of the glacier better than when the sun was shining on it.

There was also a large number of icebergs in a stream near the glacier

and in this shot you can see that some showed the blue color:

Icy Strait Point was formerly a place where there was a salmon and crab canning facility mostly run by the Hoonah nations people. It has been acquired by Royal Caribbean and the huge cannery building turned into a museum and also shops.

We took the tender in with Diane and David and went for a walk through the nearby forest.


Royal Caribbean has built the world’s longest zipline here, but we didn’t take it as it would have cost $99 pp. Then we walked through the old cannery. Here is Elaine near the huge crab pots they used:

The canning equipment was old but has been restored and explanations were posted.

Some of the Hoonah nations people let us take their picture:

The tenders returned us to the ship

As we were moored there, we saw the spouts of lots of humpback whales.
Of course, besides the ports, ship life is also enjoyable. Byron & Carol received an award for achieving Pinnacle status – that means 700 cruise points with Royal Caribbean!

The rest of us are merely Diamond + members but that is enough because we get free drinks every evening from 5 to 8:30 in the Diamond Lounge which had great views and fabulous service, by Jaime, from Brazil, and Rodrigo from Mexico. Here is Jaime with one of the drink trays:

The last night he picked up Rodrigo for this picture:

Here is our gang in the lounge:

On the ship there were some new specialty restaurants (which we paid extra for) so we tried 2 of them. Here is our gang at the Samba Brazilian Grill, which had wonderful ambiance, great views, beautiful dishes, delicious appetizers and side dishes, and 9 main course meats served on a sword with the waiter slicing off as much as you want. ALL of the meats were extremely salty and very over cooked. We would never go there again.

The second restaurant, Izumi’s, was a sushi place and I had my doubts because I don’t like it that much. But the food was fantastic! Look at this lunch assortment:

And here is my happy sushi lover enjoying it:

We went back twice.
On cruising days we often ate at the Park Café in the Solarium, which had good food, a nice atmosphere, no crowds, was free, and had good service. Here are Pene, Mark, and Elaine in the Solarium:

This ship had the youngest captain in the fleet and maybe the best we have had yet. We met him several times at various functions and because he is Norwegian, I think he looks like my youngest brother, Jerry.

I’m sure the ship was as fabulous as it was because his presence was constant everywhere on the ship and he always gave so much credit to his crew.
Thanks for traveling with us!!!

9/2/11 Just a quick post before we catch the shuttle to the Radiance of the Seas here in Vancouver, BC. On the way here we stopped in Seattle and visited with my granddaughter, Paige when she was at work at Nordstrom. Here are some pix:

Then we visited Linda Lightfoot, a longtime buddy of Elaine's from school in Illinois, and her partner Greta. Here is a picture of them:

After a nice overnight stay with them, we drove up here to Vancouver and stayed at a hotel where Carol & Byron Hall were also staying. So we went out to dinner together last evening at a Vietnamese place. Good food and good company.

When we get on the ship today, we will be joining David & Diane Wilson, Pene DeMore, and Mark Lorenzetti to celebrate David's birthday at Chops tonight. Let the partying begin!

8/30/11 This will be my last post before we go on the Alaska cruises. Currently we are set up at the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend. Tomorrow we will move our rig to the dry storage area for the 16 days we will be away. Then we will drive our car to the Kingston ferry which will take us across Puget Sound and over to Edmonds. My wonderful granddaughter, Paige, works at Nordstrom only 9 miles from there and we will be taking her out for lunch and having a visit. She will also help Elaine find a suitable outfit for the Oct. 8 wedding of her son, Darran, and Marielle, the best daughter-in-law ever. In the late afternoon we will return to Edmonds to stay with Linda Lightfoot and Greta McKay. Linda and Elaine have been friends since kindergarten, back in Illinois! The next day we will drive to Richmond, BC where we have a hotel booked, and where we can also leave our car for 2 weeks while we are cruising. Lynda & Jo, 2 other friends live near there and will be visiting us at our hotel that evening. Friday we take the hotel shuttle to the ship and the next adventure begins!
Since I last posted, we have been very busy because the Sekiu fishing and the processing continued until a few days ago. I showed you a few pictures of Elaine and Peggy and their big fish, but I neglected to show what happens next: cleaning the fish! Here is a picture of Chuck, Elaine, George and Ron at the cleaning station, which is right on the dock where they moored their boats.

Then the brining, smoking and canning commenced. I took lots of pictures at the many social functions we had with the group but none of them turned out very well so I won't include one here. But here is a very unusual picture, because everyone knows how Elaine is not very fond of animals and is also allergic to cats.

This dog in her lap is Sassy, George and Judy Hilke's dog, who was so cute and friendly and who decided she just loved Elaine and jumped in her lap at every opportunity. After a few times like this, I think she had won Elaine over!
A few of the days at Sekiu were sunny and gorgeous from the very beginning of the day, and on one of those days we drove out through Neah Bay to the very northwest tip of Washington called Cape Flattery. There is a nice hike from the parking lot on a fairly easy trail, through a nice forest, which they say is 1/2 mile, but really is a bit longer. Towards the end, there are a few places where a side trail took us to nice overlooks, such as me at this one:

In the forest we saw this interesting sight, a tree artistically hosting some fungus:

Then we reached the end of the trail where there was a viewing platform and we could see the island about 200 yards away with the lighthouse on it. Here are some pictures from there:


And some lovely views of the coastline:

Sunday we left Sekiu and drove back to the SKP park at Chimicum. Ron & George had been out crabbing in Port Townsend and everyone got together again for a crab feed and potluck at Chuck & Peggy's lot. Everything was delicious and we met some very nice people who are park members.
Yesterday was my 67th birthday, so we went into Port Townsend for a scenic walk. Port Townsend has a lot of historic buildings and many of them have been nicely restored. Here is a picture of me on one of the wharfs with Port Townsend in the background:

Most of the buildings are from 1889 such as this one:

Then we walked down to the marina, where there are some interesting boats, especially during the Wooden Boat Festival which will start on Sept. 9 this year. Here is Elaine at the marina:

On our walk back through town, we passed a row of women with a sign in front of them which said: "Women In Black". They do not speak because words cannot express the tragedy that war and hatred bring, and they dress in black because they are mourning the lives broken or lost through violent acts such as war. They meet every week on Mondays and stand there making this silent statement for an hour.

This was very sobering, so we went to drown our sorrows and also celebrate my birthday by having a microbrew on the outside deck of Sirens, a local restaurant and bar. Here we are enjoying the amber ale on tap there:

Of course, one beer isn't enough to celebrate 67 years of a great life, so we returned to David & Ann's at their lot in Port Hadlock for another tasty Happy Hour with more delicious treats and chilled champagne and wine. Here Elaine & Ann are setting up the feast:

Then Joss, Gail and David joined us for the goodies:

Of course, we brought them some recently caught salmon, and we will be bringing some on our visits tomorrow too with Paige and Linda & Greta. Does knowing this induce any of you to encourage us to visit when we are in your area? We hope so!!!!

8/20/11 Just had to post a few pictures to show that Elaine, Peggy and Chuck are finally catching some nice salmon. Yesterday Elaine caught a nice sized silver:

And Peggy did too:

They caught several others too, which Chuck and Elaine rapidly cleaned and filleted.

The past few days I have been busy smoking and canning their catch so we can enjoy these beauties all year!
Of course, since the season for catching Chinooks (Kings) ended Monday, Wednesday Elaine caught a really nice big King that would have been a keeper just a few days before. And yesterday Peggy caught a huge silver that was too big for the net, and when they were trying to get it into the boat, broke the line and escaped with the best lure still in its mouth.
Hopefully, today the catching will still go on because then we have happy campers here!

8/17/11 Another sunny day at Sekiu where we are still fishing with the RoVing Rods. Unfortunately, for Elaine, the fishing hasn't been as productive as she had hoped and she is starting to become rather frustrated. So far she has only caught 6 fish, and the limit is 4 per day. She has been going out on Chuck and Peggy's boat and they have been giving her some of the ones they caught too, but they haven't got many either. Part of the problem has been that one of the couples here brought their 2 young grandsons, and when this many people are depending on going out on one boat, everyone has to take turns. Ron & George have been going out in their own boat and have been getting their limit nearly every day, but they stay out longer too. And one day, Ron caught an 18 pound king fish - the best fish caught by the group so far. King season ended Monday, and now they have to hope they catch silvers, although pinks (or humpys, as they are also called) are just fine with us because they taste good when they are brined, smoked and canned.
We have been having many sunny days, but that does not mean that they are warm days. The wind comes off the water and often it is cold. Yesterday was pretty foggy too. The good thing is that we haven't had much rain.
We have managed to get 2 smokers full of fish to can and here is a picture of what the pieces look like when I get them out of the smoker:

We have been having Happy Hours with the group and also some potlucks. Besides the 5 rigs that are here, Carol Noyes and Maggie Speight drove up for a few days and stayed in the motel. Carol fished one day with Chuck and Peggy and Elaine.
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Here are two pictures of one of the potlucks at our picnic table. This is the Underwoods with their two grandsons:

Here are the Palumbos, Bonhams, Hilkes and Elaine:

One day Elaine and I drove into Forks for some supplies, and then drove out to La Push, which is on the ocean and in an Indian reservation. The beach there has a lot of driftwood:

And there are lots of islands offshore:

Today is Barb Underwood's birthday so Elaine and I are fixing spaghetti and homemade sourdough bread for everyone and Barb is making her own cake. Tomorrow is Ron Bonham's birthday but we haven't made any plans for that yet. Perhaps there will be Polar Bears (an alcoholic drink with uses vodka, kahlua, ice and vanilla ice cream in a blender). Quite decadent and they really sneak up on you, not to mention the calories....
We are planning to stay here for about 10 more days and hope that the catching of fish starts to pick up!

Blog Update August 4, 2011
Hello from Sekiu, WA which is a small town mostly inhabited by visiting sport fishermen and located on the Straits of Juan de Fuca near the farthest Northwest point of the USA. On our arrival, Monday, it was warm and sunny, which is a fairly unusual occurrence here.

Although we have had 2 more sunny days since then. We established ourselves in the campground on the bluff overlooking Olson’s Marina, and are waiting for the rest of the RoVing Rods to arrive, probably next Monday. There are always plenty of chores we can do of a housekeeping nature while we are “alone”. On one of our first walks around here, we went down by the boat ramp where there are three rock formations called the “Three Sisters”. Here is a picture of Elaine with the carved eagle near there, and the Sisters are behind her.

We will be here for the month of August because of the fishing, and also the only reasonably priced option when you stay here is to pay the monthly rate. Also, we are planning to stay in the area until early Sept. when we will be leaving our RV at the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend, while we drive the car to Vancouver, BC and take a 2 week Alaska cruise on the Radiance of the Seas. That will be between Sept. 2 and the 16th. Some of our cruise friends from other voyages will be along and it should be great because we haven’t been to Alaska since 1995.
When we last posted to this blog, we had contacted Laurie & Odel, from our Boomer group, and were planning to meet them over on Whidbey Island where they were staying in an RV place in Oak Harbor. Saturday we walked on the ferry between Port Townsend and Coupeville. It runs fairly often and is probably the biggest bargain in WA because the Senior rate meant we paid $5.50 for both of us to go over and back! Here is a picture of Elaine with Laurie and Odel when they met us at Coupville and the ferry is in the background.

From there we went to the Farmer’s Market in Coupeville. It wasn’t a big market but there were some interesting produce stands, in that they had unusual stuff. Here is a picture of some of the big cabbages they were selling, one of which isa Dutch cabbage, kind of flattened and has thinner leaves than a regular cabbage.

Right next to it were these cauliflowers of varying colors:

We hadn’t seen Mick & Ann Meilike since January in Quartzsite, so we were delighted when they drove over to join all of us for lunch. Laurie & Odel had previously eaten at a restaurant called Kim’s which is scenically out on a dock and located right over the water, and which had delicious mussels.

The cove here, called Penn Cove, is famous for mussels and you can even buy them in 5 pound bags in Costco. They had a very nice menu and we all ate lots of good seafood. Then we got another patron to take a picture of our whole group:

Coupeville is an old town with lots of history and the small shops along main street are cute.

We walked around a bit and also stopped for an ice cream cone. Thank goodness Elaine and I shared one because they were huge, but Ann, who loves ice cream enjoyed every bite of her own, as you can see in this picture.

It is a mystery how she stays so trim! After more walking along the cliffs, enjoying the gorgeous sunny day we were having, Mick & Ann left and we four went over to Fort Casey, an old military installation on the bluffs near the ferry terminal. There were lots of cement bunkers sunk into the ground so that they could not be seen from approaching ships until the huge guns were raised. Here is a picture of Elaine and Odel on the bunker with one of the guns behind them.

Later, when we were on the ferry, we marveled over how well hidden this entire installation was. Overall it was a great day with good friends, made even better by sunny weather and delicious food.
One other day we drove to Port Hadlock and had a delightful happy hour with David Brown and Ann Howells.

We met them years ago at Boomerville in Quartzsite, and stayed with them for a week when we were in South Africa in early 2008, because they always go there during our winter and rent a house there in the winelands near Capetown. When you are with David and Ann, you always have delicious appetizers served with interesting and good wines. They park their RV on a lot overlooking the water in Port Hadlock and we were lucky enough to be invited to have our Happy Hour in the yard of their “landlords” Gail & Joss, and on another brilliantly sunny day.

Gail & Joss built their own house and it is perfect for this site and full of many unique features in wood and glass because Joss does woodworking and Gail does stained glass. After we adjourned to the RV, we had good travel talk with David & Ann. These are four delightful and talented people!
While we were still staying at the SKP park in Chimicum, we enjoyed social situations with members of the RoVing Rods, and also Flo Palumbo and Colette Eisele. Flo is Chuck’s twin sister, but we had previously met Flo & Co at a women’s community and they are also friends with many of the women couples in the community near Port Townsend. They invited us to go with them to a public concert of the Port Townsend Summer Band at a local park. Here is Elaine sitting with Co & Flo at the concert.

Some of their friends were members of the band. Here is the band crammed into a very small bandstand:

Then they took us to the party put on by some of their friends, Gail & Jan, out in the Cape George Colony, which is a very beautiful and pricey residential community overlooking Discovery Bay.

We met lots of very nice women who all live in the Port Townsend area, at least in the summer. They made us feel very welcome and also sorry that we probably won’t be back here for a while to enjoy their company again.
The next day we drove out here to Sekiu. It is only about 90 miles from Port Townsend but it took us all day to get here because we made so many stops. Sequim was our longest stop because there is a Costco and WalMart there and we wanted to stock up on things before coming out to this fairly remote area. We used to stay in Sequim on the property of Elaine’s cousin, Sheila, who owned the Juan de Fuca Cottages. This was the most upscale lodging choice on Marine Drive, overlooking the Dungeness Spit, and on a clear day you can see Victoria, over on Vancouver Island. Sheila sold it a few years ago and we hadn’t been back, so we drove out to look at it again. The new owners have developed the 5 acres behind the cottages which Sheila was using as a pasture, and the place still looks great. It gave us feelings of nostalgia to see it.
The main reason the RoVing Rods come here is to catch salmon, and they are currently running. Today our neighbor caught a very nice sized King salmon, and nearly everyone is catching a few silvers and limiting out with humpies (pinks). Some people look their noses down on pinks but we find that if you brine them, smoke them and can them, they are very good. And since they seem to be plentiful, we are hoping to catch quite a few once the guys get here with the fishing boats. So hopefully, the next post you see will have lots of pictures of us catching and preparing salmon!!!