On The Road Again: We're back......

So sorry we have been such slackers in keeping up with our blog! My goodness, where to start??? Not good to go so long in between updates because the memory just isn't cooperating! :-)

Okay, let's go back to Seattle and the day of our cruise. It was an absolutely perfect day in Seattle - 70's and sunny. We boarded the ship around noon and just enjoyed hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. We left the dock about 4:00 and enjoyed the most spectacular views of Seattle and surrounding islands until time to go inside for dinner. Good thing we soaked up ALL of those rays because that was the LAST we saw of the sun until the last evening of our cruise!

Sharing a launching cocktail

Departing from Seattle on a
beautiful sunny day

Clear day in Seattle allows a good view of Mt Rainier.
Unfortunately the last sun we saw until we returned a week later

Gerry and I were lucky enough to take an Alaskan cruise 3 years ago where we had sunshine every day but one, nice temps and no rain at all for 10 days. Very rare for Alaska. This trip we found out what most days are like there - very gray, chilly and rainy! We MUCH prefer the sunny days!!! :-) We felt bad for my sister, bro-in-law and niece who never got to see one of those beautiful Alaskan days. There is such spectacular beauty in Alaska but most of it stays hidden when it's cloudy and rainy. Hard to imagine the huge mountains totally hidden by the low dense clouds.

All was not lost, however, because we went on the most amazing whale watch excursion (Orca Adventures). Captain Larry got us right out there, up close and personal, with the beautiful humpback whales where they were bubble-net feeding! Words just can't describe it. First you see seagulls circling an area and then all of a sudden you see 6-10 huge whales jumping straight up out of the water with open mouths to try to swallow as many fish as they can. The seagulls then get the left-overs. At one point we were watching for them and all of a sudden they were right next to the boat....I mean RIGHT next to the boat! I had my camera on video when all of a sudden they were right there, you hear screams and then my video goes blank. I'm not sure if that was ME screaming or someone screamed, scared me, and I accidently hit the off button. :-) Whatever happened, I thought I was filming the whole thing only to find out later that I only got a glimpse of it......soooo disappointed about that! Anyhow, they could not have been more than 20 feet from the boat. It was the most amazing thing we've ever seen!!! When we were there 3 years ago we took the excursion offered by Holland America. We saw bubble-net feeding then but from pretty far away. We would see these boats getting so close to the whales and we all said, "Look at those idiots getting so close to those huge whales!" This time WE were the idiots and it was FABULOUS!!! :-)

Bubble-net feeding..whales getting
ready to surface. Amazing sight
when they come up at the same time.

We were so close that we could actually
hear them singing! Awesome!

Beautiful re-entry to go back down

Our next exciting day on board was our day in Hubbard Glacier. The captain was able to get within 700 yards of the glacier and had the ship on port side for 1/2 hour and then starboard side for 1/2 hour so that people could be on their balconies and watch the calving. We had been on the back of the ship where they were passing out nice hot cups of split pea soup. Yummm! It tasted so good out there in the chilly, misty weather. But you have to experience the glaciers on the outside so that you can hear the calving. You hear sounds of thunder, which is the ice cracking, and then you watch to see where it's going to break off into the water below. It is an amazing sight! After hanging on the back of the ship for a while and then walking to the front to see it from there, we took off to hang out on our balcony where it was nice and quiet. Wow! We hung out on our balcony and were treated to this spectacular show right in front of us. I was actually able to keep my camera recording and catch some amazing calving. It was so amazing that people on their balconies were applauding and whooping it up!

I know it's hard to imagine that
it was cold while everybody back
home is in sweltering heat, but it was
COLD

Hard to imagine but these glaciers are 300 feet
high. Notice the blue hue.

This photo was taken just after massive calving. You can't imagine the load noise this makes even when we were 700
yards away. Sounds similar to loud thunder. First you hear the sound then you see all the ice come crumbling
down into the water.

My sister came down to our cabin to tell me about the park ranger on the ship (he came on board just to give information about the glacier). They had been hanging out with the park ranger on the front of the ship and he just happens to be from Fort Mill. He was born and raised there - Jarrod Funderburk. I went up to meet him and talk to him about back home. What a nice young man! He was excited to meet someone from back home and talk about some of his favorite places back there. Hopefully we'll see him back in Fort Mill. He will stay in Alaska until the end of Sept. He's loving it up there but also looking forward to getting back to Fort Mill.

I know I must be boring you with this lengthy blog, but there was just so much to tell. To sum it up, we ended up the cruise in Victoria, BC. We love this city! What a beautiful place. Just sad that the ship was late getting into port and we only had a few hours there. I took the trip out to Buchart Gardens with my sis and niece to see the gardens at nite. I'm thankful I had seen it before because this was a rush trip to make it through in a short time. If you go there, be sure to plan to spend a few hours there in order to see it all and to have time to STOP and smell the roses! :-) It is just spectacular!!!

We loved spending the time with my sis and her family on board the ship and thankful they got to experience 3 more days in Seattle and every one of them with sunshine! Amazingly, on Sat. morning when we disembarked, we were excited to get in the car and on the road again! We made a quick stop at a coffee shop to meet up with an old friend, Kim Nelson (Gerry worked for him at Primus). After a nice visit with Kim we were off to Spokane, WA. I will spare you from any more reading right now....uh huh, I actually think I hear an Amen out there! :-)