Anchorage Museums

The power in Anchorage went off at about 10.00 am today apparently due to the strong winds. We decided to head for the shopping mall because Greg said they would have their own generator.

It was freezing outside, I am sure the wind came directly from the South Pole and with the rain all I can say is brrrrrrrrrr.  I had on a beanie but my face got so cold it felt like it was burning so I had to wrap my scarf around  to keep the wind at bay.

Took ourselves to the downtown museum after the mall (power had come back on by this stage), it was so nice and warm in the museum but it took about 2 hours for me to "thaw" out.

On the way back to the hotel we called into a police museum, it is done really well. They had police paraphanelia from other countries, there was a NSW police cap and the sign was spelt New South Whales.
                                                Entrance to the Mall

Life size synthetic Moose

Anchorage Zoo

I was looking at the zoo tourist brochure and saw they have many animals we have never seen, so off to the visitor centre we went to catch the complimentary coach. It took about 25 mins to get there so we were able to see suburban anchorage.

Wow, the animals at the zoo are amazing. We saw black bears, grizzly bears, Yuks (from Tibet) , snow leopards,moose, caribou, porcupines, river otters, eagles, Siberian tigers and a Linx  to name a few. It was very educational.
                                                         Brown Bear

Snow Leopard

A sleeping Polar Bear......very cute

Anchorage

Back in Anchorage doing all the tourist spots, it is a nice town and very welcoming to tourists.

We were in the lobby today and a young man came in, rather upset and asked us if we could take him to the hospital. Apparently he had been attacked and his wallet stolen. It looked like his nose may have been broken and he had a swollen eye that was starting to turn black. He wasn't from Anchorage and was feeling a bit isolated. He started to get a bit teary so I got the hotel to call him a taxi to take him to the hospital, I gave the taxi driver $20 and the boy $50. He thanked me very much and said I was a good christian and then asked me to pray with him (this behaviour is normal for Americans). I didn't want to upset or disillusion him so pray I did.

We walked around town and got our bearings, called into a couple of shops, spent some money and headed back to the hotel.

Tutka Bay photos

Tutka Bay Wilderness Lodge 2

The 6.30 wine and cheese was great. Most staff come in and have a chit chat, it is interesting because we hear their stories and where they are originally from.

I have decided I want to adopt the chef, the food is better than perfect and is presented in a way that makes you just want to "dig in".

We went out for about 1.5 hrs last night on our boat ride and came across some sea otters and mountain goats. Problem is the goats were so high up they looked like little white dots.

There are  2 female writers staying here. They are doing an article on the Lodge. What a life both of them have led. One of them lived in Australia for 12 months. She went to Melbourne University for her final year. Since then she has travelled and lived in numerous places. The other one lived in Russia for 12 months. She was working for some agency and was stationed there. They are both very funny we were in stitches at times.

Being daylight at 11.00 pm at night is an experience. We don't have trouble sleeping, probably because of the clean air we are breathing in.

I had my complimentary massage today, all  I can say is my body felt 20 years younger . Greg went on a 4 hour hike with a couple of the staff.  I am so glad he has somebody to go on his "short" treks instead of dragging me along. Apparently husband extraordinaire tripped and fell over into a bit of a ditch, it took 2 of them to get him out!

The sun is shining so we are going to sit outside for awhile.

Tutka Bay Wilderness Lodge

We caught a plane from Anchorage for a quick 45 minute flight to Homer which is about 120 miles south of Anchorage. We caught a taxi to a place named the "Spit". It is where all the boats are anchored and has a few little shops as well. We shared a cab with a guy from California, apparently he comes up here each year to do some fishing. He was "interesting"..... He knows everything about anything!

Hopped on the (very small) water taxi that took about 25 minutes to get to the lodge. There we were greeted by 4 staff members (we are special you know) , given an orientation then shown to our cabin. We are staying in the Eagles Nest cabin. The views, peacefulness, fresh air are all heaven. I could sit on the porch in the rocking chair (yes you heard correctly, rocking chair) and take in the view for our entire stay.

After a most delicious lunch of red salmon and lentils, we went on a short walk with 2 of the guides. We were taken through a rain Forrest, nothing like the tropical rain forrests, and discovered all types of plant life, it was very interesting. The guides were so enthusiastic that when we finished the walk I almost decided to become an expert on moss and fungi.

Apparently we have wine and cheese at 6.30 pm followed by dinner at 7.00 pm. After dinner we are going out on a boat ride, very exciting. By the way, the sun is now setting at about 11.00 pm.

End of Cruise

At long last we are able to connect to the internet free, easily and fast. It was not only very very expensive on the ship ( I paid about $250 for about 3.5 hours), but it was also very slow and in certain places it dropped out or you couldn't get access at all.

Anyway, it was a great trip and we are pleased we did it, there was some very scenic cruising through Glacier Bay ( yes we saw some ice break off and hit the water, very thunderous) College Fjord and Prince William Sound. Can you believe it was 25 years ago that the big oil spill occurred in PrinceWilliam Sound. After all that time the whales and the herring. Fish have not returned. The area is still recovering all this time later.

The ship docks at a place called Whittier which is about 2.0 hrs from Anchorage. We got a bus to take us downtown. On the way we passes through the longest tunnel in the world that has trains and cars passing through it. Get this, the tunnel has 8 safe houses inside in case of some catastrophe!

Our. Hotel is more of a motel than a hotel, but the staff are great. We are here for one night then we go south to a place called Homer and catch a water taxi to the Wilderness Lodge, we will be there for 3 nights, then we come back to Anchorage for 4 nights. The staff have very kindly agreed to store our suitcases while we are away. God bless Americans.

Below are some photos of Glacier Bay:

Princess Cruise - Skagway

Going on a cruise is very bad for the weight, I am sure both of us have stacked on the weight. I have been cutting back on the food but oh he with the sweet tooth can't resist the sweets.

There is soooo much entertainment, we have seen a magician, he was great and tonight we are going to a singing and dancing show.  We also had a talk from the 1st woman to win the husky race back when. She took us through what her and the dogs had to persevere to get to the finish line. It is really very amazing.

We have docked in a number of small towns now and have done a few tours to get to know each place.

We went on a restored 1927 bus today and did a tour of the town and residential area. The conductor was very entertaining. He came to Alaska from England in 1995 and loved it so much he ended up staying. If there was not tourism in these small towns they would not survive. Today there are 4 ships docked and we are told ships come in every day until the end of summer.

As much as possible we try to go off the beaten track and find little cafe's that the locals use and we have come across some nice ones. Tomorrow we start cruising along side the glaciers. I wonder how big they will be.

Travelling must have caught up with me yesterday, I slept solid for about 12 hours, but I felt great when I finally got up.

Cruise - Ketchikan

The ship arrived in Ketchikan at 6.30 am. The town has a population of 8,000 with a further 6,000 living outside the town limits.

Ketchikan is the Salmon capital of the world. They have smoked, canned, jerky salmon to mention a few ways it is processed.

We did a tour of the state park and learnt about how the Indians lived and went through one of the houses. Afterwards we had a tour of the small town as well as going walking around ourselves.

Back on the boat and we had dinner with 3 couples from different parts of America, they were a lot of fun and had some very funny stories to tell. Great company.

Coral Princess Cruise

We have had our first day at sea. The waters are so calm there are times I think we have stopped!
There is so much to do on board that I get tired thinking about it, I had a wonderful facial today and tonight we went to the theatre and saw a magician, he was very entertaining.

While we were cruising we spotted 3 or 4 whales. Not a lot of breaching but I did see a big tail come up out of the water and water coming out of their blow holes. I can't explain why, but somehow it is very different seeing an animal in the wild, sort of puts a rush of adrenalin through the body.

Did I mention the Canadian who believed she ate road kill while in Australia?  She was telling us about her trip to Aussie land then went into when she was out eating and asked the people she was with (obviously a couple of very naughty Australians having fun with a tourist) what it was on her plate and they said road kill!!  She believed them and very happily told us how she will try anything and the road kill kangaroo was very nice.

We anchor at Ketchikan tomorrow and have booked a 2 hour tour, should be good.

Vancouver - British Columbia

We left beautiful Calgary on a Greyhound bus. It takes about 12 hours to get to Vancouver, but the reason I booked it was because you see some of the best scenery in Canada. We had about 4 stops to stretch the legs and get a bite to eat.

The bus was well worth the travel time, not only did we get the wonderful scenery but we also got to see a number of towns along the way, these are places you would never see if you are flying to each destination.

Got into Vancouver and made our way to the hotel. We had a suite again, how nice. Vancouver is a lovely city, easy to get around and there are many, many tourists. We went on a flight simulation that was called fly over Canada. Nobody should come to Vancouver and not go on this flight, it is GREAT.

Before we knew it, the time has come to go on the Alaskan cruise. There was 3 ships in dock ready to load passengers, so you can imagine how many people were at the port. The way it was organised to get on the ship was very well done. First passengers from each ship met in an auditorium at the Convention Centre, here they took your bags then gave you a number and said to sit down until your number was called.

Once called you went thru security, then a different room and take a seat again. Next we were called up to go through customs then onto the ship. Overall it took about two and a half hours but it didn't seem that long. Here we are on the ship, we have had a practice drill, been watered and fed and walked around the ship to get our bearings. All good.

Calgary

We have learnt that Calgary is reasonably wealthy because of their oil and gas enterprises. It is not uncommon to spot Cadillacs, Lambouginis and Feraris about town.

The weather seems to have broken, it is about 19 degrees today. After lunch we had a sit in the sun near the mall. It was good to soak up some vitamin B.

Although we will be sad to leave Calgary, we have been told that British Colombia has scenery just as pretty.  We will be travelling by Greyhound bus because I read the bus travels through some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada.

Vancouver, here we come.!

Calgary

What a long but wonderful tour we hD today. We met a lovely couple from England, Ian and Eileen. They were a lot of fun.

We went on a tour from Calgary to Kananaskis which is At the bottom of the Rockies. The scenery in this area was beautiful. There is still a lot of snow around primarily due to their bad winter. We stopped at a town called  Canmore for lunch. It is surrounded by the Rockies. We also stopped at Cochrane to have some icecream made there at the shop. Yum

I can't find the words to describe the peacefulness of this area and the air is soooooo clean, I almost felt like a different person when I was breathing it in.

Calgary - Albert

Both of us were feeling energetic so we walked to the Calgary Fort. It was built in 1875 and marked the beginning of Calgary. There is a lot of history relating to the Fort and it is all documented , including photos inside.

This is Canadian Mounty Greg Anderson beside his faithful horse. He had a little trouble finding a jacket that would fit as is noticeable around the mid section.

Calgary - Alberta

Went for a long walk around the City. It is a lovely place and well set out. We came across an "open" mall (same as our Bourke Street mall). The atmosphere was very inviting.

Statues in the mall.

After that we found the 

Look out Tower so went and had a bo-peep. It is 565 feet high.

View of Calgary from the top of the Tower.

Calgary - Alberta

Caught the Red Arrow coach from Edmonton to Calgary. It is a good way to travel, you see a lot more of the country side. The trip took about 4 hours.  When we left Edmonton it was a lovely clear sunny day. By the time we arrived at Calgary it was overcast and raining.

Our hotel room is a suite. It has a separate bedroom, a lounge and dining room. It is ever so nice and comfy. We saw a bit of the city when we pulled into down town and first impressions we like it.

Our Red Arrow coach. We are half way between Edmonton and Calgary at this stop.

Edmonton - Alberta

Water world. The slides are the coloured pipes in the background.

Christopher Columbus Flagship replica

Downtown Edmonton

Did I mention that "husband extraordinaire" bought me a new rock. How good is he.

The New Rock

Edmonton - Alberta

Travel from Saskatoon to Edmonton was by plane, yep another one of those small planes. We caught a taxi to our hotel, it was taking so long I started to get a bit concerned that we were heading in the wrong direction, alas the driver knew best and we arrived at our hotel safe and sound.

The name of the hotel is Fantasyland and all I can say is the name definitely suits. Each floor has a different theme, ours was horse stables. This is a photo of Greg standing outside our "stable"

Other themes  included Roman Empire, Iceland and Hollywood to name a few.  The hotel was connected to a shopping centre that was built on land the size of 48 blocks, hard to imagine isn't it.

There is only 2 levels, one day we did the upper level and it took 3 hours, that was just walking around, we only went int maybe 2 shops and that took 15 mins at the most.

The shopping centre also has the Santa Maria which is a replica of Christopher Columbus flagship of 1492, a mini golf course, Sealife Caverns, an amusement park, a nice skating ring and a gigantic water park that has a wave pool, water slides and a flying fox that crosses the pool. You goto this place and never go outside.

We went through the ghost tunnel, to me it was more like the house of horrors, I nearly had a coronary when one of the monsters jumped out at me.

Oh, there is also an area for a dinner show. We went and saw the Ed Sullivan shoe. It included Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hermans Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, LuLu and Dusty Springfield . It was a good show and the food was surprisingly good considering it was a "mass production".

Edmonton is a very nice city . The population is about 1.2 million.

Saskatoon - Saskatchewan

Finally arrived after a very delayed train trip. Saskatoon is in the prairie according to locals, there is a population of about 220,000.

There is not much to see or do, the place is like a big country town. They do have a picture theatre and we went yesterday to see "The Other Woman" with Cameron Diaz. Parts of it were funny, but it was a feel good movie.

                            A Saskatoon Lake, I can imagine locals skating on it during winter.

City street in Saskatoon. Note all the traffic!

Park on the lake - Saskatoon.

Winnipeg - Manatoba

This nome is an indicator of the underground world.

An unusual building in Winnipeg

A view of Winnipeg.

Next stop Saskatoon.

Winnipeg - Manatoba

Winnipeg is in the state of Manitoba, population about 620,000. I have just read that Manitoba was the number 1 for murders up until 2012. Since then it is in second spot. Oh and it is also in second place for the highest number of robberies.

We got here by plane, it took 2.5 hours, a bit of turbulence along the way, but nothing to get nervous about. Both of us were a bit tired so we went to the room to have a rest. I was going to suggest going out tonight, but after reading the crime stats, decided it may be a bit dangerous walking around streets we are unsure of.

Had a good sleep and feel revived. Went for a walk around the city to get a feel for the place.
I am really impressed with the underground shops/banks/ restaurants. I suppose these underground areas have been built because of the brutal winter. The underground has a walkway that goes to the other side of the street. Cool!

We stumbled across a railway museum that is operated by volunteers, it was quite amazing. Of course Greg loved it.

We were supposed to catch a train from here to Saskatoon tomorrow at 12.00 noon. Unfortunately it has been delayed by about  4.0 hrs, we will know tomorrow morning the exact time of departure.
The train system here is very strange , long haul trains must give way to freight trains. Apparently some time ago the government stopped maintaining one side of the tracks to save money. Therefore they don't have tracks to enable trains to go in both directions, so the passenger train has to pull to a "side section" to allow the freight train to pass.

Kept phoning to enquire about the revised departure, was told 4.00 pm, then 4.30 pm, then 9.30, then back to 8.30 pm. A very strange system.

The train finally arrived in Winnipeg at 9.00pm that night and departed at 10.30pm . It was a pleasant trip. We met a Canadian couple who got on the train in Toronto and were travelling all the way to Vancouver. They said they felt like they had been on the train for a week but it was only 2 days.

Our compartment was exceptionally small. Greg and I travelled on the Indian Express across to W.A. That compartment was gigantism compared to the Canadian train, and the Indian Pacific had a full ensuite, ie shower and toilet where as the Canadian ensuite only had a toilet.