The Great Northern Adventure, Day 5: Yukon, Jack

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Today would have been the folks' 47th wedding anniversary.

We woke up docked in Skagway. We went to a meeting in the Vista Lounge (nightclub) where we met the rest of our tour group (#7A) and our tour director, Roslyn Hood.  We disembarked and kicked around Skagway for a few hours, stopping for a crepe, and some salmon-tooth earrings for Jennifer.

We met our train around noon: The White Pass-Yukon Railroad, following the route of the Klondike stampeders of the late 1890s to Fraser, British Columbia.

The ride on the narrow gauge railroad was pretty cool, though mostly foggy.  The geography was dramatic, and changed a lot along the ride.

We had a cursory customs inspection in Fraser, and boarded our bus with driver Parker Anderson.  We drove several hours, stopping in places like Carcross, Yukon Territory.

We're staying at the Westmark, a very budget but clean motel chain.  We were on our own for dinner, so my immediate family ate at a Vietnamese place.  We stopped at the Canadian Superstore (or equivalent) to get some breakfast food for the next day.

The Great Northern Adventure, Day 3: You and Me, By the Sea

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Jennifer was up earlier than the rest of us, meeting up for breakfast on the Lido (#9) deck.  The breakfast selection is excellent, of course.  The whole day was spent at sea, so other than the eating, there was plenty of viewing of the geography.

To celebrate the holiday, lunch was grilled "outside" on the Lido deck by the pool with the retractable roof open.  The bar even had some holiday-themed overpriced drinks.

And more pool time, of course.

(Jennifer, Andy, Shelley, and Jenni)

For dinner, which was "formal" night, we dressed up as little as we thought we could get away with.  Jennifer used two of her travel skirts to make formal dresses for Krista and Zoe.

Dinner included some King Crab and other stuff.  It wasn't a lot of food, but it was good, and our Indonesian waiter, Rianto , was very nice.

The Great Northern Adventure, Day 2: Here by the Waterside. There where the Lens is Wide

Saturday, July 3, 2010

We got up Saturday morning and walked down to the waterfront,

taking a foot ferry over to Granville Island.

This place was awesome, and I wish we had more time there.  We got croissants, coffee, crepes, and other cool stuff there, and ran into Andy & family.  If we ever get back to Vancouver, we'll need to spend more time there, as well as Chinatown, which we missed entirely.

We checked out of the hotel by 11 and took three taxis (Dad took the bus) to Canada Place (C$ 8.50 + tip. $1 = C$ 1.06)  There were two cruise ships boarding: ours, the Holland America Line MS Zuiderdam, as well as a Princess Cruises ship.  Despite the huge number of people and all their luggage, the check-in and boarding process went very smoothly.

We were on our boat by noon, and went to the Lido deck to commence gluttony.  Zoe was immediately impressed that she could eat all the sushi she wanted to.  Tristan was amazed that he could go get as many ice cream cones as he wanted.  We hung out and explored and took pictures.  By 3pm or so we were able to enter our rooms.  We're in 1112 on the "Main Deck", aka Deck 1 (the first deck above the water line).  We have a 3' x 3' window that cost us ~$200 as an upgrade, but it was totally worth it.

We love the room. Zoe's staying with us while Tristan is staying with Opa (Dad) in 5008, an inside stateroom.  Tom's family has a room like ours but with an additional flip-out bed, and Andy's family has a Verandah [sic] suite with their own balcony.  It is sweet!

The kids got into the pool about as soon as they possibly could, and stayed there as long as they possibly could.

We have a 7:45 seating in the dining room and we're at two adjacent tables.  Dinner the first night was almond-crusted salmon, steakhouse soup, and mussels for me, with baked Alaska and espresso for dessert.  The kids couldn't believe they could have a salad, appetizer, entree and dessert.  Since Tristan's medicine suppresses his appetite, he specifically requested not to take it so he could eat more.

After dinner, Zoe and I  tried to see Seymour Narrows, site of Ripple Rock around 11 pm, but it was too dark, plus Zoe fell asleep under two wool deck blankets out on the observation deck (Deck 10). Pity.