Leaving Vancouver

Day One - July 23rd/2011 - Alaska Cruise

We are up at the awful hour of 3:30 am to head for the Saskatoon airport and the beginning of our Alaska cruise. One of the drawbacks of living in the prairies, i guess, is that if you are going anywhere you have to be up bright and early. Oh well there will be time for rest and relaxation on board the ship, I think.
We are met at the airport by representatives of Princes Cruises. It is the beginning of absolutely fantastic treatment by the cruise line staff. Instantly you recognize that they like to have a little fun too. They divide up the men and the women waiting to board.
The women go to one side of the room. The men to the other. Then the men are told they have to carry their luggage to a waiting bus while the women are told they are on holidays and don't have to do any work.
We then board the bus where the driver gives us some interesting commentary on Vancouver and the area as we make our way to the docks.
We arrive at the ship. It is huge. Approximately 3000 passengers on board plus 1000 crew members. We tour the ship ourselves.
It is just an incredible piece of manufacturing. If you walk around the ship two and half times on the outdoor decking you would cover one mile. Lots of people do their jogging that way.
The food is fantastic. Restaurants everywhere. Will go more into detail on that later.
In the evening we attend a show in the beautiful Princess Theatre. Dan Bennett, a comedian and juggler is performing.
He is amazing. Awesome juggling plus so may quick one liners it is hard to get them all. Talk about a laugh a minute, he provided that.
That pretty well wrapped up our first day. We are tired after the early morning wake up. Ships cabins are very nice. Small but everything you need. We have a window and we are glad we did as it probably helps eliminate that claustrophobic feeling.
Didn't take too many pictures today. A couple of photos of the ship, plus Vancouver in the background as we set sail on our
long awaited Alaskan vacation.

Words Are All I Have

In the mid 1970's the Bee Gees had a song out that said something along the lines of "It's only words but words are all I have".
Thinking back on our just completed Alaskan cruise those words come to mind when trying to adequately describe Alaska.
There are so many adjectives that could describe this beautiful State. From Ketchican to Anchorage the scenery is absolutely breath taking.
I took well over 300 pictures so it is going to take awhile to edit through all of those but for today at least I wanted to post my favourite. While in Juneau, Louise and I went on a whale watching expedition. We got to the boat that was taking us out a little bit early, and I am glad we did, because as we got on, two male killer whales came right along side the boat and I was able to get a good picture of them. The naturalist on board said it is very rare for killer or beluga whales to come into a port and be around the docks but these two beluga males did just that. I tried to time their dives and got a pretty good picture of them coming up on their third dive. The naturalist called the picture a one in a million shot so I am glad I got to take it.
In the days ahead I hope to post a day by day documentation with pictures of our trip. There was so much to see, so much to do
on board the Diamond Princess, and the Princess Cruise line people were just fantastic. The food was especially great and there were so many things to do on board including dancing and musical productions of 'Do You Want to Dance' and " The Piano Man".
Can't wait to take another cruise somewhere

North To Alaska

Bumper Sticker

Seen on a bumper sticker today in Regina

If they can put A man on the moon, why can't they put them all on.

Countdown to Alaska

Less than two weeks now before we leave on our Alaskan cruise. Seems like a long time ago that we booked it and now there is less than two weeks to go. One of my customers, Aftan, who books and manages all the advertising for Redhead Equipment, was telling me today that she and her husband were professional singers for a number of years on cruise ships. She did the Alaskan cruise three times and says it is the best and her personal favourite. Breath taking scenery and lots of excursions to take in.
She says there is so much to do on the Alaskan cruise both on and off the ship that you just don't have time to take it all in.
She said the weather this time of year is much like what we have here so that should be good and like Aftan said, "you go to Alaska for the scenery and not for a sun tan. So anyway now I am getting really excited, not that I wasn't before, but with less than two weeks to go it seems more like reality now.
We have booked an afternoon trip on the White Pass Rail Line and so I am told it is one of the highlights of a visit to Alaska.
Also hope to perhaps do a whale watching expedition, lots of hiking, on boat activities and just generally have a relaxing time.
One of the nice things is I don't have to do any driving this trip. Fly in to Vancouver, take a cab to the ship, get on board and enjoy. Hey flying into Vancouver. I better make sure i have my Boston Bruins sweater on and my hat that says Boston Bruins,
2011 Stanley Cup champions. It just doesn't get any sweeter than that.

Nice Weekend

The weather has been absolutely splendid this week. Very hot which is the way summer should be. And apparently in Saskatchewan, drought will not be a problem with all the water lying around in the fields. I was down south last week and it really is something to see with the water virtually creating lakes in some fields. I drove out to Craven on the way home, site of the huge Craven Country Jamboree. and their camping grounds are completely under water necessitating a move to a farmer's nearby field.
We have had a busy weekend. Took in the Canada Day fireworks and celebrations and it was very good. Then yesterday on my birthday we went out to the Barn Playhouse to
take in a play called Leaving Iowa. Very funny with great local actors and such.
Very hot today. Doing some cleaning and then tonight it is the CFL game with the
Saskatchewan Roughriders playing Edmonton. After losing the last two Grey Cups to Montreal, hopefully this will be the year when the Riders win a Grey Cup.