Alcatraz and Cable car... then homeward bound...

Alcatraz... "The Rock"...

Today was our final day in SanFrancisco, but our transfer from the Hotel to the airport was not until 5pm, so we decided to put in some more sight-seeing before we departed for good. After checking out of the Hotel room but storing our bags for the day with the Hotel Bell desk, we made our way by taxi to Pier 33 for the cruise to Alcatraz Island commonly known as “The Rock”. After a very short ferry ride, a steep hike up the hill brings you to the main cell block made famous in the movies with the escape of Frank Norris and John and Clarence Anglin who made their escape through the airvents of their cells and into the utility corridor. They then climbed their way up to the roof, sliding down a drain pipe and then on to the shoreline where they used a raft made out of raincoats. They were never seen again and no-one knows to this day if they actually survived the icy waters or drowned in the attempt.

After our trip to Alcatraz we decided to catch a cable car back to the Hotel to complete the San Francisco experience. These modes of transport have complete right of way and regularly stop right in the middle of an intersection to drop off or take on passengers. This pretty much rounded off our four and a half week holiday to North America. By 9pm that evening we were winging our way back to Auckland, then Sydney and finally back to Perth.

Yosemite National Park...

Favourite shot of the day...
Check out the artists attempt at bottom left... pretty good, but nothing beats the real thing...

Today we had hired the services of a private tour director to drive us to Yosemite National Park for the day. This meant a 15 hour round trip, but from all that I had researched it sounded like it was well worth the effort and I was not wrong.
We were picked up at 7am by our tour guide Jeff Morgan in his GMC Yukon Denalli which was luxury comfort plus. Jeff turned out to be one of the nicest of blokes and was willing to basically accommodate us in any way he could to make the most of our day. Having missed breakfast, we pulled over once clearing the city limits so we could all have a bite to eat and then we continued on for the next two and half hours until we reached Yosemite National Park. Our first stop was at the Mariposa grove where the giant sequoia trees dot the landscape. These massive pine trees are the largest in the world and can span up to 25 feet across.

We boarded a “Tram” that took us into the grove on a 1 and a half hour tour complete with informative commentary via personal headsets. The sheer size of these trees leaves you gobsmacked. From the Mariposa grove we moved on to the Wawona village where many of the buildings originated back around the 1850’s.

It was then a 35 minute drive to Glacier point, the highest viewing point in the park that can be reached by car. This left us breathless... the view was absolutely amazing. Yosemite is truly one out of the box in terms of its unique qualities. The sheer size of the park is awesome in itself, let alone the views. From Glacier point we made our way down into the valley stopping at a couple of other vista points along the way. I thought the view from the top was amazing until we reached the valley and looked up. The view of El Capitan and Half Dome is magnificent and very special. I also loved the many meadows, so beautiful it was just as if the finger of God had been dragged right across them.

After a lovely dinner at the Awhanee Hotel, we then began our journey out of the valley, once again stopping at many vista points along the way. Arriving back at our hotel in San Francisco at 10:15pm, it was a long day but well worth the effort, a definite highlight amongst our journeys throughout North America.

San Francisco...

Favourite shot of the day... Golden Gate Bridge...

After a two hour plane journey from Vancouver, we arrived at the Westin St Francis Hotel in Union Square at about 5pm and checked in to yet another lovely Hotel room. The city itself was alive with traffic... vehicles, taxis, cable cars and people filled the streets and Union Square which is right in the heart of San Francisco was filled with the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the tourist and the homeless. The square was so radically full of life as the wilderness of Alaska had seemed so radically empty of life. The contrast was enormous, but it was a good feeling to be off the ship and back on terra firma and looking forward to the sights of San Francisco.

The Westin St Francis from Union Square at night...

Our first day was Sunday the 17th May and we were scheduled to visit Heathers cousin Shirley who lived a good 40 minutes away by train. Shirley met us at the train station and we then enjoyed a day driving down the east coast and back over the hills to enjoy a barbecue tea before Shirley dropped us back in Union Square that evening.
The following day we caught the Open Top sightseeing bus, a Hop on Hop off bus that does a huge circle around the city stopping at each main attraction enabling you to get on or off as you wish over the period of two full days. We have found these a great way to see what a city has to offer and an easy way to get to the places you then decide you want to take a closer look at. Our first choice was the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was so covered in fog it was not possible to even take a picture of it, so we headed for Pier 39 to take a look at the shops in the hope that the fog would lift later in the day, which it did.

San Francisco's most famous houses...the Painted Ladies...

Shopping at Pier 39...

The Zuiderdam.. return to Vancouver...

Formal Night...

Our last day on board the Zuiderdam. We feel well and truly ready to leave the ship and move on to San Francisco. The cruise has been a great experience, but would not be our first choice again for a holiday. We both found the ship itself to be fine, the service of the meal staff and cabin stewards was excellent, but the continual push by Holland America to fleece you of every dollar you possess gets a bit tiring and we also felt that their excursions were way overpriced and nowhere near the standard we experienced with Scenic Tours. We enjoyed the variety shows on board and having the verandah stateroom was excellent. It was compact and we would not have wanted anything smaller but we did not feel the need for any more space either. The balcony/verandah certainly made ship life enjoyable and was great for spotting whales and watching the scenery pass by.

Verandah Stateroom 7098...

Our cabin stewards did a fantastic job, we hardly ever saw them and every day there was a new “towel creation” on our bed.

One of the many "Towel Creations"...

Ketchikan...

The ship docked in Ketchikan about 9:45am and we were ashore for a look around shortly thereafter. The shops were all the same just like the other ports of call, each one trying to extort as many dollars as possible from the tourists with their Genuine Alaskan souvenirs made in China. None of these towns are big, but with 3 or 4 cruise ships in town the numbers swell by several thousand and so you can imagine what it’s like to walk the streets in this sort of scenario. Not really a pleasant shopping experience at all. Ketchikan did have something a little different than the others, a place called Creek Street where the shops are all built out over the water on poles with a boardwalk taking you from shop to shop. Quite a pretty setting, although I can imagine it would be a different story when it rains, which it does frequently in Ketchikan, apparently in 2008 they only had 11 days of sunshine.!!

Creek Street...

In the afternoon we had a scheduled optional excursion out to the Misty Fiords. The write up in the brochure made it sound like a great place for photos with massive granite walls rising out of the sea to great heights and beautiful waterfalls and the like. We boarded a speedy catamaran and spent ¾ of our time travelling there and back. The sights were not bad but nothing at all compared to much of the beauty we have already seen throughout Canada and Alaska. We couldn’t help comparing it to Milford Sound in New Zealand which looked similar, but to our mind Milford is considerably more spectacular.

Eddystone Rock... on the way to Misty Fiords...

Frustratingly, the tour was late getting back and everyone was supposed to be back on board the ship by 5:30pm as it was leaving at 6pm. We were glad we had booked this excursion through Holland America as this meant the ship had to wait for us until we finally boarded at 5:50pm, 20 minutes late.

Glacier Bay...

Glacier Bay was the highlight of the 7 day cruise. There is really no other way to see this spectacle, as the ship sits aside the glacier for over an hour and you can actually hear the ice crack and thunder as the glacier advances. The beauty is indescribable...

From Ship to Rail....

Today was our first day at sea with Holland America Line aboard the Zuiderdam.
Our first port of call will be Juneau, the capital of Alaska.

We started off with a full day at sea as we made our way up to Juneau the capital of Alaska.
Before arriving at Juneau the ship cruised the Tracy Arm which brought us into an area of ice floes of many interesting shapes and sizes that had broken away from many of the glaciers that reach right down to the waters edge in many of these fiords.

Tracy Arm... the small ship in the picture was from National Geographic.

Then it was on to Juneau. Here we disembarked for some souvenir shopping and a bit of a general look around. We had not booked any optional excursions as according to my research it was relatively easy to make our own way out to the Mendenhall glacier which is the main attraction in Juneau. So we boarded a rickety old ex school bus with a driver named Sonny who was a First Nations native born and bred in Juneau. He was a breath of fresh air compared to most other tour guides as he was quite a character and passionate about his home town and all that Juneau had to offer, which in his own words was “not much”. Once at the Mendenhall glacier we walked the small trail to the viewing area and took in what was a most staggering sight of beauty. The glacier is massive and very picturesque.

Then just as we were standing around taking photos, a black Bear walked out of the bush and literally wandered to within 6 feet of us. This was a real treat, and I managed to get both video footage and photos which were the envy of many of our touring companions who had not visited the glacier and missed out on the bears quite random visit.

Black Bear...
(2 year old according to the Park Ranger who was busy keeping everyone out of its way..!!)

After Juneau we set sail again for Skagway and were docked the next day by 7am. We had booked ourselves on an excursion called the “Ultimate Yukon and White Pass Railway Excursion” which promised a truly amazing journey on a “Deluxe Coach” into the heart of the Yukon and an amazing return journey by the famous White Pass Railway. Our “Deluxe Coach” turned out to be an old clanger that wouldn’t even start until the driver got out and fixed it from underneath the carriage somewhere. Then the wind-screen wipers packed up while driving through snow and the people at the back of the bus complained they couldn’t hear the drivers commentary on the PA system. I reckon they were the lucky ones..!! We heard it loud and clear from up front where we were seated and the driver was one of the many typical tour guides we have encountered on our journey, guides who know their script by heart and tell all the same stories and jokes. One particular joke we have now heard 5 times from 5 different guides.!! But despite the bus and the bus driver, the scenery was awesome and once we reached the top of the Yukon the views were truly spectacular. Frozen lakes and snow covered mountains were in every direction. We travelled as far as Carcross and then stopped for lunch at Caribou Crossing. This was a very disappointing place... there was nothing there and it was truly a forsaken wilderness, so the powers that be that fleece the tourists of their dollars had built what I can only describe as a big barn to cater for the hundreds of visitors that arrive there every day. They had tried to make it look like an old shanty town village but it was a poor imitation and very unauthentic to say the least. The temperature was about minus 12 and there was no-where to escape the cold except in the small gift shop that had no chance of holding four or five bus loads of tourists, so one just stood outside in the cold, killing an hour and a half until one was able to board the bus again for the return journey. So much for the “Ultimate Yukon” part of the excursion.!!
Once we had boarded the bus we made our way back to Fraser, which was also a forsaken widerness but one of absolute beauty and a wonderful delight.
From Fraser we boarded the White Pass Railway and soon discovered that this was to be one of the highlights of our whole trip. This rail journey makes its way down from the Fraser valley at the top of the Yukon back to Skagway over some of the most picturesque scenery I have ever seen. Adding to the beauty was the fact that due to the time of year (May) there was still stacks of snow about. In fact some parts of the journey the snow was piled just as high as the train carriages and it was like we were riding through a tunnel made of snow.

The train carriages were in very good condition, maintained in their original state and the whole journey was one of the most authentic excursion we have done to date. Each carriage has a small viewing platform that enables you to get outside and take pictures as you make the journey over some of the most rugged terrain imaginable with wooden bridges and sheer drops either side adding to the whole experience.

Victoria and Butchart Gardens...

The Fairmont Empress...

Parliament buildings at night...

After catching a BC Ferry across to Victoria, we arrived at the majestic Fairmont Empress around 5pm. Right at the heart of the waterfront in Victoria, the Empress is a Majestic Hotel full of splendour and elegance. After our room keys were all handed out Heather and I discovered that our room was right next door to the Bob Hope Suite, room 326 . While the room has no real view to speak of, it is massive and has been very comfortable. This morning we boarded the bus for a tour of Butchart Gardens. These gardens are truly remarkable and the colour was absolutely amazing. In total there are over 50 acres of gardens and over 600 staff to maintain them. For our optional tour today we went for a scenic floatplane flight over Victoria, passing over the many islands and we were also able to see Butchart gardens again, only this time from the air.

Butchart Gardens...Tomorrow we head back to Vancouver to begin the “cruise” section of our tour, heading up the inside passage to Alaska. Due to the cost of internet onboard the ship, I will not be able to post anything again until we arrive in San Francisco on the 16th May.

Lake Louise to Whistler...

Favourite shot of the last few days... Castle Mountain...

We arrived at Lake Louise late in the afternoon and our room at the Fairmont Lake Louise was on the 5th floor bang smack in the middle of the complex with the window looking out over the lake onto the glacier, it was truly a million dollar view. This picture was taken from our Hotel window at Lake Louise...

While Heather attended a talk and photo opportunity with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I trekked off on my own around the edge of the lake to the foot of a frozen waterfall that could be seen from the hotel. It took me about 35 minutes to get there as the track was covered in ice/snow/mud/slush the whole way. But it was worth the view, to be able to stand right beneath the frozen waterfall which was just clinging to the side of the mountain. Frozen waterfall...

The following morning we made an early trip back to Banff to begin the Rocky Mountaineer train journey. We were all travelling Gold Leaf with Scenic Tours, so our car had 2 floors, the dome roof with full 180deg surround viewing on top and the dining room down below.

The Dome car....

The Dining room...

The service was exceptional and the views were truly awesome. It was however a long journey and we were all well and truly ready to disembark in Kamloops by the evening. Unfortunately I was not feeling too well at this point and by the next day when we boarded the train I was really in a bad way and could not hold any food down at all. By mid-afternoon I was very sick on the train and by the time we reached our Hotel in Vancouver I was so sick that we began to seriously consider options for pulling out of the tour and seeking the services of a doctor. I knew that if I woke up the next day feeling the same that there was no way I could continue on. But Heather sent a few SMS messages asking for prayer from friends and family back home and she filled me up with drugs and then we tried to sleep. By morning I felt a little stronger and we decided to continue on to Whistler where we had a two night stop which would hopefully give me enough time to recover. Another couple who seemed to have caught the same nasty bug as me opted to stay behind in Vancouver. By the time we reached Whistler I had vastly improved and despite having no appetite to speak of, by the next morning I was feeling about 70%-80%.

6th May - Today was “Dog-sled Day”.

This was something Heather had been really looking forward to the whole trip even though she is terrified of dogs.!! The ride up the mountain in the small minivan was a riot. The van was packed to capacity with 15 people and the terrain was more suitable for 4 wheel driving. Every bone in our bodies got a workout and it was a good thing I was no longer feeling sick.!! Heather absolutely LOVED the dog-sledding. She will always have trouble convincing anyone ever again that she is afraid of dogs when you see the pictures I took today.!!

I am nearly back to full strength again after what can only be explained as a 24-48 hr power bug that has affected quite a few people on the tour. Today there are 3 others down with the same bug, hopefully they too will recover quickly. Tomorrow we head for Victoria for two nights and then after that the cruise begins.

Banff...

Favourite shot of the day..... the view from Sulphur Mountain...

It is the 1st of May and we have been away now for about 10 days or so and every day has been filled with new adventures. Last night we stayed at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel complex which is built like a castle. It is a massive place and a tourist destination in itself. So far we have not had a day of rain, but last night it snowed all night and we woke this morning to a winter wonderland.

After breakfast we travelled about 40 minutes by bus to take a Scenic Helicopter ride. It was the first time I have ever been in a helicopter and it was fantastic. Somehow I managed to score the front seat next to the pilot and the view was simply amazing. We flew up to 9500 feet high, right over the top of snow-capped mountain peaks and ridges. The 20 minute flight seemed much longer than it really was and for me it has been a real highlight.

A couple of the views from the Helicopter...

After dropping off our laundry in the Banff Township, we then caught the “ROAM” bus to the Sulphur Mountain Gondola. After an eight minute ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain we were once again treated to spectacular scenery and great views. Heather has been truly amazing riding some of the gondolas and such, (and Helicopter..!!) as she always gets a bit nervous with heights, but there’s no way she wants to miss out.The weather has been exactly right for us on all occasions and even the Tour Director is amazed at how fantastic the weather has worked out for each excursion along the way. Tomorrow we head for Lake Louise. The lake is still frozen this time of year, and the scenery there is supposed to be fantastic also.