Prince Edward Island

Photos

Friday, October 4, 2013



Continental breakfast was at 7am over in the office building of North Winds. We were up early and watched the sunrise over the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the distance. (There was no one staying on the floor above us so we went up on their outdoor walkway and stood to see over the office building.) We went over to breakfast early when we saw others from our group going in and not coming out. I had oatmeal and an English muffin with peanut butter and hot chocolate mixed with coffee. Clay had Raisin Bran, a bagel, a cold hardboiled egg, orange juice and a muffin. There was a tip jar by the door even though our Caravan documents state that all tips for included meals are already paid. In addition, the entire thing was self-serve as well as self table clearing with the bins set out and clearly signed as to where we should put everything when we finished eating. We were out before Mom headed over alone because Judy told her she wasn’t having breakfast. Mom was mad we didn’t knock on her door to get her. I guess we can’t get clear on when to get each other for breakfast or not.

The bus departed at 8:30am and we had a local guide onboard, Astrid. She told us lots about Prince Edward Island. Potatoes are the main source of income, followed by tourism, followed by fishing. She taught us about blue mussel farming, eel fishing and lobster fishing as well as tuna fishing and lots more. We drove from Brackley Beach to Oyster Bed Bridge and then to North Rustico where our first stop was the harbor and a lesson about lobster traps and fishing. We saw a bald eagle there. Astrid had a little rubber lobster puppet to use for her tutorial. It was funny.

Then we went on to the Cavendish part of Prince Edward Island National Park where we walked out to see the sand dunes and red sandstone cliffs with some rough surf and stiff cool wind. We struggled out there and blew back to the bus. Sorry I don't have any good photos to post. There were some interesting red sandstone cliffs, but the angle of the sun was wrong both morning and afternoon.) We learned there is no naturally occurring rock on PEI except for red sandstone, all other rock has been imported.

Then we went to spend an hour at Green Gables. It was not enough time for me. I guess if you didn't know the novel, it was too long. But, we didn't have time to walk any one of the trails. This is the setting and inspiration for Anne of Green Gables, a novel (or series of novels). There is also of course a movie that we have only recently seen. The author Lucy Maud Montgomery is also buried nearby. This was a fun stop since we had just recently seen the movie. Astrid had an Anne hat that we could borrow for photos. She is funny.

Then we drove to Anglo Rustico which is an Acadian area. We visited a Catholic church, a farmer’s bank built of stone (on an island with no stone except sandstone) and the oldest house from 1790 or something like that. It was interesting. There were lots of people around and in the 3 buildings to answer questions, serve snacks in the bank building and play and sing music in there. Astrid sang a couple of songs on the bus and I would not say she has a singing voice. But what do I know. We only had about 20 minutes here and it felt very rushed. Somewhere I got a big folded map of PEI (maybe from Astrid) and here is the one section we toured this morning.

Then we drove back to North Winds, our hotel, where Caravan surprised us with a light lunch of vegetable soup and ham salad sandwiches with apple crumble for dessert. We were told that Caravan had also provided cookies and drinks at the farmer's bank in Anglo Rustico.



After lunch we drove into Charlottetown, one of only 2 cities in Prince Edward Island province. We drove around as things were pointed out to orient us and we were let off the bus behind Province House. We had to be back on the bus at 5:30pm. We had 3.5 hours to sightsee and eat dinner.  The main trick was that real restaurants didn’t open before 5pm. Barrie, our bus driver, lives in Charlottetown and he recommended both Olde Dublin Pub upstairs and Claddagh Oyster House which is downstairs on the ground floor. This worked out fine because Olde Dublin Pub had happy hour with cheap beer and $1 raw oysters from 4 to 5pm and they had a limited menu available from the restaurant downstairs.

Anyway, we started at Province House since we were there. We walked around front and in the front door after admiring the lone red maple in the back lawn. As soon as we walked in a guide told us they were getting ready to show a short film about Canadian Confederation taking place in Charlottetown at Province House. We were in. After we went upstairs to see their legislative chamber (since not in session) and the Confederation Chamber. While we were in there a couple of women, from our Caravan group who we had not previously met asked if they could join us. They were sisters and we told them what we planned to do and they were in. We walked out and down to St. Dunstan’s Basilica. It was quite pretty. We walked back up to Victoria Row and went through some shops. We made some purchases in the Anne of Green Gables giftshop which was charming. Then we walked down and into Anne of Green Gables Chocolates. We had to go in because they were making Cows’ Cow Chips in there. Cows is a famous PEI ice cream shop chain (think Ben & Jerry’s). It was an automated belt with ridged potato chips getting doused with chocolate and then traveling down the belt into a big pile on a cart and spilling off onto the floor. I wanted to run in there and institute the 5 second rule! Of course, we bought some and all decided they were surprisingly delicious. And a surprisingly delicious way to have some PEI potato chips!

Clay wanted Cows ice cream now and we had about an hour to kill before happy hour at the Olde Dublin Pub. We walked down to the water front and visited a couple more shops. We happily found the Red Dirt Shirt Co. which Mom had been searching for since the first time Marty mentioned it. We saw Red Mud shirts in a lot of places and I can't find a website for dirt-dyed shirts from PEI except for Red Mud, but we found the PEI Red Dirt Shirt on Peake's Wharf. The Red Mud shirt store was very close by, but Mom wanted the Red Dirt Shirt, since that was the one Marty kept saying. Mom was rapidly knocking out her Christmas shopping! Clay found Cows and had the smallest $5 bowl of ice cream ever. It was maple nut and it was good, but that’s crazy.  Clay disagreed that it could be Canada's best ice cream, but reckoned it must be the most expensive. No one else bought anything at Cows.

We continued on along the waterfront boardwalk from Great George St. to Queen St. and back to Sydney St. We used the restrooms before entering the upstairs Olde Dublin Pub and timed it to start ordering after 4pm. It turned out it didn't matter, because the waitress said those advertised prices were only good from 4pm to 5pm at the bar. That was were we thought we were. Anyway. We enjoyed our meals and had a good time talking and laughing. Clay ordered the PEI blue mussels for the table and it was a huge bowl that he wound up eating most of. He ordered a dozen Malpeque oysters on the half shell at $1 each for his meal. (That advertised happy hour price was honored but not the beer.) I ordered steak & Guinness pie with Island beef and potatoes and Clay finished it for me. It was very good and served in a little square cast iron skillet. The sisters shared a PEI seafood stuffed potato skin and salad. Mom had a Cork quesadilla and Judy ordered a lobster dish off the downstairs, Claddagh menu. The waitress first said that she couldn't order from that menu until the restaurant opened downstairs which would be too late for us. But, Judy asked her to double check on that and she came back and said OK. We declined dessert because we needed to get back to the bus. We were walking back as Barrie drove past us on the way to the meeting place on Richmond St. So, perfect timing. We finished off the chocolate covered potato chips for dessert.

We did not drive straight back to North Winds. We took a rather scenic route past the Red Shore Casino and harness racing track. We watched a horse and cart practicing. We drove past the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. We drove past a 50 acre pumpkin patch that was ready for harvest. We drove through Stanhope and past Dalvay. We went to Brackley Beach in PEI National Park and got out and crossed the wind-swept dunes to see the ever rougher surf of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as the sun was setting.

Tomorrow we have a long traveling day. Breakfast and bags out at 6:45am. Bus leaves at 7:45am. We are to be on the ferry off PEI at either 9 or 9:30am. The coach drives on with us loaded and then we have to get off the bus and go upstairs for a 75 minute crossing of the Northumberland Strait. Marty says it is usually a calm crossing. Fingers crossed! Weather tomorrow should be similar to today. Sunny and cool and windy. It was about 45 F when we went out early this morning and the high temp in the afternoon was around 59 or 60F. It was pleasant except for the cool stiff wind. The wind was something! So, all day it felt colder than it actually was if you were in the wind. We will end the day tomorrow back in Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island in Cheticamp at Laurie’s Inn. Dinner is included tomorrow night. Marty told us we would have 3 or so choices and would place our orders now. We could have Acadian meat pie, described as turkey and pork pie seasoned with Acadian spices, halibut, chicken or vegetarian. Mom and I chose the meat pie and Clay and Judy chose fish. I have to confess I am leery about the morning ferry ride. I will take an extra dose of meclizine in the morning.

I am sorry to report that Judy has vomiting and nausea and fears she got food poisoning at dinner. That seems awfully quick to me from dinner to vomiting in 3 hours but her lobster meal is the only thing I can think of today that she ate that no one else ate. I offered the medicine I had with me including some expired generic prescription Phenergan and hope she’ll try it and it will help. Yuck! Fingers crossed that it is all over and she’ll feel better tomorrow.

Photos

Bay of Fundy to Prince Edward Island

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Thursday, October 3, 2013

Breakfast buffet was fine. But, strangely we were like 2^nd class hotel guests. When we arrived, a waiter/host asked if we were with Caravan and then asked for our breakfast card. Then he walked us into last night’s meeting room and told us that we only got the buffet with our room and shut the door behind us. I am certain that on all our past Caravan trips, we got a full breakfast and we also got the same breakfast all the other hotel guests got. Weird. There were Keuring coffee machines in the room, but I didn’t use ours. I need to remember in the future to give my extra room coffee to Mom & Judy since they want 2 cups each in the morning. I would only have one and today I just waited for breakfast. Mom & Judy were already up and at breakfast before us today!

I had a strawberry yogurt, some scrambled eggs and 2 bacons and a piece of toast. I honestly don’t know what anyone else had.

The bus was fully loaded by 7:50am and arriving 10 minutes early we were the last to board. I guess everyone was trying to sit in the front of the bus before Marty starts assigning seat rotations. It turns out the front seat opposite the driver’s side is not as desirable as the other rows due to no leg room and nowhere to put your stuff. The regular seats have a footrest, an electrical plug and a cup holder. Not bad. The people who had the front seat of the bus jumped back to the last and vacant seats behind us in the afternoon and shared this analysis with us. Barrie, our driver, handed out cold bottles of water to everyone as we boarded. That was nice. A weird thing about this motor coach is that while we have lots of legroom on the door side of the bus, the driver's side across from us are a very tight fit and I have noticed that a few rows in the middle on our door side are also tight. Mom asked about it later and was told it was due to the wheels wells. That is weird because the wheel wells are identical on both sides. Whatever, it is what it is. We'll enjoy our space while we have it. The back of the bus really sways on the rough roads. Tomorrow we should move across the aisle and up a row or 2, so that will be even worse than today.

So we had a long driving day today. We drove for almost 2 hours just to get out of Nova Scotia! We stopped for our first morning break from 10 of 10am to 10:20am at Sackville, New Brunswick. There was a food co-op store, a convenience store, a Tim Horton’s across the street and a liquor/wine/beer package store that opened at 10am. There were restrooms available at almost all of these places. I think everyone was satisfied with snacks and supplies for lunch later if they hadn’t ordered through Marty. Everyone also had notice and warning to get their alcohol supply if they needed it for the next 2 nights at least.



Our goal for the day was Hopewell Rocks at high tide to see it going out and walk on the ocean floor. Today’s high tide was about 36 feet according to Fran, our ranger and guide for the visit. She said that was a bit less than average. It was still impressive. We drove past miles of viewing spots as the muddy water was churning upstream instead of flowing out to sea in order to get down to the Hopewell Cape. This phenomenon is called a tidal bore and here they call it a Chocolate River due to churned up sediment. We drove up to Moncton and then back down the other side of Petitcodiac River to get to a private park called Hopewell Rocks. (When we were there we believed that it was a state or national park what with the ranger outfits and we did not offer Fran a tip knowing that in the US those government employees cannot accept tips. Later when I looked through the maps and brochures I had picked up, I could not find anything that indicated it was a government owned and operated park.) Driving about 4 hours roundtrip to get to Hopewell Rocks was a mystery especially since on the way driving back past it all again, Marty pointed out the nice and luxury hotels along the way where people come just to watch the tidal bore. That is the water reversing direction as the tide changes. Anyway.

We ate our picnic lunch in a picnic shelter at Hopewell Rocks (I think it is a private park?) and tried to get some information from the visitor’s center about the place we were visiting as it looked like there were trails. But before we could set off sightseeing for an hour we needed to know where and how and the distances because we had to meet back with the group at 12:45pm. I guess Marty really wanted all 46 of us to stay together and actually eat lunch here at the restaurant as it turns out and not elsewhere. But, it is mysterious that knowing more than a few of us had opted out of ordering lunch that she would not share information on what we could do with a free hour or more.

We wound up using the restrooms and then got a map and hit the trails. We easily found the view to Daniels Flats and to Diamond Rock (great!). Then we started to Big Cove. The map said it was 15-20 minutes’ walk one way but the signs said it was about 500 yards. It was about 500 yards, but the last 75 feet were straight down and straight back up! So, it was more like 15 minutes round trip. Mom & Judy didn’t go because they didn’t think they could make it down and back that fast. Mom would not have liked or made the last hill to the viewpoint. Anyway, it was just the back side of the Diamond Rock, so they didn’t really miss anything.



Our guide/ranger Fran explained how the area was formed and about the world’s highest tides here and then we watched a few short videos and then back on the bus to go down to the Flower Pot Rocks and walk on the ocean’s floor. The tide was still going out but there was a sliver of gravel beach at the bottom of 99 stairs. It was cool. We were supposed to be back on the bus at 2pm. It was hot on the bus. We sat and sat and finally another passenger got off and came back on and told us the bus was broken and the driver, Barrie had his mechanic on the phone trying to figure out how to fix it. We finally left at 2:30pm. That meant we had some extra time to walk around, but not too far because no one knew how long we would be there. Barrie continued to hand out cold bottles of water to people as the day went on if they requested them as we reboarded the bus. Marty had lots of informational papers and maps that she handed out all day. Nice touches.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Prince Edward Island. Marty played a video about the building and design of the Confederation Bridge in the 1990’s. She also played part of the movie Clay and I had watched a couple of weeks ago, Anne of Green Gables. We had a short photo stop just after we crossed the bridge and then a short convenience stop at the PEI visitor’s information center where there were some restrooms and gift shops. They sold PEI potatoes there! They told us they were a best seller. Judy bought some PEI potato chips to share. They were pretty good. 

We arrived at North Winds at Brackley Beach about 10 of 6pm and at 6:10pm had to reboard the bus for dinner. We all just had time to use the restrooms, do one other thing and go. We were in the building across from the office building on the far end on the middle floor, which appeared to be the ground floor. Actually there was an indoor heated below on the lowest floor below us. Mom & Judy scored the end of the building with corner windows and we were next door. Sorry, I can't remember the numbers but I think Clay and I were in 110. 

We ate at Prince Edward Island Preserve Co. with live music by Mike Pendergast. They actually make fruit preserves there. Our first course was a biscuit with blueberry/raspberry/champagne preserves. I didn’t eat it, the others just said it was seedy. Next was tomato dill soup which was good. Clay had fish cakes. He thought they had a lot of potatoes in them. Other people commented that they just tasted like potato pancakes without fish in them. It turns out that PEI is some kind of massive potato growing empire! Who knew? Mom had the potato pie. I don’t think she thought much of it, but it seemed that if PEI potatoes were so special that Marty would have sold it better last night when we ordered.  Judy & I ordered the chicken and broccoli crepes. Neither of us found any crepe in our hot baked cheesy saucy ramekins though. It was alright. Dessert was a raspberry cream cheese pie that was pretty good and heavy. They served coffee or tea. Clay and Judy also ordered beers which were not included. This was the beginning of the bell peppers on this trip. It will be crazy! Not a one of us will have a meal (except perhaps breakfast) that does not have bell peppers. No one said a thing about them being locally grown, but man the way they were on every plate, they must have just finished the harvest.

I got a crazy expensive Dunoon English bone china coffee mug with puffins on it from the gift shop here. I don’t think we’ll see any puffins here but they have them in all the literature and signage where ever we’ve  gone and I saw one in Ireland in spring and plenty in Alaska last month, so 2013 seems like the year of the puffin to me. I love the cup!

We got back to North Winds about 9pm and Clay went to work out on the treadmill. He says the Fitness Center is very nice and it is open 24 hours a day. It is also nice to have a refrigerator in the room. Otherwise we aren't too impressed with our 2-night home. It is not within walking distance of anything, including the Brackley Beach. While they say it is about a $35 cab ride to Charlottetown, it took us an hour at least every time we drove anywhere from here. It is a mystery why they did not put us up in a Charlottetown hotel where there would be lots to see and do within walking distance or an inexpensive cab ride. It would not have made for any more time in the bus to sightsee on PEI. I can only guess that it was a financial decision. But, I don't have to like it. North Winds was certainly appropriately named. There was a vicious and relentless north wind blowing ashore during our entire stay. 

Tomorrow continental breakfast is served at the office building here. They don’t have a restaurant out here far from anything. Breakfast is at 7am. The bus leaves in the morning at 8:30am. We will have our first assigned seat rotation then. We also have to leave the bus in a specific order, one way in the morning and the opposite way after lunch. That is not going too well so far. Breakfast is the only meal included tomorrow. We visit the Anne of Green Gables house in the morning and Charlottetown in the afternoon. We are free from lunch time onward tomorrow. Marty says she will explain about lunch, dinner and shuttles tomorrow. I hope so because it sounded like she said we could shop for dinner to bring back to North Winds while in Charlottetown. But, our hotel guest information book clearly states we are not to bring food back to our rooms other than coffee and tea. But we do have small refrigerators and microwaves in our rooms, so it is a mixed message. We’ll find out tomorrow. We are here for 2 nights. The rooms are large and the beds are terribly squishy soft. Our rooms are directly over the indoor pool and Mom & Judy’s while otherwise nicer than ours with a corner window and big wall-mounted TV, stinks of chlorine. Our bathroom floor has some strangely hot spots and I assume that has something to do with the overheating going on down there at the heated indoor swimming pool. It is a little disconcerting after the deaths at the Boone Best Western in NC this year that sparked some hotel building safety code laws to be changed and enacted.

Photos

Arrival in Halifax, Nova Scotia

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013


We booked this Caravan Tour, our 3rd with Mom & Judy, back in January after we had all discussed it and decided on it over Christmas last year. So, that seems like a very long time ago right now. Today we finally leave for that trip!

We were up at 3am to get to the airport for our pre-dawn direct Air Canada flight to Toronto this morning. I spent the first hour of the flight watching the most spectacularly vibrant sunrise over a cloudless east coast. We ran into clouds as we neared Toronto, but the show was over by then anyway. The plane was a small with 2x2 seats and nearly empty, more than half empty I am sure. It was a pleasant flight. We always prefer 2x2 planes and their gate checked luggage due to the smaller size. It seems that the seat space is always larger than on the larger jets as well.

In Toronto, the flight attendant told us we would go one way for domestic connections and another way for International. It should have meant avoiding baggage claim and not leaving the secure area and been in the same terminal building. But we walked for almost 45 minutes and through baggage claim, customs and immigration and back through security. We went up and up escalators, elevators, then down then up and just kept going. It was crazy! Finally through security, we fell on a Tim Horton’s! I had a Canadian Maple and Clay had an apple fritter. Clay was disappointed. We bought 2 small bags of gourmet popcorn, one white cheddar and one kettle for the next plane. They were a disappointment. This flight was a 3x3 and much more full. How is it possible that this flight was much longer than the 1.5 hours from RDU to Toronto? And there was an hour time difference.

We arrived to a warm and sunny day in Halifax on time. We got on a shuttle about 20 minutes later. There is one shuttle for the Hilton Garden Inn Halifax Airport and Holiday Inn Express. It comes by outside baggage claim on the hour and half-hour approximately 24 hours a day we were told. (People who arrived after midnight tonight will later dispute that!) We were able to check right in to our room 105 and learned that Judy and Mom would be nearby (in 104). Clay went to use the treadmill and I took a nap. I was up to greet the full shuttle that brought Mom and Judy about 3:30pm.

Dinner was on our own and at the hotel since there was nothing else in walking distance. It was fine. Clay and Judy had fish and chips they liked and Mom and I had chicken focaccia sandwiches. They were enormous. We could have shared. Clay and I shared a chocolate brownie sundae in a martini glass. It was good. It was hard to eat though it made for a dramatic presentation. Mom & Judy waited for the cookies we had passed at the reception desk. 

The Caravan welcome meeting was at 8pm. Clay and I had been told it would be in the basement so we looked there first to find all the meeting rooms otherwise occupied. Mom & Judy had been told it would be in the back room of the restaurant and it was there even though they had to run out some diners. Our guide is Marty Shannon. She is older than our last 2 Caravan guides and we have high hopes that her added experience will show.

Breakfast tomorrow is 6:30am in the same room with a buffet just for us. We have a card with our key cards for that. Bags out at 7am and depart at 8am. Tomorrow we go to the Bay of Fundy and Hopewell Rocks. I understood Marty to say there is a restaurant there but we are having lunch elsewhere. We had to order it (or not) right then at the meeting. We all opted to skip it for $13 and 3 courses since we also had to order our dinner for tomorrow night. Dinner choices were potato pie, chicken & broccoli crepes, fish cakes or salt cod. It all sounded kind of heavy. We have 2 nights at North Winds on Prince Edward Island.

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Day 8 Disembark Admiralty Dream

Saturday, September 7, 2013

So, we got another early start. I think we were up around 4am instead of 5am today. Not good!  We have a very long day ahead of us. Anyway, we were up for the sail into the channel at Sitka. We were told we were going to dock at Petro Marine, but we didn’t figure out where we were until crossing the bridge on a bus and saw the ship. It was well down the channel away from town past the Shee Atika Totem Square Inn. Shortly after we were tied up, the Alaskan Dream, our sister ship tied up right behind us. The crew was busy trying to get rid of us while preparing for their last cruise of the season, which was a Road Scholars charter. Lee told us yesterday that their itinerary was going up to Skagway and taking the White Pass railroad into Canada among other differences.

We were informed this morning after breakfast that the afternoon flight out of Sitka had been canceled. That left only the 11:55am. (We were originally booked on an earlier direct flight to Seattle that was also canceled and when we were placed on this one, we could not sit next to one another, but one behind the other was the best they could do.) They were going to transfer everyone who was scheduled to fly out today directly to the airport with their luggage in the hopes that everyone would be able to get a seat on that 11:55am flight. We got to the airport about 3 hours early and before the Alaska Airlines counter opened or TSA. We self-checked in at the kiosk and got our boarding passes since we were still only flying with carry-on luggage. As far as I could tell everyone did get on the flight. It was a very full flight. It had originated in Anchorage with a stop in Juneau, then Sitka and Ketchikan before finally arriving in Seattle.

We made good time though and had little wait for our flight to LAX in Seattle. That flight was also pretty full. In LAX, we walked back through the tunnel between Terminals 5 and 6. We found our gate and went to Skewers by Morimoto for something to eat. We were finishing up by 9pm as they were closing. It felt like a long day already and we weren’t even halfway home. We returned to our gate and it was just mobbed. There were no 2 empty seats together. We sat across the hall. Clay went back over to get in line to ask what boarding group we were since it was not printed on our Alaska Air-printed boarding passes. While he was over there in line, the boards changed and said our gate had been changed to 54A (I think) from 53B (I think). Anyway it was beside where we had just eaten. Clay did not believe me because the people manning the gate were telling everyone that the flight would still depart from there, they just had another flight turning around there first now because the plane we were waiting for was delayed coming from Salt Lake City. All the departure monitors had now been updated to the new gate though, so we walked over there and got seats. About 30 minutes later, all the people who had been mobbed at the first gate showed up. It looked like it would be another full flight. We were in boarding group 1 because we had paid for the Economy Plus seats on these long cross-country flights. The really good news is that we had the good fortune of having an empty aisle seat on our row, so as soon as they shut the door, Clay moved over to it. That gave us a nice row to ourselves and I was very relieved because I was getting very twitchy and cramping by then and Clay let me lay down across the 2 seats and put my head on his lap a couple of times overnight. We did not have the attentive service we had on the first flight over, but then maybe they just expected everyone to be asleep. We got home about an hour late which was close to the delay in starting out. We saw Dean Cain get off that flight we were waiting for in LAX.

As we were waiting for our dinner at Skewers, Clay asked if I had any cough drops. I gave him a handful of Fox’s Glacier Mints. He told me he thought he was getting a sore throat. (There were a lot of sick people on our cruise, including Lee, our Tlingit guide.) I was feeling a little raspy and headachy myself. The bad news is that we both came home sick. The good news is that we weren’t sick on the trip!

We both had head colds for a week that then settled into nasty coughs in our chests. We had to delay getting our flu shots to recover. I am feeling about 100% now, but Clay's cough continues to plague him.

I found Clay's movies today. I will only post this one from embarkation day. These are the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Tlingit dancers in Sitka. Click here to view the video.

 

 

Update

As you can tell from reading along, the disparity between the date documented and the date posted keeps getting bigger! I want to say I am working hard on this and my only excuse was taking the first week back from Alaska off with a cold. Since then, I had a couple of bad days the next week due to a failed pill trial. I saw Dr. Carnes on 9/16 and asked him about Mom's recommendation of taking CoQ10. He thought that was a good idea. I took it for a week, and it enhanced or strengthened the tremor to the point I couldn't mouse or knit. I stopped the CoQ10 and the tremor has fallen back off to about where it was on 9/16. Dr. Carnes considers my Parkinson's Disease progression stable at this point and is not trying a new drug now. That is a good thing. I will see him again in December.

So, what is really slowing me down on getting the blog postings finished while I should be getting ready for our next trip to the Canadian Maritimes? Clay has booked 2 more trips while I am working at this! We now have a week booked in Las Vegas for Cirque du Soleil shows (that's on me!) and a week booked in Las Angeles because we've never been to Disneyland (that's all Clay!). I am thinking that this is what his retirement looks like...

Back tomorrow to finish off the Alaska trip blog!

Day 7 Kelp Bay and Lake Eva

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Friday, September 6, 2013

It was a quiet night anchored in Middle Arm of Kelp Bay. We were awoken at 5am by our neighbors’ alarm clock. It was fine because it meant we were already dressed and out on deck when we got an earlier than scheduled wake up announcement of a lot of whales. Evidently the crew or bridge saw a breaching whale. It was beautiful and perfectly calm and quiet and there were a lot of whales spouting and you could hear them, but no more breaching sadly. It was a nice wake up after a quiet calm night. The whales were at the intersection of Middle Arm and South Arm of Kelp Bay. Based on our experience coming out of Hobart Bay into Frederick Sound, I think humpback whales must really like intersections. Anyway, it was a magical morning so quiet except for the sounds of the whales. And there were so many of them all around us!

Breakfast was at 6:45am and our muster was at 8:30am, so we had a nice leisurely breakfast with Margaret from Australia. She was in the first DIB group and all they saw was eagles. We were in the 2^nd DIB group and all we saw was eagles, sea birds and salmon jumping. We rode past a small spawning stream but it was low tide and the salmon can’t get in yet. Very disappointed in Portage Arm not to have a morning bear, we’ve gotten spoiled.

Lunch menu is chicken & wild rice soup. Dungeness crab melt sandwich, turkey club wrap, or always available hamburger, veggie burger or salad.

Dinner menu is sweet potato soup, steakhouse salad, crab stuffed halibut or prime rib or baked tortellini or always available sirloin, chicken breast, salad or baked potato.

As we began our sail out of Portage Arm, I went up on the bridge to find the captain all alone. He welcomed me as his first visitor of the day. I think he had gotten lonely. His name is Paul Figuenick. He said Admiralty Dream was built in 1979. He soon let Ken, the master chief, drive the boat. As we neared the intersection of 2 arms again, we saw a bunch of humpback whales and orca together. We followed along with one orca on the port side almost all the way out to Chatham Strait. Ken, who was driving saw the humpbacks first, but I spotted the orca first. Lynette came up to the bridge and asked Ken to stop the boat or even turn around because there were some people on the starboard side watching the humpbacks and some orca together. No one on the bridge had seen them and they were traveling away pretty fast. Ken called the captain and asked and he said it was Lynette’s call if she wanted to be late to Lake Eva. She didn’t. I told her we should just stay with the one orca close along the port side and the people on the starboard side could come to the port side and watch him as we travel on. It worked out perfectly.

Back from lunch. Dessert was huge and incredible. It was a ramekin of peach and strawberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. I will justify the huge carb load by saying at 3pm we are to go ashore at Lake Eva for a 3 hour hike.

Tonight is the Captain’s dinner and at 7:45am tomorrow, they disembark us. We will fly out of Sitka in the morning and be in Raleigh by Sunday morning.

This Admiralty Dream trip has exceeded our expectations and we can highly recommend Alaskan Dream Cruises.

The ship has just stopped again, so I have to go out and see what there is to see. Well, we dropped anchor. It seems we arrived early at Lake Eva and the announcement has just been made for the 1^st DIB group to get ready to go. They have yet to announce whether we need boots for a water landing or if they can set up steps and we can wear regular shoes. Hopefully, by time for DIB 2 we’ll be told. We would rather not hike for 3 hours in heavy rubber boots we borrowed from the ship if we don’t have to, nor pack shoes over there. Also, the gift shop was finally set up in the lounge after final bills had been presented. We each got a t-shirt since they had maps on the back. The shirts were $20 each. Recommended tips are $15 pp/pd for 8 days. We gave an imprint of the credit card on embarkation day so we should be closed out now.

We’re back from our medium paced walk. It felt like it was a death march! I don’t know that we went much slower than the fast paced group. We walked all the way to Lake Eva and back, 4 miles, without seeing a bear. Our entire last day spent without seeing a single bear. I am sad. I am especially sad because on one of the first stone stairways on the way back, I dislocated my right kneecap again. I shortly got a chance to step out of line on the trail and push it back into place when Lee pointed out a baby bear print in the mud. Clay and I and some other photographer lagged behind and brought up the rear. Clay and I and Lee and Frasier, the deck hand were the last ones to DIB back to the ship as the tide just kept getting lower. It looked to have dropped 15 feet or more while we were ashore about 3 hours. When we got there the tide was higher than Lee had ever seen it and part of the trail was underwater. We had to make a detour around and over a couple of logs and streams to get to the other side. When we came back the water was down and the trail of stepping stones was exposed. That was good since we were hurrying to beat the dark and the tide. While we only saw an eagle, it was still a good day. It was about 60 – 63 degrees and partly sunny with not a drop of rain all day. 

So, now we’ve done some packing and we’re dressed for the Captain’s dinner. Just jeans and clean shirts! It looks like it might be a good sunset.  It turns out the round table at the back of the dining room that we have used every evening for dinner is the Captain’s! Since it was reserved for him and his 4 guests tonight, we moved to our usual breakfast spot and it was fine. Usually they only have 4 places set at that table though. We sat with the photographer from our walk today and his wife. They are from Colorado. They always serve one red wine and one white wine with lunch and dinner, as well as any beer they have that you ordered. Clay has had a lot of beers and some red wine. I have had only a glass of white wine at dinner and liked them all. But, tonight they served a chardonnay and neither of us liked it. Also, they had some kind of failure on the soup tonight and it was just awful. It’s too bad to finish on an off note. After dinner, they introduced the 3 kitchen staff. It is incredible to think that only 3 people in that tiny kitchen have put out such good meals all at one time every meal. They introduced all the waitstaff/room stewards again. At this point at the end of every meal, the waitstaff usually tell each table what is for dessert. The desserts and pastries and cookies have been delicious and we have all always been told that Sunshine bakes them while we sleep and she sleeps at night. Tonight no one had told us what was for dessert except that it was a surprise. They served everyone a small stem-less glass of sparkling wine. After the Captain made his toast, you know the one about tall ships and small ships but best of all friendships; they announced a dessert buffet extravaganza in the lounge. Where we all got to meet Sunshine!

The 3 expedition leaders all spoke again and they told us that wake up tomorrow is 6am and breakfast is 6:30am and between 7 and 8am an expert would board and speak in the lounge about our disembarkation. Luggage is to be outside the cabins before we go to breakfast and we’ll find it wherever we are heading when we arrive. Jon did a slide show of photos that he, Lee and Lynette had taken all week. At the end, he said he would hand one out to each Alaskan Dream Cruise booked cabin and Lynette would get them to the Orbidge folks via their photo sharing site. That was a very nice touch.

Our final onboard bill was $356. We spent $16 on a print at the Orca Point Lodge and Clay charged it to our onboard account. We bought 2 t-shirts for $40. We put $300 of gratuities on the account. The recommended amount according to the book in our cabin was $15pp/pd. Jon suggested $15 to $20pp/pd.

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Day 6 Red Bluff Bay and Hidden Falls

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

The drama of the mass whale feeding went on for hours last night. It was a whale tail extravaganza in Frederick Sound! Long after we had gone to bed I heard a whale breath very close by. I sat up and looked out and realized one was right outside my window. I called Clay and there were 2. The bridge has some kind of spotlights they turn on to see things at night and they were on. The 2 humpbacks were gliding along right beside the front half of the port side and as the 2^nd one raised its tail, I swear the right tip of the tail grazed the side of the ship. They moved off about 6 feet and then another 10 feet but they were keeping pace with the ship. Finally they were 20 feet away and dropping back, but it was incredible while they were so close. Of course it was too dark for photos of black whales in black water in the dark!

We sailed south down Frederick Sound and the water was crazy rough. This is the downside of a very small unstabilized ship. We were tossing about. About 3am, I woke up to the spotlights off the bow again and sat up and looked out to a giant washing machine of bergie bits, the big ones that Lynette described. I guess the bridge was trying to avoid having one tossed onto us! I don’t know what glacier we were close enough to for all that large ice to be in the channel. Just before dawn we entered Chatham Strait and things began to calm down. By about 5am we had entered the mouth of Red Bluff Bay which had a couple of jogs to make to get all the way inside. Once we reached the end where there is a small salmon spawning river or stream, there was a brown bear or grizzly feeding and hanging out there all through breakfast. We are on the back side of Baranof Island from Sitka. We have passed and anchored just beyond a perfect tall cascading waterfall. I am sitting out in the sun on the aft deck 3 and can hear the roar of and see it and a pair of bald eagles. We have had an incredibly scenic trip. Today is beautifully bright and sunny.

The first DIB group is out and we have about another 2 hours to just sit and soak in the scenery, bear and eagle watching with binoculars before we get our turn. Then we will sail back north a bit to the Hidden Falls salmon hatchery for our afternoon visit there. The hand drawn route map in the lounge shows Eli Cove is the location. Tomorrow is Lake Eva and Kelp Bay. We are geographically very close to Sitka again, if you could go straight overland, but of course with a huge mountain before us, you can't. Time is just flying by and it is hard to believe tomorrow is our last day.

The breakfast special today was French toast with house made raspberry sauce. I had it with raspberry yogurt and bacon, delicious. Clay had eggs, toast and bacon with orange juice. We were joined again by Lynette and she pointed out a brown bear on the shore.  We asked her about the small black and white diving birds and she said they were murrelets in their winter plumage. She said all summer in their mating plumage they were dull brown things that looked like baked potatoes floating in the water. She said they had just recently changed plumage for winter and now they are the more attractive black and white. They are amazing at how long they can stay underwater and how deep and far they can swim. When they fly, they swarm around like butterflies.

Clay said our room steward was on ice watch to get the minute the berg bit melted away in the lounge. It is 8:30am and it is gone. So, Clay is out of the running.  The 2^nd DIB group has just gone and we are next so I better go and see what I need to put on for that. I wore a pair of long underpants on a recommendation of an early DIBer, but that was overkill with jeans, a sweater and a fleece jacket under the lifevest. We had 15 on our DIB again. Same exact group. I was on first and made sure I sat on the starboard side by the tub and away from the engine. It was good. We saw a brown bear pull out and carry up the shore a salmon and feed on it. He kept staring right at us like he wished we’d go. Lynette explained that brown bears and grizzly bears are the same bear, but generally the brown bears that feed on fish along the shore are called brown and bears that live inland on mostly berries are called grizzlies.

Then we went to get a very close up call at the spectacular waterfall. After Jon told us there would be no need for waterproof gear! I think Adam was amusing himself with the close encounter. Clay thinks he got a good photo of Adam as we left the waterfall. I got his email address in case we did.

After we got back, we were still waiting for our room to be serviced and got a chance to visit the bridge. The Captain was up there all alone and it was a great 360 degree view. Lynette is about to give a presentation before lunch. So, I’ll be back later with the lunch and dinner menus and a full report. 

Lunch was white bean minestrone and Baranof Beef Dip with a twice baked potato or strawberry chicken salad with carrot cake. We both had soup and I had beef and Clay had the salad. I think we were both a little disappointed. I had chocolate ice cream and Clay had carrot cake. We sat with Ken & Beth, a pair of attorneys from Naples, FL where Beth is also a circuit court judge.

Jon showed a video in the lounge about commercial salmon fishing. I passed, but Clay went. Lynette’s talk and slide show was about the environmental impact of the reproductive life cycle of Pacific salmon in the wild. There are 5 types: chum, sockeye, king, coho, pink. All 5 have alternate names but I am sure I can’t get them right. If I write them here, I’ll have to look them up online later. OK. so here are the 2 names of the 5 types of salmon. Chum or dog. Sockeye or red. King or Chinook. Coho or silver. Pink or humpies.

Dinner is Pacific crab & corn soup and pear salad and almond crusted bone-in pork chop or roasted garlic prawns or stuffed Portobello mushroom.

I think I have an hour or so before we arrive at the salmon hatchery and I haven’t had a good nap all trip. I hate to miss scenic sailing, but the past hour or more has begged for some of those humpback whales with nary a one in sight. So, nap time for me now.

The salmon hatchery trip was interesting, but not as interesting as the bears making a meal of nearby salmon. Hidden Falls Hatchery is situated on a point of land near a small inlet caused by a hidden waterfall from Hidden Lake in the mountains above. Salmon can't spawn here because there is no river, but they can imprint on the fresh water falls and inlet when they are born here and return to spawn. All the hatchery has to do is let them in and harvest at spawning time, then incubate and wait for them to mature enough to release into the wild. There is no farming here. So, Hidden Falls. They really were hidden, behind a small island and then behind a stand of tall trees. Lynette said it was a sheer falls. Adam, who showed us around, said their freshwater supply was from the falls and from a surface water and deep water pipe running down from the same glacial lake, Hidden Lake, that supplies the falls. They also had a turbine installed in the water pipes to generate their own electricity. He said they only go into town, Sitka, about 4 times a year and they home school the kids that live there. It would be a strange life.

There was a mother and a cub nearby and they fished from shore and swam in and fished some more. At one point we were standing near the fish weir and a mink (or river otter) darted out from a hole at the bottom of the dam and it sneaked along and across and down the other side. Clay did not get a photo because he was too small and sneaky. 

Clay had salad and prawns for dinner.  I had salad and pork. I had cheesecake with raspberry sauce and Clay had chocolate ice cream. We sat with a couple from Beaumont, TX. After dinner Jon did a presentation on the life of humpback whales.

During dinner we entered Kelp Bay and anchored in Middle Arm. Tomorrow we will move to the windier Portage Arm because there are more animals. We will have DIB tours in the morning there beginning at 7:45am. We are in the 3^rd group mustering at 8:30am. In the afternoon, we sail to Lake Eva (or near there) for group hikes. We signed up for the medium-paced group. We have 3 hours to hike and the pace will determine the distance. The fast-paced group will go 1.9 miles to Lake Eva and turn around and come back in 3 hrs. The medium group is not expected to see the lake. The regal or stately-paced group will get more flora talks as they stroll. Most are expected to walk along an estuary and salmon stream. Social hour and dinner will be later and that final dinner the will be the Captain’s. Jon also said the evening’s after dinner events would be special and run later than usual. He suggested we start packing tonight since we’ll have a long busy day tomorrow and they’ll want us off early the following morning. I think we will save our packing for tomorrow or Saturday morning anyway.

It’s not a cruise until Clay has fallen. Just fallen down, slipped, tripped, missed a stair and gone down. He slid down the last few stairs right outside our room. He carpet burned his elbow and bruised it and bruised his butt. There were witnesses, a passenger and our room steward. Clay was asked if he was alright later by the safety officer, so there was a report. I honestly can’t figure out what is up with Clay’s cruise falling. I can’t think of any ship we’ve ever been on that he hasn’t fallen. It’s a miracle he hasn’t really hurt himself. All I can do is ask to him to be more careful.

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