Last Day on the Ship

Rebecca thought the traditional celebratory Chef Parade with responding napkin wave was absolutely hilarious.


















The chefs and the Maitre D' very much deserved it for their delicious and beautiful culinary presentations.

Tea For Two

I wanted to add this photo in addition to the Flickr pictures available in the sidebar. They only let me post 31.

Victoria, British Columbia, our last stop on our Cruise - Tuesday, Cruise Day 9

After a relaxing day at sea, during which the kids finally got to swim in the heated pool, as wind and weather permitted, we sailed into the Harbor of Victoria, British Columbia. George had reserved an extravagant excursion for just the two of us to Butchart Gardens, where we had tea. The tour guide showed us the main attractions of the city as we journeyed to the other side of the island to the Gardens. Mrs. Butchart felt bad that her and her husband's quarry had so disfigured the land, so she made a world-class garden out of it.

Our trip to Victoria said loud and clear, "You're not in the wilderness anymore!" I still have very mixed feelings about that. I have a new Flickr widget at the bottom of the sidebar to the left where I put some of the flowers.

Whale Watching

After leaving the Fjord, we counted about 15 whales. I suppose they were humpback. They were very hard to capture with the shutter delay.

Leaving Tracy Arm Fjord

Dean Paige said that after the glacier carves out the rock mountain, lichen are the first plants to grow, then their decay leaves soil for moss, which leaves deeper soil for bigger plants, and so on, until years and years later, trees can grow. Patience, my heart.

Tracy Arm Fjord - Cruise Day 7, Sunday

Early Sunday morning the ship took a sight-seeing cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord, a deep inlet formed by a glacier that is still receding. We were sad to leave Alaska, but this detour into the interior left a sweet taste in our mouth.

Skagway - Cruise Day 6, Saturday, Aug 4

Skagway experienced two booms. One when gold was discovered in 1896 in the Canadian Yukon which was only accessible by sea and a grueling trek across White (Dead Horse) Pass.




















The second was when the U.S. decided to defend against Japanese invasion during WWII.
Skagway by then had a rail way
























to Canada's interior which proved useful to supply the building of the new Canada - Alaska Highway to fortify against the Japanese take-over of one of the Aleutian Islands. I didn't realize the Japanese actually had occupied, and not just bombed, American soil. The Battle of the Aleutian Islands is known as the Forgotten Battle as the Battle of Guadalcanal, in which the USS Juneau sank, overshadowed it. "There were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured,
1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died
of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire."

Today it's mostly a historic tourist town keeping the past alive. This photo was in a museum in back of a store.

"Of the twenty mushers who rushed the serum from Nenana to Nome, 674
miles away, the man who drove the furthest in perilous conditions was
Alaska's great sled dog racer Leonhard Seppala. And the dog that led
Seppala's team on a loop of two hundred and sixty miles, including a
long stretch over the fracturing ice of Norton Sound was the same dog
with an impressive record of race victories over the previous decade --
a small, feisty Siberian Husky named Togo, the real hero of the serum
run. It wore Togo out and he was unable to race much after that." Please read the rest of this dog's story here.