Victoria, Canada

Leaving Alaska, it was so foggy I was waiting for the foghorn. Are there icebergs out here? The whale watching was a little more difficult but they were starting to appear more frequently. We sailed back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria on Vancouver Island. (The capital of British Columbia). This would be our last stop before disembarking in Seattle. We’ve gone from 7 degrees in Juneau a day or so ago to a sunny 27 degrees in Victoria which was a shock to the system. The snow capped Olympic mountains stood out against the vivid blue sky.

Based on the amount of shore time we had here, we joined a walking tour. A beautiful walk along the harbour past float houses, the Legislatures building, the palatial Empress hotel that would cost more than our cruise to stay for a night and the old steamship terminal in downtown Victoria all the while learning some history and facts and admiring the Victorian architecture.

Orcas were seen here last week and when they’re visiting, all harbour traffic is ceased, so no sea planes etc. There are two types of whales here and they want to protect them. The transient whales visit from time to time and there are 80 resident Orca’s that frequent these waterways. The Orcas have a preference for Pacific Chinook salmon and require 25 adult salmon per day. We also learnt that it takes 40 buckets of maple sap to make a bucket of maple syrup.

And so we say farewell to our home for the last 34 nights, Quantum of the Seas. We’ve seen 3 different hypnotist shows. Ruthie’s a non believer and thinks it is complete nonsense, but every time I hear certain music I start uncontrollably river dancing or doing a Mick Jagger impersonation! The hypnotist advised the audience that they may be affected and if anyone was in a trance after the show he’d come and awaken them. I told Ruthie that would be me but she threatened to disown me if that happened. To top it off, Ruthie has not caught a lift on the ship. Somehow, I think she’s the one that got hypnotised! We’ve met some wonderful and amazing people aboard from all walks of life and from different cultures, that make the world go round.

Seattle USA

Disembarking in Seattle, we have a day and night there. Nearly 5,000 cruise passengers disembarking at the same time you can imagine how long the taxi queue was. The cruise group we follow said you couldn’t walk from the port to downtown Seattle. Well we thought we’d prove them wrong and decided that it would be a good idea to walk to our accommodation. It started off a beautiful walk along the waterfront but suddenly the path turned to gravel and unfortunately our suitcases weren’t 4 wheel drive. We got many strange looks but it felt like all that excess cruise food was being worked off. One kind soul stopped to offer assistance and said “it’s not every day you see folks in this park with luggage”. We hit the concrete patch with relief and I checked that we only had 650 metres to go. What it didn’t show was that the hill we had to climb was like Mt Everest. What gave us some satisfaction was that as we arrived at our hotel after our mammoth 5km pack horse walk was that some passengers from the cruise who had caught a taxi, arrived at the same time. They had missed out on their cross country workout!

So Ruthie broke her “no lifts rule” and caught her 1st lift of the trip. It was a glass lift outside the Seattle Space Needle that took you up 520 feet to the top. Only thing was she made me do it too and you all know I’m not a fan of heights. The views were amazing and I was even able to walk across the rotating glass floor! I must be getting better at heights!

Our Space Needle ticket included entry to the Chihuly Gardens next door. Here I was expecting a stroll through some gardens admiring the Spring blooms. We entered through a building and straight away were greeted by amazing blown glass, dazzling and colourful sculptures in the form of exotic plants. It was amazing. In the outside garden glass sculptures had been combined with real life plants to form exotic landscapes. It was mind blowing blown glass art.

Pike Place Market was touted as the place to eat for Foodies. We were excited to see what was on offer there but maybe Monday was not the day. We managed to find a unique little wine bar and had a Rosé washed down by some crackers and a slab of Gouda cheese presented on a kitchen plate from our childhood. The view over the water and the Seattle wheel was nice though and it was a unique experience. Monday definitely isn’t the night for eating out in Seattle as we couldn’t find anywhere to eat at all. We ended up stopping at a grocery store and buying a bag of chips and an apple. Oh well, two more days and we’re back to all you can eat cruising for part 2 of Alaska.

Our time in Seattle was short but we feel we got a good taste of what it was like. We hadn’t had enough of carting our luggage cross country so off we trekked the 3.5km’s to the Amtrak station to catch the train back to Vancouver. Only thing was it wasn’t a train it was a bus! It was an interesting walk venturing through the financial district, luxury hotels, some slum districts, areas with groups of people standing around and the smell of dope filled the air. Across the road, it appeared people were shooting up. I sourced some coffee and heard that the coffee shop had been held up the previous day by a man with a knife. Suddenly the neighbourhood didn’t seem so friendly and we were glad to get on the bus. We had everything in order for the border crossing but our bus continued its journey with two less travellers after the sniffer dog took a lot of interest in them. Another young Aussie on the bus on his way to Vancouver airport to fly home was also fully searched by virtue of being in line next to them. Never a dull moment.