The Crest Hotel Prince Rupert

We lucked out&#8212;another sunny day. The first part of the ferry ride was beautiful&#8212;could see all the mountains. Toward the end, it was through the low clouds/fog. Saw Dahl porpoise and humpback whales about three different times. <br><br>This is the end of our Alaska Adventure. It was even better than we could have ...

Our first full day on the ship was at sea, as we headed north. Anna was already fully occupied with her kid's club. In fact, she had a full itinerary and schedule waiting for her in the room when we arrived, and I can&#8217;t think of an activity she missed. Princess maintains three separate "clubs" for kids of different age ranges ...

... to be fixed any time soon. <br><br>We managed, however, to fit in a hike to the Butze Rapids. Unfortunately, we were too late to see the featured presentation - the rapids reverse themselves during the transition from high to low tide and vice-versa. Nonetheless, the rain forest setting made the hike worthwhile.<br><br>After three days there, we were ready to head off on our Alaska adventure. More to come&#8230;

... Though it was cloudy all day, we really lucked out weather wise. we missed all the storms we could see and it wasn't too cold out either. Saw my first ever black bear today, but by the time I got the camera out it was gone. I will get pics of some wildlife at somepoint! Had a great lunch at Robs restaurant in some middle of nowhere town between Smithers BC and Prince Rupert, and ...

... onto ships. The town itself is charming; we particularly liked the city hall, combining art deco with Northwestern Indian motifs. Beside it stands a statue of Charles Melville Hays, the railroad magnate who planned the city but did not live to see it because he went down with the Titanic. We had dinner at a restaurant with a panoramic view of the harbor, with its many small boats.

... flyyyy by. After the longest layover ever, we have a night flight (8pm until 9am) that amounts to 9 hours of airtime with all the time differences. I plan on taking a gravol and sleeping my way through the night. The Houston to Sao Paulo flight will be the end of mine and Jen's journey as we separate to our further destinations. Me to Rio de Janeiro and her to Belo Horizonte. It'll be sad, but alas.. our journey's will have just begun! I have just sent a ...

... at beautiful scenery is greatly enhanced by capturing it on a digital camera. Writing about it makes it three times as good. The drive from Prince Rupert to Terrace along the Skeena River is one of the great drives in British Columbia and there are many great drives in this beautiful province. For the most part, the Skeena River valley is wide and the river at this time of year is very much braided like the rivers I saw in Alaska. Fatigue must have been setting ...

... The place was closed due to constant landslides, and there were uprooted trees and massive bolders all over the path. V. scary. Gabrielle was also scared we would be jumped on by a bear but I think they had the sense to stay away from the rock falls. We checked out a cool museum about the Native Americans, and had drinks with Danny and an Aussie couple, Shane and Kate, at the local bar. Good times!

... the most amazing bear sighting was just west of Kitwanga Junction along Highway 16 where I saw a grizzly bear sitting on the CN railway tracks. I had never seen an actual grizzly before but there was no mistaking that this monster,just by its sheer size and concave face, was a grizzly. I was so excited that my attempts to take a photo came to naught before the animal ambled into the adjoining forest. It would have been a great photo.