TravelStream™ news feed for member kwrona on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kwrona en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:20:31 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwrona/3/1247112000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwrona/3/1247112000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kwrona/3/1247112000/tpod.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:20:31 -0400 I love that dirty water . . . BOSTON you're my home!

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Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Came into Niagara yesterday around 7 pm. We dropped our bags and headed to our first "real" meal in days We had a nice Italian dinner. From there we went down to check out the falls. We realized that we both started our treks out to San Diego at Niagara Falls, so it was cool to end out trip back here. Jon had only been to the US side, but the Canadian side is way better. Today we're off across New York to Jon's friend's wedding. Thanks to everyone for your emails, texts etc! Today is an 8 hour day and then a few days off from driving! This is a longer drive than we thought! Canada is BIG! Hope everyone is doing well and see you beantowners soon!
love,
jon and kate -8
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Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada

Hi All from Sault Ste. Marie Michigan! We're stateside. . . more on that later.

Yesterday was an interesting day where we were actually in 4 different provinces in one day. We started out in Alberta, drove through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and stayed in Ontario. Saskatchewan was cool because it was ridiculously flat and green. It rained a bit yesterday but mostly we just drove through. Nancy and Katie - tell Scott and Jen and we went through Scott's favorite town, and thought of him.

All this was worth it today though because Ontario was beautiful! We saw two foxes, a moose, deer, and a brown bear right on the side of the road. It was the closest we came to any bear on our travels so far. Who would have thought?! We drove around the northern tip of Lake Superior - it was amazing! A funny thing happened about 50 miles west of the border crossing. We were searching the AM stations and somehow picked up WBZ where they were debating about Deval Patrick and Mass politics. We're still not sure how that happened, but I took it as a sign we're doing the right thing moving home.

I didn't realize there was a Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario and Michigan and accidentally booked our hotel for Michigan so we had to cross the border around 11:30 pm tonight. We decided to drive through Michigan tomorrow over to Niagara Falls so feel free to text or call us tomorrow while we're in the states. Hope you're all doing well and see most of you soon. Miss all of you in Cali!

Kate and Jon
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Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

So yesterday was all about trains, planes and automobiles. We woke up around 5 am and headed to the airport where we flew through Seattle to Vancouver. We picked up our car and drove 6 hours and arrived in Revelstoke last night around 11 pm. I was still so sick so I mostly moaned and slept while Jon drove. Today we woke up and drove for about 9 hours to Medicine Hat, Alberta. Unfortunately as I started to finally feel better Jon caught my nasty virus. He seems to be showing symptoms much quicker than I did so I hope that it runs through him much quicker than it has through me. The good thing though is that I'm feeling better and can drive now that he's sick so he can rest. We drove the whole day through torrential downpour and thunderstorms. Jon got us over the Canadian Rockies while I took the easy part through the plains. It's funny to see the sky line change so drastically as soon as you leave Calgary. Also I can't understand for the life of me why they do this, but the main (and only highway to go across Canada) goes through major cities. And I mean goes through! You from going 110 kmh (80 mph) to stopping at a red light. It's crazy! Oh those crazy Canadians! Off to get a good night's rest - 12 hours tomorrow and then 14 the next day - FUN FUN! It's amazing but after 3 weeks of non-stop being together we're still not sick of each other and still have things to talk about. Last night we sat across from this couple in their late 60s who didn't say a word through dinner. I guess that's what 40+ years finally does to you! Hope everyone is doing well!

love,
Kate and Jon
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Anchorage, Alaska, United States

I really wish I could write that we had an amazing 4th of July in the largest town in Alaska, but unfortuntely we did not. I took a nice little parting gift from the Saphire Princess ship - a nasty cold/flu virus. We spent all of 4th of July looking at the walls of the Motel 6 outside the Anchorage airport and watching the very interesting alaskan news. We walked half a mile down to a restaurant, which was actually really nice and we got to sit along the stream. We saw a bunch of kids tubing down it and Jon saw a giant red salmon swimming upstream. The ship had discovery channel with Alaskan programming running non-stop so we know now that when a male salmon turns fire engine red and get a giant hump on his back that he's swimming up stream to mate. It was cool to see it in action. I wish we had pictures and more interesting stories, but I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!!
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Valdez, Alaska, United States

Again today we had amazing sights as we sailed through College Fjord. We had another ranger over the loud speakers pointing out okras, sea otters, and of course more glaciers. We passed Valdez on the way in and he was describing a lot about the Exxon Valdez oil spill since we just passed the 20 year anniversary. The sea otters luckily were not too impacted by it, but Puffins and the fish obviously were. Unfortunately he said Puffins may never return back to that area of Alaska.
We sailed as close as a mile to the glacier's face and even were able to see more points than usual since it was our captain’s last cruise to Alaska. It was surreal to sit down to lunch or dinner and look out the window at these giant mountains and glaciers. At the end of this day we found this amazing bar on the 16th deck where you could see all sides of the boat and hear the commentary by the ranger. Plus it was inside, which I liked since it was freezing and I was starting to not feel well.
The captain got us into Whittier a half an hour early at 11:30 pm so we could see the 4th of July fireworks at midnight. It is absolutely crazy that at midnight the sky was still as bright as it is at about 7 pm. I wish I could say we were out there watching them, but with me being sick and we had to be up early to disembark. We did watch them on the closed circuit TV though. It’s sad that today is our last day because this part of the trip has been AMAZING! Hope you all like the updates, sorry we weren’t able to update while on the boat but internet was too expensive for two unemployed folk. Hope everyone is doing well!!
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Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska, United States

Today was our favorite day. We spent about 5 hours sailing through Glacier Bay National Park and it was breathtaking! A park ranger boarded our ship and pointed out sights, glaciers and facts. We saw a bunch of glaciers and got so close to them, you could see all the detail. We saw calving where large chunks would fall off into the ocean and create icebergs. You had to keep an eye on the glacier because the speed of sound is slower and by the time the sound of the crash reached the ship, the ice was already in the ocean. It was definitely our favorite part.

I just have to point out to those of you who know what a picky eater I am, that every night at dinner I've ordered the fish option. I’ve had seabass, halibut, scallops, lobster, shrimp and, of course, Alaskan salmon. Both Jon and I are working on eating more seafood.
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Skagway, Alaska, United States

Skagway is a cute port town. It's a gold rush town that had 20,000 inhabitants during the gold rush days. At first they would trek up through the mountains until a railroad was built to take people over the mountains to search for gold. We rode the railroad up to the summit of White Pass and were able to see amazing views and tunnels built over a hundred years prior. It was amazing that they built this rail track over and through mountains, blasting out tunnels and wrapping around mountains. Before the railroad was built, each prospector was required by the Canadian Government to have 2,000 pounds of supplies. Which meant they had to carry 100 pounds on their back up 3,000 vertical feet over the 20 mile trail. They had to drop the gear and do it 20 more times before they were allowed to enter Canada. Once cleared through they had to carry that gear down the other side of the mountain! Apparently there were a lot of prospectors dying from lack of food and Canada didn’t want that to happen anymore on their land. Ironically by the time they finished building the railroad the gold had mostly dried up and most people had moved on to other parts of Alaska. It was all really interesting to see back to that period.
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Juneau, Alaska, United States

We had 13 hours in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. We took advantage of all that time to see the "real" Juneau. We took the city bus about an hour to the Mendenhall Glacier. We had about a mile and a half walk to the glacier and we couldn't figure out where it was. We turned around a bend and saw a breathtaking sight. It was the first glacier I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing how large and blue they are. Glaciers absorb all colors of the light spectrum but blue so they appear blue. After touring the glacier we made it back to the bus and to Jon’s favorite brewery – Alaskan Beer Company. I had no idea but Juneau is the third largest city by size – and we saw a lot of it.

As we were heading back to the ship, a bald eagle swooped down right at our heads and we got to see the eagle right up close. After a few of those Alaskan Amber beers it was very surreal!
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Ketchikan, Alaska, United States

Again we've been lucky and in the city where it rains about 360 days a year, it just drizzled for about 3 minutes and then stopped. We only had a few hours in Ketchikan today so we took a walking tour around the small village. We went down to the Totem Heritage Center, which has the largest collection of totems in the world (35). It was cool to see the totems as the originally were, with no paint and carved out giant cedar trees. A guide explained to us the significance of the different animals and symbols on the totems.

From there it was time to head back to the ship, and it wouldn’t be fair if I only told you the stories about Jon (like him being seasick!). We were heading back about a half an hour before we needed to be back on the ship. We came through security and when we got back to the room I couldn’t find my cell phone. We ran back to the gangway and it wasn’t there so we had 15 minutes to search the city. Jon ran as fast as he could back to the shop we were at last, but the totem heritage center was too far. Jon sprinted back as I waited to make sure the ship didn’t leave without him. We went up to guest services and no phone had been turned in so the staff member got verizon on the phone and I cancelled my service. After that long ordeal we went back to the room and not 30 seconds after being back did I find my cell phone . . . after laughing for about 20 minutes I was forced to agree to buy beers for Jon the rest of the trip (aka go broke).

That night we headed up to the front of the ship for whale watching. The cruise director was on the loud speaker pointing the whales out to us, but after awhile it was easy to see them. We saw a bunch of humpback whales and a bald eagle. Hopefully there will be more of that to come, because that was awesome!

That night we sailed through Snoe pass where they said we might see some Humpback whales. We went to the front of the boat and saw a bunch of humpback whales diving down. One was so close to the ship it went right underneath us. It was great!!
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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

And we’re cruising! We set sail from Vancouver under gorgeous blue skies. We’ve been so lucky with the weather! The first day sailing has been great and so relaxing after all this travel. We hit some rough seas and the ship was pitching back and forth most of the day. It was pretty cool though and lots of large swells. One of the waiters said that he has only seen rough seas like that maybe one other time in his 7 years. At the pools the water was sloshing halfway out (along with about 10 kids) and then with each rock back the water would all go back in creating a giant wave pool. I’m not supposed to write this, but Jon got a little seasick today. Of course I had to make fun of Jon since he comes from a long line of Oregon fisherman. Luckily it only lasted half the day and the captain said we will be sheltered by land the rest of the time so it won’t happen again. After all the driving and moving around we’ve done, it has been so nice to just have a day to relax!
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