Victoria

Spent the morning sailing to Victoria to arrive at 6pm and stay till midnight. During the sail Gavin enjoyed running around the deck in the wind. He has started doing something I haven’t seen him do since he was very little. Taking a nap. When we got into town Gavin in the backpack was out cold for about 30 minutes the last four to five days of the trip he has been like this. Can’t say I wouldn’t have liked to join him but there was just so much fun stuff to do Victoria proved to offer an unexpected pleasure for Teddy. After an hour of shopping we stopped at a pub (there’s millions of them in Victoria) for dinner and found that the drinking age was 19. Teddy decided to make up for lost time. By my count he finished three pints of Guinness and made it back to the ship on time. He was also never asked for ID the whole time. Did not get sick and was up on time in the morning. I think he has put Victoria high on his list of places to return to. We set sail and were back in Seattle this morning at 6am. Sue departed at noon from the airport and we were home by 9pm. Gavin crashed again the minute we got onto the plane. Made for a very quite plane trip.

I have to say that the little man really distinguished himself for 10 days we had only one major tantrum followed by an eating spell that was amazing to watch (tired and hungry, shame on us!). There are at least 15 waitresses who would have taken him home on the spot, not to mention a number of people at the airport today, where he was particularly cute and funny.

Ketchican, Alaska

Well in typical Dad fashion I signed us all up for a 8am Duck tour of Ketchican. Only 5 of us made it as Sue was not feeling up to it. We boarded the duck and toured through the city learning about the prostitution in Creek street, the fun of sharing the Island with bears and eagles. I thought I had problems with Revel and the raccoons imagine if it was bears in the garbage. The duck true to its name left the streets and headed out into the water for a water side view of the city and the cruise ships. The boys enjoyed this a great deal. When we returned we were joined by Sue on the dock feeling somewhat better to embark on some shopping in the small town. Gavin and I headed out on some of the trails we saw from the duck to take some pictures of the town and the flowers, berries and Totems

We were only here until noon so everybody split up. I met up with Dorothy at about 11 for some Halibut and Chips on the dock. The Fish and Chips up here is really wonderful. The rest of the day was spent sailing to our next destination. Everyone relaxed read, Edward and I were in the hot tub for a little while, Teddy, Ed and I did a little bowling. From time to time everyone gets a chance to read or watch one of the movies shown in our room. Gavin likes watching videos on his laptop in Opa’s room, playing with his cars and taking occasional runs around the decks.

Glacier Bay National Park

Well none of us were up for whales but the beauty of the shores is breath taking. There are rangers on board today from Glacier Bay National Park who are telling us over the PA system all about the geology and wildlife in the park. We took a three hour tour up into the Bay and reached the Margerie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier. The Grand Pacific is not so grand it moves a lot of soft dirt and broken up rock so the Glacier face is almost completely black. Margerie on the other hand is an active Glacier moving 7 feet toward the sea each day. While we were there you can see small pieces break off and drop into the sea. The noise is incredible as the ice moves the Tlingit Indians referred to it as “white thunder” and its very easy to understand why. On the way out we swung by the Johns Hopkins Glacier and Lamplugh Glacier almost all of the Glaciers are receding in fact the entrance to Glacier bay was the original site of the Glacier in 1780.

The rest of the day was spent sailing to Ketchican where we arrived at 6am. Everyone was really looking forward to that.

Skagway, Alaska

We arrived at Skagway early in the morning got everybody up and into town by about 9am. Edward was very anxious to get to the train store and do some serious shopping. We had a couple of hours to spend before we loaded on to the train. After a very ugly experience with Gavin getting overly hungry just before lunch everyone is much more careful to watch what he eats and that he gets a little rest before every major activity.

We boarded the train at noon and headed up the mountain to White Pass, as train rides go it was relatively short and full of lots of information about the miners of 98 who searched for gold in the Klondike. I think we my have had more questions about the process of climbing the Chilcoot trail after the ride then we had before.

Back in Skagway we are all amazed again that Gavin spent 4 hours on the train with little or no fuss, falling asleep only for the last 10-15 minutes of the ride. We walked him to the far end of town (4 blocks) to the Skagway Brew Pub. Dorothy and I enjoyed dinner there on our last trip and decided that a nice dinner there would be great. The food was wonderful, the beer was fantastic and the atmosphere great. Yet another waitress was making plans to adapt Gavin because he was just to darn cute in his train engineers hat and bandana.

Got back to the ship around 7:30pm and watched the ship leave Skagway while it continued to pour down rain as it has done for the past three days. Around 9pm everyone decided to turn in early since we get to Glacier Bay at 6am and everyone is talking about seeing whales if we are up when we enter the bay.

Juneau first stop.

Juneau Bound

We boarded the cruise ship at 2pm on Sunday and headed off to Juneau, Alaska. There was the usual confusion when you first board the cruise ship where is my room, when will my luggage make it to the room, does my key work or am I just doing it wrong, Which way is forward and which way is aft. These things are big and heard to get a handle on the directions at first. You are forever turning a corner and finding that you are going forward when you wanted to go back. Part of the fun of cruising.

We had a full day of cruising yesterday to get our bearings and relax and enjoy the amenities of the ship. Gavin spend some time in the daycare center, which went really well and he enjoyed all the toys they had there. Edward and I did two games of bowling on the four lane bowling alley. If you look at the scores please remember the ship was moving in addition to the lane being a little short of regular. Edward was the only person brave enough to use the pool although in truth he was in the hot tub most of the time. We took Edward to the theater performance last night a cover of Franky Valli and the Four Seasons. Edward and I enjoyed it.

Teddy and I spent some time the first night in the sports bar getting caught up on the sports scores he is very interested in the World Cup results.

We are about to get off the boat in Juneau, will spend the afternoon at the Mendenhall Glacier and the trying to contact Sharon Baker for dinner. Hope that works out we have been exchanging emails for the past 4 days trying to figure a meeting time and place. We off to lunch prior to disembarking will fire this off before we leave Juneau.

Internet is not good enough to post the pictures. So just text until Victoria.

Day Three - Sue Joins Us

Sue came to Seattle to join us this morning making Edward very happy. We took the whole crew to Top Pot Doughnuts for breakfast then headed over the Pike street market for some shopping. We split into groups so that everyone could get what they wanted (Gavin and I headed to the art museum) where there was a huge display of cars hanging from the ceiling. In typical fashion if you stay in Seattle for more than just a few days you will eventually see rain and we got a little bit today.

We got back together in the early afternoon and everyone wanted to do the same thing downtown so again we split, by this time the rain had stopped to Gavin and I just walked to a section of the city that we had not been to finding a very nice little Korean deli and picking up a sandwich and chips from the owner who that Gavin was so cute she could have kept him. Tired and hungry we headed back to the room for lunch. Dorothy and I got away a while to the Library that is across the street from our hotel. It’s a very interesting building and I spent an hour looking at furniture design books from 20-30 years ago. Now I know why we all use the internet instead. There was some good information in some of those old books.

Teddy and I headed over the Safeco field at 6pm for the Mariners - Reds ball game. We had great tickets and when it started to rain in the second inning they just closed the roof, that was interesting to watch. The game ended Mariners 5 and Reds 1 so everyone was very happy, great pitching performance from the Mariners pitcher.

Tomorrow we will have breakfast, pack and then board the boat for Alaska.

Day two - First full day in Seattle

We visited the Space Needle Park in the morning taking the Monorail from Westlake transit center to the Needle and back. Dorothy and Teddy went to the top of the Needle and I took Gavin and Edward wondering and we found this very cool fountain that Gavin and many other kids played in. Nobody got very wet but we had a great time and fountain was really a fun place. The next thing we tried at the park was the Children’s museum which was really at Gavin’s speed and he had a great time there.

After lunch we headed back to the transit center and then took the underground to the Pioneer District. Did a little shopping down there spent an hour picking out a car at the toy store. Gavin this time not Edward. Edward, Gavin and I \then marched up the hill to the hotel. In this city everything is either up the hill or down the hill.

Had dinner on the water front after a nice 2 hour rest at the hotel for everyone to settle and get refreshed. I am amazed we finished dinner at 9pm and not only is it still very light but Gavin is still going full speed with no nap. That boy is better than the energizer bunny. Teddy says he is easy to get to sleep at night and sleeps well. Both he and Edward have been great and had a wonderful time a the fountain today.

Day one - Aptos to Seattle

Well a couple of firsts today Gavin’s first airplane ride, a big success. In large part to great planning, no connecting flights, good videos loaded on his laptop, and only a 2 hour flight. Worked out great. The first time that Gavin has been out of state, for that matter Teddy has not been to Seattle before himself. Edward was here but so long ago that I am sure he does not remember. He was possibly Gavin’s age or younger. We drove up to visit with Barbara and Gary.

We had a good time in Seattle yesterday got here about lunch time and went down to the waterfront for lunch. Nothing remarkable but remember we are feeding two with very picky diets. After lunch we walked up to Pike Street market and enjoyed the crowd and the foods, flowers and even a small shop or two. Found a shop that sales nothing but matchbox cars and 1:18 scale cars, the boys spent some time in there. I left the boys and Dorothy to enjoy the market and Gavin and I went to the park on the corner next to the market it was great G ran and ran and then watched the boats and the cars, then ran and ran.

Got back to the hotel for some rest about 4pm and headed downtown for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was very good but its odd they seem to think they are feeding two people for each plate they serve. How do they sell and Cheesecake if they are going to feed you that much dinner? I have to say that I am amazed at how tolerant Edward has been of being in closed quarters with Gavin and Teddy. I am also happy to say that he has done a great deal less complaining here. Edward and I got some time to check out the Monorail system last night. We are going for a ride today to the space needle area.

Trust all is well back home. Call or text if anything comes up. I am posting the pictures with minimal editing on my Picasa web albums so you can see how things are going.