retravelment

This would be our last day on the boat and it was spent at sea. When we get up the next morning we will be arriving in Vancouver. So we had a good last day just enjoying our time together and exploring the ship a little bit more. A few fun pictures for the last day.

In Vancouver we had a few hours before the plane left for home, so we purchased a hop on hop off ticket for their public transportation and we were able to see a bit of Vancouver. As you can see Vancouver is a very large city with a beautiful park (Stanley Park) and a working steam powered clock.

And that concludes the honeymoon road trip, the first of many hopefully that Mary and I will be able to take. I apologize for taking so long for the pictures, but getting married in our sixties has taken us a while to unpack.

Last stop before heading to Vancouver is Ketchikan. Another thriving metropolis of 8,195 people which makes it the 12th largest city in Alaska. Like Juneau, it is basically an island area along the coast and the only way to get to these cities is by boat or plane. The cruise ship had to park in the bay and we took a taxi to shore. Along the way we were able to see a shipment of goods coming to the area.

The day was highlighted by an excursion to the Misty Fjords National Monument and Wilderness Area. The views were spectacular and the weather was sunny which is a rare occurrence.

And we were able to see a few seals lazing about on the shore line and even were allowed to take a picture of the captain of the excursion boat (I think?!?)

Day 8 was spent in Juneau, Alaska, the capital of Alaska with a population of 32,434. This makes it the second largest city in Alaska, after Anchorage at 298,225 and within a few hundred people of the population of Bay City, Michigan, which is approximately the 35th largest city in Michigan.

The first thing we noticed when docking was the large number of bald eagles all over the place. Must be a good hunting ground for them here. In the picture below you can see two of them perched on the structure.

We saw a big National Geographic boat docked as well as some beautiful mountains as a back drop as we headed out to see some whales. Oh yeah, and I am finally getting a little better at doing selfies. 🙂

We did get to see some whales, but not too close. I think they were humpback whales and they only occasionally surfaced. Here are a couple of the pictures I could get.

And finally, just another look from our cabin as we depart Juneau for our next stop.

This day was spent in Skagway, Alaska.

Harbor and Downtown Skagway

Along with some souvenir shopping (which included my awesome RED Skagway suspenders), we also took an excursion on the White Pass and Yukon Route Train.

Day 5 and 6 were on the ocean with a visit to two different glacier locations. Here is our itinerary for the whole voyage and some pics of the glaciers.

The first glacier we visited after sailing all night was the Hubbard Glacier, located in Yakutat Bay. Simply amazing to see. Also amazing to watch the glacier break up and to hear the noise it made when a chunk would break off.

Leaving for the evening gave us a beautiful view of the sunset out over the ocean.

Next day was a visit to Glacier Bay National Park which is home to many glaciers. The two we got up close to were Margerie and Lamplugh Glaciers.

This also happened to be our one week anniversary!

First road trip of the year, leaving on New Years Eve and getting home 10 days later. Lots of stops starting with a night in Ripley, West Virginia, then visits with Stephanie and Steven, Steven’s parents in Virginia, Brian, Amy and Sammy and Chris, Lia and Emma and then back home.

So here is our route, over two thousand miles all told. The trip included a quick side trip to Gettysburg and Piney Fork (Mary’s mom’s birthplace) in Pennsylvania.

Was able to visit and see the piece of land that Stephanie and Steven have purchased for their new home in Van Wyck, SC:

A quick stop in Gettysburg, which was open to the public (with limited service) despite the government shutdown. Will need to go back some day and spend a whole day there.

Then on to Lebanon to visit Brian, Amy and Sammy. We were able to see Sammy in a wrestling invitational in the morning and then with his all star choir group at the Hershey Bears minor league hockey game that night. Go Sammy!

Then back through Ohio to visit Lia, Chris and Emma. Had a nice warm day on Tuesday in which we took a nice walk at the Battelle Darby Metro Park, with Buffalos!

So it was a very good trip with lots of miles. The only children we didn’t get to see over the holidays was Stephen, Heidi and Noah who now live near Denver CO. That is a much longer hike and will require a separate trip sometime this year.

This was a short overnight road trip in Michigan to see the fall colors and travel down the “tunnel of trees” or highway M119 in northern lower Michigan.  We started off with lunch at the “Legs Inn” (http://www.legsinn.com/) in Cross Village.  Very good meal with about a one hour wait to get in as this is a very popular place, especially during the fall color season.

We left after lunch to travel down M119 south to Bay View just outside of Petosky.  The weather was very windy, cold and mostly cloudy which put a damper on the sight seeing, but it was very pretty anyway.  This included a stop at a small historical church with a short walk to the beach (not for a swim, believe me).

For the evening we had a nice stay at the Terrace Inn (https://www.theterraceinn.com/) with a very nice dinner at the 1911 restaurant at the Inn.  The inn is located in Bay View which is an association formed by the United Methodist Church.  The inn has a quiet time from 11 PM until 8 AM, which is kind of nice for those of us who hit the hay early. The Inn is within walking distance of Little Traverse Bay and would be a great place to stay for a longer visit in the Petosky and Harbor Springs area.

Our hallway

Our Room

Little Traverse Bay