Our Favorites -- From England!

Favorite road sign:

Mom: It has to be "Sheep Lying Down in Road." I think it was in Dartmoor National Park. My least favorite was the roundabout sign. Or hearing Siri proclaim. "At the roundabout....". 

Erica: I totally forgot about that sheep sign! Hilarious, and true. Not only that, we saw the phenomenon. I also enjoyed that the road signs were made at Ikea - no words, just unknowable symbols. 

Favorite Hamilton song

Mom: I think, "You'll Be Back".

Erica: That's mine too. It's easy to sing, and hilarious. I loved watching that performed in London. The English patrons thought King George was too funny.  

Favorite store:

Mom: It has to be Seasalt in St. Ives. The patterns and the fabrics and the details on the clothes were so unique. 

Erica: Seasalt - yes! All the shops in St. Ives were so cute. 

Favorite food:

Mom: I think my favorite were the scones and clotted cream at Snappers.

Erica: Clotted cream. Yum. I fantasized about making it at home, and it's a no! It takes forever, and sounds iffy at best. We'll just have to go back to Cornwall!

Weirdest food:

Mom: Scallops at the pub near Snappers. [We don't know where this was!].  They don't clean the frill off (look it up -- ew). 

Erica: To be fair, there was a lot of weird food. The English are known for high tea, and that's about it! The bacon really got me. I'm not sure what I was looking at, but it was fish shaped. And limpish.  Everywhere. 

Favorite navigation moment:

Mom: I don't know if it's my "favorite", but getting back to Snappers each night was hard!

Erica: As the navigator, I take this question rather personally. My "favorite" was the night we were trying to get back to Snappers, and we were looking for the BP Station to take the 30 or whatever back home. I was sure the BP station in question was old, and so we drove by this new one several times until frustration took over, and we just rolled the dice. And home we found!

Favorite tube experience:

Mom: I was really pleased with how well we were able to navigate wherever we were going.  Double edged sword, I was often offered a seat by other passengers. How nice. But am I of that age? Insert wide eyed emoji. ;)

Erica: The tube and I have a love-hate relationship. I will say, that while I hated going on it, it was very easy, efficient and safe. There. 

Favorite natural wonder:

Mom: The coastal path in Exmoor National Park. It was the rugged English coast I had hoped to experience. 

Erica:  I loved that we went to National Parks! I mean, woohoo!! Last year when we were in Canada we managed to find ourselves in one of their national parks, and this year we found two in England. I love that there is a world out there protecting natural wonders. 

Favorite man made wonder:

Mom:  Going through the ruins of Glastonbury, feeling the history. [She's shaking her hands like the Godfather as she says this.]

Erica: Glastonbury, hands down. I just ran across a picture on my phone, and gasped. What is that? Glastonbury.  Happy sigh. It was everything I had hoped for, and a little more. All the magic that I had dreamed about all these years, rested soundly in those grounds. 

Favorite experience:

Mom: My favorite experience was actually driving through the English countryside, seeing the hedgerows and the sheep, and wondering where Granny and Grandpa had visited. Had they walked in the same places that I had? Had they seen the same rugged coasts?  I like to think that they had.

Erica:  I've bifurcated the categories so there could be so many favorites. The whole trip was my favorite. But my favorite experience might have been Evensong at Westminster. It wasn't a tourist activity, but a normal church service.  The men's/boy's choir was phenomenal, and the entire experience so spiritual. There is a power in that building that is unmatched. I wasn't able to finish reciting the Apostle's Creed because I was so choked up, but what an amazing place to be able to say those words. Think of the generations of people that have said that before me in the very same spot!

Favorite mode of transportation:

Mom: I think it has to be the boat tour on the Thames. Seeing London from a different experience was awesome. And what a beautiful day!

Erica: Well, that Volvo was everything, but I also liked our big city learning from John. He taught us how to use Uber! And we did it on our own too!

Favorite Harry Potter moment:

Mom: The Forbidden Forest. That was very well done. The forest floor was bouncy, just like a real forest. The trees were huge, although they weren't as big as those spiders!

Erica:  The Great Hall. I was so surprised that it existed in that scale. It was huge! I also liked being able to walk into the house on Privet Drive. I know there are a lot of green screen effects, but the amount of things that were "real" was impressive. 

Favorite movie from plane ride:

Mom: It wasn't on the plane, but I liked the Highwaymen.

Erica:  Oh! Me too; we had time for so many flicks on the plane! All were good, but I especially enjoyed "On the Basis of Sex". Is it wrong to fist pump in a public area? Too late! It's a great film, even if you know the history forwards and backwards. See it and fist pump!

Place you want to go back to:

Mom: I think St. Ives. We didn't spend enough time there. It was right on the ocean, and so incredibly beautiful. 

Erica: I'd go back to any of it, but I especially want to see the rest of the Jurassic Coast. We only saw Charmouth Beach, and each beach on the coast has a different geological wonder. We just didn't have time! 

And so, that is finally a wrap. We had wanted something so special for our 25th trip, and we sure got it. T&L don't expect to travel internationally for #26, but they do expect to have another amazing trip. Oh the places we'll go!

Ketchikan

When I was at the school board meeting last week (SS adoption), one of the board members asked me what I was doing this summer, and after hearing that I was going on an Alaskan cruise, commented that Astoria looked like a lot of those little Alaskan towns.  Ketchikan fits that bill.  We arrived around 6 o'clock this morning, and so we had a view of town as we were eating breakfast on the boat. It didn't hurt that it was overcast, the city is built on a hill, and it was misting: Astoria!

Our shore adventure today was Sea Cycling. I think it's supposed to be one word, but the autocorrect is exhausting. ;)  It's basically a paddle boat built up on kayak pontoons.  Of course, it was raining, so we had a real Alaska experience. I mean, you're not having a good time until you're wearing waterproof gear!

We paddled around the...bay? Strait? I have no idea what to call this little body of water. Edit later: Ward Cove! We pedaled out to where we would leave on the ship, so I know we were in some sort of normal waterway channel, but we only saw one other boat, so we were a little removed from the harbor.

First we hugged the coastline in to an estuary and up a river a little way. As the guide goes out every day (probably more than once a day), she had local knowledge about the animals we were seeing. She had seen the seal pup near their dock when it still had the umbilical cord attached, and a mother and baby bird (no idea what species) she knew was the last baby the mom had left after spring in the animal kingdom. Once we got around on the other side of the channel, it really started to pour. I'm not sure the other couple was having quite as much fun as we were, but we thought it was comical.

In addition to seeing the beautiful sites, we were also dealing with two things, independently. I was focused on trying to get my left leg to complete each rotation of the pedals, which took all my will power, and some acrobatics with my toes and hips. Meanwhile, I abandoned my partner all together in trying to figure out how to steer the boat. There was a rudder that was both touchy, and had a delayed reaction. We zigzagged a little bit as T&L figured out pedaling and steering!

Back at their dock, we were treated to an "eagle show". They had some herring that they chucked in to the water, and about a dozen eagles arrived out of nowhere. I've seen plenty of eagles in my life, but never this close up. We could hear their wings flapping - it was powerful. And the sound when they snatched the fish out of the water was pretty amazing too. I've never seen anything like that.

I had trouble loading the video in Blogger; I hope you can see the video on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/cLybGGeLs3A

We were pretty drenched when we got back to the cruise dock, but as we had two hours left before departing, we had to sneak in one more adventure!  Our guide drove us up to the Totem Heritage Center where we saw some amazing totem poles. They have one of the largest collection of unrestored totem poles in the world. Some of the ones on display are from over 100 years ago.

Fun fact, and something that I didn't know, totem poles are planted in the ground for a variety of purposes, and then left there, even if the people move on. It is not tradition to move them to another location.  The Totem Heritage Center was founded as totems around the area were being vandalized, and some of the stories were being lost.

We were the only ones there, but we still felt the need to whisper. These aren't religious symbols, but they felt very powerful, and instilled a lot of awe in them. We only had a little time here, before the shuttle came, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, but we were both so glad to have made the stop.

And then, we got on the free city bus to take us back in to town.  Ketchikan is small, but it was a circuitous route! We were not the only tourists on board, but it was close. And apparently though our genetic code is Alaskan, we scream tourist! We had several nice, though strange, conversations with locals on the bus.  My "favorite" part was when the bus stopped in front of Safeway, and the driver left the bus running and went in the store. Nobody on board said a thing -- apparently this was normal or acceptable behavior.  He came back with something under his jacket - I'm sure I don't want to know what!

Getting back on the boat, we were cold and wet, and had missed lunch. But guess what they serve at 4pm? High tea! Okay, maybe not "high tea" but a tea like service. We had scones, and jam, and coke, and french fries. ;) Don't tell the Queen.

After a nap, we were treated to some whale displays during dinner! We are getting very excited about tomorrow's excursion which is whale watching out of Juneau!