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!

Expedition or Vacation?

"The essential question about travel is: Why? Perhaps you've dreamed of Kenya ever since seeing Out of Africa as a child, or want to meet your distant relatives in Ireland, or long to see a lemur in the wild. A journey away from something -- work, stress, societal norms that frown on drinking before 10:00 A.M. -- is a vacation. A journey toward something -- a trip with an objective -- is an expedition." ~Mark Adams

I found this quote in the second chapter of Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adams. Isn't it lovely? Don't you want to take both kinds of trips? T&L are setting out today for a trip that sort of sits straight in the middle of a vacation and an expedition. I have always, ALWAYS, wanted to go up the Inside Passage.  I've been to Alaska countless times, but with the exception of one trip, most of my time has been within a day trip of Anchorage. In the sense that I am finally going to set my eyes on part of Alaska that I've been wondering about for so long, we're going on an expedition! But...we are going on a cruise ship. :) That right there takes some of the adventure out of it, but it does insert days at sea where there is nothing to do but play cards, read books, and sit around and do nothing but have a vacation! So, our journey, will be a little bit of both (how perfect is that?).

I'm only half way through Tip of the Iceberg, but I am enjoying reading about Mark Adams' expedition (in the truest sense of the word). The author follows the path of the Elder in 1899, drawing parallels between his journey and the original.  The Elder was a ship taken by Edward Harriman to survey the Alaskan coast. On the ship, in addition to family and friends were a deep collection of scientists, including John Muir, who would lead conservation efforts in the coming years in Alaska and beyond.

You know when I'm dipping in to history and I haven't even left Cannon Beach yet, that I'm PSYCHED! I haven't packed yet, so that's a small detail, but T&L are out of here in just a few hours! We're anticipating beautiful scenery, fantastic shore excursions, and joys not yet discovered! We hope you'll be along for the ride!

Now I seriously do have to go pack...

Sun on the Thames

On Monday, with heavy hearts, we packed up and left Cornwall for Exeter to catch the train back to London.

We returned the car without incident, which, to the left hand situated passenger, was shocking. I mean, we didn't run in to anything, but we had half of Cornwall plastered on one side of our car. I believe that is the fashionable way to keep a car in SW England. :)

We took the train to London, and then a taxi to our hotel, where we deposited our luggage, and tubed down to the Westminster Pier.

I will concede that mass transportation in London is incredibly convenient. You can go anywhere in half the time of a car. It's safe, relatively cheap, and fast.  But after the wide open spaces in Cornwall, being literally underground, and with so many people, was hard to take. 

We only had a half day, so we joined one of those Hop On, Hop Off tours where you can see parts of London by bus or boat. We started our tour on the Thames. It was a beautiful day -- even got a little sunburn. So much history to absorb.

Then we hopped off and found us some coffee. We've had an abundance of tea on this trip, but have otherwise been under caffeinated. :) While delicious, early grey tea does not give the same jolt as a cup of coffee!

Ain't she cute? As it was late in the day, we only had time for one small part of the "red line" tour before heading home to our hotel.  Beautiful city!

 Glad we didn't have to drive in London... ;)

Back a our hotel we had the best dinner at Carluccio's. Pasta that we can't pronounce and amazing desserts. Even though we are already home, we'll have one more blog tomorrow!

You Can Find Us in St. Ives

As I have just gotten out of the shower, I feel the need to comment on showering/bathing in England. When you travel in the US, you sometimes encounter a system that is unfamiliar;  the dial turns left or right, pulls out or pushes in etc. Sometimes the shower curtains is a problem. Here, there have been lots of new things to learn! In the shower I just got out of, there was a brand new feature -- a power button, the same kind that you find on an electronic -- circle with line part through it. Most of the showers have had some sort of button that has to be held down so that you can only turn the hot water on if you're old enough to figure out the button system. One of the showers also had a different button that you had to hold down to adjust the water pressure.  None of this was intuitive to me, and coupled with the fact that I am blind as a bat without my glasses, there have been some (mis)adventures! In the hotel in Yarn Market, I ended up just showering with my glasses on so I could see all the different dials and gadgets!

Yesterday we went to St. Ives. Happy sigh. It was more beautiful than either of us had imagined. When you can look something up on the Internet, sometimes the in-person surprise is taken away. In this case, it was more than we were expecting. The streets were steep and narrow (no surprise!), but we did end up finding parking without too much trouble. It was a short walk down the hill to the heart of the town where there were, first, awesome shops to visit.

We found the sweetest shops, that were all local to Cornwall. We found a clothing company called Seasalt (that also sells shoes!),  a Cornish bakery, a gallery with a print I had been looking for, and a seamstress selling wares with her own designs. Everything was so local, and so unique. We ended up with some very special treasures.   Then we had lunch at Porthminster Kitchen before we explored the harbor.  Fish and chips -- not something that's unusual for us to eat, right? This was sourdough breaded, and came with curry sauce. Just like Mo's, eh? ;)

Sidebar, which will surprise no one -- got curry sauce all over myself. Given a washer and, um, a DRYER, I may have laundered it.  😂  Right now it's marinating in laundry soap in my bag. 

The harbor was amazing. Apparently the city was incorporated in the 1600s, though it has a history much longer than that. It was mostly a fishing port back in the day, but relies mostly on tourism now. It's an artist community too, for obvious, beautiful, reasons. We couldn't take enough pictures.

I can't say this was the best day, because each day has been so special, but this seemed like an exceptional culmination to a great vacation. We were incredibly sad to leave. 

It's at this point in the day -- around 5pm, that the end-of-vacation blues set in. We have had such an incredible time. We've seen things, everyday, that we had not anticipated seeing, and have felt connected to the land in a way that neither of us anticipated.  When I say that neither of us want to leave, I am quite serious. This has been the vacation of a lifetime. And so, the end-of-vacation blues was quite real. 

We decided to drive in the opposite way from home, in search of one last adventure at Land's End. On the way, we saw these ruins, and veered off the road to take a look. I mean, we flashed by, turned around, and vectored the driver through a very small opening in the road (without, again, scraping the side of the car -go mom!!). And then we took a look!

With no cell service, we had to figure out later what we were looking at. We were, apparently, in the town of Giew, at the old engine room. I've read a lot about this, and am no closer to understanding... What I do know is that we accidentally saw the missing piece in our Cornwall adventure. Cornwall has a deep history in tin mining, and we happened upon a piece of it!  

And happily, the adrenaline of a historic find bumped us a little bit out our vacation blues. With Hamilton blaring, we headed to Land's End. 

Land's End is, as you can imagine, the end of the land! It is the most westerly point of mainland England (the Scilly Islands are directly SW). It doesn't look like it sticks out that far on a map, but it is windy enough to feel like a proper peninsula!

The Seven Seas reef is responsible for more than 200 shipwrecks, some of them being fatal. Just like the Columbia Bar, there is great beauty here, despite all the tragedies. 

This final picture, looking north, is what I pictured Tintagel looking like. We weren't able to go as they were repairing the footbridge, but I imagined it like this. Rocky, beautiful, but nearly uninhabitable. 

At home, we begrudgingly began to pack. We dumped everything out of our bags, and then promptly ignored the piles while we enjoyed pasties from The Cornish Bakery (flaky crust is everything), and watched a movie (Netflix: The Highwaymen -- watch it!).  Eventually we did have to pack. 😩 Quick tip, if you're flying home (instead of driving) the purchases of a stuffed owl, and a  longish piece of art make getting everything home tricky!  Luckily, T&L always travel with an extra bag. 😉 

Tomorrow: our last day in London.