Alaska - Vancouver 2016

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Southern California from the plane to Vancouver

Crater Lake

View from our hotel window in Vancouver

Pictures from Top of Vancouver restaurant atop a revolving tower

The building you can partially see with the dome on top is our hotel

The blue canopies are next to our hotel

On the bus in Vancouver going to Grouse Mountain

A tram up the mountain

This photo taken in 1967 shows the original tram soaring over James Bonds Aston Martin from Goldfinger

Doug attacking an innocent gnome

Grizzly bears!

Our first time zip-lining!

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

This pose is called the Screaming Starfish

Dorian and Liz making a landing MP4

Our zip-line group, wonderful people, especially the two instructors

Coming back from the zip-line

Very tame deer

Back down the tram

The bus back...

The canopies by our hotel change color

Lego orca

The Top of Vancouver restaurant we ate ate the previous night

A cruise ship docked by our hotel

A field on a building!

Statue of "Gassy Jack", the founding father of Gastown, known for his "Gassy" monologues as a saloonkeeper

Our ship, the Noordam

Aboard ship

Passing under the bridge as we set out

Lunch

Carytids

Dressed for one of the gala dinners (with my Star Trek tie)

After dinner, dressed for 50's & 60's night (notice my pony tail)

Fred

Doug & Alice

Eric

With Doug's wig on

The aftermath

Towel Seal

The moon reflecting off the ocean

Approaching Juneau

The capital city. No roads to Juneau. The only access is by sea or air.

In front of our ship

The Mendenhall Glacier we'll see later

Humpback whales!

Orcas!

Rowdy sea lions

Video of Rowdy Sea Lions 71MB

At the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center

Huge waterfall to the right

Mini iceberg

The glacier over time

The glacial blue tinting comes from ice being compressed and recrystallizing. At this point other colors of the spectrum are reflected, but blue is absorbed.

Towel crab

Aboard the White Pass & Yukon Route train in Skagway

The road on the other side of the canyon

Rapids

"On to Alaska with Buchanon"

No we didn't go across this bridge. It's no longer used (for obvious reasons).

The original trail the gold rush miners used

The border with Canada. The train goes back the way we came. We simply rotate the back our seat and sit down facing the other way.

Scarring of the rock by glaciers during the last ice age

Brackett's Toll Road

Friendly waitress at the Red Onion Saloon (and previously, a brothel)

Racy 1800's pictures and bedpans above

The Madam

A friendly Madam

And good gluten free food!

A cruise ship heading down the street!

A snow remover

Towel octopus

The Black Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park

The blue tinting

The Margerie Glacier

Another cruise ship

Lots of waterfalls

Video of Margerie Glacier 32MB

Video of glacier calving (breaking off and falling) 28MB

Video of another glacier calving 12MB

Towel sand shark? whale?

Arriving at Ketchikan

...while having breakfast

A seal chasing salmon

Lots of salmon

Bering Sea crab fishing tour

Bald Eagle

Swooping down to collect bait

Another gala dinner while docked at Ketchikan

Towel monkey!

Another cruise ship parallel to us all the way back to Vancouver

An emergency aboard when someone needed medical attention. We docked at Bela Bela where an ambulance came to pick them up.

Towel puppy

Bus to the Vancouver airport. We were lucky. They were about to close all roads due to a visit from the royal family. Our bus driver let us know his opinion of the royal family....

The Grand Canyon from the plane

Some of our groovy group

VERY good trip!