Saturday 13th June

We left Flagstaff for Albuquerque today. Sally took us to the Greyhound Bus Station, she has been so kind and hospitable during our 3 day stay in Flagstaff.

The original plan had been to hire a car and drive from Flagstaff, but in the end I chickened out as I really didn’t fancy driving over 300 miles ‘on the wrong side of the road’ and as we did not have pre-booked Amtrak tickets (and the train was to depart at 5.00am!) we decided to take the Greyhound which departed at the more civilised hour of 12.40pm. That worked out really well. The bus was full of a motley group of people varying from a young mother with what looked like a new-born baby to a big tough looking tattily dressed man who was a trucker. All sorts of nationalities too.

Whilst cruising along Route 66 (!) I was pleased I was not driving. Although most of the journey was scrubby flat desert the scenery was very interesting and after a couple of hours we passed the most amazing red cliffs (that is the only way I can describe them) and they ran alongside the road for probably the best part of 100 miles. They were amazing shapes and colours and it would have hard to concentrate on driving without looking around. We passed through several Native American (mustn't say 'Indian'!) Reservations, lots of very run-down homesteads miles from anywhere and townships with names like 'Buffalo Range' and 'Two Guns'.
… one of which looked as though it had Native American's face carved in it, but I suspect I was just weathered:
The journey took 7 hours including 3 stops. The first place we stopped at was Winslow where the hot desert wind was so strong it was difficult to walk against it. We arrived at our hotel in Albuquerque at around 8.30pm

Friday 12th June - Grand Canyon

Today was another ‘Wow'.

We took a day trip to the Grand Canyon and it was awe-inspiring. It is difficult to describe it, so all I am going to do today is to add some photos. Even the photos do not do the Canyon justice - it is vast and it is impossible to take a photo showing just how humungous it is. Nothing could have prepared us for this experience.
We took a long walk along the rim of the crater and then walked a short way down one of the trails which the hikers and mules take when carrying people own to the canyon floor, to look at some ancient rock paintings.We were privileged to see a pair of condors which were nesting on rock outcrop. They all have a number prominently displayed on their wings, so their survival can be monitored. Other Canyon photos:

Another spectacular day.

Thursday 11th June - Sedona

We have had so many experiences and seen so many wonderful things/places since we started this trip, and each time we think ‘it can’t get any better than this’. But today really had the ‘Wow Factor’. We visited Sedona and the surrounding area.

The original plan was to hire a car and drive there, but when I realised what the road through Oak Creek Canyon would be like, especially driving ‘on the wrong side of the road’ I chickened out as it was very steep with many hairpin bends. So when we were in the Information Centre in Flagstaff yesterday we picked up a Sedona Tour brochure, liked the look of it and booked it. And we are so pleased we did.

If I had driven there we would not have seen all the amazing places that we were taken to. We were the only two people on the trip and the driver/guide was a lovely part-Cherokee lady named Dora. The trip was advertised as ‘nature and geology’ and Dora was so informative about everything. She explained a lot about the geology of the rocks in words that we could actually understand and knew the name of just about every plant and tree we saw.

We headed south out of Flagstaff and after about 15-20 minutes of driving the first ‘Wow’ was heard as we had our first view of Oak Tree Canyon from the top. We descended around 3,000 feet to the bottom and drove through the canyon with the most fantastic scenery on either side and stopped for a while at Slide Rock State Park which is a popular area for families as the creek is ‘swimmable’ and there are lots of rocks etc to play on. We then drove into Sedona where we saw many spectacular red rock formations. It was interesting to see how the buildings are all constructed in adobe of the same red colour as the surrounding landscape. Even the poles supporting the traffic lights are painted in the same colour.

We went to the top of a ‘mesa’ (a table-top mountain) where the airport is situated and had a wonderful view over the town with the red mountains behind

Nestled into the hillside ahead we could see the small town of Jerome. The town originated as a mining settlement in the late 1800s, as the area was rich in copper, silver and other valuable minerals. Once the minerals had been all but mined out, Jerome became a ghost town for many years until hippies discovered it in the 1970s. So began its revival as a New Age and artists’ centre.
Next stop was Tuzigoot to see a reconstructed hilltop village of the Southern Sinagua people, a hunter/gatherer tribe who occupied the Verde Valley for thousands of years.
On the way home, we stopped at the Verde River to look for birds and enjoyed a cool shady riverside walk. We managed to spot a scarlet cardinal, several wrens and phoebes and a pair of red winged blackbirds.

Our final stop was at some roadside stalls selling Navajo jewellery and other crafts.

Sally cooked us a most delicious meal which made an enjoyable end to the day.

Wednesday 10th June

We arrived in Flagstaff on time. We are staying 3 nights with Sally Krueger, a step/in-law relative of mine Not really a relative I suppose but, whatever the relationship is, she was kind enough to offer to have us stay with her while in the area.

While still on the train I changed my watch from Pacific time to Mountain Standard Time (as the Amtrak leaflet advised) - but during daylight saving the MST clocks are not changed so the time stays the same as in California. So when I thought we had arrived in Flagstaff an hour late at 6am, we were actually on time at 5am. Wrong again! After our luggage was delivered to us around 5.20am I called Sally who had said she would be willing to meet us at that ungodly hour. On arrival at her house we fell into bed for a couple of hours, getting up in time for the lovely South West USA breakfast Sally had prepared for us.

We first of all went to the Information Centre where we were surprised and delighted to see a Memorial Bench for Howard Krueger, Sally’s late husband who was tragically killed in a road traffic accident a few years ago.


We spent most of today exploring Flagstaff and visited the Riordan Mansion. "Built in 1904 for two Riordan families, Riordan Mansion is an impressive reminder of gracious living in a small, territorial logging town. The historic building is an Arizona treasure — a remarkable example of Arts and Crafts style architecture featuring a rustic exterior of log-slab siding, volcanic stone arches, and hand-split wooden shingles. The expansive home has forty rooms, over 13,000 square-feet of living area, and servant's quarters. The Riordan residence was designed by the creator of Grand Canyon's El Tovar Hotel, Charles Whittlesey." (Cribbed from their website!)

Flagstaff is 7,000 feet above sea level so we felt pretty tired and breathless after a long walk and after the lack of sleep last night, so we headed back to Sally’s house mid-afternoon for a quiet evening in.

Tuesday 9th June

Today our time in California came to an end - we left on a late afternoon train for Flagstaff, Az. So after catching up with washing and ironing (and other boring stuff) we took a final walk to the pier to watch the surfers and treated ourselves to a ’must have’ Coldstones ice cream. It was lovely. Then - guess what - we went to the shops again!. This time just essential items needed from the drug store.

Back to Dorothy’s for lunch and after a final check and closing of our suitcases D. took us to Irvine train station where we caught the 4.37pm Amtrak to LA where we had to change for another train to Flagstaff. It was sad taking our farewells of Dorothy - we have had a fun couple of weeks with her.

This first leg of the journey took around one hour. LA Union Street station was enormous and somewhat confusing but we eventually found the baggage check in for our luggage then waited patiently in the waiting area for our train to be announced, as we were told it would be. Over a period of time, and to our dismay, we noticed that the number of people waiting in this area gradually decreased although no announcements were made, so we put our two brain cells together and decided that we ought to ask an Amtrak official - who told us that the train was ready for boarding on platform 11. So off we went.

It was again a train with an ‘upstairs’ and our coach was once again next to the viewing coach. The train left on time at 6.45pm and we watched the sun set from the panoramic viewing lounge. We decided to book dinner in the Dining Car on this journey - just really for something to do to break up the 10 hour journey and we were called in to dinner at 8pm. Very nice!

We spent the night on the train and managed to get some sleep stretched out on the seats. Luckily Amtrak give plenty of leg space and the seats are like comfortable armchairs. They also hand out pillows. We were due to arrive in Flagstaff just after 5am tomorrow morning.

Monday 8th June

This morning I went with Dorothy to her pool to do a session of water aerobics. Dorothy lives in a ‘modular home park’ for the over 55’s where there is a swimming pool, library and other ‘community‘ amenities,

Dorothy's 'modular' house

and I would think the average age of the ladies doing the water aerobics was 75 - and, boy, did they put me to shame! There were about 18 of us and they were all doing far better than me - but then, they do these aerobics daily so I suppose it’s not surprising. Nevertheless, it was a laugh and the rewarding dip in the Jacuzzi afterwards made it worth while.

We then went shopping (Dorothy’s favourite pastime!). She took us to a lovely shopping mall called Fashion Island where stores there included Macy's and Bloomingdales. It was a beautiful place, lots of colourful flowers, water features and open spaces.

We had lunch there and then paid a visit to a garden centre. It was interesting to see what ‘Californian’ plants were for sale. They had pohutukawa trees there and we discovered that the Californian name for it is The New Zealand Christmas Tree - also a common name for it in NZ.

Val, who drove us all the way down from Redding, had invited us for dinner. It was lovely to see her again and she cooked us a delicious meal and we spent a very jolly evening at her lovely home. We were sorry to have to say goodbye to her.

6th & 7th June

Sunday 7th June

Dorothy had a wedding to go to today, so arranged for one of her friends, Grace, to take us out for the day. Grace drove us south along the coast road, through Newport Beach and stopping at Corona del Mar to walk along the road at the top of the cliffs, with stunning views of the sea, the rocky shoreline and the fabulously expensive and lavish houses. The streets were lined with extremely tall palms and the gardens were lush and colourful. bougainvilleas of purple, crimson and orange, draped themselves over walls and fences.
Grace pointed out the homes of various famous people, including one built by Michael J. Fox, the Gillette brothers who made their fortune from razor blades and one hideous looking house that (as rumour has it) is being built for Tiger Woods’ mother.

We had lunch at a lovely little café in Laguna Beach which served very healthy food - such a treat after weeks of French fries, “sandwiches” and other fat-laden fare, and few fresh vegetables. We ended the afternoon with a good English/NZ style cup of tea at Grace’s house. She lives in a retirement village in Laguna Canyon and we were astonished to hear that the village has 18,000 inhabitants. They have several swimming pools, a gym with personal trainers, their own TV station and newspaper, all the usual hobby and many special interest groups (all for free). But the thing that really left us speechless with wonder, was that there are stables for the residents’ horses (I swear this is true). We saw the stables, which were very posh and could accommodate about 40 horses.

We both left, wondering how soon we can become American citizens (and how soon we would be able to both buy a horse and pay for its stabling).

Saturday 6th June

Today, Dorothy took us on a guided tour of Huntington Beach. We walked from her house, through the streets and down to the pier, where there was a huge crowd being enjoying music and other entertainment. The pier was so long that we were directly above the surfers and could watch their skill in riding the waves.

Any thoughts of ‘a healthy salad for lunch’ were blown out of the window when Terry dragged us, kicking and screaming, into a pancake house where she force-fed Judy with pancakes covered with strawberries, syrup and whipped cream!

We wandered slowly home via some of the big and impressive hotels, built in the Spanish Mission style which is so popular around Southern California.

After a long walk in the hot sun a quiet evening at home was very welcome.

Friday 5th June

We were reluctant to leave Cambria this morning, it was such a lovely place to be. But we had over 200 miles to go so we had no option but to leave around 9.45 to give us time for various stops on the way.

Our first stop was Avila Beach near San Louis Obispo and we had a walk along the long pier there. We could hear the seals ‘barking’ loudly but couldn’t see them anywhere. We then realised that they were underneath us so we found a stairway down and we found ourselves really ‘up close and personal’ with them.

We had lunch at Santa Barbara. We drove out onto the long pier there and had a lovely lunch at one of the many restaurants. Looking out of the window by our table I could see many large birds on the beach on the opposite side of the harbour entrance, and they were pelicans - I have never seen so many
Santa Barbara was lovely and I wished we had more time o spend there. The buildings were Spanish Mission style and there were many really high palm trees.

We then headed off for LA. It took about one and a half hours to drive to the Hollywood area where Dorothy’s daughter lives - another Valerie! Valerie has twin 9-month-old sons and they were adorable. Valerie lives right opposite Universal Studios in the heart of Hollywood and has a lovely one-storey house in such a quiet area that you would never think you were in the centre of LA.

From there we took the last leg of our drive to Huntington Beach, where Dorothy lives. That took us right though the centre of LA so it was an interesting trip although the LA freeways lived up to their name so it was a slow-ish drive due to the amount off traffic.

The total mileage from Redding to Huntington Beach was 1667 miles and we can’t thank Val enough for driving us all that way. She was fab!

Thursday 4th June - Squirrels and Pohutukawas

We bid farewell to Hal and Cathy this morning and once again loaded up the car. We had been advised by Hal, who knows this coast well, to stay at a hotel in a place called Cambria - The FogCatcher Inn - more of that later.

Yet again we travelled down Hwy 101. I had hoped we would be going along the magnificent coastal road - Highway 1 the ‘Big Sur’ - but apparently that road is a rather a dodgy drive with the road twisting and turning alongside high cliffs with deep vertical drops to the sea below. And as Val was doing all the driving the decision was hers. Also it would have taken us far too long to reach our destination because of the time it would have taken. I wasn’t too disappointed as we did drive through lovely country scenery. As yesterday, we passed mile after mile of beautifully neat cultivated fields - well not fields as we in the UK know them, they are vast! And very long goods train carriages were stationery alongside some of them waiting to be loaded with fresh fruit and vegetables to get them to the shops as quickly as possible. We also passed a very big oil field (or maybe natural gas) with the ‘nodding donkeys’ nodding furiously.

On leaving the highway we headed west towards the coast and drove through many wineries - we stopped at one for a ‘tasting’ - although Dorothy was the only one who did.

We duly arrived at the popular holiday town of Cambria where we are staying at The FogCatcher Inn, Moonstone Beach:

http://www.fogcatcherinn.com/

Our block of 3 rooms, we're in the middle with the Pohutukawa tree outside

It is the most charming hotel - and for Kiwi friends and rellies of Terry who read this there is a Pohutukawa tree growing right outside our door. And for the non-Kiwi’s reading this, this tree is a native NZ tree and is known as The New Zealand Christmas Tree because it has brilliant red flowers at Christmastime. Terry is stunned to see one here as she thought they only grew in New Zealand. Just goes to show - California can do anything!

Dorothy, Val and I had a swim followed by a session in the hot tub. Very nice after a long journey.

There was a boardwalk along the coast bordered by wild flowers: We took a long walk and it was just beautiful. Terry was delighted to see the little ground squirrels - they were very tame and almost begging for food. I was not too keen - I have many grey squirrels in my garden at home and consider them vermin, much to Terry’s disgust!

The coast here in Cambria is beautiful. Again we searched for sea otters but again they must have known we were coming because they went into hiding. We were consoled by seeing lots more seals then - lo and behold - we saw a lot of hump backed whales out at sea, migrating north. As in Alaska, they were too far away to photograph but their spouts could not be missed.

We had a very nice dinner at a local fish speciality restaurant, which made a lovely end to a lovely day.

Wednesday 3rd June - How the Other Half Live

Today, we had a lovely lazy start, with breakfast around the table with Cathy and Hal, before driving off to explore the Pacific coast between where we are here, near Santa Cruz, and Carmel. The low cloud and sea mist soon cleared, giving us beautiful views of the deep blue sea just beyond the dunes which lined the shore in some places. At times, whilst driving a bit inland from the coast, the road was lined with crop fields which stretched, seemingly for miles, astonishingly flat and the rows of plants so straight and neat. Large groups of workers, bent double, harvested the strawberries. We speculated that they may have been Mexicans, willing to work in the hot and difficult conditions.

Monterey more than lived up to its reputation as a resort for the rich and famous, or at least, the ‘wanabees‘ and the whole town certainly had lots of character. We first visited ‘Cannery Row’, of John Steinbeck fame, and then took an old streetcar to Fisherman’s Wharf where restaurant owners were eagerly exhorting us to try free samples of their clam chowder. Fisherman’s Wharf used to be just what it’s name suggests but the old fishing buildings are now either restaurants or shops, all very colourful. Here are two photos of the Wharf:

On the way out of town beautiful, opulent houses overlooked the jagged rocks which lead down to the golden sand of the little coves where seals sunned themselves on the rocks. Sea otters also frequent this area, but they must have been in hiding today, as we didn’t see any.

We had lunch in Carmel a bit further down the coast in a most unusual café with a completely round room. An entire years income could be spent in moments in Carmel. Let’s put it this way - we saw no charity shops. After torturing ourselves, looking at merchandise we could never afford, we drove back via yet another quaint village, Capitola, with colourful houses clustered around a small harbour. Both towns visited today were certainly 'California' as you might imagine it to be - beautiful large houses with manicured gardens obviously occupied by monied people, lots of colourful flowers, trees and the wonderful Pacific coastline.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner, cooked by Hal, then told stories and had many laughs before heading off to bed.

Tuesday 2nd June

We left the Best Western in Fort Bragg around 9.30 and headed back south to Mendocino again, this time to walk some more around that pretty little town and to browse the shops which were closed yesterday afternoon. Despite its small size, the town's scenic location on a headland surrounded by the Pacific Ocean has made it extremely popular as an artist colony and is popular with vacationers.
We spent a couple hours there then again continued our journey southwards. We followed the beautiful Pacific coast for about 10 miles then headed inland to rejoin Hwy101, again driving through redwoods and enormous trees. To have hugged the coast all the way down to San Francisco would have been too time consuming as the road is very twisty, and we were aiming for Aptos, just south of San Francisco to stay with Dorothy’s brother and his wife, Hal and Cathy, and it was a long way to go. We, purely by chance, found a fab diner on the way - looking just like you imagine a ‘diner’ to look like.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and headed straight out of the city in the hope of beating the rush hour traffic. I love crossing that bridge - it is so iconic and the views of the city, the ocean and Alcatraz are great. We arrived at Hal and Cathy’s around 6pm, pretty stiff and tired after being in the car for so long. After a supper of Pizza, Caesar salad and wine we were all ready for an early night.

Monday 1st June

June already and I’m practically half way through this marathon trip. I can’t believe how quickly time passing.

We left Eureka around 9.30 and headed south on Hwy 101. Our first stop was at a little town called Ferndale - which was lovely. Much prettier than Eureka - all shops and most of the houses were old Victorian buildings. There were lots of interesting shops to browse through and many tempting things to buy so I had too keep reminding myself that I am ‘travelling light‘!:

From there we continued south down the same Hwy 101 (the Redwood Highway) to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and took a slight detour from the highway to drive through the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ for a while. The huge trees were mind-boggling, we couldn’t believe how big and tall they were, although I believe there are even bigger ones elsewhere.


We returned to the highway after about 5 miles through the trees and stopped for lunch at a town called Willits, then headed west towards the coast to Mendocino - where ‘Murder She Wrote’ was filmed and we drove past the house where 'Jessica Fletcher' lived. ‘East of Eden’ starring James Dean was also filmed there so that made Terry’s day! Many other films have also been made in this area.

There was no suitable accommodation in Mendocino so we backtracked north for a few miles to Fort Bragg and found another Best Western to stay in - lovely sea view from the bedroom window:
The bridge is just for walking, not trains.

Ever onwards southbound tomorrow ….

Sunday 31st May - EUREKA!

Today we began our long drive south to Huntington Beach, just south of LA. Dorothy and Val collected us and we set off around 10am. We headed due west to Eureka. Over yet more beautiful mountain ranges and through lovely river valleys. Val has a big comfortable 'people carrier' and it is nice to be driven along this interesting route where there is so much to look at. The journey took most of the day including some stops on the way.

Eureka is a town I have long wanted to visit - just because of it’s name. I can imagine an old gold-miner shouting ‘eureka’ when he first finds his nugget of gold or the folk travelling west in their wagon trains shouting ‘eureka’ when they reach the coast after travelling thousands of miles over mountains and through deserts fighting off the Indians on the way!!

It was a nice town and lots of beautiful old Victorian houses still remain, all painted different colours. But there seemed to be quite a large element of ‘down and outs’ gathering in groups all carrying bottles, and one area of the town, near the docks, seemed particularly unsavoury.

My two American friends have been teasing me for days about wanting to go to Eureka - to them it is just a town and they did not know about the true meaning of the word. When I read them the 'Wikipedia' entry as to the history of the word, including the fact that ’Eureka’ is the Californian State Motto they said ‘Huh, it takes a Brit to tell us this’!

"I've found it"

We spent a comfortable night in a Best Western just outside the town.

Saturday 30th May

Dorothy and Val picked us up around 9.30 and today we visited Whiskeytown Lake
and French Gulch

Whiskeytown Lake is a huge lake and recreational area favoured by many for watersports and fishing, and French Gulch (pop. +/- 250) is an old Victorian goldming/logging town which was virtually destroyed by a massive forest fire in August 2004.

A few of the old buildings were saved including a wonderful old bar
full of historic artefacts dating back to its mining/logging era. I had visited it the last time I was here and was keen for Terry to see it. At first we thought the bar was closed but on asking a ‘local’ we found our way in by going round to the back of the building.

From there we headed back to Redding as Dorothy had accepted a lunch invitation which was to include us. There were 12 of us there and we spend a happy couple of hours listening fascinating snippets of local gossip by ‘ladies who lunch’. The food was lovely, and the view from the house was uninterrupted hills and countryside. Lovely.

It had been another very hot day with temperature in the high 90's so a quiet evening was spent at Stephen’s house swimming and playing a hilarious game of cards.

Friday 29th May

Well - Amtrak lived up to it’s reputation this time as we didn’t arrive in Redding from Portland until 0350, one and a half hours late - a journey of 13 and a half hours (it takes 6 to drive!)

It was a very scenic journey climbing (slowly) through the Cascade Mountains but there were track works at the top and we literally crawled along for what must have been a couple of hours. At one stage we were running 2 hours late but did make up a bit of time. The views in the mountains were spectacular. The train was comfortable with loads of legroom, leg and foot rests and reclining seats, and everyone was given pillows to make sleeping more comfortable.

Terry relaxing on the train

The coach attendant was very pleasant and helpful, and on the ‘ground floor’ of our railway coach (we were seated upstairs) was a snack bar serving food and hot and cold drinks (no alcohol). The Dining Car served dinner and those who requested it were called at 15 minute intervals. We didn’t bother with that, having bought our own food with us.

At the top of the mountains the sky changed dramatically from daylight blue to dark storm clouds and the sun trying to shine through gave everything an eerie orange glow. We spent some time in the ‘lounge’ car with huge picture windows and glass in the roof. The lightning was spectacular

Me in the lounge car sporting my drastic hair cut!

The storm clouds - you can just see the blue sky disappearing behind the clouds

I think Terry grabbed a couple of hours interrupted sleep and I, as usual, catnapped.

Dorothy met us at Redding and took us to her friend, Kay’s. house were we were to stay for 3 nights and were made to feel very welcome. We fell into bed and slept until 9am.

We spent lunchtime at Dorothy’s son’s house as she had to meet her grandson from school, then in the afternoon we went in to see the huge Shasta Dam and then we went into Redding to show Terry the Sundial Bridge. I had seen it before, when I was here in 2006.

The temperature was 100 degrees so we did not spend much time there although Terry and I did walk across and back. It is a very graceful bridge and spans the Sacramento river. It really is a huge sundial.

It was far too hot to do anything else, so we returned to Stephen’s house where we had dinner and I had a welcome swim in his pool.

26th, 27th & 28th May

Thursday 28th May

Even though it is still morning as I blog this, there will not be much to write about today. We have to catch the 2.30pm Amtrak for Redding, Ca. so this morning will be re-packing (again) and a short stroll around before heading off to the train station to be there by 1.30pm. The journey to Redding is about 12 hours and we arrive there at 2.20am tomorrow morning. Not nice! Dorothy (my friend who lives there) will meet us and take us to one of her friends houses where we are staying whilst in Redding.

Wednesday 27th May

What the Rough Guide to the USA says about Portland is quite true: “With few major attractions and an unpretentious bohemian flavour, Portland makes for an excellent spot to slow down and relax ….”

We decided to see Portland by foot as it is quite a small city, so we walked along the waterfront (the Willamette River). Not too sure of the distance, but I would say about a mile took us to the far end of downtown where we went to Chinatown and visited lovely peaceful Chinese Garden.

We then strolled back though the centre of the city. I love the ‘grid/block’ system as you always know exactly where you are. On the way we popped into the Wells Fargo Centre where there is a museum showing the history of that famous organisation. Lunch was a sandwich sitting in a lovely square with gardens and trees (it reminded me of such squares in London). Our by then aching legs and feet took us back to the motel where we crashed out with our books - and I fell asleep for over an hour! Dinner was at a local Chinese place - can’t call it a restaurant, just a café really but the food was very nice - and cheap, and next door was a hair cutting salon where I managed to get a much needed haircut. Our motel is situated very near the Portland University, so prices around here are set to accommodate student budgets - and that suits us just fine.
So - Portland is a lovely place to be to ‘chill’ with no ‘must see’ places to visit. We both enjoyed it. The weather was lovely - hot but not uncomfortably so.

Tuesday 26th May

We took the 1120 Amtrak from Seattle and arrived in Portland (Oregon) at 3.15pm. We did not have such good train seats this time - no ‘upstairs’ like we had before and we were not by a full window, but a pillar. We were still able to see out quite well though.

We were booked into the EconoLodge Downtown so took a cab directly there. Both tired out - why should sitting on a train for 4 hours be so exhausting? We rested for a while then went to the local McDonald’s for dinner, too fagged to do anything else.

Monday 25th May

We had just one day in Seattle so we thought the best thing to do was to take a City Tour. A small coach collected us at 10am and we set off for a 3 hour tour. Seattle is a lovely city - the home of several well known institutions such as Microsoft (although the HQ has now moved to I’ve forgotten where), Amazon and Boing aircraft. Not forgetting, of course, Starbucks and in the Pike Market area we saw the very first Starbucks that opened and apparently it is much the same inside as it was in the 60’s. It was unfortunate that we could not stop in more places to look around - a day is not enough time to spend in a city of this size.

We ended the tour at Seattle Centre where the Space Needle is situated, so we each duly paid our extortionate $14 fee and took the elevator to the top. It was build for the 1962 Worlds Fair and is 605 feet high and the viewing deck is att 520 feet. We have a good view of it from our bedroom window although the view is somewhat marred by the cranes and building works of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The views all over the city and lakes were lovely. Again we were blessed with a lovely day - not experiencing the rain that Seattle is famous for!

Sunday 24th May - Farewell Canada

We docked in Vancouver just before 8am this morning and sadly left The Norwegian Sun at around 9am. We had most of the day in Vancouver as our train was not due to leave until 5.45pm. Luckily there was a baggage drop at the cruise ship terminal so we did not have to carry our heavy luggage around with us.

We wandered around the Gastown area which was interesting. It is called Gastown after a character called ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton (he talked a lot!). He was an Englishman and in 1867 he was one of the first settlers in what was to become Vancouver. The story goes that had a barrel of whisky and said to the local timber workers - build me a hotel and you can have some whisky. He had his hotel in 24 hours!!

We also intended to visit Chinatown and see a walled Chinese Garden but that meant crossing a very dodgy part of town. We set off, but on seeing several unsavoury characters hanging around in groups we somewhat hastily back-peddled and gave up on that idea.

We collected our luggage around 3.30pm and took a cab to the Central Pacific station. Before boarding the train we had to (yet again) go through US immigration. The train left about 15 minutes late and crawled along for the first hour and we began to believe all we had heard about the tardiness of Amtrak. But after we crossed the border into the US, and the customs officials went though the train, it speeded up. The line ran along the shore of Puget Sound and we were so close to the sea that it was almost like being on the ship again. A very scenic route that took about 4 hours.

We actually arrived in Seattle 5 minutes early, at 10pm, and after reclaiming our luggage we took a cab to our hotel - Comfort Suites Downtown Seattle and fell into bed, exhausted, around 11.30.

Saturday 23rd May

Sadly this is our last day of the Alaska Cruise, we dock back in Vancouver at 0800 tomorrow (Sunday) morning. It has, as usual, been a glorious day - we have been so lucky with the weather considering the vast amount of rain that falls annually in Alaska. We only had a sprinkling once during the whole week, and that hardly wet the decks.

It has been another full day at sea today. The first half of the day was like yesterday - land only visible in the far distance but around lunchtime we entered the Inside Passage so once again there was lots to look at.

Here are a couple of photos taken of The Norwegian Sun:

In summary, this cruise has been fantastic. It is my first ever cruise and I have always fought shy of them before - all the packing of smart ‘cruise clothes’, dressing for dinner, ‘Dinner at the Captain’s Table’ etc etc. Not my cup of tea at all. But this ‘Freestyle’ form of cruising definitely is - I have been ‘casually’ dressed all week (ie jeans!) to all meals (buffet style), as have most other people on board.

What will I miss most? Definitely being waited on hand and foot by good-looking young men!

The next phase of this tour starts tomorrow evening as we board the 1745 Amtrak train for Seattle, so more when we arrive there (hopefully with free internet!)