Posts In The “North America Pacific Coast” Category
Hubbard Glacier, at the head of Yakutat Bay, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America at 76 miles (122km) long and 7 miles (11km) wide. The terminal face is 600 feet (182m) high, with 250 feet (76m) hidden below the waterline. The 350 feet (106m) visible above the waterline is actively calving, filling the…
Dramatic Glacier Bay National Park was the only overlap between our Norwegian Jewel cruise and our 2010 Southeast Alaska trip on Dirona. But we could return here every year and never tire of the amazing scenery. On another unusually clear day for early in the season, we cruised slowly up Glacier Bay under a bright…
During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 through 1899, roughly 100,000 prospectors poured into the Yukon in northwestern Canada, in the hopes of striking it rich. The main routes to the Yukon gold fields were from the southeast Alaska towns of Skagway or Dyea, across White Pass or Chilkoot Pass respectively. No roads or railways…
Alaska’s capital, Juneau, is the only mainland US capital city with no road connections. The only way in or out is by air or sea. And despite having a population of only 32,000, it’s the second largest city in the US by area, after Sitka, also in Alaska. We arrived by boat, as do the…
On our Norwegian Encore Caribbean cruise, we didn’t take any excursions, opting instead to visit each port on foot on our own. The Jewel offered some more interesting trips, so we booked one for each port. In Ketchikan, we took an off-road UTV safari through Tongass National Forest in a Yamaha Wolverine X2. Although we…
After our second night at the Vancouver Pan Pacific hotel, we woke up to find the Norwegian Jewel, the ship we’d be taking to Alaska, docked just outside our room. We boarded later that day and spent the afternoon exploring the ship, then had a wonderful time watching from our balcony at the bow as…
While Seattle did see plenty of rain that month, April travels was the dominant theme rather than April showers. We started the month with a weekend trip to Sagecliff resort in eastern Washington and ended it on a weekend trip to Vancouver BC. Of the three weekends in between, we spent one snowshoeing at Mt….
The Canada Place cruise terminal in the Port of Vancouver handles over a million passengers a year, with 331 ships scheduled for 2023. Most are heading to Alaska, but other destinations include Hawaii, Asia, California and the South Pacific. The port is the only origin terminal supporting one-way Alaska cruises, due to Jones Act restrictions…
Jennifer loves to get pictures with team mascots and recently added another to the list with Blitz of the Seattle Seahawks at the team’s 2023 NFL Draft Party. The event was held at the Space Needle with guest appearances from several players as the 2023 NFL draft was broadcast. The party was fantastic, made even…
The one-hour seaplane flight from Seattle to Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands is scenic enough that Kenmore Air offers sightseeing-only flights over both areas. We enjoyed those wonderful views on a recent day trip to Friday Harbor via Kenmore Air. Being early in the season, the flights were lightly loaded and we had…
The Seattle Kraken, in an impressive and unexpected feat, reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in only their second year of existence. We unfortunately were playing the defending champions, the Colorado Avalanche, and our prospects weren’t great. But the team continued to over-achieve and ultimately won the series 4-3. This gave us three historic first-ever NHL…
The Timeshifter app helps battle jet lag by shifting time zones over the course of multiple days rather than all at once. It also optionally suggests taking melatonin and consuming or avoiding caffeine at certain times to further improve the change in sleep times. On the recommendation of a co-worker, James tried it for the…
James flew in late Friday night from San Francisco, so we decided to go directly from the airport to Mt. Rainier National Park for a scheduled weekend of snowshoeing. We stayed in a bright and spacious VRBO cabin, Trillium, with easy access to the park. Our first day’s trip was to Reflection Lake, where we…
James made another trip to the Bay area two days after the previous one, and we both ended up having Italian food for dinner, ableit in different cities. While James was at Perbacco Italian restaurant in San Francisco, Jennifer tried the Red Hen Rigatoni recipe, reproduced in the Washington Post. This was the meal that…
James made a business trip to San Francisco for a day and the clear, calm weather on both his outbound and return flights provided some wonderful photo opportunities. Below are highlights from April 4th, 2023. Click any image for a larger view, or click the position to view the location on a map. And a…
When traveling downtown, we either walk or Uber. When out on weekend trips, we normally drive. The appeal of driving is complete flexibility and, the further you go, the more advantaged you are to drive yourself. But, there are some upsides of paying for a ride. In this case, we wanted to spend the weekend…
Spring arrived in Seattle in March, with daffodils in bloom, and weather warm enough to eat outside. But winter was definitely still in force in the Cascade Mountains, where we made a couple of snowshoe trips and enjoyed the snowy scenery. James made several business trips this month, starting off in Denver, then to the…
We very much enjoyed last year’s trip to beautiful Santa Barbara, but didn’t spend much time downtown. We returned this year on a weekend trip before James attended a conference nearby, and this time stayed closer to the center of town. Our room at the boutique Palihouse Hotel was wonderful, and within walking distance of…