Life off of the boat...

I was going to title this "Life at home", but that isn't accurate as we've been traveling quite a bit after arriving home from Mexico.  So, our lives have been extremely busy, and they say retirement is slow, not! 
First, we arrived back in southern California, finding our new slip in San Pedro at Cabrillo Way Marina.  It's a brand new marina with lots of empty slips, new bathrooms, lots of water pressure and clean docks.  Ahh.  After settling in there, we moved back into our home in Costa Mesa, which included unpacking 30 or more storage bins filled with collections from our previous lives.  So, while Leif worked on unpacking and cleaning the boat, I did the same at the house with our dog Woody.  Woody is an English Setter, 14.5 years young and feisty for his age.  Unfortunately his body doesn't know that his mind is still vibrant, and he's having difficulty with staying upright.  I'll make this short and sweet.  After several weeks of watching him trying not to fall over, and laying only on one side due to an abundance of lumps, crying most of the night, we decided it was time to let him rest.  So, he is at peace.  It was very difficult, and I still feel and hear him daily inside the house, even though it's my imagination.  He was a very special dog to me.

Woody keeping an eye on things.

  Moving on, next on our list was a planned drive up to Vancouver BC, and then a cruise to Alaska.  Small problem was we didn't have a car worthy of the trip as I had sold mine, so we bought a new Subaru Outback.  What a totally awesome car.  It has something called eyesight, which will speed up or slow down due to traffic conditions.  Really nice on this trip.

Leif and Judy on the "Grouse Grind".  I'm lagging behind, so I could get a good photo of course...

   After arriving in Vancouver, we stayed with our friends Wolf and Judy at their home in North Vancouver.  The next day Judy suggested the three of us do a hike called the "Grouse Grind".  Oh sure, how difficult can that be?  Well, very.  Lots of roots, straight up, 2830 steps, and an elevation gain of 2800' in 1.8 miles. I struggled along as they waited patiently for me to keep up.  Thought I was in pretty good shape, well, wrong.  Later that day we met our other cruising pals, Vic and Susan and had a lovely dinner at the Royal Vancouver YC.  It's a special club with many out-stations for the members to sail or travel to and enjoy being out on the water.  It is also one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  Lots of green, obviously, but also environmentally aware, just ask Judy about the multitude of bike lanes?!  I don't blame her for being a bit upset, they outnumber the traffic lanes, and traffic is pretty awful.  And, it rains so much the bikes aren't out during many times of the year. 
   We all walked down to the sea taxi and then rode across to our ship, the Noordam, for our next adventure.  The Noordam is a basic ship, not like a Princess or Disney with water slides or climbing walls.  But, it did have a nice walking deck, delicious food, excellent service, and was speedy getting up and back.  (20+ knots at times)  We sailed for two days up to Juneau where we took a taxi into the hills for a look at the Mendenhall glacier.

Mendenhall Glacier, or what's left of it.

Being spendthrifts, we all decided to risk our luck on a taxi in town rather than booking on the ship.  Good idea.  Ship-board for the trip was over $100. each, taxi for 6 was about $40. one way.  The only draw back was that Sunny, our taxi driver, disappeared and left us to be eaten by grizzlies and mosquitoes.  He had said he'd return, but didn't.  So, we climbed on a shuttle, $10 each back to the ship.  Nice.  The glacier was interesting, very blue in spots, and little icebergs floating around in the bay.  Yes, it was beautifully cold.  Loved it.

Fortunately he/she was quite content, and posed nicely instead of chasing us down into the icy water.

Judy and I heard there was a brown bear sitting on a rock near a vista point, so off we ran to get pictures.  Sure enough, Judy climbed up on the nearest rock and there was a huge brown bear within 20'.  A bit scary, but he was laying down lounging.  Still, I was a bit nervous as I clicked away.

The Mendenhall glacier near Juneau has many large chunks of ice drifting around nearby.

   Next came Glacier Bay, where the ship spun in 360's for a couple of hours while the naturalists and park rangers on board explained what we were seeing.  On our way into the bay, the ship slowed and we were boarded by about 10 National park rangers who set up information areas and gave lectures.  This was a great learning experience about the glaciers as well as the native people from the area.  I have to say the one Tlingit who spoke on board needs speaking lessons, he was putting most to sleep with his slow self centered style.  And, what he had to say was important, just poorly delivered.

I'm not sure the name of this glacier, but it's in Glacier Bay.

  On to Skagway.  We arrived and hopped on to a narrow gauge train up into the hills nearby for a relaxing and beautiful view of the valleys and mountains.  Not much wildlife, but gorgeous views.  Then on to Ketchikan, our last stop before heading home to Vancouver.  Ketchikan is much like the rest of the small towns up here, which rely on mining, but mostly tourism from the ships.  It was sad to see all of the junk shops selling tee shirts, totem poles and other odds and ends.  On board the ship the daily events always include a seminar on buying jewelry and gem stones from the local stores.  Apparently if you're into buying diamonds or tanzanite or other precious metals or stones this is the place.  I'm not, so it was a little depressing, as we wanted to see nature, not shopping.  Once again, we hired a taxi and saved a tremendous amount as the 6 of us went up to the same river that the cruise ship tours go to in order to see bears and bald eagles.  Unfortunately the spawning salmon were almost over, so the bears and birds were full up, and the rivers not full of salmon.  We did however see one black bear which came into view and entertained probably 100's of us quietly clicking away with our cameras.  And, one bald eagle zoomed overhead and I tried to quickly snap it's photo. 
   Overall, the trip was interesting, we did get to see glaciers, bears, whales, bald eagles, logs floating by, and didn't gain too much weight at the buffet.  The best thing was having dinner all together each night and rehashing the days events with our friends.  I highly recommend taking along pals with which to share the adventure, it really made it worthwhile.

Our celebratory toast after arriving onboard the ship.  This was our little cabin I believe, very comfortable.  (L-R- Leif, Judy, Wolf, Vic, and Susan.

   We arrived back in Vancouver around 7:00 a.m. and promptly departed rolling our luggage across the town to the water taxi and on to Wolf and Judy's home.  The weather hadn't cooperated the whole trip, with rain pretty much daily, and today was no exception.  Leif and I were lucky enough to stay on Lobo del Mar, Wolf and Judy's boat, and it was a delight to be back on board again.  It was even a Beneteau, and beautiful wood inside with lots of northwest décor.

We stopped at Crater Lake on the way back home, yes, it really is that blue.  Amazing to see.  

   We needed to get moving towards home as our own boat was due to be hauled out before too long, so off we went to Roseburg, then Redding, then Nevada City to visit my brother.  Along the way we managed to wine taste in Oregon, see Crater Lake, amazingly blue, and eat at a great Italian place in Roseburg.  It was so sad to hear of the nut killing people in this lovely town after we left.  Such a small town, it's going to be a long recovery. 
   We once again wine tasted in Paso Robles and Santa Ynez, and finally made it home.  Our house didn't sell, as we had hoped, and the boat is in the yard for maintenance, so the chores continue.
   I will add that the boat came out of the yard swiftly, and we have cleaned, organized, and sailed her in the past few weeks.  It is so nice to be back out on the water again.