Cruise to Alaska

Day 1: We arrived in complete style aboard the Norwegian Pearl having been offered an amazing upgrade a couple of days before our departure. We had a VIP drop off point for our luggage, avoided the crowds checking in by being escorted into a separate check-in room and then got escorted by our butler (!) to our fantastic "stateroom" (not called cabin; maybe because that is something up in the mountains?). The sun streamed onto us our front facing balcony on a beautiful Seattle day and we enjoyed champagne and canapés as we departed north!

Day 2: At Sea. Unfortunately, we found out from the room maid that we had picked the wrong week: excellent weather the previous two weeks but the forecast for our week was rain and cloud. We adopted the renowned "happy attitude" and enjoyed what we had, which included a private restaurant for breakfast and dinner! Mid-afternoon we entered the Alaskan Inside Passage which looked very similar to scenery we have seen in Norway. Having expected to be in the Inside Passage since we left Seattle, we were a little disappointed but found out from the Captain that certain passes have to be taken at certain water levels and we would never have made it to our destination and back again.

Day 3: Juneau. As we travelled up to Juneau through wonderful scenery, we saw whales off the boat and a juvenile bald eagle flew right over us. Marble murrelets were all around us and flapped on the water noisily, trying to take off (we found out later from a park ranger). Before arriving in Juneau we reminded ourselves of some Alaska history. First English discoverers were James Cook in 1778, then George Vancouver in 1794. The Russians had it as a territory for many years and negotiated boundaries with the US & Britain in 1824 and 1825 – how the ports we went to did not end up in Canada is quite amazing. The Russians sold Alaska to the US in 1867 for $7.2m, apparently not choosing the Brits because they were at war with us (Crimean War). Alaska became the 50^th state in the Union in 1959 – only 50 years ago!

Juneau itself is a town of around 30,000 people and is the capital city of Alaska. We went to view the Governor’s Mansion (nice pad) and can confirm that the Governor certainly can’t see Russia from any of those windows. We went to the Russian Orthodox Church – small, no chairs, 4 or 5 families attend and say services in native languages. It was quite something to see the map of Alaska with all the pins in of Russian Orthodox Churches and to get our minds around the fact that Russia was for so many years the arch enemy.

Juneau was like visiting Whitby (a seaside town in Yorkshire) and it felt totally incongruous that this should be the capital city! And it rained; a lot; even the crows were sheltering! We got a tour bus out to the Mendenhall Glacier, 12 miles north. Mark said "you won’t be able to see it in the rain" and then gasped at the sight a mile away from the glacier! Well, it was half a mile wide and 12 miles in depth; part of the Juneau Icefield, which is approximately the size of the state of Rhode Island. Our time at the glacier was brief, peaceful and wet. We saw nesting arctic terns – the same species which had bombarded us when we visited Spitsbergen in 2005; but no bears. They had been around about a week before hand. On return to Juneau, we stopped in for a pint of Alaskan Amber at the Red Dog Saloon – a spit and sawdust pub with huge bears hanging on the wall. Not the type of local we’re used to!

Day 4: Skagway. This was one of two major Alaskan ports en route to the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada. We took a walk in the town which was like walking back in time and visited the National Park visitor centre, finding that it was not as good as the sister one in Seattle! The Gold Rush made Seattle as prospectors needed a ton of goods to be let across the US border. However, few prospectors made any money and it was a really grim experience. I was looking forward to our afternoon ride of the White Pass Railway to see the route many of them took, but 1.5 hrs before we were due to leave there was an announcement of a landslip and cancellation of our train. We were very disappointed. Our departure from Skagway through the Lynn Canal was spectacular as we dined and watched the mountains float pass.

Day 5: Glacier Bay National Park. I was up at 6am to see us enter the park. It was freezing cold and grey, which explains why I was the only one that seemed to be up! It was so quiet. At 7am, a ranger talk – yes, those folks with the hats – started in one of the lounges giving us background on the park. The scenery as it developed was magnificent and the sun came out! Glacier Bay is 3.5m acres and is part of a wider World Heritage Site of 25m acres (approx the size of Maine!). When George Vancouver sailed past this area in 1794 the whole area was covered in glaciers, so there was no bay! We sailed 65 miles (1.5 times the distance London-Basingstoke, the commute I did for many years) from the inlet to the Margerie Glacier at the end (1 mile across, 250 feet high, 25 miles into the mountains). We heard and saw it creaking and crashing, but missed a very large bit falling into the water. It was stunning. Going down the bay we saw two brown bears on the beach. Although they were small, once identified you could see them moving with the naked eye. We travelled to a second glacier, Lamplugh Glacier, and thoroughly enjoyed the sun beating down on us as we took in all the beauty. The whole day was magnificent.

Day 6: Ketchikan. We were on a tour to the Misty Fjords National Monument at 6.20am! And boy was it misty! It was pouring. Misty Fjords (another 2.5m acres) is in the Tongass National Forest (17m acres stretching 500 miles). Visibility was poor but the trip worth it when we arrived at Rudyerd Bay where the cliffs were vertical and there were wonderful waterfalls all around us. Another stunning place, although I think our photos don’t do it justice. Arriving back we walked around the small town for about an hour before heading back to the boat for our departure southwards.

Day 7: Victoria. We arrived in port at 6pm after a mostly sunny day of sailing. Here it was somewhat chaotic getting off the boat and picking up a shuttle bus into town. The driver told us that tourism was Victoria’s number 1 industry. There were 3 cruise boats in dock yet when we got into the centre of town most tourist attractions were shut! This seemed a bit odd to me so our time was short and sweet – mainly a walk over to see the Legislative Building and the Empress Hotel.

Arriving home: I watched us come into Seattle at a 5.30am dawn! Even at that time the Alaskan Way Viaduct seemed noisy. Our disembarkation was very smooth and we were home in 15 mins after leaving the boat J, giving us plenty of time to unpack, have a nap and get in a quick kayak before church. Unfortunately, the day afterwards I was very sick (no more details I promise you) with what we suspect was the norovirus, often found on cruise ships, and I ended up in urgent care for rehydration L. Not a great end to what had been a wonderful week. 

March & April 2009: The Grand Canyon & More!

Finally fingers have got to keys to remember the highlights of the last 8 weeks or so.  On March 11, Sarah & John arrived from England for 5 days with us before heading to Whistler for skiing.  Sarah & Claire were housemates at university so there is a lot history and we laughed a lot.  Claire accompanied them on ski boot shopping and now knows more about ski boots than she ever wanted to.  On one of our shopping trips we came back to the car to find the same type of car we have in England parked next to our US car.  Claire could not resist a photo!   Last time Sarah & John visited they spent a fair bit of time number plate spotting and only failed to see plates from Hawaii and Rhode Island!  All the US car plates include the state they are registered in and we can see cars from all over the country.  On this trip, there were some very excited Brits when we spotted "Rhode Island" near our church!!!  By the end of the weekend, we were sad to see them go north to ski.

 

However, the following day we headed south to some welcome sun in Las Vegas, as Mark was again speaking at a Microsoft conference there.  This was our 2nd trip to ‘sin city’ and this time the whole visual nature of the place hit Claire as we got off the plane.  We were amazed at the number of people on ‘the Strip’.  It seemed like a recession proof place but maybe they all had cheap rooms.  Surely there is nothing else cheap about Vegas.  Everything is overpriced for a captive audience.  The moto is ‘what goes in Vegas, stays in Vegas’…hm, not the credit card bills.  Given the current economic situation, the whole place made us feel uncomfortable. 

 

We were both ready to leave town on Friday as we headed east towards the Grand Canyon, which is about 300 miles from Vegas,   This trip and just flying into Vegas reminded us again how big the US is.  We drove 100 miles to the next small town in Arizona called Kingman.  There was nothing much in between Kingman and Vegas except the Hoover Dam, which we visited last yer.   Kingman is a smallish town and we enjoyed some excellent bbq pork at a newly opened place called the Redneck Southern Pit BBQ.  Kingman is a ‘Route 66" town and we decided the next morning to drive on that road instead of the new Interstate.  It was excellent!   We were in the middle of nowhere and saw very few cars as we drove through rural Arizona and Indian Reservations.  We stopped in an even smaller town called Seligman, which is the town the film Cars is based around.  After about 3hrs driving we stopped in Williams for lunch at the Pine Country Restaurant.  The pies were supposed to be legendary.  They looked great but the taste was not as good as we expected. 

 

Replenished, we set off for the last hr or so of our journey.  Folks have asked us if we went and stood on the new ‘skywalk’ over the Canyon.  We did not.  All the trip reviews we read said it was not worth it and very expensive (about $100 by the time you payed for everything) and no cameras.  So we decided to drive straight to the National Park section of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.  Wow!  It was worth it.  We stopped at the first pull-out and our jaws dropped at the shear scale of the place.  Everytime we look at our photos we know that they just DO NOT capture the scale.  On the South Rim, the National Park consists of two drives, Desert View Drive going east and Hermit Road west.  These two cover about 32 miles in total, but the Canyon is 277 miles long!!!  On Saturday we drove along Desert View, stopping at Shoshone Point for a walk to the rim.  This was one of the ‘treasures’ recommended by the Rough Guide and it was excellent.  Since it involved walking to the point, there were very few folks there and at the first look-out we sat alone on a log looking out at the immensity and variety of stone structures.  Just the two of us, watching the giant condors flying below us.   Our solititude was repeated at sunset when we stopped at Lipan Point and we climbed out to a rock and watched the sun go down.

 

The only disadvantage of our exploits was that it meant we arrived at our hotel (El Tovar) in the Grand Canyon Village in the dark; and it was very dark.  After a few false starts we got there and ate dinner (OK) at the Bright Angel restaurant in the lodge next to ours.  Walking between the two we were conscious that literally feet from us was a very large chasm!  Sunday morning dawned rather windy but bright and we had the first glimspe of the Canyon again.  We went west, walking along the rim edge path for about a mile or so.   We watched folks heading down into the Canyon on some very steep paths and saw others on mules through the binoculars.  Seeing others in the Canyon reminded us again of the scale of the place.  Just HUGE.  Walking along the rim so that the Canyon was in view all that time was fantastic., but after a while we found we could not take in another view!  We did the rest of the west section via the bus and went to the end and back, just in time for it to start snowing, lightly.  Definitely time for lunch.  We had a very good meal in the Arizona Room of the Bright Angel Lodge, but while we dined at our window seat overlooking the rim (wonderful), the power went out.   It dawned us on, rather slowly, that this could be a very uncomfortable night!  Arriving back at El Tovar the staff had no idea when power would come back on and were cancelling reservations.  We decided this was time to make an exit stage left when we could at least still see our luggage, as the snow had started to fall heavily and settle.  Disappointing but the safe option.  We headed back to the Best Western in Kingman and enjoyed a good dinner at the Dambar & Steakhouse.

 

Monday we arrived back in Vegas much earlier than expected because of our change in plans.  We enjoyed lunch at The Bellagio besides its tasteful indoor conservatory and spent some time afterwards in the sun enjoying the fountains which "dance" to different music; then to the airport and back to a wet grey Seattle.   The following weekend, Wayne, Sarah, Amy and Nathan visited us for a long weekend which proved wet except for Sunday, which was Wayne’s birthday.  After a nice breakfast out, we boarded a ferry to Bainbridge Island (one of Mark’s favourite pass times!) and headed to Port Gamble for a cream tea.  Cream teas are a rare luxury here.  The Tea Room at Port Gamble is very Victorianesque but the hot chocolate is good and we all wore hats that they have there "for the ladies", yes including Mark & Wayne.  We had a lot of fun and some good food!

 

Our most recent outing was April 4, when the sun was shining brilliantly – one of three days when we were deluded that the rain and grey had stopped.  Mark fancied a drive to the top of Snoqualmie Pass to see the mountains and snow sparkling in the sun (an hour there and an hour back).  However, we had not really through that the impact of a lot of snow the previous week and sun was not a good combo.  We got to the top to find westbound traffic was down to one lane for avalance control and there was a two hour delay to get back home!  So much for a quick drive before church.  We decided to continue heading east and go home via Leavenworth, a town built on a Bavarian theme and looking very alpine this time with all the snow on the mountains.  It was indeed a beautiful drive, but very lengthy.  Worse still we ended up in another line of traffic coming home that way which added an hour and a half to our journey!    Ahh…

 

The rain returned with vigour over the Easter weekend.   Monday 13th we had a hail storm, Wednesday 15th we bbq-ed for the first time, and tonight we have sat outside eating our evening meal after a day of absolutely brilliant sunshine!  The trees in the garden are coming into blossom and it really feels like spring is sprung.   Our raccoon has been a lot more evident this winter/spring than recently.   The snow has made the raccoon tracks very obvious (see our first picture) and Claire came nose to nose with one on our drive…she kept a prudent distance and let him/her move (actually limp) away before she ventured any further forward.  Raccoons are generally considered pests and can be quite vicious, but they are still a novelty to us.   Over the weekend, we saw the raccoon sitting having a wash in one of the trees.    As soon as Mark got the camera out it retreated into a crevice in the tree and that was that - we have a photo shy raccoon.

Western Washington Weather

Weather has continued to dominate Washington. After the Christmas snow, it snowed again on Sunday evening. Coming off the I-90 off ramp near our house, our windscreen wipers stopped working and it was impossible to see where we were going! It was compacted snow that were stopping the wipers working so after some "de-snowing" we were on our way again. We feared another "snow day" and our rubbish not being picked up again, but by the morning most of it had disappeared.

Tuesday it blew a Hooley (at least for here) and we lost power twice for a very short time. But by comparison with many in the local area we have been fine. A lot of folks have been flooded by record river levels. See here for pictures. In December 2007, the I-5 south towards Oregon was closed and that happened again this week. It is estimated to cost $4 million a day in lost revenue. Last time, truckers were able to drive an extra 400 miles and go over the mountain passes. Not this year. All the passes were closed due to avalanches and mudslides. For a couple of days, residents of Washington could not travel by road south or east out of the state. The governor has extended the "state of emergency" of many areas which allows residents to claim federal disaster money.

Today we went to see Snoqualmie Falls as there was a fantastic picture of the Falls in the paper this week. Here’s a link to the pictures we took last May. At that time it was the most water we had seen, but today the Falls were even more magnificent! But there was so much spray being blown about that it was impossible to take good pictures! At both of the observations decks we were rained on from the spray!!!!!!! I wanted to walk part of the longer trial but that was closed due to hazardous conditions, which wasn’t surprising as there was a waterfall off to the side gushing water that we had never seen before.

On the way home, we tried to test out the Snoqualmie brew pub but were unable to get it to because the road was closed due to flooding. So we came back via the XXX Root Beer Drive In which we visited in the summer with Sarah and Sam. Here’s the picture we took then. Personally, I really don’t like root beer as I think it tastes like germolene, a British antiseptic pink cream! Mark, on the other hand, loves it. The Drive In is an incredible American diner full of 50s and 60s memorabilia and a gathering place for classic car shows through the year.

Happy New Year!

Before we say farewell to 2008 we have added some more Christmas pictures and put together a list of some of our "best/most memorable" moments of the past year, mainly focused on our travels around the US.

The Best…

Best Bathroom of the Year: The Venetian, Las Vegas – the first time we’ve had a TV in the bathroom

Best New Adventure: Kayaking together around the top of Lake Washington on Claire’s birthday

Best New Place: New York

Best Day Trip: Kennedy Space Center

Best Meals of the Year:

• Benihanas, Los Angeles with Pete – Japanese communal eating, amazing chopping and great food
• Palisades – wedding anniversary – the ahi tuna starter; and with Sarah & Sam
• Anthonys after the Seahawks game with Wayne – the ahi tuna there was just fantastic
• Salmon from Pike Place Market on the BBQ with Wayne, Sarah, Mary & Andrew

Best boat trip: Exceptional whale watching with Capt Jim from San Juan Island…followed by watching the whales from Lime Kiln Point at sunset.

Miscellaneous Memories

One of the most amusing: Mark trying to turn off smoke alarms at Dan’s cabin in the middle of the night…

One of the least amusing: a chicken flying into our windscreen near Winthrop.

One of the most relaxing: Sitting in a natural hot spring in Tecopa, California, staring at the stars.

One of the more bizarre: Claire cooling down by standing on snow at the top of the North Cascades Highway in temperatures of 90-100 degree F.

One that involved a lot of laughing: Claire and her sister, Ali, kayaking on Lake Chelan. We nearly capsized just off the beach from so much laughing!

The hoarsest day: Watching the Mariners (baseball) beat Minnesota by 11 to 6 in the middle of a terrible season. Lots of cheering and yelling.

Most Unexpected Day: Going to Emergency and Claire having her gall bladder removed.

Most historic day: US Presidential Election Night with Jena and Patrick.

Christmas: the "Whitest" we have ever known!

A White Christmas in Seattle?

Snow has been thin on the ground in Western Washington and the ski season delayed….until now!  

 

We were forecast 6in during the night of 12th December, but nothing arrived.  I persuaded Mark to walk round Green Lake on the 13th with lots of others in an illuminated walk…lights not only along the path but on people, dogs and canoes/kayaks.  By the end of the walk it was snowing and by the morning we had a couple of inches at most.  Nevertheless, services ceased (no rubbish collected Monday) and the whole world seemed to have gone mad! 

 

Thursday the six inches did arrive, just as friends from Tadley who are living in Canada for a year, were heading our way.  My eye test got cancelled Friday morning when we could not get the car up the drive (45 degree angle).   Mark & Greg went to find out how to put snow chains on our car and when they had the drive was successfully conquered. Mark has been gung ho since then because he "has chains".  Our bravery only extended to busing it downtown on Friday and going to Bainbridge Island on the ferry Saturday and no further because there was literally a hurricane forecast at Hurricane Ridge.  Snow and severe wind was due to start at 4pm and we arrived back home with supplies and videos at 3.10pm just as the snow started to fall again.   Sunday morning we woke relieved that the wind had never arrived but looking out on a winter wonderland (8 inches on the deck).   We managed a stroll to the lake before more snow started.  Today, Greg & Sue have managed to return to Canada and we have driven to the shops for more supplies.  The temperature is rising so the snow is melting but more is forecast for Tuesday night.   The local children are having lots of fun tobogganing down the street next to us, but since I fell on my derriere somewhat hard on one of the Bainbridge side streets, I am looking at ice with a lot more respect!

 

Hope you enjoy seeing the snowy scenes and the birds who are flocking to our feeder. We’ve also put two pictures at the end of our Christmas tree cutting. These really are "p.s" pictures – pre-snow!!

Update at Eight : A New President!

The polls close in 5 minutes on the West coast. Sen Obama does not yet have the 270 votes to say he has won, but John McCain cannot get the votes to win.  Obama has won Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. As I write this, CNN has declared Obama the next President!!

Election Day in America

Phew! It is finally here, but at the same time if feels very odd. What has been going on for months and millions of dollars is soon to end. What is even more strange, is not being able to vote…Very strange. I heard on the radio this morning that there have been five hour queues (lines) to vote in Florida. Not like that in Tadley! It was also bizarre going to bed last night knowing that the first small town in New Hampshire had already voted. The "election night" special on CNN has started and it’s 4pm on the West Coast!

The pizza and beers are going to come out as we see what happens with our Obama supporting friends, Jena and Patrick. There is no Peter Snow "swingometer" – the British Election Night tradition – but CNN has what it calls "the magic map" which shows what colour the states are and how many votes each state has in the Electoral College. From all the predictions so far, it looks like Obama will win, but…the polls have been proved wrong on several occasions in this election, so as far as I’m concerned it’s not over until the fat lady sings…

CNN here we come….

What were they thinking?

CNN’s Anderson Cooper often has a spot on his show, Anderson Cooper 360, entitled, What were they thinking? After listening to National Public Radio’s program (like BBC Radio 4), The American Life, on Friday night about the whole financial system that has got us into this mess, my reaction was one of anger at the arrogance and greed – What were they thinking? And who was, to use another Anderson Cooper phrase, "Keeping Them Honest"? This American Life explanation was that all the deals were going on in private without transparency and that these guys were so smart, in such large organizations and it was all so sophisticated that it did not need regulation. "Oh good grief!" to quote Charlie Brown. Have we learnt nothing about human nature?

What is so amazing about this situation is the fact that "the system" seems to have the potential to grind to a halt. Last Friday, California said it may not be able to pay its teachers or other state workers without a federal loan – this is the 3rd biggest state in the US. Today, Iceland, says it might go bankrupt. This is all very unnerving.

In the mix of this mess is the US Presidential Election – 29 days away. Last week in the Vice-Presidential debate there were the motherhood and apple pie statements, "Wall Street needs reform, Washington needs reform" but nothing definite about how it might be done.

Nor is either candidate is saying how the US is going to repay the $700 billion it is supposed to be using to pay for "the bail-out". Either the reserve has gone down so there is less rainy day fund or the debt has increased; either way there’s less money to spend on "grand plans" and a lot more belt tightening needed.

I don’t hear either Senator Obama or McCain with a plan, but let’s hope for something more concrete tomorrow in the next Presidential debate.

Wow! What a summer!

Here it is September. We bought Frosty Feast bird food in 70F weather last week and pumpkins are at the grocery store. My head and body want to shout "stop the clock". The summer seems to have whizzed by in ungainly haste and speed.

Ali’s visit

After our East Coast trip at the end of May/beginning of June, we arrived back to a cold and wet Seattle. Ali, my sister, was due to arrive in a couple of weeks. She is a sun lover so we were madly planning "if wet, in village hall" alternatives to her time in Seattle. But, as before, she brought the good weather with her and we did a Washington state road trip north to Mt Baker and east over the North Cascades Highway (one of the most beautiful roads we have found in the state). We stayed again at the Freestone Inn (wonderful); had a serious contretemps with a chicken in which she fared worse than our windscreen, but neither was pretty; and spent two nights in the Campbell’s Resort on the shores of Lake Chelan (temp over 100F), which was very relaxing and pretty hilarious in its moments too (esp Ali and I getting in a kayak). The low point was Uncle Tim’s Pizzeria in Manson…to say it was the worst service we have had since we arrived in the US is to put all other service in a different category. No tip for them.

Unfortunately, in the midst of Ali’s holiday, Mark got diagnosed with a herniated disk in his neck so that put paid to any further longer trips because he was in agony in the car and I still did not have the stamina after my gall bladder op to drive that long without getting in pain myself!! What a pair of crocks we have felt.  Mark was on strong narcotics for five weeks and I had to drive him everywhere.  The good news is that he is loads better now and it looks like he has avoided having an operation himself. We have been extremely glad of our excellent health insurance and conscious that without it the health situations we have found ourselves in would have been another degree of stressful.

Ali and I did make a trip to Mt Rainier together which was beautiful as ever. We stopped at one of the ubiquitous espresso huts for a cool coffee drink on the way home. As often happens, the lady serving me said "I love your accent". I replied "But it’s never got me a discount!" To which she said she would be the first and gave me a free drink. So, if you’re in Enumclaw, you should frequent, Mt Rainier Espresso, for the good drinks, nice service to Brits and for the fantastic view they have.

If you want to see the pictures of Ali’s time here, click here.

Visitors and US culture

Since Ali came we have had a fair stream of other visitors: Denise, our friend from the other side of the state; Wayne and Sarah twice (once with Sarah’s sister and her family, the other time for Seafair); Pete and Helen’s daughter, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Sam. Various folks from Microsoft in the UK have also come for dinner.   Wayne came down a third time on his own to join Mark at one of the pre-season games for the Seahawks (US football) on the hottest weekend of the year: they had "a blast".

UK visitors are always a time for reflection on US culture…when we remember how many shops, restaurants and coffee shops we have here. On Mercer Island, with a population of approx 22,000, there are 5 Starbucks (one a drive-thru), 2 Tullys and an espresso hut! Go to one of the poor areas of Seattle and it is a latte-free zone. We have to remind folks of the size of the portions (huge), encourage them to try the seafood (fantastic) and warn them of the adverts for medical treatments – it was the adverts for herpes cures and "ED" that had Ali with raised eyebrows.

Just as we think we’re just about used to the culture, something odd happens. Today I’ve said two "English" things which draw a blank stare. I also squeezed through a space in the traffic to turn left and found myself driving on the left. Heck! Some things are more hardwired than you know. It was only at the junction I realized. (You’ll guess I met no oncoming traffic).

Leisure

At the beginning of August, I started a series of kayak lessons which had been one of my objectives for this year, which got rather scuppered by abdominal surgery. Mark had wanted to learn too but he avoided it because of his neck until last week when we were at home for a week and we went out in a double kayak together on Lake Union. The fact that he was up to that was another great step forward.

We haven’t made it to the Grand Canyon as we had hoped….When Mark got his diagnosis planning a road trip suddenly looked rather unwise so we’ve had the last two weeks off much more local to home.  The first week we were in the San Juans at the Harrison House Suites in Friday Harbour for the 3^rd time and had a great time. The whale watching was fantastic. We could see whales in every direction on the trip we took. There was spy hopping (nose out of the water), tail flaps, breaching (jumping out of the water) and whales coming under the boat. Three hours later we saw them from the shore at sunset. What a perfect day.  Click here to see August/September pictures on this website, here for higher resolution pictures of the whales only, hosted on Flickr, and here for some panoramas. Last week we were on, what is called here, a "staycation".  We slept, chilled, went to see Phantom of the Opera, treated ourselves to some very nice seats at the baseball (Mariners lost), went to the art museum, ate out, kayaked etc.  All in all, good. 

Politics

So as the nights draw in and the guests have gone, we are back watching CNN with less than 50 days until Election Day. We missed most of the Democratic National Convention but heard Obama’s acceptance speech, which did feel historic. As we drove around in the San Juans, we listed to the Republican Convention the following week. Unlike the party conferences in the UK, the Conventions felt little about policy but all about spin. The Republican’s talked up their guy and gal (very clever, me thinks) and talked down their opponent, giving their supporters so-called "red meat" about Sen Obama. It was when the floor got into chanting "drill baby drill" that I really groaned.

It is also sobering to me that when Mark and I both talked about the candidates we really felt we know little about what they are going to do. Our synopsis of both was all around personality:

• Obama: historic nomination, wants change, focus on healthcare and bringing the troops out of Iraq, said he would accept public finances for the election and when he realised he was pulling in so much money changed his mind. VP choice: Biden: foreign policy experience to plug that gap and Catholic to appeal to that base.
• McCain: heroic veteran, foreign policy experience, wants to drill off the US coast to stop gas hitting $5 a gallon, will be happy to be in Iraq 100 years. Palin: women from Evangelical base, gun loving, hunts, fishes, and executive experience.

 

Last week, the hoo-ha was about a comment Obama made saying a pig with lipstick is still a pig. McCain’s side this was a sexist comment aimed at Palin. Oh good grief! Let’s talk about the real issues, and the options ahead of us, instead of sound bites. After all, there is plenty to talk about. I’m sure the candidates are saying relevant stuff, but their views are almost impossible to hear over the talking heads from both sides on each show, who talk when the other is talking. Argh! Get Jeremy Paxman on them, that’s what I say.*

* To be educated in Paxmanesque, you should see this Best of Paxman video.

An Englishman (and Woman) in New York…Orlando and Miami

May was very quiet in the Wilson-Thomas household after Claire’s unexpected gall bladder operation at the end of April. We had an outing to Snoqualmie Falls a few weekends ago to see the Falls full of snow melt. They looked spectacular.

New York

Business and pleasure took us to the East Coast at the end of May for 10 days. Neither of us had visited New York before so this was a taster visit and we loved it! More like London than Seattle, we appreciated the architecture (Grand Central Station was indeed grand), saw lots of brick buildings, churches and some graveyards, rode the subway, and did lots of tourist things too, walking many blocks. The view from our hotel, the UN Millennium Plaza, was stunning.

The first evening we walked up to Times Square, named after the New York Times building. It was visually stunning – not really beautiful but an experience! Lots of large ads, flashing lights, stretch limos, bustling people, huge shops. On Saturday 30^th, we did two bus tours – one in the pouring rain (!) – going past the really expensive shops, up to Harlem, past Central Park, the Empire State Building and down to the Financial District and Wall Street.

Our lunchtime spot was the Carnegie Deli – never had we seen such sandwiches so full of meat. To give you a scale of things, the W-Ts shared a hot pastrami sandwich and portion of New York cheesecake (mouthwatering). We were surprised at the arrangements: rows of tables with everyone sitting (extremely) close together and found the same at the Blue Note Jazz Club. Maybe this is a reflection of how much is packed into Manhattan. It is 23 sq miles, with 1.6 million residents. Mercer Island is about 13 sq miles with approx 22,000 residents.

History

I had known New York had originally been called New Amsterdam. It was Charles II who had changed the name for his brother, the Duke of York in 1664. I did not know that Wall Street was so called because the Dutch built a Wall to keep the British out! I had also not known that NY served as the US capital between 1780 and 1790.

9/11

New York’s most recent history is dominated by "9/11". We came across one of the fire stations that had served that day just off Times Square on Friday evening with the fire engines on display. On Saturday the bus tour made us realize how little room there is at the bottom of Manhattan. There were few places to go when the towers fell down. On Sunday we returned to Wall Street before doing a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty. We visited St Paul’s Chapel, modeled on St Martin in the Field Trafalgar Square, and the church attended by George Washington when he was President. The church was used as a mission centre after 9/11 as it is right next door to Ground Zero, but undamaged by the blast. It was very moving and demonstrated the church at its best. Ground Zero itself was hard to comprehend as it is the scene of much building for the new World Trade Centre, but it’s a big hole. We had forgotten how much taller the towers were compared to the surrounding buildings, which seemed huge, until we saw a newspaper cutting pinned to a wall, opposite an impressive bronze dedicated to the firemen who lost their lives. It was a somber moment. We were glad we had come to the spot that has so influenced US foreign policy and remembered that many thousands – military and civilian – have lost their lives since 2001.

Our trip to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island was good but involved A LOT of queueing: one security line to get on the boat, another more comprehensive one to get into the monument itself, including an air puffer testing you for chemical explosives (no repeat of 9/11 here). If you had not bought a ticket a week in advance you could not go into the monument. After climbing the several hundred steps, (we could not face the queue for the lift) the view back to the city was spectacular but in hindsight we felt it had been a lot of effort and after another long line to get back on the boat, we did not have the energy to get off at Ellis Island, the "welcoming" point for immigrants in the 19^th century and early 20^th century.

Sunday evening was finished with a trip to the top of the Rockefeller Centre to look out over New York. Much like Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, we were the last ones up the Top of the Rock – except we were looking at the Empire State Building, not actually up it. Top of the Rock was recommended by the tour guides and books and we were not disappointed.

Our trip to New York had avoided shopping until Monday morning when we dashed into Bloomingdales; only after the doorman welcomed us in. Our kind of shop. $15 later we left hoping to return (when our bank balance has recovered from NY prices); and with enough time for another trip to the Carnegie Deli (minus cheesecake) before heading for the airport.

Orlando

After the compactness of New York, Orlando in Florida, the most south easterly state was a stark contrast: flat and spread out. And hot: Florida is the "sunshine state". We stayed at the Crown Plaza on International Drive. Claire had our own private pool as few other guests made use of it. Mark attended Microsoft’s Tech Ed conference. Thursday evening we went to the Conference Party at the Universal Studios theme park. It was a good evening but reminded us of Las Vegas – all fake; attending in the heat of the day with thousands of others seemed very unattractive. Friday evening we drove away from the theme park area to "downtown" Orlando, which was pleasant and relatively quiet. We ate in the old Station in a "historic Street" which reminded us of New Orleans. We sat by a nice lake with trees growing in the water.

Saturday we spent the whole day at the Kennedy Space Centre, an hour’s drive from Orlando. Quite spectacular. We paid the extra for the NASA Up Close tour and it was totally worth it. We went on the Space Shuttle Experience – a simulation of going into orbit, out to the launch and landing sites, saw a Saturn V rocket and saw the capsule for the new Ares rocket for the Constellation program that aims to have men on the moon again by 2020. I came away with three reflections: a) the earth and the heavens are the Lords and everything in them; b) don’t give up on being adventurous, even when my slippers and reclining chair seem to hold me tightly in their grasp; c) if the US can develop such amazing technology to get into space, there should be the ability to develop more fuel efficient vehicles and ways to tackle climate change….

Miami

Absorbed by all these thoughts we drove 4hrs to Miami Beach, staying in the art deco hotel called The Hotel. Highly recommended, especially the pool on the roof from which you can see the Ocean. We enjoyed al fresco dining on Ocean Drive watching a man fascinating tourists with a snake and a biker with a convincing model of a female passenger!

Sunday we drove part way down the Florida Keys, a spit of land at the bottom of Florida, where in places you can see the sea on both sides of you! We ate beside mangrove swamps, Claire swam at the Coral Reef Park and we stuck our nose into the southern part of the Everglades National Park on our way back to Miami. Our trip ended Monday in the hot sun on the sand of Miami Beach, fixing our thoughts on this moment as we returned over 7,500 miles later to rainy Seattle, cooler by 40°F!