Vancouver - Gastown Area

While in Vancouver we stayed quite near the Cruise Terminal, called Canada Place.  That location enabled us to walk to some other sections of the city.   Our dinner explorations one evening took us to the Gastown section of Vancouver.   It is marked by gaslights and is the area of Vancouver that was settled first.   The person who gets some of the credit for this is "Gassy Jack", the owner of a bar ......In 1867 he established a "saloon" that became popular with the miners and adventurers who had come to the area.....

Statue of Gassy Jack

Steam Clock in Gastown

Upscale Shopping in Gastown

Gastown's Flatiron Building

This building in the Gastown area is reminiscent of the famous Flatiron Building in NYC..... and for good reason.... both were built in the same era to maximize space on irregular parcels of land as their respective cities were developing..... Vancouver actually has several triangular shaped buildings, but this was the only one we saw up close.

Scenic Train Ride - Denali to Whittier

In order to get to our cruise ship in Whittier we rode the train right out of the Denali area.... it was a double decker train with huge domed top to enable scenery watching..... the upper area was for seating and the lower area housed a dining car..... our seats were superb.... the Carrs and we were seated opposite one another on comfortable bench seating with a table in between us....The bartender was near our spot and the rest of the seats (besides one other table like ours) were normal front facing railway seats.... we felt very lucky.... perhaps our early booking helped us get these seats.....

Train Station in Denali 

View from the Domed Railroad Car

View of the front of our train......

John and I had breakfast in the dining car and found it to be no more expensive than any other restaurants we had been to in Alaska.... so not cheap!  It was a good way to use some of the time on the train.....  The photo above is taken from a picture taking landing that is provided between the cars.... that platform allowed us to get some fresh air and to view the scenery directly, without the glass of the windows....

What you unfortunately do NOT see in this collection of photos are any views of Denali, the mountain..... our weather was cloudy the entire trip.... there were several viewing spots along the way where, had it been clear weather, we would have seen Denali ...... Each rail car had a "tour guide" who gave a narration as we were traveling.... If anyone spotted wildlife, the train definitely slowed to allow viewing and photography..... It is a LONG ride between these two locations and the cloudy weather did not enhance the view..... We are glad we got to see some of inland Alaska, but 9 hours in the train was about 6 hours too long!   We knew in advance it would be a long ride, the other option is a bus.....Once the cruise ship was near, members of the Princess staff boarded the train and our room keys were given out on the train.... that certainly made our arrival to the ship EASY and very welcome.

Glacier Bay

Beautiful weather for viewing Glacier Bay

The map shows the LARGE area that is Glacier Bay.... A National Park

From this vantage point we could HEAR the calving (breaking off of big chunks of ice) and SEE them as well....

We knew it was going to be a GREAT day when it began with this amazing rainbow.....

John with his trusty binoculars......

 This ship had on board a wonderful naturalist who gave MANY talks during the course of our visit to Alaska.... prior to seeing glaciers, we had a wonderful lecture that was laced with humor and definitely on OUR level..... it allowed us to KNOW what we were looking at all day while we were in Glacier Bay..... The naturalist, Gloeta, was also providing commentary for several hours  as the ship moved throughout the bay area.......Also, the captain does a great job of making sure that the ship is positioned in different ways for you to see the glaciers..... you can stay in your cabin if you have a good view (you can hear the commentary on the TV) or you can join others outdoors for great views....

A picture postcard view.......

With binoculars it was easy to spot sea lions frolicking on the ice......

According to the talk by the naturalist on board, the ice sheets we are seeing here once reached to the upper Midwest of the USA...John Muir, the conservationist visited here in 1879.... his observations showed that the glaciers had retreated more than 40 miles up the bay since the visit by Captain George Vancouver in 1750.  Today that visit must go 65 miles up the bay to view the glaciers.  This National Park MUST be visited by water arrival.... Once at the visitor center in Gustavus transportation can be obtained.... OR you can visit by cruise ship, as we did.... Access to the cruise ships is timed and limited.

Hubbard Glacier

 Our coldest part of the whole cruise was our visit to Hubbard Glacier....We arrived in the late afternoon and the boat got as close as possible.... it was difficult to see because of the fog but it was still amazing....

Florida Girl Bundled Up

Plenty of Icebergs

At the furthest point of our cruise through Yakutat Bay.... the Hubbard Glacier......

John, finally too cold to stay outside... still a great view....

Denali Princess Lodge

We left Fairbanks and had a "coach" ride to Denali..... bus transportation is a necessity to cover the vast area of Alaska.....

One of MANY carved bears around the lodge.....

The weather has been amazing.......

Vancouver - Grouse Mountain

From the cruise ship area there are all sorts of buses that take you on tours.... One of them is a free shuttle to Grouse Mountain.... Of course, it is only "free" if you buy a ticket to the rides at the mountain..... But we were game for trying it..... highly recommended by a friend.....A short bus ride out of town and we're here.... This gondola sky ride takes you to where the rest of the activities are .....

Beautiful View from the Gondola

Deer just wandering around the mountain top......

We watched a short movie about the two bears who were recuperating but now thriving in their 5 acre enclosure.....it includes forest, streams and a small area for us to view them.....

This view of the bears was taken from the chair lift.......

One show on the mountain is a somewhat corny lumberjack performance....the skills of the participants were undeniable...

We ride even higher up on a ski lift...on the ride we had great views of the scenery and of the hang gliders...

Vancouver - Granville Market

Next stop on our city tour was this huge market..... besides the main market area there were lots of artists in quirky buildings surrounding the market...

Some fruits and vegetables we did not recognize... but they were interesting....

Stacked to Perfection!

Pasta Varieties

Not sure how this can be a delicacy... looks pretty gross to me!

Vancouver - Stanley Park

We were JUST off the ship when we were picked up for a tour of the city... got to see enough that we know we'd love to stay longer....

View of the City Behind our Group.....

Totem Area in Stanley Park

Along the way many excellent views....