Our Alaska Vacation

-
Whew, what a vacation -- Trains, taxi cabs, a ship, a floatplane, lots of buses, and then more trains and airplanes! This Alaska cruise and vacation is something John and I have been planning for a long time. It started on Thursday, September 2, 2010. We got up early and had Hayley drop us off at the Pedley Metrolink Station. We took the Metrolink into Los Angeles' Union Station. We got our Amtrak tickets and then walked across the street to have breakfast at Phillippe's.

Back on the train, everything was great. Because we upgraded our tickets to include a sleeper compartment, we were able to spend a lot of time in "The Parlor Car". As a part of our package,
we also got all three meals a day in the 1st Class Dining Car. Going to meals for the two days it took us to get from Los Angeles to Seattle was the highlights of our days.

The scenery was fantastic all along the way -- from the city to the seaside of Central California and then into the mountains and forests, we're both glad we took the train rather than flew to board our cruise. (Although from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, we had to take the Amtrak bus -- since the train doesn't go all the way up.)



Vancouver is a beautiful and fun city. We walked around the harbor area around our hotel and then took a bus tour through the entire city. We "Yelped" and found a great place, "The Twisted Fork" and we not at all disappointed in our absolutely delicious brunch (at 3 pm) on Saturday afternoon (we slept in).

More later.....of the rest of our trip....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Practical Jokes

-
Image
Imagine hearing your doorbell ring at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning to find a stranger asking, in broken English, "Will you take 10 bucks for the washer?" You stare blankly at the stranger wondering what on earth he's talking about! But, as you gaze beyond this little man and his family, you see that your lawn is covered in old appliances, lamps, clothes, shoes, and lawn tools. There's a "For Sale, CHEAP" sign on your family van and there are several other people milling about your front yard looking at "stuff" placed all over the lawn and driveway. "What the heck?" You're a victim of a Guerrilla Garage Sale The Eighties were great years for practical jokes. John and I were in our 20s, had four very good and pretty easy going little kids, had great fun friends and a great neighbor and babysitter in Gina (Michelle) Mosteller, just across the street. Our friends, the Abrahamsons and Stefans, both now living in Utah, helped us enjoy
Read more

Long Spring Cruise to Mexico, Through the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, and Florida

-
Image
This is the Life..... I'm just about a year late in getting this blog up.   Early 2017 found me happily retired and planning adventure after adventure.  As we were planning our trip to China (in March and early April), I noticed a fantastic deal on a cruise through the Panama Canal with one of our favorite cruise companies, Holland America.  (Yes, its for people like us who don't stay up late partying and like some of the more "genteel" entertainments -- cooking classes, academic lectures and classical music.)   Anyway, the deal was so good, that I thought, "heck, why not?" and I booked our 20 day cruise and added an extra few days on our own in the Florida Keys since we landed in Ft. Lauderdale and who knows when we'll be there together again. So, we left in late April for almost a month away from home.  (Our front yard sprinklers broke while we were gone -- so we had quite a lawn regeneration project once we got home....we now ha
Read more

Week 4 – Adventures in Dining Out…

-
Image
We love eating out and, like most people, we visit a lot of chain restau rants like Red Robin, Red Lobster (some study must have shown that using the word “red” in a name is a good t hing), Lucille’s, Buca di Beppo, Lone Star, CPK, Panera and, my favorites, PF Chang (& Pei Wei). And that’s not even going into the fast food chains we frequent, Taco Bell, El Pol lo Loco, Wendy’s and McDonalds (for ice cream cones). One thing I can think of about these places is they’re goo d but not r eall y great or outstanding. But you know what to expect—the food and service is predictable. But, our family likes to be adventure eaters – and for us, that means many things like buying pretty much anything from street vendors and food trucks -- Mexican fruit ice bars, tacos, barbeque as well as having food and drink challenges at family get togethers (the more disgusting, the better). Part of our adventures in dining means trying as many locally owned places/joints as we can. With that, we’ve come
Read more