Epic Mickey

September 21st, 2011 by Arthur

Melissa & I were really excited about playing through Epic Mickey. After all, how much more awesome could you get than combining a romp through old Disney animation archives using paint & thinner to navigate your way through the world? Alas, this really should have been titled “Mickey’s Epic Fail.” Let me count the ways.

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Out in the middle of nowhere

May 30th, 2011 by Arthur

These pictures were taken somewhere between Ketchikan, Alaska and Vancouver, British Columbia among the many islands making up the northwest coast.

Tiny lighthouse

A small village on one of the islands.

Towel Peacock

Ketchikan, Alaska

May 29th, 2011 by Arthur

Kayakers next to the airport


We didn’t book any activities in Ketchikan, so we strolled around the town. The strolling didn’t take too long; it’s not a very big town. We arrived about lunch time; as we were sailing past the airport, we passed this group of kayakers. The air was chilly, and I can’t imagine the water was all that warm either. Hopefully they stayed dry.

Ketchikan, Alaska

Floatpane landing in the Tongass Narrows

Tongass Narrows, Ketchikan’s seafaring link to the world

Unusual sunny evening snapshot

Towel Ray

Juneau, Alaska

May 28th, 2011 by Arthur

Today’s agenda: a visit to the Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching.

Mendenhall Glacier

Here we are, standing at the edge of the lake.

Mendenhall Glacier and lake

There she blows!


On to the whales! We boarded a large sea-worthy pontoon boat in Auke Bay. It was a double-decker, with an enclosed climate controlled lower deck (which we stayed in), and a partially open upper deck for people who like to be cold. The crew consisted of the boat captain and a naturalist, among others. The naturalist provided most of the commentary and identification, while the captain would break in over the PA with additional sightings that were spotted on the upper deck. They worked well as a team to make sure everyone had a chance to see all the wildlife.

There were plenty of tails on this outing.

Did you know that whales sleep on the surface of the water? When this pair were spotted, they were motionless on the water. Eventually the boat disturbed them and they moved, but we passed by them sleeping again on the way back to the dock. The captain chimed in that during they day it’s not a big deal to avoid them (vessels are not allowed to operate too close to whales), however night-time is a different story. You can’t see them in the dark, and they’re big enough to ruin your night as a boat captain.

Sleeping whales

Two whales surfacing at once

Sea lions hanging out


Steller sea lions are common in this area. On our way out of the bay, we passed by this buoy that the sea lions were using for their own entertainment.

This huge gathering of sea lions is called a “haul out.” We stopped and drifted in front of them for several minutes to watch them sleeping and playing on the rocks.

Huge Steller sea lion haul-out

Bald Eagles

We were running behind on our whale watching trip, but the captain and some upper-deck passengers spotted a whale behind us as we were speeding back to the docks. He would have kept going, except that the whale started slapping the water. Apparently, it is quite rare for them to spot a whale trying to stun some fish, so the captain stopped and turned us around to watch for a minute. I think he said something to the effect of “we can be late for this.”

There's monkey business afoot.

See views of the Juneau harbor.

White Pass & Yukon Railroad

May 27th, 2011 by Arthur

Today’s stop is Skagway, Alaska. We opted for a ride on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, connecting in Fraser, British Columbia to more touristy stuff by bus.

This old steam powered snow plow is still operational, though it is generally used for demonstrations since the tourist season normally does not have snow on the tracks.

The railroad was built during the gold rush and was in regular service until the 1990s, when the construction of a parallel highway made it no longer cost effective compared to trucking freight to the Skagway docks. Now it runs seasonally for tourists, although it appears that the current incarnation of the WP&YR company is trying to get back in to regular service again.

Skagway in the distance as we ride up into the mountains.

Rail siding

This is the first stop, where a group of hikers was dropped off. The railroad has some maintenance equipment parked out here as well.

Mid-elevation mountainside
As you climb through the mountains, the vegetation changes dramatically. Down at sea level are thick forests. Here in the middle elevations, the trees start to thin out. At the top of the picture, you can see the highest parts of the forest, where the full grown trees are under four feet tall. It’s bizarre.

We disembarked in Fraser, British Columbia, which is a small town consisting of a guardhouse for the Canadian immigration and customs officials, their barracks, and maintenance buildings. Population 12, from what we heard. The entire town is hidden behind the train car in the next picture.

Our train car parked at our destination, Fraser, British Columbia.

Looking south from Fraser, British Columbia

From here, we transferred to a bus, which took us further in to Canada to the Yukon Suspension Bridge. It’s a purpose-built tourist venue, however it is a very well done facility. In addition to the views high above the Tutshi River, it has some museum displays, and a nice relief map of the entire Yukon to put everything in perspective. In these pictures, you can see the class 5 rapids of the Tutshi River as it flows under the bridge. The bridge staff say that they occasionally see a group rafting or kayaking down the river, and frequently not everyone is on-board their vessel. Usually not by choice. The deep canyon pretty much rules out assistance from above; once you’re on the river, you’re committed, and there’s only one way out.

Tutshi River, looking upstream.

Tutshi River, looking downstream

It's a beautiful day! Slightly cool, wide open skies. An anomaly in the local weather.

By way of comparison, the feel above this canyon is completely different from that of Lynn Canyon, which we saw back in Vancouver. While Lynn Canyon was peaceful, with a pleasant background of waterfalls (never mind the abundance of signs warning of extreme danger due to the falls), the Tutshi is a raging monster.

That’s not wind noise. That’s the water, 57 feet below.

Roadside pull-out in British Columbia

Next up, back to the United States and a study in paranoia. Fraser was a guard house. Coming back to the US, the CBP checkpoint is right on the border and is built up like a small fort. I feel so safe now!

Suspension bridge

Captain William Moore Bridge


The Klondike Highway follows a similar path as the railroad, only on the opposite side of the canyon. We stopped at a photo spot for the Captain William Moore Bridge, a one-sided suspension bridge. The creek it spans is actually a fault line, so the one-sided design allows the unanchored side of the bridge to slide on the shifting ground.



The Klondike Highway

Broadway Street: This is Skagway, Alaska. Adjacent are a couple of residential streets, and that's it.

More panoramic views from the harbor

Tracy Arm, Alaska

May 26th, 2011 by Arthur

Tracy Arm, unlike most cruise destinations, is not a port. It is a fjord in the mountains that provides access to a huge glacier. If you’re like me, you need a hint on where this place is:

Entrance to Tracy Arm from Holkham Bay

The entrance to this spectacular piece of Earth is from Holkham Bay.

Birds perched on an iceberg
Nearly every iceberg in the first stretch is dotted with little birds. As we get past the first turn, the bird population disappears. I assume that there is not much for them to eat further up the arm, not to mention the walls are mountains between 4,000 and 7,500 feet tall. See for yourself; if you zoom in really close in Google maps, the terrain view shows elevation lines.

Throughout Tracy Arm are gorges and waterfalls like these from the melting snow.

Sawyer glacier in the background, around the last point.

Almost there!

After about three hours of very slow and deliberate navigation through the fjord, the forestry service official on-board stopped our progress. Apparently there is a seal population at the base of the glacier, and ships are not permitted to get too close to avoid disturbing their nests. Fortunately, we were close enough to see around the corner to the end of the glacier, even though I coud not see the seals that were keeping us at bay.

Close up of Sawyer glacier

This is the maximum zoom for our camera. All of the glaciers we saw had this same blue hue.

Sea Lion on an iceberg

While we were stopped at the glacier, we saw a number a sea lions climbing around on the icebergs.

This is the right side of the fjord, as we sat near the glacier.

Melissa, Pluto, and Arthur

On our way back down to our room, we posed for a picture with Pluto.


We were officially cold after standing on deck to get a good all around view of the trip up Tracy Arm. It wasn’t terribly cold, but at each turn the wind alternated between being blocked by the mountains to being funneled between the mountains. Most everyone, including the crew, were wearing insulated windbreakers. After seeing the end of Tracy Arm, it was time to head for warmer spaces and have a warm beverage and a snack.

See a few more pictures here

Inside Passage

May 25th, 2011 by Arthur

Our itinerary took the inside passage to Alaska, weaving among the myriad islands that make up the western coast of Canada. Here is one of the scenes in one of the many bays we passed through:

Inside Passage, BC, Canada


In one of these bays was some kind of creature. It’s no fish, because it kept a nose poked out of the water the whole time we could see it, but we never did see enough of it to figure out what animal it was.

What are you?


Later on, in the many tiny passages between the islands, the scene looked more like this — tall mountains on both sides of the ship in narrow channels.

Inside Passage, BC, Canada

Enjoy the peaceful journey (video)

Embarkation day

May 24th, 2011 by Arthur

Disney Wonder, stateroom 6528


It’s embarkation day on the Disney Wonder! We splurged for the balcony room to ensure we would have room to see the scenery without worrying about finding a good spot up on deck.



Vancouver's skyline as we sail away

Floatplane threading the needle between the Carnival ship ahead of us and the Disney Wonder. Did I mention this is a busy harbor yesterday?

Modern-looking totem watching the harbor entrace on the shore of North Vancouver.

A bunny!

See more views of Vancouver from Canada Place.

Lynn Canyon

May 23rd, 2011 by Arthur

Japadogs: Okonomi (top), Kobe (bottom)


For our Victoria Day outing, we headed toward Lynn Canyon. We were sidetracked along the way by the need for lunch, and we decided to try the Japadog cart on Burrard at Pender. Japadog is mostly hot dog carts (although there is one store that we found), and each cart serves a different variety of hot dogs with Japanese-inspired toppings. Melissa ordered the Okonomi, a pork sausage with cabbage, Japanese BBQ sauce, and Bonito flakes. I chose the Kobe dog, a Kobe beef sausage topped with Japanese BBQ sauce and Maple leaf wasabi flakes. Both were very good, and as with dinner last night, not for everyone.

2010 Olympic Cauldron


We detoured around the Vancouver Convention Center to have a look around the harbor, and to see the cauldron from the 2010 Olympics. There were two cauldrons — the one in the arena that malfunctioned in the opening ceremony, and this one which burned for the duration of the games. This one is much smaller than I expected. It is a pretty neat piece of sculpture, but there’s no way it could rain down Olympic spirit over the whole city; it is not very tall and it is at ground level. I was standing at the end of this open area, on a platform overlooking the harbor which is about the same height as the base of the sculpture. You can see that the whole area is surrounded by skyscrapers and other buildings. However, it is a cool work of art. There is a pool underneath (and a laser fence to detect miscreants jumping in) to reflect the undersides of the translucent arms rising up. The arms are lit internally by a blue spotlight at each base. We didn’t come back to see it at night, but I do remember the very cool glow it gave off in the TV footage last year.

As we walked around the harbor, we watched perhaps a dozen or so floatplanes take off and land from the old terminal next to the convention center. Behind the convention center is a new terminal under construction, with a number of signs along the walking path describing how this will be the newest, greenest, safest, and a few other superlatives, floatplane terminal in the world. They serve a ton of flights to and from Alaska. We saw a number of these planes later during our cruise, running the passages between the mountains to get to and from the various coastal towns. The harbor itself is a busy place, with planes buzzing around in and over the water, ships underway from the industrial ports, recreational boats, and the Seabus ferry all navigating around each other.

Speaking of the Seabus, it is a large pedestrian ferry that carries people from the Vancouver waterfront station adjacent to the convention center, across to the major transit hub in North Vancouver. We crossed and connected to the local bus that runs up to the Lynn Canyon park. It’s claim to fame is the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, which according to most reviews and locals, is a better sight than the commercial tourist trap at the Capilano suspension bridge, crossing another canyon located a mile or two west of Lynn Canyon. As an added bonus, the Lynn Canyon park is free admission!

At the trailhead is a very nice cafe, serving real food and snacks. It also has an observation level, which we didn’t go up to. Across from the cafe is a picnic area with a big map, educational displays, and safety displays. They are very emphatic that you need to stay on the paths and behind any fences. There are several horror stories on the sign of people doing stupid things and dying because of it in this canyon. One of them was some guy that got trapped in the pool under a waterfall, and according to the sign, couldn’t be retrieved, not rescued, for several days until the flow let up. It didn’t have a picture to show what was left of the guy after churning against the rocks all that time.

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge

The suspension bridge is modern and sturdy. Even with big crowds and kids hopping across, it’s pretty stable. The view is fabulous (see below), and everywhere in the park you can hear the sound of rushing water across the many waterfalls in the canyon.

The view from the suspension bridge is spectacular.

I'm not dead!


We walked the shorter loop around the south end of the canyon. Most of the park is a tropical rainforest; the tree canopy is thick, the air cool and still. Shortly after crossing the suspension bridge, we found this huge tree stump that wasn’t quite dead yet — that’s a much younger branch growing out of the top of the stump.

Stream crossing


Periodically, the trail crosses a smaller trickle of water coming down the mountain. In most of these spots, a small wooden bridge crosses the stream, sparing you from navigating across any treacherous algae-covered rocks. Here we stopped at one of the larger streams, and you can make out the water flowing through the rocks with some careful study. There were a number of places where you could see the trail washing out, or where the trail was relocated after washing out.

The southern end of the loop we took crossed back over the main creek on a much narrower bridge closer to the ground. While not as dramatic as the suspension bridge high in the air, the landscape here was more interesting. The water flows down into this large pool on one side of the bridge and out through more rapids on the other side.

South end of Lynn Canyon, upstream

South end of Lynn Canyon, downstream

By the time we finished wandering around Lynn Canyon and hitched a ride on the bus, seabus, and skytrain over to Chinatown, it was already in to the evening hours. Everything had closed up shop early due to the holiday, so we couldn’t see much beyond a bunch of non-English storefronts.

Granville Island

May 22nd, 2011 by Arthur

Today’s touristing started with a walk down to Granville Island. The island is most famous for its public market. We went in expecting fresh groceries, but that’s only the beginning. Among the food stalls is a flower market; from there you move on to a variety of cooked & packaged food vendors. In the back, facing the waterfront, is a seating area with various art vendors around it. We spent a while chatting with one of the artists who steered us to the Sandbar restaurant for lunch. The market was packed, with narrow passages and people everywhere. We didn’t ask if this was a normal crowd, but I would guess it was a little busier than normal since this is a holiday weekend.

Outside the gelato shop, this plant was growing out of the dock on Granville Island.


After lunch, we wandered through many of the shops. We looked in a few and said, hmmm, that’s expensive. On our way out, we stopped at the Granville Island gelato shop for a snack, staffed by a pair of squeaky Asian girls. It was like a stereotype lifted straight out of a Japanese video game. While we ate a cup of gelato, Melissa noticed the “London Fog” on the drink menu. Unlike the alcoholic drink, this one is Earl Grey tea, milk, and almond syrup. It’s great.

Vancouver, seen from the north shore of Granville Island

Dinner was at Guu, a brief walk behind our hotel. It’s a cross between a busy diner and a Japanese restaurant — the menu is completely Asian, but the place is loud, incredibly busy, and very good. It’s also not for boring old American palates; picky eaters need not apply here. The interior of this location is a long, narrow area with an open kitchen on one side. We were seated at the kitchen bar, and had a great view of the chefs cooking up a storm. The restaurant was packed the whole time we were there, so we were able to get a good look at all the food being served. Everything looked great.