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, paid to have our luggage stored, 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).
Granville Island at Sunset
Where we ate breakfast near our hotel…crepes cooked by a the French owner.
Our Holland America Cruise Ship was amazing. We enjoyed the classical music quartet of talented and beautiful young women who played every night. We like hanging out in the library and taking advantage of the hot tubs and saunas.
One of our most memorable shore excursions was taking a pontoon plane to a high fjord. There were little cabins in the woods surrounding the fjord and it sparked my imagination to think about how peaceful it would be to rent one and be dropped off by plane (with a week or two of supplies) and enjoying some true solitude before being picked up again.
