We completed our travel in Vancouver, British Columbia where we were joined by our dear son, David, and his beautiful wife, Li Jie. We found it to be much like Seattle, only bigger. It had a bit of a European feel to it but in a rustic way. We explored China town which was a bit faded but it is undergoing a slow renewal. We saw the Canadian's night of a firework competition between Canada, Taiwan, and Ireland. Amazing! We walked miles and miles and ate our fill of what Vancouver had to offer. A wonderful visit.
An adventure of a life time in one of North America's final frontiers; Alaska. A place where you find a smorgasbord of wildlife coexisting, or at least living on the borders, of human presence. We found bears at our lodge, eagles floating by our ship on ice "growlers", or mini icebergs, moose at the edges of mountain rivers, salmon literally fighting their way up streams to spawn, sled dogs, and caribou prancing down gravel roads. The freshest seafood, meat, and colossal vegetables are at markets and served up at every restaurant. It appears the twenty hour dog days of the Alaskan summer make for veggies worthy of the prehistoric woolly mammoth.
We were impressed with the amount of beautiful art work that was in every shop and gallery. We found ulus which are styled after ulus of old. They are a curved bladed knife used in food preparation with the better ones having handles made from sun bleached moose and caribou antlers. Gorgeous jewelry made from Alaska's state stone of jade is everywhere. Hand dyed scarves and yarn, hand woven wraps and linens, and baskets made by artisans abound.
We experienced sunny warm weather and even a few snow flakes. We saw mountains, valleys, plains, pickled forests, mudflats, an ocean, rivers and streams. It was a visual feast at every turn. We road in taxis, buses, trains, helicopters, float planes, and a ship.
So that's a wrap for this adventure; Alaska, 2013. Ciao babies!
