summer travelogue finale

warning will robinson!
long post ahead, knitting content at the end.

tom and i won a cruise to alaska!
tom says we bought a cruise to alaska at a charity auction, but winning sounds better don't you think?





we flew into vancouver b.c. and met up with 2 couple friends.
the 6 of us took holland america's ryndam on the inside passage cruise.

i loved the inside passage, no rough water whatsoever :-)

our first whole day was spent at sea, lovely relaxing day, playing cards, knitting and getting to know the ship. iow, where to find the free ice cream and waffle cones.





first stop, juneau. not much in juneau proper, the knit store, skeins, was closed for 4th of july, luckily the quilting store next door, rain tree, was open, and i bought this adorable pin cushion.



formal night, we had the best table on the ship, at the stern.

at night we loved to sit at fritzi's piano bar and sing. fritzi made the whole cruise. she had songbooks for everyone. call out "let's sing #47",and we'd all belt it out.

what's not to love on a cruise? no driving, unpack once, go to breakfast and the cabin steward cleans your room.

go to lunch and the cabin steward cleans your room.

go to dinner and the cabin steward cleans your room, turns down the bedclothes, places a chocolate on your pillow and creates a towel animal.

can i please take our cabin steward home?

next day we dock in skagway-

tom with the harbor as backdrop.

i LOVED skagway. very northern exposuresque. i could live in the summer in skagway.

reminds me a lot of silverton, colorado where i lived in my early 20s.

skagway has a yarn store, a quilt store, a fantastic sandwich/coffee shop, a microbrewery, and a narrow gauge rainroad. what more could you wish for?

i scoped out changing threads as soon as the ship docked ;-)

love this scissor holder and needle case made of yellow cedar burl.

and this whale colored yarn. i bought a whale's tale hat pattern to go wth it, but rebecca said she wouldn't be caught dead wearing the hat...

couldn't resist this roving either.

cool building covered in branches.

here comes our train!

the scenery was breath-taking.

when we first came around a bend and saw this dilapdated old wooden bridge, it looked like this was the bridge our train was about to go across. tom told me afterward he was concerned ;-)

luckily after a minute we saw the new metal bridge, phew!

i am very very afraid of heights, i sat on the inside of the train car, away from the edge, and was ok.

if i were to do the trip over, i would take the land/sea combo. you can take the train farther than we did and stay in white pass for a few days. i loved our trip, but we only saw the shoreline and the towns on the shore. none of the majestic interior of alaska.

bye bye caboose.

the next morning was our glacier bay day.

i woke at 4:30 and said to myself, if i look out the window and see anything in the water, i'm getting up.

sure enough, a minute later i saw a whale.

this is the only orca photo i could snap. orcas are very very cool!

great way to enjoy the glaciers, eh? champagne pointsettias on deck.

the water was like glass.

this is the only day i really needed my mittens. but i sure was glad i had them :-)

the calving we saw was magnificent!

the park service ranger onboard said she had never seen the glaciers calving like they did the day we were onboard.

i spent the afternoon and evening hanging onto the railing literally watching the whales, fabulous!

no photos, i couldn't put the binoculars down!

creek street, ketchikan.

the totem heritage center is fantastic, and they teach native craft classes-

baskets-

carved tools-

beading-

the deer mountain hatchery is right next door. they have 2 injured eagles that live there.

2 skeins of rabbit ridge designs sock yarn from mission street fibers.

after we docked in vancouver, tom and i rented a car and drove to whistler. wow!

an afternoon stay turned into 3 nights ;-) what a wonderful place to visit! and full of young people from all over the world. the tandoori grill restaurant was so delicious we had dinner there 2 nights in a row. that's in a town with over 90 restaurants.

wildflowers everywhere, lupine

columbine.

we took a drive north out of whistler and found nairn falls.

OMG-

i cannot believe i did this! the sign says 1.5 km to the falls-

the sign does not say 1.5 km of sheer terror!

but we made it!

inch by inch i made my way to the edge,

tom was so proud of me :-)

back in vancouver for our last day, my friend angela and her bf, the flame, played tourguide.

how surprising we should end up in a yarn store...

lookie here, grimmett park!

tom's family emigrated from england to canada in the mid 1800s. many of them went west to vancouver.

tom's great-uncle dan donated the land for this park to vancouver.

the funny thing is, when i told angela we wanted to see grimmett park, she said, the park is right down the street from birkeland bros.. many times when she was early for knit night angela would sit in grimmett park and knit.

angela always thought it was odd that the park's name was spelled exactly like out last name...

our friend melanie met us for our final dinner. see you at madrona :-)

finally the knitting bit. sheep to shore on nantucket has a fabulous selection of koigu. i bought 2 colors of koigu to make 2 baby blankets.

sorry babies, i had to keep this blankie for myself.

the mitered squares blanket was the perfect cruise project. semi-mindless, but the colors are so glorious i couldn't wait to finish. ravel the details.

one skein left, just enough for the impressionist socks.

love the lace pattern.

i have smallish feet and had just enough yarn in one skein for both anklets.

thanks for reading such a long post!