Tuesday August 30th, Juneau, in ALASKA

Early rise to greet this spectacular scenery, the weather is still very kind to us, we hit the ground running again, and hit all the shops, booked a whale watching tour, had an early drink day at the Red Dog Saloon ..10 am Alaska it was 5 O clock somewhere, Red Dog Saloon was every bit as awesome as I have read about in the trip advisor pages, in fact better...WOW such fun, we walked around the back blocks of Juneau, up and down the biggest streets in the world, I thought mum had a steep drive, hey you gotta see this to believe it, we ended up a bit lost so walked back down maybe 6 thousand stairs into town, the shopping here is very very cheap, looked at a cardie that I longed to get, however, living in Brissy not such a good investment. Stopped to chat to our "family" along the way..all out to spend a few $$$ here ! We spoke to Shazza & Paul, who were docked right in front of us, thier ship was #1, we were #2, then the Celebrity Millenium Shazza & Paul were doing the Mendenhall Glacier and town tour, we booked the Mt Roberts tramway, it takes you way up to the top of Mt Roberts, I have the facts, but cant find them, ok next time I will be more on the ball..back on the ground to meet up with Paul & vShazza, sadly I have had a lot of problems with this international sim card, and could not let them know we couldnt get to them in time, we did manage to speak just as we watched them sail away, they had a wonderful time on the Glacier, we went back to the Red dog, to get a "coolie" for their bar! OK then we got on a coach to do our whale watch cruise at 3pm, had a snooze en route..as you do, and jumped on board the big red boat, our hosts were lovely, but the guests were not so wonderful, they hogged all the vantage spots, did I say Americans are sometimes very much "different" and I mean no offence to all our Yankie mates, just as we have some Aussie shitheads, so do the Yankies..we had them all on our little boat, it seems the 3pm tour were short on sightings, but we saw a few breach in the very far distance, the upside was we got to see another bear on our way back to town, we wont be putting this tour up there on our best experiences, I am sorry we took it, poor Warren said he could have bought a lot of beers with what this cost..never mind, tomorrow is another day, and hey, we get to see Whales in our own back yard, and not freeze our bippies off !! OK well after our coach dropped us back in town we popped into the Red Dog again, had a drink with our new friends, back to the bottlo for some more bring on the ship beers, Princess wins this over Royal Caribbean . Tonight we thought we should go to the laundry..well what do you know another crack up session, for the life of me I cant pick out whats a quarter, so after much histerics, we got our laundry done, (Jason, SO know where you were coming from the other day...LOL) time again to fill the beached whales, we had a very small dinner with a wonderful Waiter, such a funny man, and we spoke to our table mates about all this YOHO time we are having and I mentioned we even sand Kareoke, well bugger me, the lady says, hey yeah I know you you were the 2nd from the left, and having a hoot of a time, you all did so well, as I was fainting from embarassment, oh dear, this lady was so prim and proper..Tonight we set sail for Skagway the Navigator gives out all sorts of good information, but if you want to know what it is, get yourselves over here, cos I am ready for bed, Skagway tomorrowm the White Pass rail and a catch up with Paul & Shazz hopefully and a phone that might bloody well work. ...Heather the extraorinary tour guide told us we have a $50 on board cruise credit, that should cover our drinks bill....till Skagway, goodnight and keep safe xxxxx

Monday 29th August Ketchikan


OK well, here we are, after a fairly big night for us, Iwas still up and at it early, so eager to absorb every single moment, the sail in was wonderful, a bit chiily, but at 5am when I was chatting to mum, I still had a summer nightie on out on our balcony, the novelty soon wore off, but we had a good catch up, and its good to know all is well back home, mum shared my enthusiasm, as we entered port, oh my gosh, how do you describe this sight??? As we prepared to diembark Shazza called, we agreed to meet up after our tours, well I couldnt wait, excited beyond belief... we had brekkey in our cabin, thanks Mario, delicious, good thing we ate brekky, as it was about 3 hours since our last meal..We got off seamlessly went for a wander and who should we bump into...yep, Shazz and Paul..the people you meet in Alaska,, they met a few of our group, we then went our own ways, we did the "ducky bus", that was great value, @ $29 for an hour and a half, our driver and tour director were great, and as funny as you could hope for ! www.akduck.com for Nola & Peter, did I say how I love this place ?? Oh I love them all, but Ketchikan is senbloodysational, so so so gorgeous, we saw the salmon in the rivers, thats another sad story, they are about to end thiere lives, but thats nature I guess..Dollys House, Ketchikan is or was a very famous or infamous area for brothels in the early 1900s. another squillion photos, we walked after our tour for a couple of hours aand then met up, as you do with our mates n the pub up the road, the name escapes me, but its funny, couple of drinks, a thousand "hints and tips" of what to do in the Rockys, and off we went to reboard our floating palace. Lunch was somewhere Heather suggested, we had and English Pub meal, came back "home" and ever since then Warren has been snoozing, and I am blogging. Catch up with our Scenic mates is at 4.30, then if possible, an early night, ready for Juneau in the morning

Off to Alaska..yep way up North to Alaska

Sunday 28th August, at sea on route to Ketchikan, Alaska, yes, you read that right, we are off to Alaska

So after a rather hectic couple of weeks we had a quiet morning, late brekky in the Horizon Court, yes P & O you have a long way to go to reach these standards, the Coral Princess is just beautiful, and as usual, we know half the staff on board already, they are a very friendly crew, hard to be grumpy when your window to the world is as delightful as this. Having said that there are some VERY rude people on board, without mentioning any nationalities, some folk really needed to take some good manner lessons ! After a very late brekky we had a meet and mingle with our cruise critic group in the Wheel House bar, the very first person to greet us warmly was Rejeana, slowly another dozen or so came along, and we had an enjoyable couple of hours chatting, so now how exciting, we have more new friends...It was awesome to sit and listen to all the different dialects...then off to have a small bite for lunch, before we met again in the wheelhouse bar with our Scenic family. Heather gave us a few tips on what to do and when to do it, points noted, notes lost..not really, she is a wonderful leader of a very ordinary pack, how many times do we need to be told something, evidently 28 is not enough...OK back to our beautiful "stateroom" to prepare for the formal dinner, I think we scrubbed up ok, and had a few photos taken, 7pm meet Captian Fabio, except he missed us, I guess our reputation preceeded us..."free" sparkly then dinnner at the restaurant we didnt get thrown out of. More drinks preceeded us thinking it was a great idea to sing at the Kareoke show, Richard, Rita John Warren & I performed a spectacular rendition of "North to Alaska" while Janette filmed us, I am sure we would be candidates for funniest home videos. Lorraine, Ross Jo & Jason happened to be wandering by, and made for a very enthusiastic audience, thanks for that guys. Then as you do when you need to be up at 5 am, a dance and yarn was the order of the day....no bloody wonder we are tired out. What have I forgotten ??? oh well, I got the good bits in Im sure !! thanks to all who are following this blog, once again, it makes it worth while. Great to have you along for the ride. Tomorrow Ketchikan...............yep, we are gunna be in Alaska.............WOW another jumping out of my skin moment ..Hope all is well

On Board the Coral Princess

Saturday August 27 Vancouver to Alaska

Vancouver to Alaksa...Saturday 27th August 2011

Look out Alaska here we come !! Another very smooth transfer to the ship from our hotel, and not too long in the customs hall before we were on board ! Our balcony Cabin is just lovely, as is the entire ship, we started out exploring the ship by doing a "treasure hunt" every corner we turned held another suprise for us, this really is so beautiful, we were grinning like kids in a lolly shop...After a very quick lunch we were off again to do the "mustard" drill, every one crowded into a small room, standing for over 10 minutes soon turned into a "not fun time", never mind it has to be done so no point going nutso, but I was concered about the amount of people exhaling very loudly, a germ fest...!
Another cruise around the ship, then its time for sail away, which turned into quite a party with our mates, the sail away was pretty spectacular, Vancouver looked lovely from the ship as we sailed under Lion Gate Bridge setting a course toward Ketchikan. We crashed the any time dining as our set dinner time is 5.30pm...you kidding me !! So dinner was with Ross, Lorraine, Jody, Jason, Rita & Richard, and as usual lots of laughs ...Richard seems to thinks the average size of the passenger is 23 stone, and he is on "bear watch" while on the ship.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to having a day at sea to recover from the frantic pace of this tour, its been very hectic. Every body should come and see Canada..

Whistler to Sun Peaks

Whistler to Sun Peaks

We left Whistler early and travelled through Mountain country and saw more unbelievable scenery, again picture perfect weather, we are all in short sleeves ...I imagine that will change soon ! Al our coach captain did a wonderful job driving through some very windy roads !! We followed a lot af the path we will take on our Rocky Mountaineer train trip..

Some of the gorgeous places we saw today were Duffy Lake, Seton Lake, Pavillion Lake at Marble Canyon,the FraserRiver and Thompson River, Kamloops Lake, which is aboout 12 kms long. Some really really looooooooooong freight trains also passed us by, some even double decker, estimated about 300
wagons. This region is part of the Canadian Desert, and very stark compared to the lush scenery yesterday, very interesting .

We had a stop for coffee at a town called Lillooet, where we had a visit to their museum they sure had some interesting old stuff in there, it was a town that is mostly made up of "first nations" people, who are just like our aborigine, the natives of their land. They are beautiful people. We added to our collection of photos and I spent a fair bit of time trying to work out the camera on the iPad. Got it nutted out finally after some hilarious results early on.

It was then time to vist the Hat Creek Ranch to learrn about the local culture as members of the Shuswap Nation shared their fascinating history through song and dance. We really enjoyed a visit to the ranch, they had a cariboo wagon and teepees, its also a camp ground. We got a little gift from them of a "sage pouch" Just beautiful people.

Continued on via Kamloops to our destination of the Delta Sun Peaks resort, again, lovely accomodation. Quick sprint down the village to the local pub where we "bear watched" while sharing a laugh with some of our travel mates, then raced back to change for dinner which was a lovely buffet. After dinner we were entertained by Kevin Tessia who spoke about life as a pioneer, the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company, he was really interesting, and I didnt even go to sleep ! WOO HOO ....Still trying to find some more hours in our day, tomorrow we loose an hour,

Heather is organising for our group to help me with some more new descriptive words for the blog, so by the time we get to Alaska, I will not sound like a broken record.
Tomorrow Banff Springs here we come ....

Jasper Park Lodge take 2

OK well a little more on our day yesterday, after we left the glacier we had a stop at a delightful lunch stop, Sunwapta , wow the food is great, real home made stew, or according to Al its called stoow darned good stoow Al, you were right, and the service was terrific Athabasca Falls, this was a little suprise for us, thanks Heater & Al,but the biggest suprise was someone in our group left behind a bag, and do you know what?? that bag looked just like ours, complete with the puter and "stuff", how silly can some people be, I ask you , we carried on like wallys, but nothing would stop the tour leader extrodinare and the most marvellous coach capitain Al from going back for it, I am sure the people who own the "stuff" can never thank you both enough, I know I would be so greatful, dont you reckon people should take more responsability...
Ptoblem sorted, we got dropped in Jasper Town for and hour, then back to our resort for a quick check in, quick orientaion of the neighbourhood, and a typical Aussie backyard pissup, complete with dial a pizza, lots of stubbies, a gazillion laughs, the Aussie flag flying, fair amount of bull sh*# flying and new friends for life, mum, once again was right, these people become family, but some you wont want to bring home....again,, will this get better, the scenery here is another gobsmacked moment...Alberta is just amazing as are the people who live here...thanks to all who are still here, wish I could share what I see, and laugh when I laugh, cos thats so often, we sure are in a good mob...sleep for a bit....Hoo roo all, xxx

Jasper tonight and the date and day is ??

So, how many of you woke to the "view" and how many woke to the "whistle" in the windows, we chose to pick the view so we were NOT the grumpy ones on our coach, we had a really nice brekky, in the big room with 2 other Scenic mobs..we did however ask for an early morning sunrise call, hard to be nice to a smiley yankie at 5.45 am, but I did manage to be at least a bit civil..OK brekky done had a quick sprint around this wonderful lake, bit drizzly rain, I could care less, I am in Gods Heaven, and he painted us a picture of life in the future..looks good to me !! Follow me now we head out to the glacier, I will shorten todays blog, cos I am a bit weary, well, if you want to tick a box, make sure it is this one, Wazza buried his stubbie in the glacier snow, we travelled out on a coach, our tour guide was terrific, then on the death ride to hell..we went down so far I thought I would freeze to death, but I cant imagine freezing to death when I am laughing so hard..
I will continue on tomorrow, today was huge, every step felt like a thousand cigarettes..lol,

Lovely Lake Louise 22nd August

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSS.. Have a wonderful day in the Rocky Mountains, you sure got the good for this one mate ! Again a beautiful breakfast in the dining room, and then a prowl around to check out this wonderful building full of history, we spent ages looking at all the old photos and reading up on this wonderful hotel. Then we went to find where a roof turret was, but found every other room, there must be 8 thousand of them, never found the turret. Time to leave this wow place to find the next wow place, It didnt take us long, Al dropped us at the Banff Gondola, up we whizzed, way up to the top of the world, well Sulpher Mountain anyway.The weather appears to be changing, a few clouds and some wind now..but never anything but all the words our friends wrote for me! Travelled along highway one we passed Sawback Mountain
the range is called that because it looks like a saw, who makes us these names hey ?? They are very inventive, then we saw Castle Mountain,guess what that looks like ?? OK you go to the top of the class..quick stop at Lake Louise, but not a Louise to be seen !! OH MY GOSH moment again, the photos are real, the pictures are real, this is another moment that took my breath away, if this keeps up, I will have none left, in fact because of the altitude, I am running out of puff very quickly, and my stair climbing is like mountain climbing ! Al and Heather then took us to see the spiral tunnels, an amazing feat, 1000 men took 20 months to build this, and got paid $2.35 a day in 1908. Mr Van Hottenmootengooten was the archietect, well his name was somthing like that, what insight and foresight. Good on you Mr VanH !! The scenery was delightful as we followed Kicking Horse River, through Field then on to Emerald Lake, yep, that was pretty spekky too, its in YOHO National Park, YOHO means AWESOME In First Nations Language, my new favourite word is now....YOHO...Natural Bridge came next, this was YOHO, the waterfall washing machine left us gobsmacked ..hard to describe, I have a lot of pics but still having problems uploading, as you have seen !! Via Mount Burgess we landed at Fairmont Lake Louise Chateau, oh yes we are toffs again now,up stairs for our suprise from Heather, we got to be entertained by a real life Mountie in full regalia, he could sure tell a yarn, but I am glad I was standing cos I was nodding off on my feet...stopped in at the bottlo for a couple of take aways, cos you have to sell a kidney to buy a drink here !! Back "HOME" to catch up on this log look out our window another zillion times, and put this in my "forever " memory bank.What a fantasmaglorical day, many laughs, new friends, can life get better ?? Surely we are luckiest people alive
on this planet today...Tonight the weather has turned a bit nasty, I trust Al and Heather will sorth this out by the morning, in the mean time we get to put on our fancy pants to go to the very very fancy Fairview Dining room. I have looked for months at photos of this, and while we have not one ounce of snobby or flashy or glitzy yearnings, this did appeal to me, just cos it looks so very special..I am sure you would all agree if you were here, If you want to check out our digs, have a look at www.fairmont.com and look at Lake Louise., Well I have spent a long time here now, so I had better go get

my fancy pants on, and take another few photos. Love to my beautiful family, hope you are coming along with us on our AMAZING ADVENTURE TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD..It is YOHO...

Fairmont Banff Springs Sunday 21st

And so the fun continues for us all here in Banff, breakfast was in the Bow Valley Restaurant, very fancy, and a huge buffet of all sorts of yummy goodies, and wait staff everywhere to attend to your every whim, we then had a bit of a look around this castle..I find it very hard to explain just how special it is here, while the rooms are very small, they are very very elegant, and small is good when "one is in a castle" no complaints from us, just cant stop looking around in awe.. Next stop was Alpine Helicopters for our scenic flight over this awesomely spectaularly wonderful place ( I just invented a couple of new words..) The flight was so good, we all got off with grins like kids in a lolly shop. Thanks Scenic for making this a part of our package..Al dropped us in town, and we walked around in our quest to seek our more animals, no luck today. But we did have a great walk along the vivid Bow River Trail, and put our hands in to feel how cold it was...very cold mate, very cold. The river is fed from the Glaciers, so yeah,, I guess its gotta be cold.
Lake Minnewanka was calling out to us, so hey lets go on a cruise on the largest lake in the National Park,(28klms long 1.2 klms wide) the color of the water is "nice" get what I mean here ?? UNBELIEVABLE...The cruise was so relaxing, I was once again rocked off to sleep...how embarrasing..even though my senses were swimming, my brain was in relax and chill mode. We were transferred back to town and walked home via the very very lovely Bow River white water river and climbed 7 million stairs up to our castle in the sky, well Wazza said to be accurate there were more than 3 stairs !! As I type this, I am looking at that view you have seen, and still takes my breath away. Called mum, and she was excited for us, as she has been to Banff also, I heard Bonnie barking, evry time I see a puppy I think of Bonnie, we do miss her, there are dogs everywhere here.
Tonight we have chosen to have dinner at the Costello Restaurant, (Italian grub) we all had choices of where to dine, Wazza loves Italian food, so it was his call tonight. We had a really little lunch to be able to fit in dinner.
Tomorrow, we take on Lake Louise, are they ready for us ?????

Banff...B for beautiful

Going On Holiday Countdown

Today on our tour from Sun Peaks to Banff we had a competition on board the coach organised by the tour guide of the year to think of words that can help me to describe the "stuff" we see, great effor from our team, we also played a game of drawing a moose, how we laughed at that one..who would have thought to specify gender meant antlers...photos are so painfully slow to load, but I will keep on trying, just at the moment I want to try and get the info up and running, one pic loads fast, more than that, I can vacume the floors of the Banff Springs hotel and they are still not loaded. Did I say how wonderful this place is ?? OH MY GOSH, the view from our room, is just a fairy tale picture, my breath was taken away, even Wazza was jumping out of his skin too !We are on the 9th floor, and I am getting used to the lifts, scared of nothing me !
OK so this morning we left Sun Peaks @ 7.30 and travelled highway 1 we passed many lovely places, the scenery has changed already, we travelled through Jade Mountain, Little Schswop Lake, Sorrento (gorgeous) Salmon Arm,(where we expected a welcoming committe..thanks for nothing Heathers sister !!) Caneo Sicamouse where we saw a baby deer Malakwa which means mosquito! We stopped for a picnic which our amazing tour guide organised and had sangers at a lovely stop called Craigellachie,, Lachlan I kept thinking of you here, you and pop would have loved to be here to watch a train go by a station with half your name in it, the train was ENORMOUSLY long ! then though 3 Valley Gap Rebelstoke, here we left the Columbia Mountain Range, yes Barbara, British Columbia is just amazing. I am in love with this place, we both are. Next is our first view of the Rocky Mountains and the start of the Glacier National Park, we went through Rogers Pass 1330 mts, where avalances are a common occurance, we saw lots of evidence of this, here can get between 50 and 60 feet of snow..Then Kicking Horse River, where the color of the water was wonderful. Stopped for afternoon tea, and and ice cream, the girl promised it was a weight watchers jenny craig no sugar special..yeah sure !! The past Field just before entering Banff National Park, in Alberta ..ther was great excitement in the camp when we saw the Rocky Mountaineer go past us, though lets not get too far ahead. When we arrived here at Banff Springs Hotel it was a bit overwhelming, this place is HUGE HUGE HUGE and FABULOUS, we settled in ( read that as chucking stuff on the floor and bolting out the door) and explored Banff, oh did I mention we saw a deer in town tonight, as one does when one is in Banff??We walked and walked and walked a bit more, had a drink at the Irish Pub, met some of the "family" in town and had a quick shared meal at Tony Romas a wonderful Rib joint we last went to 19 years ago in Honolulu, yummmmm, and then home to "our castle" where no good fairy came and made my mess pretty, but thats OK, cos they probably would have called the police thinking this place had been trashed...So tomorrow we are up and at it early for a walk, brekky and then a helicopter flight over the Mountain, the forecast is for 28 degrees, so so so lucky with the weather, the Gods are on our side..Pardon if I have made spelling mistakes, I have barely time to post, let alone proof read. Some amazing footage on the iPad and phone, just gotta get it on here to share, if you are smart, you will decline an invite to our slide night...
Keep well,till we talk again, and thanks again for coming along on our amazing journey to the top of the world..xx

Whistler to Sun Peaks

Going On Holiday Countdown

Thursday 18th August Victoria to Whistler..We left the very beautiful Empress Hotel to begin our journey to the Rocky Mountain Country. We boarded the BC Ferry Coastal Renaissance to Horseshoe Bay, the scenery was lovely, and the ferry was huge, and quite new. It took about an hour and a half. Next stop was Shannon Falls, awesome sight . On to Whistler Village, where we had a walk around the area, stopped for a drink of Dutch Courage, before we got on the Peak to Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcombe Mountain.... I was nearly soiling my underwear, but so so glad we did this we were 1850 meters up and the mountain had snow all over it, loads of nut bags ride there bikes down the mountain at 100kms an hour, jump on the lift and come back up and do it all again !! Just before we got off the last chair lift we got lucky, just below us were 2 black bears just moseying around...awesome.....We checked into the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, another really beautiful hotel, and had dinner (lobster for me..wooooo hooooo!!) The meal was delicious, as was the complimentary glass of wine ! We walked dinner off, trying to spot more bears,, then we had a presentation by a black bear expert Michael Allen, seemed to be a good time for me to have a snooze, my head was falling off, so I left Warren and went to our room to try to get some more work done on my photos. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide Heather who told me to sign up for Scenic Gold Club, I can now get free internet at all the hotels...yay for Heather. She is a wonderful tour guide, and our driver, Al is also a great bloke, and a really good driver. This really is an amazing journey, and today on the gondola, I felt like we were on the top of the world !~!!

Going On Holiday Countdown

Thursday 18th August Victoria to Whistler..We left the very beautiful Empress Hotel to begin our journey to the Rocky Mountain Country. We boarded the BC Ferry Coastal Renaissance to Horseshoe Bay, the scenery was lovely, and the ferry was huge, and quite new. It took about an hour and a half. Next stop was Shannon Falls, awesome sight . On to Whistler Village, where we had a walk around the area, stopped for a drink of Dutch Courage, before we got on the Peak to Peak Gondola from Whistler to Blackcombe Mountain.... I was nearly soiling my underwear, but so so glad we did this we were 1850 meters up and the mountain had snow all over it, loads of nut bags ride there bikes down the mountain at 100kms an hour, jump on the lift and come back up and do it all again !! Just before we got off the last chair lift we got lucky, just below us were 2 black bears just moseying around...awesome.....We checked into the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, another really beautiful hotel, and had dinner (lobster for me..wooooo hooooo!!) The meal was delicious, as was the complimentary glass of wine ! We walked dinner off, trying to spot more bears,, then we had a presentation by a black bear expert Michael Allen, seemed to be a good time for me to have a snooze, my head was falling off, so I left Warren and went to our room to try to get some more work done on my photos. Thanks to our wonderful tour guide Heather who told me to sign up for Scenic Gold Club, I can now get free internet at all the hotels...yay for Heather. She is a wonderful tour guide, and our driver, Al is also a great bloke, and a really good driver. This really is an amazing journey, and today on the gondola, I felt like we were on the top of the world !~!!

Saturday

Going On Holiday Countdown

good morning from Delta Sun Peaks Resort, where we are still having the most wonderful time, this country has some spectacular scenery, today we head to Banff Springs, I have some blogs to post from the other putter, so will get that all sorted tonight, no free wi fi in our rooms here, so I am in the lobby posting this.Still not enough hours in the day to do all we want to do.lol..cheers for now...xx

Going On Holiday Countdown

Going On Holiday Countdown

OK I am catching up on the news of the day, hope to post some photos soon before we leave for Whistler, it's very early hours, awake at 4am today, so getting a bit more sleep, though I must say, I catch up on my sleep every time my bum hits a seat on a bus...We joined our travel companion for breakfast in the fancy pants dining room, then it was off on a tour to Butchart Gardens , well, thats gotta be one of the most amazing works It was very spectacular, I am on a sensory overload here, and I am very sure the adjectives will run out, and this time next week, I will just tell you all, hey this is NICE, and you will k now' once again, I am blown away by what I am seeing We then had a short sight seeing tour if this beautiful place, and off to get ready for our next adventure, a float plane trip over Victoria. Pretty darned spectacular, Even though I left finger prints in Wazzas leg when we hit a few speed humps...The flight was half an hour, awesome to say the least. We then hit the ground to see as much as we could, we did a little cruise around the area, ( good chance for a snooze ) went to see the Legislative house building..stunning architect who built the Empress also built this place, which is litup at night ..did I say this city is very beautiful ????.. Walked another route to check out the older areas, saw a few old buildings that are really lovely, and had an afternoon drink at a wonderful old Irish pub before heading back home to get organized for tomorrow. We went to China town for a meal Great Tucker and walked another zillion miles, a very easy city to walk around. We both really love Victoria, and would come back here in a heart beat. Tomorrow Whistler, here we come...

Going On Holiday Countdown

The Westin shuttle took us to LAX, where we joined a long line of people as keen to see the back of Los Angeles as we were, we boarded our flight to Victoria via a stop over in Seattle, which looked really lovely, next time, we will come and visit, and I can then be sleepless in Seattle..we had a walk a bit of breakfast and then it was time to board our flight. the flight o Victoria was only short, but oh how spectacular, the scenery was amazing, snow covered mountains beautiful islands surrounded by blue seas,
Truly it was a wonderful sight. Entry into Canada was easy, and very soon our Scenic rep met us and escorted us to our waiting transfer, which was a very beautiful Lincoln car, OK we can do Royalty..what a beautiful car, felt a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies had hit that oil !! the drive to our accommodation was very pretty, yep, love this place, warm weather gorgeous scenery and a fancy car, what else could you ask for ???? But wait, there is more...our car turned in to a drive and Warren said, hey, look at that joint, must be some Government place, no Wazza, it's our place, the Fairmont Empress fairly took our breath away, within 3 hours I think I had a zillion photos...Oh my gosh, are we really here or is this a dream...?? We are in the Faimont Gold rooms, but took us 10 minutes to make it look very un gold as we scrambled to get ready for our welcome dinner, and have a quick run around outside the hotel. The welcome dinner was lovely, we met some great people, had a beautiful meal, then hit the streets to check out this city. Found a couple of lovely pubs to have a drink, The Sticky Wicket and Big badJohns peanut bar were great fun. Really the other end of the Fairmont Gold scale, but us to a tee...Canadians are really very lovely people. Home to get ready for another awesome day. Good morning Victoria at 2 am again, but this time I managed to go back to sleep for a while...such a shame to have to slee when there is so much to see and do....

Going On Holiday Countdown

Our first full day in la we did an Grand tour of all the tourist sights, We can't help but feel the Beverly hills and Hollywood areas are a bit of a let down, we enjoyed seeing the Hollywood bowl, kodak theatre, the walk of fame, but we can tick this off now, and not bother with tinsel town again, but we really enjoyed redondo beach and manhattan beach, the Californian beaches are lovely. It's all very busy, and not as beautiful as our beaches and cities.The Westin at Lax was very nice, I decided to try a cream cheese bagel, just because it sounded like I should, I gave Warren a try, and said it was very dry, then as I got to the end of it, I found the cream cheese sachets in the bottom of the bag.., well a tick for the calorie count..dinner on our final night was a taco bell take away in our room, as we prepared to depart in the morning for Victoria, Canada.Again I went to sleep about 11 pm, as tired as stink, again 2 am, it's good morning LA for this nanna, wide eyed and bushy tailed, so I am greatful to Donna for the books on my iPad, is this jet lag or excitement, whatever, I can fit our excess baggage under my eyes right now...

Cut and paste practice...from LA

Going On Holiday Countdown

OK I am now ready to try and paste the last notes I wrote..watch this spaceHi all from Los Angeles,

we arrived safe and well...well ?? WEARY but very excited to be here.Our 2 flights were wonderful, cannot fault the servie of Air Pacific, lovely and smooth, but glad to disembark... Cleared through customs in about and hour and a half, and into the hotel shuttle bus to deliver us to our very nice room at the Westin LAX...we went for a big walk, and finished up at the golden arches, for lunch..how sad really !! I tried to get onto wifi, but dont think it was working or my brain wasnt..the area we are is a bit "grey" and some characters that you wouldnt want to bring home for a cuppa...I didnt let Warren out of my sight. Back to our room for a much needed shower, freshen up, and got the trolley bus out to Manhattan Beach, we looked a pair of Wallys, both snoozing off..once there, the sea air livened us up and we walked along the beach front and out on the beautiful jetty, then did some window shopping, still trying to get my head around this "groundhog" day...yes, its still yesterday..! We found a little greek/Italian eatery and had a meal there, at what should be our lunch time tomorrow...yep I am confused. Confirmed our tour for tomorrow, cant wait to see all the wonderful sights. I had no expectations, but have really enjoyed what we saw this evening. Cheeses me off all this tipping..oh well, gotta do what you gotta do.
Our hotel room looks over the airport and we watch the BIG planes fly in, Lachlan would love it. Jaymie-Lee you would love the soap..its really cute, in the shape of a pretty green leaf..but I am not allowed to bring any home to show you, because before we left Australia, we are already over the weight limit.....imagine when we really get going..Internet in the room is a bit pricey, so will just save this up and send a few at a time. Need to pick some brains, how to save word docs on the iPad for copy and paste later??
So this dream is now real...so exciting to see all the stuff you only ever see on telly..Hoo roo for now
krisnwoz xx...btw..no plane crashes and no lift failures...day 1 tick..!

Going On Holiday Countdown

Well a quick check in at free wi fi, on our way to Victoria, just landed in Seattle, all is going well, our feet have not touched the ground, we landed running and have not stopped, we are having a ball...I have written up a bit of what we have been getting up to, but just too busy to post it..Lets see if this works before I write any more...cheers from Seattle...wool hoooo

Going On Holiday Countdown

OK, got that sorted out !!

Back to the drawing board...

Going On Holiday Countdown

Well, the text worked, just need to work out the photo inserts bit..!!!

Going On Holiday Countdown

Here is my practice run at cutting and pasting for our blog, lets see how it goes,

So I dont see my photo here but lets have a look and see if it works...hmmm,

Last day at work...well for some !

Going On Holiday Countdown

Today was meant to be my last 4 and a half hours, it ended up being a full day, never mind a few more cocktails..we are both a bit weary, but will be ok tomorrow, loads to do, and this is it, no more chances to get sorted..hahahha, all over now !!

3 sleeps to go

Cant believe its almost here now...started to pack a few things today..too hard basket