Last days on Celebrity Solstice

We had a rather quiet day on our next to the last day at sea. It was the last formal night and as we were outrunning the cyclone storm it was cloudy with periods of rain and some wind. We went to hear the naturalist talk on marsupials. I thought they had originated in Australia, but found out differently. The show last night was similar to a Circus de Sol Celebrity Solstice version on December 21st for summer solstice. We have not been able to see The Southern Cross star formation in the night sky.

We woke to a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky. The waves were calm and many people were out and about. The pool was the busiest of the cruise. This cruise had many cooking demonstrations, but today they are having a Star Chef Cooking Competition. The competition was between the head sous chef and the Cruise Director with assistants and judges. It was a fun interaction.
Bill is going to a program about the workings of the ship and a Science Cafe with the Naturalist hosting the science discussion. The women are going to the staff talent show. We have glass blowing studio on board that uses electric furnaces that were built especially for this and two other Celebrity ships and in partnership with Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

The cruise ship is one of the monster cruise ships with 3200 guests and about 1250 staff. It is 127,000 tons. They have many casual seating areas both inside and outside and a good size real grass area on the top deck.The buffet has many stations with huge food selections. On this cruise we are on a select dining, but eat at the same time each with the same waiter and assistant. Our waiter is from Honduras and our assistant is from the Philippines. There are also several specialty food restaurants as well.


- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Our last New Zealand Port Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands was a beautiful port. This was another port where we were tendered in. This is the area that the treaty was signed between the Maori tribes and England. There are still many issues between the two. This seems to be the case all across New Zealand. We took the tender in and were shuttled to the town where we looked around, took in a craft faire and listened to some children sing Christmas Carols. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting on our balcony and watching all the sailboats, jet boats and seadoos out on the bay. We now have two sea days and the Captain gets to try to stay in front of the cyclone.


- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Auckland, New Zealand

Greetings from Auckland
We arrived in Auckland about 7am. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and the harbor is very busy. There are ferry boats going everywhere! We took a bus trip to see the main highlights of the city. We got a quick view of the Winter Gardens and the Auckland Museum. As most of you know Bill enjoys museums and the hour given for this museum definitely was not enough. We enjoyed seeing all the sights! It is said that in Auckland there is a sailboat for every two people. The Crystal Symphony ship was also in port. it arrived a day early due to a cyclone in the Samoa-Fiji area, It was a beautiful sunny day which made leaving Auckland a beautiful sight!
- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad







Lillypads @ Wintergarden and the Hilton Hotel, Auckland

Our day in Tauranga, New Zealand

We spent our day in Tauranga, New Zealand looking around and visiting shops, checking our email at Starbucks, enjoying the outrigger canoes, kayaks and other sailboats in the harbor. Tauranga is a very busy port city. It is also a resort city and since it is a six week vacation time, the city is busy with many different kinds of tourists and the caravan park was full. In the afternoon, a troop of Maori Dancers came aboard the ship and gave a performance that shared some of their culture with us. Bill and I had visited this port 8 years ago and it was a small beach town now it is a big thriving area.
Tomorrow we will be in Auckland, New Zealand.


- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Hello from Dunedin, New Zealand

Hello,
We are in the Scottish Heritage town of Dunedin. The town is mainly on the flat parts at the bottom of the hillsides, but the houses are up the hillsides. They are reported to have the steepest street in the Southern Hemisphere. They also have a Cadbury Chocolate Factory which we visited. It is quite a shipping port. The town was started in 1848 and grew very fast after gold was discovered in 1861. Today about 123,000 live here. They have a wildlife preserves, a castle and The University of Otago which was started in 1869. Today we enjoyed watching a group of bagpipers lead the graduates and families in the walk down the Main Street that had been closed off for the celebration! Very exciting. Bill, Harry Finch and Jay Coyne went in a local bar and help toast the new grads. When we first arrived in the town, it was very quiet. But the town came to life with the graduation, the farmers market, a crafts and gifts outdoor market and all sorts of people moving about. We enjoyed our Dunedin visit!


Dunedin train station


Bagpipers leading grads


Cadbury Chocolate Factory Candy Mountain



Bar Bill,et al toasted the grads


-Marilyn
Posted from IPad

Greetings from the Celebrity Solstice

We spent one night at the Sofitel Hotel in Sydney. We walked around and had Japanese food for dinner with the Coynes, Finchs and the Battaglias. Next morning we had breakfast at a food court across the street. We left the hotel and went to the ship to get checked in. It turned out to be a process, but finally succeeded! The rooms are nice and the food has been very good. The ship did not leave Sydney until the next day so we could come and go off the ship. We did some walk-abouts. We left the dock about 4pm. We have been at sea and tomorrow we will be in Southern New Zealand and will see some fiords--Millford Sound. We do not get off the ship until the day after and we have put our clocks ahead 2 hours.
We'll post our next blog after our port day.





Marilyn and Bill


- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Milford Sound, New Zealand

We woke early sailing by the high peaks of the South Island of New Zealand. It was cloudy and a bit drizzly. We walked out on deck to see beautiful waterfalls and a few sea birds flying about. We picked up a pilot to help the captain drive the ship through three passages. The second one was Doubtful Sound. This one was named by Captain Cook because he thought it was doubtful that you could get out of it without turning around. By the time we got through this sound, it was raining hard, the winds were up to 30-35 miles per hour with very high waves. The Captain and pilot decided to have us forego the last sound (Dusky Sound) and visibility was almost zero.
Tomorrow we are in the port of Dunedin.
We'll let you know about this port the next time.


- Marilyn


Posted from my iPad

G'Day from Sydney

After we left Kerang we have been making our way across the middle of this part of Australia. We have seen many signs to watch for kangaroos and in my usual style we didn't see ant after the first day. No koalas either. Our roads wound through the countryside and much of the way we were in the foothills. Then we entered the Blue Mountains which are a little higher. Last night we stayed in Lithgow which is a former coal mining town. There is a zigzag train through the Blue Mountains. Today we drove to Blackheath and drove out to see a rock formation called the Anvil. You are suppose to be able to see Sydney from there, but it was too hazy. There were many people out and around at farmer markets and craft fairs. We drove on down the road to Katoomba and there is a famous rock formation called the Three Sisters. It was very crowded so we chose a little scenic drive instead and got a great back view!
We headed back to Sydney to turn in the car and go to our hotel. All this is now accomplished. We are sitting amidst many tall hotels. We will check in with the others.
We enjoyed our little cross country adventure!








- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

We sadly said goodbye!

We had a wonderful stay in Kerang visiting with our friends,
Shirlee, Merrill and Tim. They pampered us and fed us well! Today Merrill had to give a final exam and turn in her reports for the end of the school year. Tim was leaving after work on one of his adventures! Shirlee fixed us a great lunch and Tim joined us before we sadly said goodbye until our next visit to Kerang!
We ventured out and will take in the
Blue mountains on our way back to Sydney.


- Marilyn


Posted from my iPad

G-day from Kerang

G-day from Kerang. We are at the Scrivens.
We had a nice ride from Gundagi through many small towns and at first rolling hills and then flat flood plains under a cloudy sky! It is cooler than we thought so my clothes for this part of the trip are not quite warm enough so much for planning!
We say kangaroos hopping across the road, 2 Imus in the field and a ringed neck pheasant beside the road. We stopped for lunch at a bakery in Jerilderie before the last leg into Kerang,
Bill was able to drive right to the Scrivens house even though it has been 8 years since we were here before. Shirlee was outside chasing the birds off her fruit trees. We had a most enjoyable afternoon and evening catching up!

- Marilyn


Posted from my iPad

We are in Australia

G-day!
Loni took Bill and I to LAX on Sat. evening and it was raining.
We landed in Sydney in drizzly rain. Customs moved along, but after
Picking up our luggage the line to exit was long but moved quickly. It seems many flights come in at the same time. We rented our car, but another huge line of cars were all leaving at the same time and there was a truck stuck in the tunnel. We decided to get something to drink before joining those on the road. Bill has driven in Australia before, but it still takes a bit for everything to come back. He did well and we got onto M5 heading for Kerang to visit our friends the Scrivens. The sky cleared to sunshine and billowy clouds.

Wayne had suggested we stop in Berrima for lunch at the oldest inn in Australia that had been in continuous operation. We left Hume highway for the old Hume highway at Mittagong and got some travel info and on to Berrima. These are very picturesque little towns with shops, homes and fields of cows and mainly sheep. The terrain is much like driving in Central California's rolling hills with trees similar to live oaks.
After lunch at The Souvreign we headed for Gundagi where we spent the night in another quaint little town in a comfortable motel.





Posted from my iPad
By Marilyn

Homeward Bound

As we came into Ogden, UT we went for fuel at
Costco and then spent an enjoyable evening under a cottonwood tree at the RV park. Labor Day we left the campground and continued our trek down I-15. We had a low traffic day through Salt Lake and Provo. Our ride was uneventful through central Utah. We decided to stop in Leeds, UT just before St. George. There was a small, quiet campground and we again sat under a shade tree. The hot weather in Leeds (100+) got us acclimate for home.



Bill enjoyed BBQing!

We got up early and headed on south. We stopped in Las Vegas to have breakfast with our friend, Ray Hurd. Beckie had left early for work in the Firebaugh/Fowler area of central California. After an enjoyable breakfast we left hoping traffic out of Vegas would be less than on Labor Day. There was some traffic both leaving and coming into Vegas, but it was moving nicely. When we got to Riverside we hit the going home, commuter traffic.
It is good to be home, now we are going to get the accumulated mail and clean out the motorhome. Kea is also happy to be home and find his bed and run a bit!
Marilyn
Posted from my
iPad

Trekking Towards Home

Leaving the Lewis and Clark Campground in Shelby, MT we went down an exit to the only restaurant in town that serves breakfast and it was slower than turtle speed. We followed Leigh and Herb to Great Falls where they went east and we continued south. A stop in Helena for gas and food and we headed for the road and a day of wind, high passes over the Continental Divide and thunderstorm rain from Helena past Butte. We found a very nice RV park in Dillon,MT. They were having the county fair with lots of activity at the fairgrounds! Dillon was named after a railroad president that helped get rail transportation into this corridor.

The wifi was good at the park so we read our messages. Leigh called to tell us they were home and they did not have rain or wind, but lots of construction.


Sunset from campsite in Dillon,MT

This morning we left Dillon and continued going south through Montana, Idaho and landed for the night in Ogden, UT where we are sitting under a big shade tree. The temperature has risen into the 90's today.


Marilyn
Posted from my
iPad

Edmonton, AB plus Shelby, MT

We spent our day in Edmonton, of course, by going to West Edmonton Mall. It is the largest mall in the world. The boys dropped us off so they could AGAIN go and wash that little brown Honda. Marilyn and Leigh first just wandered around not believing how large of a place this really is. The mall includes two 18 hole golf courses, a water park, an underground aquarium, small amusement park, 800 stores and every restaurant you can imagine. We were especially intrigued by the ice skate arena. We watched Seniors skate for fun for their daily exercise. Many of them were excellent skaters in their day. We also observed a young child getting her lesson on the ice - assuming that she will probably be one of Canada's Olympic hopefuls someday. We went to Tim Horton's. Our Canadian friends all said that we couldn't leave without trying it. We have been there - done that.


We spent the rest of the day at the RV park getting ready for our trek back across the border.
Friday a.m. was an early start thinking we we heading for Lethbridge, Alberta to spend the night. Not thinking it being Labor Day week-end, we could not find any RV park that wasn't already full! We knew then that we had to head to the border crossing and get into Montana. We found a spot at the Lewis and Clark RV park in Shelby. By now we have driven our biggest mileage of the trip - almost 500 miles in one day. We traveled through smoke from forest fires most of the time.
It is now Saturday morning and we are getting prepared to have our last breakfast together before we all separate and go our individual ways. This turned out to take much longer than any of us imagined.
It is with heavy hearts that we leave this adventure. Since leaving Wenatchee together we have traveled 5590 miles. We have had so many laughs, new stories to tell, and best of all the wonderful memories that we will always cherish!



Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Down to Dawson Creek and on to Beaver Lodge, AB

We left Sikanni River RV and had to immediately wait for the pilot car to get on the highway as the road crew started right there. We headed down the highway without any animal sightings. We did another cinnamon roll tasting at the Shepherd Inn and decided these were the best of the 4 or 5 that we tasted! We stopped for fuel at Dawson Creek where we had started our ALCAN Highway experience on Sunday, August 5th and traveled 3818 miles on the round trip. We were back in Dawson Creek Tuesday, August 28th.

Leaving Dawson Creek, we headed down the road into Alberta and lost an hour--Leigh and Herb are on their right time zone. We headed for Beaver Lodge, AB and you will see the big beaver statue that is in the center of town. We were spending the night at some friends of Leigh and Herb and had a delightful time and an excellent dinner.






After breakfast we headed down the road to Edmonton, AB. However driving through Grande Praire a rock hit the driver's side of the Howard's RV and put a big circular crack about at eye level which was quite devastating! Fortunately we made it the rest of the way to Edmonton and are staying at the Glowing Embers RV Park. It is a large park with about 300+ sites most of which are full. It is close to the West Edmonton Mall which is the huge mall with amusement parks, 100 restaurants, wave pool, skating rink and much, much more.

The day was cooler than yesterday and the wind is blowing!


Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Mucho lake and Sikanni River

We left Teslin, YU in a drizzly rain that lasted most of the morning. We were planning to stop at Watson Lake for some souvenirs. The store didn't open until noon so we fixed lunch in front of the library. Leigh and Marilyn went shopping at the variety store and then the grocery store. We were pleasantly surprised at how well stocked the grocery store was.
We were fortunate to see a couple of herds of wood bison right off the road and a black bear went scurrying across the highway as well.
We stayed at Muncho Lake RV park that was right on the lake which backed up to a huge mountain. A float seaplane took off from the neighboring RV park in front of our park


The highlight of the morning after leaving Muncho Lake was seeing a family of Stone sheep alongside the highway. They are brown in color and even though they are part of the mountain sheep family, they strongly resemble a mountain goat. They let us photograph them and then quickly scurried off the roadside.


We traveled over more twisty, curvy, newly graveled roads and later in the morning when stopping for a break and leg stretch was the dripping of antifreeze from the back of the Howard's motorhome! Since being warned from the beginning of our trip about rocks and radiators, we knew this wasn't a good sign. We were about 60 kilometers from Fort Nelson, so Herb got there as quickly as he could. We were directed to the radiator shop and sure enough - a rock through the radiator. We purchased Wayne's Leak Stop and antifreeze and back on the road where we headed to our nights lodging at Sikanni River RV park.
We had a wonderful pork chop dinner and it was a great way to celebrate Herb and Leigh's anniversary. It is getting warmer and after three weeks it looks like we can all start wearing shorts again!




Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Back to Teslin

We got to see this at the side of the road on our way to Teslin, YU.
We stopped early after we had a yummy cinnamon roll at Johnson Crossing just before Teslin.







Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Trip to Skagway, Alaska

We decided to take the train to Skagway on the original narrow gauge tracks. From our RV park we took a bus down to Fraser,BC and caught the White Pass Yukon Railway to Skagway. The train has a very colorful history. Gold was discovered in the Klondike on July 17, 1897 at Dawson City. At the time gold was discovered, the stampeders had to go up the Chilkoot Trail several times to get their 1000 pounds of supplies or a year's worth of food which was required by the Canadian Government. This was done under brutal conditions! The decision to build a railway was welcomed! The "railway from Hell" was organized in April 1898 and construction began May 28, 1898. The railway starts at sea level and goes to 3000 feet at the summit in 20 miles. The original route went to Carcross. The stampeders would bing their supplies to Carcross/ Bennett Lake and then start the 550 miles down the Yukon River. They would build rafts or if they had the money, they would take the steamship to Dawson City (2 days down from Whitehorse). The railway has changed its uses several times in its life and it went to diesel power in 1954. It now runs as an excursion railroad. We had a good ride with sunny skies which turned to cloud and low fog, but as we went down we escaped the fog. We stopped and picked up some hikers. We had to go through US Customs. We had a little time in Skagway and there were two ships in as well. We caught the bus and came back. We had to go through Canadian Customs which took a bit longer.

Our bus driver gave us his views on many things about the Yukon, BC and even the US. He liked living in the Yukon, but liked some of the old ways better. He pointed out some elusive Dall sheep up on the side of the mountain.

When we got back to our RV Park, the Commemorative 70th Year ALCAN Convoy was also staying and the campground was very full of army trucks and jeeps! We enjoyed dinner out and decided to do some grocery shopping which turned out to be an adventure with many empty shelves! Saturday morning we decided to wash some of the dirt off the motorhomes and car. In this part of the world winter is in the air.




Moose hood ornament and the one next to this one was "bullwinkle"

Note to Harry and Jay: Bill drank a couple of tall ones at the Bonanza in Skagway to you.

Leigh- Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

White River to Whitehorse and beyond

Staying at the White River RV park was quite awareness building. University students studying geology in a summer internship program have been exploring different sites to find minerals that can be mined. They are staying at the campground and each day take a helicopter out into the Yukon wilderness. Eight hours later the helicopter picks them up and brings them back. They started with 59 students at the beginning of the summer and now they are down to 9. What a great experience when you are young.
We met the park owners son and were amazed that he will soon be going back to Vancouver to spend his senior year at a private boarding school. Basic education goes to the 6th grade in the Yukon. If students want to continue their education, they must go to a boarding school in Whitehorse. Many complete their schooling at the 6th grade level.
We continued traveling over the permafrost laden road and were treated to seeing a black wolf along side of the road. Herb and Leigh experienced a loud thud under the motorhome thinking it might be something serious! After stopping for a break, the mystery was solved. The UW license plate was no longer attached to the front of the motorhome. Needless to say, turning back over that piece of road was not going to happen.

We made it to Whitehorse in the afternoon and did chores such as Bill getting the motorhome oil changed and Herb washing that little white car again. Marilyn fixed another wonderful dinner and we are ready for our adventure tomorrow.

Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from my iPad

Looking forward to the road once traveled

"On the road again, just can't wait for the permafrost again." Well, maybe it isn't quite like Willy Nelson's version, but today was the beginning of traveling back over the frost heaves and permafrost troubled highways. We started our days adventure at our campgrounds restaurant, with a wonderful breakfast, giving us the energy that we would need for the day. Two different types of forests were our early sights. Well drained soil and south-facing slopes support tall, dense forests. In contrast to cold wet flats, resulting in stunted bad crooked black spruce. They also get a fungus called witch's broom, where thick, ball- shaped tangles of spruce branches and needles clustered close to the trunk of the tree. We hope that Loni is enjoying some of these facts!
We met the Alcan Hwy at Tok. How Tok got its name is a mystery. A couple of views are that it rhymed with poke or it is short for Tokyo. It is a busy little town.



These are Mt Sanford, Mt Drum and Mt Wrangell. These are
in the 10 highest peaks in Alaska,

Not needing to stop for lunch, we continued to view three mountain peaks. Mount Drum in the middle, Mt. Sanford to the left, and Mt. Wrangell to the right. We made it to the Alaska border and thought it would be a good idea to take a farewell picture. Well, so did three other tour busses! We hurried to be the next group in line to get photographed, as Bill did the camera honors.
We have now made it through Canada's customs with little difficulty and on to our patchwork of good highway going bad with frost heaves, potholes, and pavement breaks. One would think we were at Cheyenne Frontier Days as contestants as we buck along the Alcan highway.
We end our day's journey at White River RV park which is 1168 on the historical mile markers. It 's 10:00 p.m. and it's still daylight!




We say goodbye to Alaska (note the tour busses in background)

Leigh - Marilyn
Posted on my iPad

With heavy hearts we are starting to head home

We have had an amazing time on our trip, but it is time to head our rigs on the long journey toward home. We left the City of Kenai on the Kenai Penninsula today. School started today in many places in Ak. There were still many fishermen in the ri ers fishing, some rafters and a few RVs heading south on the Penninsula.
It was a beautiful, sunny day with some clouds in the sky.
Bill and Marilyn saw three Dall sheep way up the mountain as we came back into Anchorage. Leigh and Herb bought diesel at one place and Bill and Marilyn found Costco. They got fuel and did some restocking and met up with Leigh and Herb on the road that was to be the one we journeyed on today. It is called the Glenn highway and they were setting up for the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, AK which starts Thursday and runs through Labor Day. This highway cuts north across Ak, but misses the section that includes Fairbanks. This is probably our last full day in Alaska. Another border crossing into Canada and the Yukon.
The scenery was again outstanding and overwhelming! On one of our stops, we saw a juvenile bald eagle eating a fish. Even though it was juvenile, it was huge! Another beautiful site was the Matanuska glacier. It seems ingredibly large, but it also looks to be about half the size it has been. It is in the Chugach Mountains. It is 27 miles long and 4 miles wide. It is the start of the Matanuska River which flows to Anchorage and into the Cook Inlet. It is right near our campground for the night. We are suppose to see Dall sheep from here, but haven't yet. It is getting dark about 9:30. This is almost an hour earlier than when we started.

Matanuska Glacier



Leigh - Marilyn
Posted from


Reflection of mountain in the lake


my iPad


Matanuska Glacier