Keen Blog – Canada & Alaska -May 2024

Planes, trains, boats, automobiles......and a ship.  It's another travel blog from the Keens.  If this is your first time, welcome.  I hope you enjoy it.

We can hear the cheers of the Vancouver Canuck fans from the street below as we sit in our 10^th floor hotel room. The Canucks (slang for Canadian) have just won the 1^st round game of the Stanley Cup play-offs with the Nashville Predators. It was a last minute goal which sent the fans in the next door Rogers stadium into delirium, even though they were only at the ‘Watch party’, with the game being played in Nashville. NHL is probably the biggest sport in Canada. Our hotel is near to the NHL stadium but is actually attached to the BC Place stadium which was constructed for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is where the Whitecaps play soccer and the Lions play football. Our hotel also has 1 of only 2 casinos in Vancouver City but I manage to keep Mrs K off the slots.

We arrive in Vancouver on a beautiful evening (Wednesday 1^st May) with blue skies across the city.  It has been a bit of a journey for me especially as I am recovering from acute tendonitis and a touch of the lurgy that I cant seem to shake after 3-4 weeks.  About a week ago, our trip was in some doubt, but given we have been planning this for over a year, we weren't going to give up lightly.  Matt, my physio worked wonders over the last week, but given the amount of walking around airports, I brought a walking stick with me.  That worked wonders in terms of getting to the front of lines.

It's our first proper trip to Canada.  We did visit Niagara Falls on the Canadian side a few years ago but this is the big one, even by Mrs K's standards.  We are both excited about the whole trip, which will take us up to Alaska, but that comes later. 

This is British Columbia which has 6,000 islands of which Vancouver island is one. Confusingly, Vancouver City is not on Vancouver island. That is a 20-minute seaplane ride away and we watch them take off from the Burrard Inlet when we visit the cruise terminal at Canada place. Just working out where we will be going next weekend.

About 75% of the land mass is mountainous.  By the way, technically, King Charles as head of state, owns 89% of the land in Canada but takes no income from it.  British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871 but Canada only earned its independence from the UK in 1982.  30% of the population have ancestry in the UK. They inherited a lot from the Brits but they don’t seem that grateful. Apparently, the British were not fans of totem poles and stopped then being used in ceremonies by ‘First Nationers’ until the 1950’s. But if you are a descendant of a first nation tribe, you don’t do too badly. Most of the tribes are very wealthy and when you get to 18 you receive a lump sum of C$20,000. The local geese are also not that friendly.

On Friday morning, we are picked up by Brandon in a very big bus for our 1-day tour of the city and the surrounding area.  Brandon turns up late and looks like he is about 16 years old.  Hope he has a licence to drive this monster. After a few pickups, Brandon stands up at the front of the bus to give his briefing of where we are going.  It is quickly apparent that he has no idea.  It's the first day of the season since last September and he is a bit rusty, he says.  Great. He is after a bit of interaction from the 19 passengers on the bus, but he needn’t worry as the majority are American who love to shout out their answers and random comments with their own brand of humour. Most of them seem to be going on the same cruise on Saturday and are exchanging details of room numbers and deck levels. We are just thankful that we are on a different ship.

We visit Stanley Park which is slightly larger than Central Park in Manhattan and overlooks the bay. There are a few replica totem poles there to look at. The originals are being preserved in a museum in town. Brandon explains that totem poles are simply story books, not objects of pagan worship as might be believed. Not sure why the British disliked them. Brandon noted that the park and the NHL end of season cup are both named after former Governor Stanley – he got his posting on merit, nothing to do with being the UK prime minister’s son.

From there we go to the Capilano suspension bridge which is a wobbly pedestrian walkway over a ravine. Mrs K is not a fan of it and abandons me and my walking stick halfway across to get to the other side.

We have lunch at Granville island which is a food and shopping mecca for tourists back downtown. No big-name chains here, just lots of small local businesses, plying their trade. It’s warm enough to sit outside, listen to buskers and watch the activity on the water. Most of the boats in False Creek are the river buses (called Aquabus). Mrs K describes them as like bathtubs on water. They are dinky but one comes along every 3-4 minutes and there is a stop next to our hotel which is very handy. We chat with a couple from Perth (Marge and Bob) who are on a 5-month round trip including a 54-night cruise from the UK back to Perth. They are in their 70’s and have 5 kids and 11 grandkids at home but have their youngest (adopted) daughter with them, carrying on her schooling online. “Got to do this while we can”, says Marge. Good for them. Our last stop is the Lookout which is an opportunity to see the whole city from 553ft.

It's a bit cloudy in Vancouver on Saturday, so it’s time to move on. Next stop Calgary. Spectacular views en route.

A few people remarked that I didn’t give the final scrabble score at the end of my last blog. Modesty prevents me from making too much of that whitewash, but Mrs K is 1-0 up so far on this trip, thanks to 2 consecutive 7-letter words and a score of over 400. She means business.

Part 2

We arrive in Lake Louise.  Unfortunately, we have beaten the thaw by a few weeks and the lake is still frozen.  No canoeing for Mrs K.  As the bell hop struggles with Mrs K's luggage to our room, we are looking out the window at the people walking out on the ice. "I don't know why they are out there", he says. "It's dangerous, two people went through the ice yesterday".  Mrs K immediately rules out any adventurous activity. However, the next day, when we go for a stroll beside the lake, we are met with signs warning us of avalanches and bears.  Two tourists and their dog were killed by a bear last year, the first killing by a bear in this area for 50 years.  The two campers were equipped with bear spray but it didn't help.  Do you spray the bear or yourself? Apparently, the bear was old, in bad health and desperate.  Poor thing.

We are staying at the chateau which reminds me of the hotel in 'The Shining' except this one doesn't have spirits - except the ones behind the bar that I will be sampling later. 

Don’t think bad of us but I have the Elk and Mrs K has the Bison for dinner. I did think they might be protected.

We flew into Calgary on Saturday.  We happen to know just one person in Calgary, a daughter of good friends of ours.   When she realised we were in town, she drove in with two young kids to see us.  Leo and Bea.  It was great to meet them.   Grandparents Breda and David back home will be proud of the life their daughter Sarah has made for them in Canada.

Bit of drama going through security at Calgary airport, when I saw a chap pick up my laptop, open the lid and start hitting keys.  I just said "no!".  He looked at the tray and said, "Both these laptops yours?"  "Yes!", I said. Not sure what he was playing at.

We are downtown in a hotel called the Dorian, themed on the book by Oscar Wilde.  No bible beside the bed, just a copy of Dorian Grey.  Bit ashamed to say I have never read it (Mrs K has of course) and there’s definitely not enough time to read it now.  We are just here for 1 night and my sleep patterns have not normalised yet.  The hotel is downtown in the business district on a Saturday night, so it is quiet, but we manage to find the pedestrianised restaurant street where we sit in the sunshine and enjoy a drink.

On the way to Lake Louise we make a stop at Johnston Canyon.  At this time of year most of the activities involve walking which is not ideal right now but the foot is improving, so we set off on the walk up the trail to the lower falls.  It's only 0.5 miles but some of the path is icy. The slow climb is worth it but I was a bit sad we didn't make it up to the higher falls.  

Next stop is the small town of Banff for 2 nights, which is more than enough. We take a ride up the gondola but it is cold, breezy and visibility is minimal.

The Rocky Mountaineer

Just as we are getting used to Pacific time, we have a 6am alarm call.  We are due in reception at 7am for our pickup.  Mrs K is getting fidgety at 6.40 but we hang on until 6.55.  Predictably, the coach arrives at 7.40am.  The tour guide says it is a 5-7 minute drive to the train station.  To prove her correct, the driver is driving at 20mph.  It's about 500m to the station.  We could have probably walked and had an extra hour in bed (even with all our luggage), but Mrs K points out that a lot of the other passengers would not be able.  Average age in our train carriage is easily 75 and that includes the honeymoon couple in the back row.

The train travels back up the valley to higher altitude at Lake Louise as we pass through the Rockies and then onto the Columbia mountain range.  The train navigates its way around mountains, through tunnels and next to lakes. Hard to imagine how this was all constructed over 100 years ago. Immigrant Chinese labour was used, especially for the dangerous stuff.

Our hosts on the train are very attentive, serving breakfast as we pull away.  And they make sure everyone is enjoying themselves by bringing round the drinks trolley at 10am.  I dive into the free cocktails.  Even Mrs K is on the wine spritzers.  Watch out. Brits abroad. 

Everyone is on wildlife watch - deer, eagles and of course bears.  It seems unlikely a bear would go anywhere near a railway track but we hear 'Bear!' twice during the first day.  Mrs K saw one of them, but I didn't.  In fact, all I saw was a couple of ducks and a cow.  Need to work on my skills of observation.  

Our trip is about 300 miles from Banff to Kamloops and it takes about 11 hours including a couple of slow sections and a stop where the engineers in the front and rear locomotives swap over.  I am wondering how they protect themselves from grizzlies as they walk along the track.

It's amazing how the terrain and the temperature changes along the journey.  We start in temperatures of 2-3C in Banff and end up in 18C in Kamloops which is actually a desert location between mountain ranges.  Only 11 inches of rain in Kamloops compared to 90 feet of snow back up the valley.

We saw so many amazing vistas during the day and Mrs K got really emotional when she saw the bear, though that might have been the quadruple Baileys.

There is a lot of waving to and from the train.  There is a famous woman who comes out of her lakeside house to wave at the train every single day and has been doing it for years. Apparently, her dogs tell her when the train is approaching.  Our hosts tell us she is always there.  Recently, her reward from the train company is a free ride on the train with her husband.  Since that was covered on a documentary, all her neighbours are doing the same thing.

Day 2 is a similarly early start. We are pulling out of Kamloops station at 7.35am and on our way to Vancouver. The terrain will be very different – much drier, no snow and about 20C warmer.

Canada's biggest export?  Lumber.  We are told that Canada fells 66m trees per year, which is 2% of the tree population.   I get told off for telling the host she got that stat wrong.  2% every year?  Not possible.  The correct percentage is 0.02%.  Mrs K apologies on my behalf, "Sorry, he is a numbers man".  The good news is that for every tree that is felled, 2 new trees are planted.  Environmentalists can rest easy.  Canada has more trees than any other nation, apart from Russia. We see a lot of logs stored on the water and chained together for towing to saw mills.  Easy transport but apparently tax-free storage.

We pass some insanely long freight trains. On one particularly long one, I didn't count the carriages but I got most of them on time lapse - check out this 20 second video HERE

The landscape has changed and we spend most of the day rolling past lakes and alongside rivers which are now wide and fast flowing.  I would love to try whitewater rafting, but it won't happen on this trip.  Mrs K would rather eat a rattlesnake.  There are a few out here. I spot a coyote, yay!

Seems like the UK rail system is not the only one which is subject to delays.  We are held up a few times, mainly due to freight trains ahead of us but also because of a crew change - we have been on the train for 12 hours.  I can't say it was a hardship.  We have been very nicely looked after - the food and drink and commentary has kept flowing.  It has been amazing to go out onto the viewing platform and look at the scenery and today it has got warmer as we got closer to Vancouver, reaching 28C at one point. I’m afraid my photos don’t do the scenery any justice whatsoever but I did get a lot of video which will need editing

We finally get to our hotel in Vancouver at 10pm, but our luggage has gone astray, which is a tiny slip-up which we could have done without. Mrs K is not impressed but she has the ‘Air Tags’ which means we track our bags around the city until they arrive around midnight. It's our 6th hotel in 9 days, so on Friday we will be relieved to get on the ship, settle in and relax. Some adventures planned though.

Part 3

We've only done one cruise before and it was on a huge boat, in fact the largest cruise ship in the world at the time with 6000 passengers.  The Celebrity Summit is about 1/3rd of the size and I haven't made up my mind yet which I prefer. The first few hours are about acclimatising to the size of our cabin (small) and thinking about what activities we want to plan.

As we sit on the top deck as we leave Vancouver in bright sunshine and 24C I am thinking I didn't pack wisely.  But our first stop is Ketchikan where the temperature is 10C lower.  The experience of getting on a big ship is again overwhelming but the process of leaving the Burrard Inlet and passing under Lions Gate suspension bridge (built by the Guinness family) is amazing.  Not much clearance for the ship.

Back home in Windlesham, our neighbours are posting photos of Northern lights.  Who needs to come to Alaska!  We get some great photos ourselves.  After overindulging at dinner, I am ready for bed, but Mrs K drags me up to the top deck to see it.  Some amazing colours.

We are constantly reminded about the clocks change overnight but, of course, by the morning, we have forgotten and turn up to breakfast too early. We are now 9 hours behind the UK.

Saturday is our anniversary (39th) and I am reminded of the fact by Mrs K's Instagram post. Whoops.  We are at sea, though rarely not in sight of land as the ship makes its way up the Inner Passage. It's a day of learning about Alaska, the town of Ketchikan and humpback whales in the ship's theatre. Our naturalist is Brent Nixon – bit like Attenborough but on steroids. We end up listening to several of his lectures. Back out on deck, we are lucky to see a whale make its final dive and wave its tail fin at us on the way down.  There are almost 20,000 whales up in this area so hopefully we will see more over the next few days.  

At lunch, we are brave and opt to share a table with other guests.  Almost everyone we meet is a serial cruiser and much more travelled than us.  David and Donna are from Prince Edward Island in Canada. He must be well in his 70's and retired at the age of 43.  Sounds like they have been cruising since then. Another guest called Mary tells us she lost her house to hurricane Andrew but still lives in Fort Lauderdale.  She has been on this cruise 4 times before.

In the evening, we celebrate with drinks, a show, dinner and dance.  It's the dressing up night on the ship which is nice timing.  Mrs K meets the very young and handsome captain (half Greek and half Welsh) and goes all weak in the knees.  Given his very smooth stage presence, I am wondering about his qualifications and, when he brings all the senior staff on to the stage, who is actually steering the ship.  

After dinner, it's music from the 70's and 80's for those in their 70's and 80's, but let's face it we are not that far off.  There is an eclectic mix of dancing on the dance floor. One guy is dressed in a patterned shirt and a trilby. He looks like he could have been in the Sopranos, is about 90 and is doing the Peter Crouch robot dance.  Another couple are in black tie and are jiving in a military fashion.  And there is an Asian couple doing the tango with incredible enthusiasm, whatever the music.  Mrs K gets compliments for her dancing. I get nothing.  I was wearing the wrong shoes.  The singer is amazing - the best live rendition of ' I will always love you' I have ever heard.  We will be back in that lounge before the end of the trip.

In Ketchikan we get off to go to a lumberjack show. This is the rainiest town in America and, true to form, it is raining. Fortunately, we are under cover and well wrapped up but the lumberjack (called athletes by the compere) are all in shirts with the sleeves ripped off. I wince as they make full swings of a super sharp axe to within a few inches of their feet. The most entertaining contest is the log balancing.

Ketchikan is said to have been made, not by the miners or loggers but by the ladies that came up here to ‘entertain’ the men. Men spent their wages on Creek Street and the women ploughed that money into the local economy. Creek Street is still there, but without the ladies of the night.

Next stop is the former capital of Alaska, Sitka. Here too it is raining, just a bit a harder. We take a boat ride out to a homestead in a protected cove. There are more bears per square mile out here than anywhere else in the world. We are told that if we happen to encounter a bear, the no.1 rule is don’t run. I swear I saw 2 guys glance at my walking stick – they were thinking, at least I can outrun that guy. It’s a special type of peaceful. I note that our journey to this protected spot is on a boat with 4 V6 4.2 litre engines. Nice boat, apparently only 1 month old – the tourist industry is booming over here, thanks to the cruise industry.

Next stop is a rescue centre for bear cubs that have lost their parents. The standard approach used to be euthanasia but now there is this refuge. It’s not like seeing them in the wild but it’s as close as you can get, and you can get very close as they are housed in huge old water treatment pools.

On Tuesday, we have an incredible day. We join a tour which starts with a walk through a rainforest, leading to a lake at the foot of the Juneau Meadenhall Glacier . Scott, our guide is a non-stop source of facts and stories. He asks a question of the group. How long since the spot we are standing on was under 200 feet of ice? There are guesses from the group. “A million years”. “4000 years”. Mrs K says “100 years”. Correct answer was 94 years. (I whispered the answer to her). As least we were paying attention to the clues that Scott was giving us as we walked through the forest. Scott seems unconcerned about the shrinking glacier though. And the amazing fact about this locality is that the sea level is going down (by about an inch per year) because the earth’s crust is rising due to less weight of ice.

Then Scott takes us out on a boat to search for humpback whales. It’s the beginning of the season and they have seen many more whales than usual. In the space of just a couple of hours we see maybe 9 whales and see them repeat the process of surfacing and then diving. You are not allowed to get too close, so pictures like the one below are not realistic, but we did get some great views and a few nice shots of whales diving.

This is one of Mrs K’s shots (at least 100 yards away)

By the time we get to the end of our week's cruise, we will have worked out the layout of the buffet.  It is the busiest part of the ship at feeding times and is vast.  Walking round it is not much shorter than the jogging track. Sitting at the window from the 10th deck, eating some lunch, we spot several humpback whales feeding in the Icy Straits channel.  We are now experts at looking for the signs - 3 or 4 blows and then the dive when the tail fin rolls over.  Such an amazing sight.  One whale comes to within just 50 metres of the docked ship.  

We are not regulars at the buffet.  We prefer the dining room where the food and service is exceptional.  These waiters work long hours for little pay, but it's tax free!  We usually try to sit separately from other passengers but at breakfast today we found ourselves next to a couple from Hawaii, both sporting long grey pony tails.  Anything you want to know about their life story I can tell you.  Ask me anything.  Hank lived in Farnborough (just 10 minutes from us) as a 5-year-old when his father was stationed there.  It was possibly around the time my Dad was down there doing his national service.  Small world. Hank and Delilah are on their 17th cruise. We have some catching up to do.

Just a couple of days cruising left but we are now on our way to the Hubbard Glacier which is supposed to be amazing and then we have a trip through the Kenai Fjords National Park after we arrive in Seward. Hoping to see a lot more. The most important thing about the cruise up the Gulf of Alaska is that the captain has predicted calm seas – Mrs K is relying on him. After negotiating icebergs at Hubbard, we are told there will be a talk about the Titanic. Really? I thought that was a taboo subject on cruises? Will report back in my last brief excerpt.

The Scrabble contest has been nip and tuck. Mrs K went into a 4-2 lead with a hat-trick of wins, but I now lead 7-5, having won 5 out of the last 6.

Part 4

We have our last breakfast in the ship's dining room.  Sad day.  Not so sad for Don and Jane, next to us.  They are staying on the ship for their 5th consecutive week.  They have travelled from Miami, via the Panama Canal and will now sail back to Vancouver.  In January they were in South America and last year they did a transatlantic and round UK cruise.  These are the biggest cruisers we have met so far.  From Ontario, Canada.  It must be terrible there, to cause them to spend more time on cruises than at home.  It has hit me what a massive money-making industry this is.  Some people love cruising!

Our last full day at sea included a stop at the Hubbard Glacier, which is an amazing sight. Unfortunately, recent bad weather has led to a lot of ice breaking off and floating into the sea which means our captain has to keep a safe distance. We hear from other passengers that the ship normally would get a lot closer.

We heard about the events over Covid in 2020 last night.  The ship returned to Fort Lauderdale, cutting short a Caribbean cruise.  The US employees had to get off and quarantine for 2 weeks.  The international employees (most from Asia) were sent back out to sea, in the expectation that Covid would be a short run thing.  When it became obvious that it was going to be extended, Celebrity cruises organised their ships to sail off to destinations in Asia to drop off all their employees in their various home countries.  They even paid for their quarantine hotel stays.   No employee had to spend a Dollar due to covid.  Amazing.  The crew provide an amazing service and the hotel manager said the United Nations could learn a thing or two about the way that cruise companies bring together people of all races and creeds.  Well, I guess when you pay people tax-free dollars, you can achieve a lot.

It is like a military operation getting 2000 passengers off with their luggage and onto the correct transport.  This is Seward, another remote Alaska town, about 3 hours from Anchorage by road or rail.  All the other places, we have stopped at were only accessible by boat or plane.  We are 60 degrees north which is about the same as Oslo.  Sunset is about 10.45pm but it doesn't get properly dark during the night.

We board another boat for our last excursion.  It's called the Spirit of Adventure.  We are taking a trip up the Kenai Fjords National Park where we hope to see more wildlife, including Orcas which are resident here.  We are armed with knowledge about these amazing creatures after another great lecture from Brent Nixon.  Following that, we will never ever go to another water park show where big fish are in captivity.  These creatures are potentially more intelligent than us according to Brent's mentor - Jacques Cousteau - a name for the oldies.  When in captivity, the lifespan of Orcas is reduced by 2/3rds.  The only instances of Orcas killing humans are when in captivity.  Brent urges us to join him on one of his kayaking trips. Orcas tend to move away from boats but they like kayaks. He has canoed from Seattle to Alaska 3 times.  Probably a long shot to get Mrs K on that excursion.

What's the best time to visit Alaska?  Mid-May.  Wow, we timed that right.

After a lecture on the last song played on the Titanic on the ship the previous night (no I wasn't joking) we are not sure about sailing through an ice field, but that is exactly where the captain of this boat is taking us, up close to the Holgate Glacier and then the Aialik Glacier.  While we are there, we hear a really loud crack and a huge section falls off into the sea, creating a tiny tsunami.  We are told to hold on tight.  The good news is that we get to have a margarita with glacial ice.  Mrs K helped to retrieve it from the sea.

On the way there, somehow our captain sights a black bear on the side of the fjord.  There are actually 3 bears, including a cub.  My zoom is not good enough to get a good shot but here it is. Glad to have seen a bear in the wild.  We need to come back in June/July to see them feeding on the salmon swimming upstream.

Before that we see a lot.  A pod of porpoises leads us out of the Seward harbour. [There seems to be a lot of alternative collective nouns for porpoises] Then we see sea lions, seals and sea otters all chilling in the sunshine. The sea otters are especially cute, lying back in the water with their paws/feet pointing at the sky. There are some puffins too which were hard to see. 

We were lucky enough to see Orcas.  The male has a 6ft high dorsal fin which is so impressive to see gracefully rising out of the water.  You get to the point where you have to put your camera/phone down and just enjoy watching them.

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The scenery along these fjords is just breathtaking and we are so lucky with the weather. Before we get back to port, we get to see a humpback whale very close by.  Again, Mrs K gets an amazing video clip.  

We are on the boat for 8 hours and it feels like 3.  Just an incredible experience and we are so lucky to be here.

We arrive in Anchorage at our budget overnight hotel around 8.30pm.  Mrs K says, "where have you brought me?".  When we pull up outside in our cab she says, " is that it?".  Admittedly, it looks like an office building.  There are very few high-rise buildings in mid-town Anchorage and this is not one of them.  We are on the top floor (3rd) - kind of the penthouse floor, but not.  Like the rest of the USA there are very few people out walking.  Across the street is a guy at a bus-stop in a mask who seems to have just come from the Squid Game show.  We ask in reception, "is it OK to just walk around this neighbourhood?".  "This is Alaska baby - it's safe!", says a staff member in reception.  She is from Dominican Republic.  We walk 5 minutes to a nicely rated restaurant, and it turns out to be great find.  It's kind of our final meal before we start the journey home on Saturday.  A flight to Vancouver, an overnight stay in an airport hotel and then a flight home on Sunday night. We leave the restaurant at closing time (10pm) and need our sunglasses in the bright sunshine for the walk back.

The Canucks are still in the Stanley Cup.  They are up 3-2 in the 2^nd round (best of 7 games) against the Oilers (Edmonton).  They play game 6 on Saturday and if necessary will play again on Monday.  It's a 1.5-hour flight each way and the games go on for 3 hours.  A punishing schedule for the team.

I am still leading in scrabble (8-5). Punishing for Mrs K.

This has been an amazing trip. If you get the chance to visit Alaska, I really recommend it. And of course, our time in Canada was also amazing. Mrs K says we will need to come back. Let’s see.

Thanks for reading and see you soon.

Jeff