Capilano Suspension Bridge

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Originally uploaded by simmogem.

Our final day in Vancouver before we head off to Whistler so we decided to head off to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. To get there we took the Seabus (ferry) to North Vancouver and then a bus up to the bridge. The Bridge was built after a settler discovered a huge gorge running through his land and no way to cross. He then sold the bridge to an aspiring scot who charged city slickers 10c to walk across the bridge.

This started a craze that continues today – however inflation means you pay $20 to cross the bridge now. On the site there is also a historic tour telling the tale of the bridge (lots of romance involved but I wont bore you with the details) and on the other side of the gorge is a series of boardwalks through the forest and a treetop walk.

Walking across the brigde was a bit of a worry as it tends to swing and shake as about a hundred tourists clomp along. Once you get used to the swaying though the walk is quite something. I’m not sure of the exact dimensions, I’m sure Simon can fill you in, but I did note that if the Statue of Liberty were standing next to the bridge it would come up to her shoulder and it is so long that two 747’s could fly wing to wing under it.

I really enjoyed the tree top walk. This was 7 bridges linked to platforms positioned halfway up Douglas Firs in the forest. When we stood on one of the platforms and looked up, the tree was so tall that you felt you were standing on the ground and not halfway up the tree. Simon has a photo that gives you a bit on an idea of just how tall the trees are, one though was about 200ft tall.

Simon and I can understand why this has been a tourist attraction for over 200 years, very pleasent day out and a bit of a thrill as well.

A blog for all you foodies

IMG_0258

Originally uploaded by simmogem.

This one is for all you food nuts out there – you know who your are Jenny and Kimberley – how do corn chips come in three different colours?! Now before you say food colouring I have already checked that and even the organic corn chips with no added flavours or colours come in this vibrant red and greeny blue colour. When you have the answer post a comment – I will pick up a special souvenier for the first person to give me the explanation. These tri colour corn chips were not a one off either, they are what most establishments serve.

More on food, Mums and Dads relax we have been eating well. Groceries here are fairly well priced and like Sydney if you hit China Town you can pick up some great stuff. Simon whipped up a pretty good chilli con carne the other night and we had it for lunch again the next day – this did our budget the world of good. Therefore here is the second food task of the day – we need some more recipes like this. The main criteria is that ther require few ingredients and they are relativly easy to whip up in a busy hostel kitchen.

My other note on food, or more so shopping for food, is on the Choice Supermarket in Vancouver. This is gluten free shopping heaven. The store is an organic supermarket but on all the shelves the gluten free products are marked with a blue tag – this made my life about ten times easier. In fact supermarkets in Canada are generally shopper friendly. NIce wide aisles, soft lighting, dark timber fixtures and all have a little coffee shop in the front. The Marketplace, a supermarket in downtown Vancouver was so comfortable we had our breakfast there – also it was $2 for a muffin and coffee – can’t really beat that.

Anyways, look forward to the recipes. I will pop a couple of reviews up from time to time.

Victoria Harbour

 

CookOriginally uploaded by simmogem.

Yesterday we had taken a walk to the harbour of victoria so Gemma could see the Empress Hotel and spotted the Legaslative Legaslative Building. We took a free tour and learnt that to celebrate a visit from the Queen they had installed 3000 lights to the outside of the building that are turned on at night.

I thought this would make a great photo so this evening we headed down to the harbour again (15 minute walk). The sun sets at about 9pm here so we left at about 8:10 so we could find a good spot before it got dark. I still have a bit to learn when it comes to dressing appropriately for the Canadian climate as my T-shirt and polar fleece vest left a little lacking once the sun dropped.

Gemma, my kind assistant, went and found us coffee while we waited for what seemed an eternity for the lights to come on. I assume who evers duty it is to flick the switch was asleep at their post as they didn’t come on until after 9:30pm.

ONce the lights were on, finding a place to clamp my camera to became quite a task. We treied a park seat, a war memorial, a high tension cable supporting a pole but the best photo ended up comming from the camera being perched atop a bin! And who should we find trying to sqeeze his way into the photo. None other than Captain James Cook who has taken up prime position in front of the harbour and the Empress.

I’ll have to edit the bird poo out later.

-Simmo

Cycling Stanley Park

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Originally uploaded by simmogem.

This would have to be up there with my favourite days – following Simon around Stanley Park on a bicycle!

I’m not much of an adventurer and I haven’t ridden a bike since I was about ten so I was a little unsure about how I and my butt would go riding a bike all day, but it was fantastic. The weather as you can see was glorious and the track follows the harbour shoreline giving uninterupted views for the entire trip.

We also rode over the Burrard St Bridge to Granville Island. The island (not really and island more of a peninsula) has a series of old warehouses converted into shops, markets, art galleries and what appeared to be a arts college. The whole place has a carnival feel to it and was a great place to sit and watch the world go by.

After a drink and some tri coloured corn chips (more on that later) we mounted our bikes for the ride home. As I said I did ok on the bike, except for one section of the ride and that was going back over the Burrard St Bridge. People often say ‘I almost had a heart attack’ when they are a bit short of breath – but I say to you I really did almost have a heart attack! Overall the day was really enjoyable and I would recommend that anyone visiting Vancouver should hire a bike and ride Stanley Park.

post script – 13/06/06: My butt is killing me!

Quick Update

Now at Skagway, our last stop on the cruise.

Have taken loads of photos and lots has happened in the last two days.  When we return to Vancouver (sunday) we will update the blog with our diary entries and upload some of the pictures for you to see.  But for now, we are safe and having a great time.

We enjoyed reading your comments, keep them coming.

Gemma and Simon

Skagway

White pass Railway in Skagway
Originally uploaded by simmogem.

Skagway is our longest stop on the cruise and is a historic Gold Rush town that has been preserved to appear as it did in 1898. Reminds me of visiting Old Sydney town when I was about 5.

Skagway claims to have invented the board walk in an attempt to keep mud out of the shop fronts. Speaking of shopfronts, on entering Skagway I commented to Gemma that buildings all had false fronts or facades much like a movie set. Initially we thought this was to provide the illusion of being in the late 1800’s however, our tour guide later that day explaine that this was actually historically acurate. Skagway began as a tent city and some stores/resturants errected false building fronts in front of their tents to give the impression of a more classy establishment. Some of the buildings even have given the impression of additional levels through the facades.

The gold rush in Skagway lasted all of 3 years between 1897 – 1901. Skagway has survived ever since as a tourist attraction drawing visitors to the White Pass Railway which transported gold seekers from the sea port to the gold fields in the mountains 3000ft above.

This brings us to our shore excursion. At 9am we departed aboard the last carriage of the White Pass rail. The steam engine has been replaced with a diesel motor but the carriages are authentic. The railway was fantastic. Starting at…well sea level and climbing to just under 3000ft in about 15 miles is an experience. To think that the tunnels were carved from the solid granite mountain by hand over 100 years ago seems impossible. However considering the alternative of dragging food, tools and other supplies up the mountain by hand justifies their labours.

You can ride the railway to Yukon which is well into Canada but is a 6 hour return journey. We opted to take the 3.5 hour trip that takes you to the peak (which is also the Canadian border) and then turns around. We choose to do the trip in the morning as we thought the ‘evening’ summit may not provide as good photo opportunities. I guess we forgot that the sun sets at 11:45pm here.

Once back in town we had a bite to eat then took a free guided walking tour of historic Skagway provided by the parks and wildlife authority. They actually buy and restore historic buildings and then rent them back to the retailers for a tidy profit. A government authority that seems to be doing quite well and giving back to the community?

We finished off the day with a drink in a Saloon on the mainstreet. Having the longer time makes for a much more relaxing experience.

Check out the photos to see more.

Simon

Sawyer Glacier

Sawyer Glacier
Originally uploaded by simmogem.

After seeing a distant view of the Mendellhall Glacier while Kayaking I felt content that I had seen one of the main features of North America that had given interest in doing this cruise. I never imagine that later today our cruise ship that is `10,000 times bigger than our kayak would sail right up to the Sawyer Glacier through ‘Tracey’s Arm’.

An absolutely spectacular sight cruising through a fjord full of icebergs. Some the size of houses. It is quite humourus thinking about how many photos I took of that first iceber we saw, only to round an island and find the sea dotted with thousands of them. Some of the photos of the first iceberg are probably the best though as there was less things to draw your attention making it easier to focus.

We saw several Harbour seals sunning themsleves on top of the ice bergs. Many of them with baby seal cubs. Still no whales that are worth mentioning though.

As you can imagine it was a little cool outside. The water obviously only just above freezing and the wind, which was very strong, was like ice. Gemma lasted about 2 hours outside before retiring to the warmth of the observation lounge. I battled on for another half an hour until I had drained my second camera battery and my shutter finger was frozen.

Many of the photos will require some post production editing that I can’t do until we get a laptop so I have uploaded a few of the ones that look ok as-is onto flikr and will put more up when I can manipulate them.

I hope you can get a feel for the scenery we saw today but can’t strongly recommend enough how much better this is in person. Those who can, should definitely come and see this for themselves.

On a sadder note, I lost my beanie this evening in the observatory lounge. No one has seen it so I think it has found its way into someone elses bag. I haven’t seen anyone with similar headwear so I’ll keep an eye out for anyone wearing it, but otherwise I’ll have to buy a new one in vancouver.

Thanks for reading,
Simmo

Kayaking in Juneau

Kayaking
Originally uploaded by simmogem.

I have to admit I was a little nervous at the thought of sea kayaking, especially in water that was only 1 – 2 degrees, but the sun was shining and the wind was down so we were promised a good day on the water. When we reached Douglas Island, about a 15min drive from the capital, we jumped off our old school bus and straight into our wet gear – big rubber pants, gumboots and our life jackets. As you can see the ensemble was quite stylish. Simon sat in the back so he could steer and I sat in front so I could set the pace and get a good view. The fjord where we were kayaking was at the foot of the Mendall Hall Glacier and whilst we were still about 10 mile from the glacier the veiws were fantastic.

Along the way we saw a number of eagles and in the distance (which I was glad of) was a whale. The highlight though was a seal that kept following the kayaks and popping his head up to have a look. I maintain that I did most of the rowing but even still the trip was very peaceful and the water was like a sheet of glass. The guide said that it was the best weather that they had had in a long time.

After the kayaking the bus dropped us back into town which gave us a chance to post a few letters and buy some home made fudge -peanut butter of course. Simon has also started collecting fridge magnets so we went hunting for a good Juneau magnet. Overall, we weren't impressed bythe city of Juneau, apart from the governmet buildings the rest of the town was tourist shops. The sea kayaking however was well worth the trip and I am looking forward to doing a bit more of it on our other trips in Canada.

Ketchikan – do you Partake…

Port one on our cruise – Ketchikan the salmon capital of the world! There is so much salmon here I’m going pink just thinking of it – tinned, canned, boxed, dried you name it and you can find it here – I’m bringing you all home some salmon jerky, sounds appetising doesn’t it!

Ketchikan is one of the oldest fishing villages in these parts and as I look out of the cafe window the only thing that reminds me that it is 2006 is the mobile phone tower in the background. The town itself is what you would expect of a fishing village, it is colourful and messy and has a cheeriness that only a shoreline of timber shacks can produce. Rather than take a bus tour with the other ship dwellers we decided to grab a walking map from the info centre and explore ourselves which turned out to be a good idea. We saw the back streets of Ketchikan, where there were no tourists, as well as the tourist hot spots like Creek Street (Ketchikan’s former red light district).

It was on part of this walk that we headed down to the fishing docks and met a real life fisherman (white beard, sailors cap and overalls – the whole bit). He was strolling back from his rusty van toward is apartment. Actually apartment is probably the wrong word, his room in one of the big timber houses that line the waters egde. He was inspecting the side of the building to see if he could some how fit gas heating for the upcoming winter – this was his first winter here, he has lived in Ketchikan for 18 years but  always on his boat. This year he is renovating the boat so has stepped onshore till it is completed – not bad for an old fella. His final commments give title to this post, as we invited him to get on with his morning he commented that he was busy, carrying his glow lamp up to his room to set up his pot. I kid you not – in Ketchikan pot is very popular – he explained. He asked very politely if we partook of pot – we politely declined and with that we were all on our way. Looking back I am quite lucky that our morning did not end in Simon and I sitting cross legged on the floor of a dank fishers apartment… well you know. Till our next adventure on the high seas Gem

Appologies on our lack of updates.

Firstly I must appollogies for not posting yet.  There has been limited internet access that is affordable (were trying to survive for 12 months remember).  Rest assured we are safe and sound and are keeping journals so that we can back date posts when we get a chance.

The cruise is great, flights have been fine (except for a minor problem with Gemmas Luggage).  Look forward to telling you more soon.

Thanks….aye,

Simon and Gemma