Chain Lakes

READY TO GO!

We picked up the new trailer! We both really like it and are anxious to get lots of good use out of it, even this season! So much so we went camping right away with Cor and Joanne. They were heading out for the weekend and once they knew we were picking up a our trailer on Friday they invited us to join them. Cor was amazing as he helped Peter adjust to all the new things you wish you knew, but don't, about a trailer. Lots comes from experience and we gleaned from their experience! So first of all a big huge THANK YOU to them for making our first camping trip out a good experience!

As soon as we pulled out from the RV dealership we got on the QE II which rapidly became the Deerfoot Trail running from north to south Calgary. Our destination for the weekend was west of Nanton and the quickest way there was through the city. I guess if we can go on the busiest freeway in the busiest city on a sunny Friday afternoon during rush hour, we can drive anywhere! We were relieved though to arrive at the quiet little Provincial Park in the south west foothills of this beautiful province we live in! Cor and Joanne had a site reserved for us so we only had to pull in, unhook and take all our camping gear from the back of the truck and load it into our yet unused trailer! Probably easier said than done! With Cor's help Peter got our new little home in place and we set up housekeeping!



WHEW! WE'VE ARRIVED!



"LEARNER" AND THE "LEARNED"

There are no individual fire pits anymore in the campsites so we had to fore go that important part of camping and sit around the "coffee table" and visit. (We had good visits both Friday and Saturday night!) We were so excited to sleep in our new "home sweet home" we couldn't get to sleep Friday night! When we finally did, we slept very well.



"PRETEND IT'S A FIRE!"

Saturday morning we had a fun morning cooking our first meal in our little home on wheels. We cooked and ate inside since nothing was set up outside yet.



BEFORE BREAKFAST



AFTER BREAKFAST

Saturday we went into Nanton and went to the Air Museum featuring a Lancaster bomber from WW II. It is a very interesting collection of war planes and items gleaned from that time period. The plain metal building from outside hides this fact! After spending a number of hours wandering inside and watching a well documented film concerning the strategy involved during bombing raids we wandered the town looking for a coffee shop. The obvious one in town was closed due to a family funeral. We finally managed to find a little roadside cafe that satisfied the craving.



LANCASTER BOMBER



MORE PRETENDING!

After a very filling bar-b-que supper cooked individually and shared at one site we went for a long walk to see how far up the lake we could see. The wildflowers were gorgeous and so much like many seen in the mountainsides themselves. The area around Chain Lakes is unique with shrubs domineering the foliage instead of stands of trees, but very pleasing to the eye! The weather was warm and breezy, which helped keep the mosquitoes blowing right on by! (Each morning the air was calm - windy by afternoon - and once again calm by evening.)



LOOKING BACK TOWARDS THE CAMPGROUND



LOOKING OUT TOWARDS THE MOUNTAINS



LOTS OF FLOWERS TO EXAMINE!

Before we were ready for it, Sunday afternoon arrived and it was time to pull away and head our separate directions! A good first camping experience and looking forward to more this summer.

Trip to Small Town Saskatchewan!

After our cruise we found ourselves, reluctantly at first, making a business trip to a small town just over the border into Saskatchewan. Peter wasn't sure how much work he could do for a small but growing church on the edge of town that wanted his help with expansion drawings. (Engineers and an Architect who are certified in Saskatchewan have to ultimately put their stamp of approval on the drawings.) He finally agreed to come up with some ideas on paper they could then proceed with.

There we were! It was suddenly time to go and we had no place to stay and a facility for Peter to set up the laptop and be close for extra emergency checks and measurements. Someone in the church graciously allowed us make use of their fifth wheel parked out back so we didn't have to drive an hour northwest or east to stay in a hotel. We didn't realize though just how small the town was when it came to places to eat. But this added to the charm of spending a few days there!

We drove out Thursday afternoon (after a meeting in Stettler) and arrived in time for an evening meeting with the committee for church expansion. Along the way we checked out Wainwright - which we've never done before and I'd always wanted to. We enjoyed the scenery and marvelled how quiet the route was. When you spend a lot of time on the QE II, this is a wonderful change! While Peter was in his meeting I had a heart to heart visit with the project manager's wife (in big comfy chairs in the church nursery)! We've met before briefly a few times, but she shared her years growing up and challenges parenting like we've known one another for years. The building we were in was the congregation through which she came to know the Lord. The hours flew by while we talked!

The next morning we went to the only little restaurant we could find within walking distance of the church and had breakfast. We enjoyed watching gentleman after gentleman walk in and join one another for a morning coffee, maybe toast, and chat. Of the eight sitting and talking, three offered us some more coffee. By the time we left, eleven men and one young lady were all sitting together drinking coffee and visiting. They were the only patrons at that early hour, and us! This was one more inspiration for us to get that holiday trailer we've missed for three summers now and find some more small towns and the commaradarie of farmers waiting for the crops to grow!

Since it was the only eating place in town we had supper there as well plus one more breakfast Saturday morning. The "owner" of the cafe asked Peter on Saturday he wanted his "usual"? He remembered what it was as well. After privately chuckling we realized we really did need to be leaving - when you become one of the "usual" with a favorite on the menu!

Peter was able to present a concept to the committe who once again gathered mid Saturday morning and allow them to dream and plan in a much more constructive manner. They were happy. We were happy. A job well done and an unexpected interlude in the rush of running a construction related business mid summer.

What did we enjoy along the way?

- Being a small blessing to a growing congregation with a heart for community outreach. This passion was evident over and over again throughout the church and the planning needs.

- Being warmly welcomed in a small rural community when we were evidently strangers from "the city". Who else locks their vehicle doors when going into breakfast? The honk of the horn gave it away!

- Falling asleep to the sound of a cow somewhere in the field just behind the church. No vehicles passed by until morning!

- Being tourists on the way home and travelling over route different than on the one we came.

- Seeing a 2000' long (yes!) trestle bridge just west of Wainwright over the Battle River Valley. It was constructed in the early 1900's and still in use today!

- Seeing a CN train pass over the amazingly long trestle bridge!

- Trying out restaurants and cafes sight unseen, whether or not the food is great!

- Finding a couple of country churches not far from Camrose that ask to have their church yard cemetaries explored! Making future weekend plans already that will "take us over the fence".

- Further research into our purchase of a holiday trailer at Nisku. Hmm. Getting closer!

It's nice when trips that you expect to be difficult and you go into them cautiously because of so many unknowns turn out to be a pleasure. We weren't treated like strangers where ever we went. From the shopping in Wainwright to the family cafe in Small Town Saskatchewan!

STATION JUST EAST OF DONALDA

STATION IN WAINWRIGHT

PETER'S TEMPORARY OFFICE

BUILDING IN NEED OF CHANGES

TRESTLE BRIDGE STILL IN USE!

NEXT PLACE TO VISIT!

Vancouver to Home

The rest of the trip was good - much slower paced than the cruise - but we enjoyed the stop in Revelstoke and the chance to see a bit of my (Lorraine's) family history.



BACK AT VANCOUVER PORT!



BRIEF STOP AT "THE LAST SPIKE"



HOUSE BUILT BY MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER
ON RAILWAY STREET IN REVELSTOKE



WHERE MY MOM WENT SWIMMING AS A TEENAGER
WILLIAMSON LAKE - JUST OUTSIDE OF REVELSTOKE



REVELSTOKE RAILWAY MUSEUM

We also had a chance to briefly stop in at the Town Museum and see the collection the Curator had on the Anderson family - newspaper articles, photos etc. She was very pleasant and accomodating which gave us an unexpected view into our past (Ron's and mine). We also had a chance to visit the cemetary and see some of the gravesites of relatives. Great-grandparents on both Mom's sides of the family were buried there along with a Great Aunt and Uncle, Cousin of Mom's plus other relatives of Mom's. As well we drove to the top of Mount Revelstoke, almost! The last six kilometers were still under snow. That seemed so strange since it was so warm down in the valley at the townsite!

We enjoyed a couple of evenings in the hotel hot-tub visiting and meeting others who wandered in as well. We tried out a Chinese Food restaurant in downtown Revelstoke and enjoyed the ample continental breakfast at our own hotel.



YES, SNOW IN MID JUNE!



REVELSTOKE FROM UP THE MOUNTAIN!

Will the summer hold anymore adventures? I think quicker than we would realize! It wasn't too long after this trip we found ourselves "over the fence" again and visiting another part of our province that we hadn't really checked out before. Plus just a tiny, tiny little piece of Saskatchewan. Next Blog!

FRIDAY AT SEA HEADING HOME!

LATE EVENING STOLL ON DECK!

There are very very few pics for this day! The water was a bit rough as the weather was inclement for a large part of the day. I guess if it is going to rain we might as well be at sea! But by late evening, after the stage show, the night skies cleared and it was calm and quite warm! Maybe because we were also back into the channel between Vancouver Island and the Main land? Not sure. We did enjoy one last evening walk on the Promenade Deck though!

To fill in space a bit I can show you our collection of towel animals! If you read the blogs before this you will have already seen a lobster and an elephant! Here's the rest.

A RABBIT

A PIG

A MONKEY

Bev and I each bought the book of instructions to make these towel creatures. So MAYBE sometime if you come visit we will have "greeters" like these in our own guest spaces!

Thursday In Ketchikan

BEAUTIFUL ALASKA!

This was our last stop in a port city in Alaska. We're not sure where the week went, we only know it melted by much too quickly! We will have to do the trip again and catch more of what we missed this time around!

Ketchikan was a lumber town supplying those venturing into the gold fields of the Yukon with the wood needed for sluice boxes and hopefully cabins on successful claims. It was also (like Skagway) a stopping point on the way out where men and women of ill repute would try and waggle those few successful adventurers out of their hard dug gold! In many cases it was the townspeople, never having stepped foot on Yukon soil, who "earned" more than those lured in by the possiblity of striking it rich! To this day those making a stop-over in these port cities are still being lured to spend their cash! But I guess if your season for earning is very short - you do your best to get what you can before the cold winds from the north stop even the bravest of tourists!



LARGE ...



... AND SMALL

Ketchikan has an International (yes, international!) Airport. Seeing as the airport is built between water and mountainside the taxiway is on one level and the planes have to advance up a ramp to the runway level! We also saw an abundance of small aircraft like we had seen in every port city so far (Kev will tell you exactly what they are!) For many of these towns/cities there is only two ways in or out - by sea or by air! This is really hard to comprehend coming from a province that has a widespread grid of roads connecting our vast collection of wayside towns and large cities together.



VIEW OF DOWNTOWN KETCHIKAN
FROM THE SHIP'S DECK

If you're going to go to a lumbertown what else do you do but go to a lumberjack show! Two teams squared off. The Canadian team from the "Dawson Creek Camp" competed for points against their American opponents from the "Spruce Mill Camp". It was all done in fun, but these were authentic men of the woods who enter real competitions, like you can see on TV on occasion. I'm happy to announce the Canadians won! As the men progressed from event to event the announcer (a lumberjack himself) explained the significance of the event in actual work in the forests. Sorry to say some of that slipped past me while I was cheering on our Canadians!



TEAM WORK



SPRINGBOARD ACTION



POLE CLIMBING



LOG ROLLING

After the show we we wandered around "Creek Street" to take a peek in the once former "houses of pleasure" turned into shops and cafes. The town had it's fair share of one time brothels housed in structures built on stilts on a back water in Ketchikan. This was actually very unique and interesting from a construction sense. Unlike anything we had seen before!



VIEW ALONG CREEK STREET



LOOKING TOWARDS THE SHIP
FROM CREEK STREET

Back on board that night for our evening meal we had a "Chef's Special" for supper. We all got to wear "Chef's hats" and our stewards danced around the room and performed different tricks between courses, juggling, spinning plates and generally entertaining guests.



IN OUR HATS



STEWARDS SHOWING THEIR OTHER SKILLS



YUDI AND HANS

During the late evening we started heading out to sea once again to make our way back to Canada and Vancouver Harbor. All good things must come to an end at some time! We have memories to cherish and pictures to remind us of our brief interlude, leaving behind the world back home and experiencing for a few moments a piece of the history of this last frontier as it came to be known.

Wednesday in Glacier Bay

GLIDING SLOWLY THROUGH GLACIER BAY



APPROACHING THE MARJORIE GLACIER WITH A
TOP NOTCH VIEW FROM THE BOW OF THE SHIP!



DRESSED WARM WITH CAMERA AND BINOCULARS WAITING!



MARJORIE GLACIER ABOUT 1/4 MILE AWAY.
TOWERS OF ICE TWO HUNDRED FEET TALL!
WATCHING THE GLACIER "CALVE".



WATCHING ICE BERGS DRIFT BY GOING TO SEA!

We had another exciting day aboard the Statendam! Throughout the night the ship slowly approached Glacier Bay and we were able to get a prime viewing spot on the bow of the ship after breakfast. Once we were in position to watch the Marjorie Glacier the engines were cut right back and it was peaceful and quiet. When the glacier broke off pieces and showered ice and snow down into the water a thunderous noise followed. We were able to witness one large episode of ice tumbling into the sea. A naturalist on the navigational deck announced over a sound system that we were "fortunate" to see a calving of this size. More like we were blessed to be there when it happened. Blessed with perfect weather - overcast to turn the ice many shades of blue, but not raining or snowing to block out viewing the towers of ice and crevasses across the face of the glacier! No wind to cause extreme discomfort for those of us dressed warm, but not for winter conditions. In fact while we were stopped the air was still and very comfortable for most on board. There was lots of opportunity to watch the ice chunks drift past the ship and watch them tumble in the water and join to become larger but non threatening ice bergs. No re-living the Titanic here! One ice floe was a perfect perch for a number of Bald Eagles waiting for a meal stirred up by the disturbed water.

Leaving Marjorie Glacier behind we made our way back out to the bay. We passed another inlet with a glacier also at the end tumbling into the sea (Frederick Glacier) but were not allowed into the area on account of seals giving birth at the base of the glacier and using the ice floes to protect their newborns from the Whales also looking for a meal! The further out into the open sea we went the less ice floating on the water. But we did see some dolphins jumping and splashing for our benefit. Peter and I also saw some Puffins paddling away from the ship drifting by. They are cute in a funny sort of way! Pictures don't do justice to these mammal/bird sightings even if we were able to be quick enough about getting the camera focused on them. To really appreciate it you just have to take the cruise!



RON AND BEV WITH HANS AND YUDI



PETER AND MYSELF WITH OUR STEWARDS
IN THE ROTTERDAM DINING ROOM

For supper we had our second formal dinner. Once again it was delicious beyond what any picture could envision for you! And the service continued to be without comparison to what we experience back home. At least not in our little town or even Red Deer! Again, take the cruise with Holland America and you will experience what a treat it is! You give of yourself to the staff and are pleasant to them and show them respect and they return it threefold with smiles and respect for you.

OUR DUTCH DESSERT EXTRAVAGANZA!

ICE SCULPTURES

CHOCOLATE SCULPTURES

At 10:30 in the evening after the late stage show we had our Dessert Extravaganza on the Lido Deck by the pool. There was more treats than you could begin to sample! And when you aren't used to eating so late at night you limit your choice even more. But we all did sample some of the goodies and appreciate all the hard work the chef's went to in preparing the food and setting it up so beautifully for us! There are some very talented men working in the kitchen! After a quick peek outside it was off to bed. The next day would be our last day in a port and we wanted to be reasonably rested for the tail end of the cruise! Sad - but true - all good things do come to an end at sometime!