By special request (hello Ebbie!) I am quickly refreshing this thread to tell of some of our adventures. We have now unpacked and sorted out our treasures.

We had never thought of ourselves as "cruise people", but I have to say we very quickly became used to being spoilt in a floating luxury hotel. I reckon a folkie cruise would be great, there are lots of bars and spots for great sessions.

We liked Vancouver, but enjoyed Victoria better, it's smaller and seems more laid-back, and I don't think I have ever seen or smelt anything more beautiful that the roses at the Butchart Gardens. We liked the towns we visited on the Inside Passage - Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway - I would love to see them on a day when the cruise ships weren't in town. We chose not to do any tours in Ketchikan and Juneau but rode on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad up into the hills from Skagway, what a marvellous trip. I have great admiration for the builders of this railway and the engineering that went into the making of it, and even more for the people who walked the trail.

And having the Fourth of July in an American town was very interesting and a lot of fun!

We were really awe-struck by the scenery as we went further north, seeing photos does not prepare one for seeing glaciers in real life. We saw a glacier calve - not a huge chunk, but enough to make a loud crack and splash - even captured it on film while we were having champagne breakfast on our balcony (a girl has to eat.......)

After an unfriendly welcome at our Anchorage hotel (I think the staff were harassed by the Veterans' Wheelchair Games that were being held that week) we found Anchorage interesting thanks to Rob. On the trip north to Denali we were able to see Mt McKinley very clearly as the day was clear; the guide said "it's only visible about 20% of the time so you are lucky". The trip into the interior of Denali National Park was even more fascinating than we had hoped it would be, and we had another wonderful view of the mountain (and the tour guide said it's only visible etc) I even found the first forget-me-nots of the summer before our guide did! And we decided that mooses are not pretty and ground squirrels are cute. We don't have animals like them in Oz.

Fairbanks was interesting and we met some really nice people. We did the touristy thing and went prospecting for gold, and we both found some; we had it set into a necklace for me, and I have said that Himself can borrow it to wear if he behaves himself. The plane flight from Fairbanks was interesting as some burly gentlemen were sitting in our allocated seats, they motioned us to sit across the aisle. We realised why when we noticed that the gentleman wearing all sorts of metallic stuff on his shirt (stars and things like that)on the aisle seat was handcuffed to his neighbour. We flew over glaciers after leaving Anchorage but it was too cloudy to see anything else until we landed at Vancouver. Then it was a very long flight home and the cats were very pleased to see us.

Now we have wonderful memories and fabulous photographs.

Cheers
JennieG