The only way to Paradise is through Faith

"The only way to Paradise is through Faith" read the sign on the church in the hamlet of Faith. We were passing through, climbing up the foothills of the Northern Cascade Mountains heading for Paradise. Already Autumn was making its presence felt with leaves starting to turn golden and the nights getting a little chillier.

We had arrived in Washington State a couple of weeks ago and have fallen in love with this beautiful area. With lovely Puget Sound on one side and glorious snow capped mountains on the other there is a bit of everything here.  Our first stop was in Anacortes on the coast not far from Vancouver. We were hoping to catch a ferry out to the San Juan islands that lie in the Strait of Georgia between Washington and Vancouver Island. On the day we drove down to catch the ferry there was sea fog everywhere. We wouldn't have seen a dickie bird if we had gone over so we flagged it away and drove around the area instead. It is on a very long peninsular (really an island but there is a bridge) connecting it to the largest island in the mainland USA called Whidbey Island. Over the narrow gap called Deception Pass, between the mainland and the island is a lovely old steel bridge. Down below the banks are lined with fishermen all eager for their harvest of salmon. And the Washington coast is all about salmon. Every creek, inlet is a breeding ground for the fish and there seems an inexhaustible supply.

After Anacortes we drove to Seattle to a quiet campground by a pleasant lake. The pickup truck was booked in for a regular service on one day and we also had an appointment to meet up with Sam and his flatmate Joey at a local restaurant called The Herb Farm. The theme of the meal was Basil and every dish had it in one form or another. Before the meal we were led around the garden and given many different types of basil to try. A remarkable meal was to follow.

One day we went out to Everett and the massive Boeing assembly plant (no photos allowed). The assembly building is the largest building on earth able to hold 76 football stadiums. We saw 747s, 777s and Dreamliners being assembled. It was really fascinating.  Unfortunately the service work on the truck took longer than expected due to a lack of parts and we had to leave it in over night meaning we couldn't visit Seattle the next day (but we caught up later). So we headed on to Aberdeen on the coast and then to Port Townsend at the western entrance to Puget Sound. A lovely old victorian town loving restored. We stayed in Fort Worden State park where huge gun batteries once guarded the approaches to Puget Sound.

One day while we were there we caught the ferry from Bainbridge Island an hours drive away across the sound to Seattle. Pike Market had the most beautiful fish on display that we had ever seen in the US.

And the view from the ferry as we left was fantastic also. The weather has been kind to us in Seattle and we saw very little rain in over two weeks.

We are now a few miles from Paradise! The Cascade mountains with their tall active volcanoes are a most beautiful sight in Washington. The most recent eruption just down the road was at Mt St Helens, but all of them have been active recently- ie the last couple of hundred years. Standing tall they can be seen for miles dominating the countryside. We are camped near the hamlet of Paradise on the slopes of Mt Rainier which at 14,500 ft is only a few feet shorter than Mt Whitney the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. But it is a lot more accessible and a lot more impressive with more glaciers than any other non Alaska mountain. At Paradise, so called because the view reminded  the namer of Paradise (she was obviously well travelled!) we hiked for miles up lovely alpine meadows covered with summer flowers, with the looming mass of Mt Rainier always present.  We climbed up to about 7000 ft and overlooked one of the glaciers coming off the side of the mountain - Nisqually. It is a really special place and even with all of the tourists there, there was enough space to get away from it all.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Washington State and cross the border into Oregon.

North to Alaska

We left our fifth wheel in an RV park near the US border and drove to Vancouver Airport where we left the pickup and got a bus to Vancouver Port where we boarded the Sapphire Princess. A large ship, we had a lovely cabin with two views to the stern and to the side as we were the last cabin on the starboard side. Our friends Sharon and David had the cabin next to us. 

We set sail and cruised up the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the mainland, heading for the Seymour Narrows where we had spend a couple of nights a week ago. The weather was perfect - Vancouver having had no rain for a month. We settled into cruising life and on the first night we had our first formal dining night dining. The other picture is from our second formal night with with Sharon and David.

The ship is very comfortable with lots of facilities but in the main we were too busy at ports to take much advantage of them. The Sapphire Princess is the biggest ship on the Alaska run. There are many many ships and many many passengers cruising to and from Alaska. It is big business and Princess alone has 7 ships in the season and has by far the best linked in cruise tours at the start or end of your trip owing their own buses, hotels, and even train. It makes for a seamless experience though not very personal.  This is our ship viewed from the air at our first port of call - Ketchikan, the Salmon Capital of the World. (and there are lots of salmon!)

At Ketchikan we took a float plane to the Misty Fjord and landed on a serene mountain lake. The views as you can imagine were fantastic. Most people went on Salmon Fishing and Whale watching trips but we were lucky to get the float planes as we had booked some months before.

Ketchikan has a nice feeling to the town (only accessible by water). The main street Creek Street has a salmon swimming up it to spawn!

We left Ketchikan and cruised overnight to Juneau the capital of Alaska. Again Juneau is only accessible by water or air. Our trip ashore was to paddle a native American canoe right up to the base of the tidewater Mendenhall Glacier which was amazing. Only two canoes are allowed at a time and only four per day and that is the ONLY way of getting up to the glacier other than helicopter. It was amazing to see the glacier from the sea and watching small bits of ice fall off into the sea.

After we left Juneau along narrow passages between islands we saw lots of whales, orcas and even sea otters and Stella's sealions. Whales everywhere snorting and showing off their lovely tails.

Our next port of call was Skagway which is one of the ports that miners flocked to in the 1890s to get to the Yukon Territory to dig for gold. A railway was built to take them part of the way over the difficult White Pass and we rode the train from Alaska to British Columbia and then into the Yukon Territory itself. Spectacular scenery.

From Skagway we cruised overnight to Glacier Bay, without a doubt the highlight of our cruise. Words can't do it justice. It was a perfect day and something we will both remember for all our lives. Huge glaciers tumble down from 15000 ft mountains into the sea, calving huge chunks of ice in the process.

The ship manoevres gently around the sounds turning to give everyone a great view. The glaciers are huge. They look small but they are 300 ft high and over a mile wide when they enter the sea. This picture was taken 150 ft up on the top deck of the ship and the glacier still towers over the ship. Whales cavort at the entrance to the bay and sealions show off. We were lucky with the weather as it is not always perfect as we experienced.

Then als itv was time to leave and two days cruising North West bought us to College Fjord late in the evening where we saw even more impressive glaciers churning their way down to the sea.  The weather had turned a bit for the worse but it was still a majestic sight sitting in the comfort of the bar drinking a martini and slowly, very slowly making our way up the fjord past the huge glaciers.

We arrived in Whittier, the port for Anchorage the next morning and left the ship and boarded a train just outside. It had started to rain, though that didn't last long.

The train took us north for 9 hours to the Princess Denali Lodge, by the Denali National Park, a huge 10,000 square mile wilderness jammed full of wildlife. On our excursion the next day we saw caribou.

We saw moose, and they are big, and we saw lots of grizzly bears.

We drove into the deepest parts of the park, on dirt roads on an old school bus which was a bit uncomfortable but we had a very knowledgeable driver who had been doing the run for 31 years and knew every place to spot animals.

After Denali we went down to the Mount McKinley National Park where we admired the tallest mountain in North America and the highest mountain from its base to its summit in the world. It rises 18000 feet from it base of 2300 ft more than Mt Everest which only rises 12000 from its base. There was a bit of cloud over the summit but it was very impressive.

I am writing this blog in Anchorage awaiting the shuttle to take us to the airport for our flight to Vancouver. Alaska is certainly a frontier state and an amazing place and definitely a MUST SEE for everyone. One of the great places of the world!

Tomorrow we are back in the USA in Washington State continuing our trip south to San Diego.