Victoria, B.C.

We have been traveling at sea since 1 p.m.on Thursday. The water is been very calm so the traveling has been nice.  we will be in Victoria BC for a couple of hours tonight and then leave around midnight for Seattle. For ship will arrive in Seattle around 7 a.m. It's been a wonderful and relaxing. Early this morning,  in the distance, I saw a whale breach. It was the most amazing thing that I have ever seen. It was too far away to get a half decent photograph. I was shouting for Teresa to come see but it only did it once. throughout the day we have seen whales following at a distance from the boat. We saw an orca following behind  container ship and I was fortunate to get a photograph of that. Today was spent relaxing and we really didn't do too much. Sadly our trip is coming to an end. Tomorrow we will tour around Seattle and then catch a plane ride home. We should arrive around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Ketchikan

We were up bright and early this morning.  Mom wasn't feeling well and decided to stay on board today. She has a mild case of the flu.  We went on a crabbing tours today.  

 We saw Eagles, a Humpback whale, deer with babies and of course crab.  It was fun. The tour ended with a really nice crab lunch.  Our ship sets sail soon for Victoria BC.  We will arrive there around 7:00 pm tomorrow.

Glacier Bay

We woke up at 5:30 to a beautiful morning. The sun was shining and the ship was sailing quietly along. We arrived at Marjorie glacier at around 9 o'clock and stayed here for roughly an hour and a half. It was beautiful. We were all able to see the glacier calving. What an amazing experience to see and hear. The next glacier that we saw was called Lamplugh. It wasn't as large as the Margorie glacier and it contained a lot of silt and rock within it. It was still very interesting to see. After leaving this glacier we gradually made our way up through Glacier bay. There are so nany different glaciers here and they all look so beautiful.  The sun was shining for the entire day and we actually got to take ooff our coats off for a few minutes. We enjoyed a special dinner last night at

 Sabatini's which is their specialty Italian restaurant. It was really nice. All in all it was a wonderful day.

Skagway

What a fun day we had today. It started with us waking up at 2 a.m. We wanted to see the aurora borealis. We walked around the entire ship checking to see if there was any color. We were disappointed as it seems there was some cloud cover. The ship stewards were quite surprised to see and commented on this fact. So off we went back to bed and slept for a couple more hours. We boarded the White Pass Rail at around 8 o'clock. What a fantastic train ride. We saw so much. As we climbed higher up the mountains it got colder and colder.We really enjoyed this train ride and took many pictures. Once we left the train we went for a walk through town. We enjoyed a  nice lunch at the Red Onion saloon. It was fun. Mom has been really spoiled on this cruise. Today she received a card for a free gift at the Diamond international store. She received a  lovely heart shaped necklace. This necklace had a yellow diamond in the center. Mom was just thrilled because she was expecting to receive a charm not such a pretty necklace. Tomorrow we received a special dinner invitation at one of the special restaurants on board. We're looking forward to that. The other day everyone sang happy birthday to mom and they even gave her a special cake and there was balloons on our door. This has been a really fun vacation for us so far. There really isn't too much to see in Skagway. In some ways it's very similar to Juneau. The town is filled with Jewelery Stores.  There are 10 jewelry stores for everyone regular store. Its been fun shopping for jewelry and we look forward to wearing it when we retur.  Tonight we might go and listen to one of the Naturalist talk and look forward to preparing for a visit to Glacier Bay tomorrow.. It should be really beautiful there. We've taken many many pictures and will have a difficult time choosing which ones to include in our albums when we get started on creating it.  We enjoyed watching a magician last night

.

night.

Our day in Juneau

Today we spent the day in Juneau. It was a beautiful day. The you sun was shining all day. We went whale watching and then went to see the Mendenhall Glacier. We took a stroll through downtown Juneau as well. We are now getting ready to go out for dinner and then take in a magic show. Tomorrow we're going to get up very early in the morning to see the Northern Lights. This morning we were up bright and early at 430 already. We were looking forward to seeing the whales as we cruised the Inside Passage.  We weren't disappointed.  Yesterday i won a tanzinite necklace during one of the events on the ship.  I couldn't believe how lucky I was.

Tomorrow we are off to Skagway. We are taking the

White Pass rail train ride. We're looking forward to that and hope that the weather is as nice as it was today.

Having an amazing time

Captains dinner last night. It was so much fun.

Seattle - Pike Market

We were up early this morning. It was 5:00 a.m. and all three of us were wide awake. I guess the time difference is affecting us. We had a nice breakfast at 6:30 and then went to the Pike Market. Wow, is it ever beautiful there. The flowers were amazing. We were thinking of Arja - I'm sure she would love to see and paint them. We saw them throwing fish and all the vendors selling their wares. The people here are all so nice. We really enjoyed ourselves this morning.  Our ship is just leaving the port.  It's going to be an amazing trip.

Our first day

The day is slowly wrapping up.  What a wonderful time we have had.  It started eith my good fiend Anne driving us to the airport. Air Canada has made this a very pleasant experience for my Mom Anand us.  She said she felt like a princess today.  Everyone was so helpful.   We had a car pick us up at the airport to take us to our hotel.  The driver was very nice and so helpful.  We had joked with the boys that we would need to find someone strong to help with our bags and he was just that person.  Dinner was nice and casual  at the hotel.   After all the travelling it was what we needed.  We are about 2 miles away from the Space Needle. We plan to visit it next Saturday.  It is really nice here.  I wish I had more time to explore.  Tomorrow morning

we plan to go to Pike Market.  At noon we will head to Pier 91 to board our cruise.

It has been a great start to our holidays.

An update on the boys.  They arrived in Myrtle Beach around the same we arrived in Seattle.

Ralph said it's crazy with all the motor cycles there.  Hopefully bike week will end on Monday.   They have their first game tomorrow at 7:20.   They had hail today and it has been raining. I hope it clears up tomorrow.

Vancouver

We have arrived safely in Vancouver. Mom was taken by wheelchair and with a special cart to our departure gate which was on the far end of the airport. I'm glad that we got to ride in the golf cart with her. We are having a wonderful time so far. The flight was uneventful and the plane came in much quicker than anticipated giving us extra time at the airport. The weather here is overcast but at least it's not raining.  We're looking forward to the last leg of our flight.  The boys are about 2 hours away from Myrtle Beach and should arrive shortly they are having hot weather with the temperature sitting at 33 Celsius.  I'm sure they will have a wonderful time.

Bon Voyage

We are now on the plane and ready to go.  Mim got very special treatment and we were one of the first on the plane.  It's going to be a great trip.  

All ready to go

We have picked up Mom and Betsy and enjoyed a nice evening together. We're all set and ready to go.  We had a nice visit with Harry and Marian this evening and we're now looking forward to a visit with Sandra.  I don't think we'll get much sleep tonight.

 

The boys have arrived in Morgantown and are now resting.  They made good distance tonight and should arrive mid afternoon in Myrtle Beach.  I'm glad they made it safely.

And...... they're off!

Ralph and Lawrence are heading down to Myrtle Beach for the week.  It looks like they are going to have some amazing weather and the golfing is going to be great!  They've got 6 courses booked and are anticipating a wonderful time.

Teresa and I are looking forward to hearing all about their rounds as they are playing the Barefoot courses this year while they are there.  It should be fun!

Yeah! I'm on vacation.

Have to say goodbye to my grandchildren!

One more sleep!

Finally!  I can say it!  One more sleep.  Today is my first day of vacation and it's time to start relaxing.  I don't think that is going to happen though as I have been busy at work this week.  First I'm off to the drug store to pick up some medical supplies, then off to the grocery store to pick up groceries for Betsy and then back to the house to make sure that the rooms have their final dusting and wiping. Ralph is busy cleaning already.  He is such a good helpmate for me.   Once that is all done, I still want to clean up the gardens - I still have 3 left unturned.  My goal is to get at least one more finished today as well.

If you want to follow our cruise ship - here is a link that one of my colleagues shared with me
and it's pretty neat to see.  It gives you details like the weather, where we are headed etc.

http://www.seascanner.com/schiffsposition.php?schiff=golden+princess

Testing blog - automatic updates

Hello everyone, in preparation for our trip - I have set up the blog to automatically send you an email.  This is done in two ways as there is a limit on how many people can receive email updates.  You will receive an update either from RalphandGrace or from rhelmus@sears.ca.  Both of these messages are sent directly from my blog.

If  you receive this message, can you reply to me at family.helmus@sympatico.ca so I know that it is working.

Thank you.

Copper Creek

Wow, it's hard to believe that this is the May long weekend.  There was frost this morning and they are calling for it again tonight.  I am not planning on planting any flowers yet.  I think it's too early and we are a few weeks behind.

Today and last weekend, we went golfing with Lawrence and Teresa at Copper Creek.  Last week it was really windy but the temperature was nice and today it was windy and cold.

We had fun golfing all together.  We were quite bundled up which made it hard to get a nice smooth swing.  It was still a beautiful day and we enjoyed it very much.