THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER.....

Last leg, fly home tomorrow. Missed photo from curiosity shop yesterday, can you spot the whale willies.  Sylvester, the mummy from yesterday appears to have died a violent death from the bullet hole in his stomach. Cowboy gunslinger, why is he a mummy? All is not as it seems, he also has shotgun pellets in his skull, but insufficient to kill. When scanned, it is clear it is not a bullet hole, also he appears to have been embalmed when the chemicals in his body are analysed. Also he shows signs of TB in his lungs. Sylvester may have had many jobs after his death. Loner, cos body not claimed, maybe a thief having been wounded by shotgun, probably died as a result of getting TB in prison. After death, he was likely a model used in coffin sales, see how his hands & arms are arranged to hold a bouquet of flowers. Next he probably worked in a circus sideshow or fairground, the hole has been drilled to make a more gory, colourful story for the punters. No one will know for certain.

Amtrak into Vancouver went well despite an early start. One poor Muppet had trouble at the station - he was trying to check baggage into train for Vancouver, Canada when he had bought tickets for journey to Vancouver, USA. Bugger when 2 train stations on the same line have the same name. Never saw them again, dunno where they ended up!

Took driverless sky train over to New Westminster on the banks of the Fraser river. Nice suburban town with wooden board walks along the river, cafes shops & restaurants. New Westminster used to be capital of BC, the largest tin soldier ever is in recognition of the Royal Engineers who built the first town. Weather was wonderful.

ALL GOING TO POT

Not only marijuana legal here, but my photos failed to load yesterday. Ah well, I'll fix it tomorrow. Really got the hang of the buses now. Been to Pike's Place which is a lovely old market still selling fish & flowers as it has always done plus a number of quirky shops. There was a homeopathic place that could cure Paul's knees. See the picture of Paul after the cure. The fish sellers are lively, throwing large fish to one another on the market stall. The curiosity shop on the pier is interesting, as well as 8 legged piglets & whale willies, it has mummies with interesting stories behind them that I can tell you for a drink or two. Also visited China Town ( you give me Wong birr) (you leave now) Paul can do rendition for you, had a lovely chonkie meal, the prawns and candied walnuts were to die for & happy hour cocktails went down well. Off to Vancouver on Amtrak for last leg of journey.

SEATTLED IN NOW

Enjoying Seattle, we are staying in a small modern condo, 5 blocks north of downtown in Belltown. This is a nice area with a distinctly city village atmosphere. The streets are tree lined with restaurants & cafes, fairly clean & tidy with a view down to Puget Sound, also about 5 blocks away. We have spent the last couple days wandering around town, doing the usual touristy stuff. Bainbridge Island is just off the coast & you can get a ferry to visit. Seattle has an interesting history of boom & bust and burnt to the ground in the 1800's. Cabinet makers set it on fire, which spread to the liquor warehouses and the hardware, which stored ammo & gunpowder. The fire brigade tried to make a fire break by blowing up houses. You can just imagine the result with, dynamite going off, bullets firing off and all the kindling resulting from making the fire break. Anyway when it all cooled down they told the property owners not to rebuild until that had raised the level of the land by spreading the earth from nearby hills. The owners couldn't wait for that & started to rebuild. The city said make the buildings from brick/stone and allow for the ground to be raised 1 to 2 stories by land fill, with street doors set accordingly. They then built brick wall in front of the buildings to contain the fill. Money run out and the front doors could only be reached by ladder to the shops & offices. Finally they finished the streets with either fill or cover to the level it is. We did a tour of the subterranean part which has the old ground floors, now underground below the streets. There are apparently ghosts from all the drunks that fell into the open holes before work was completed. Did I manage to capture any on film? Ask Des to look. Been out and about on the public transit system. Plenty of buses running all over the city, only a dollar to ride, which gives you any number of trips in about 3 hours. Excellent. Been dukwing through town and out onto the water. The Amazon offices here are amazing. Enjoyed musical fountains by space needle. Would like to visit Boeing plant, but no time. Selfies gone to pot again.

ARE YOU SEATTLED COMFORTBLY

Cookie was lost in Anchorage 'cos he was looking for the NW passage. He wandered into the bay went up a dead end and had to come out again. It's now named Turnaround Arm. It has Beluga & Bowhead whales. Paul and I cycled 20km on the coastal path. Had a few near misses with aircraft. The Boeing 737-900 was good, loads of leg room, moosive overhead bins & Alaskan are good too. Take out the credit card and you get 30k miles plus you can take an additional person with you on any flight for $22, not bad when you consider you can go to Hawaii. Funny but beasts keep sneaking in on our selfies, see the ugly beast this time, and the one on the right is a moose. Arrived Seattle great, took light rail, which was full of chattering girlies off to see Taylor Swift at Safeco stadium, worse than a thousand screaming Kawasakis and no ear plugs. How do they all talk at the same time.

COOK'S LOST AGAIN

Been wandering Anchorage on foot, trolley & bike. Bike hire cheap £8 for 2 hours. They have a thing about mermaids at Seward, parties, dressing up & making models, see yesterday's photos. At the market Capn Jack Sparrow was wheeling a mermaid through the market in a pram, it was cold and raining & she was in bare shoulder outfit - that's dedication to a theme. Town planning not too hot here, small church in front of tower of mammon. Had a great meal in Pages, but eating out is very pricy here. Lot of bears around town, they keep sneaking up on us. View from hotel room at 10:30 at night. Off to Seattle tomorrow. 

ANCHORAGE

Left rainy Seward by train for Anchorage. Monster train, 8000hp loco, we were in a double deck carriage, panoramic upstairs with bar, dining downstairs, open viewing platform on the back. Travelled through some remote areas with bear & moose, although I didn't see them. More glaciers & lakes. The train runs on up north, 600 miles & 12 hours up to Fairbanks. Apparently some of the trains are "hail & ride" You can get off anywhere in the wilderness, trek & camp and hail the train on it's return journey. Pretty cool for outdoor types. We are staying near station and the natives are restless. We were woken at 1am to the sound of a thousand screaming kawasakis, which together with the train hooting made ear plugs de rigeur. Worked, didn't wake up until 9am. Wedding fever here as well.

SEWARD & EXHAUSTED

Arrived at final cruise port, named for the US secretary who bought Alaska. Not fully developed as a cruise port, only had one jeweller. Weather's cracked & it's raining. Breakfasted on motion sickness tabs as we were boarding a small boat for 6 hours in the open sea & fjords. Saw sea otters (cute), humpback whales (impressive), puffins (on walls & for real) porpoises (Chris - where, where) orcas (chilling). Cold out at sea, clothing not good enough, left right stuff in case. Seduced by cruise ship viewing. Nobody sick, but we made up up with buckets of fried halibut & loads of beer. That nearly did the job. Loads more glaciers of course.

HUBBERD

Old mother, maybe. Been here a long time, for sure. This is one of the biggest glaciers with an ocean front, over a mile wide. It is one of the few glaciers not receding & if it continues it will block a neighbouring river creating a massive ice dam that will back up into a lake until it bursts through. We were the first cruise ship to visit this season. It is spectacular, the blue ice, where air has been crushed out of the normal ice makes it blue. Massive chunks were breaking off with the sound of thunder & making mini tsu, psu, tidal waves (can't spell it). Lots of little ice bergs to cruise through, but got pretty close up. This was a sea day so next stop will be off time.

SKAGWAY

Went Klondike gold rushing with Lin, travelled over White Pass to Yukon on old narrow gauge train. Bridges bit rickety and train after ours stopped by landslide. Yukon picturesque with Kayakers rapids. Had nice lunch at suspension bridge over gorge. Nice original town built c. 1900. Paul visited Onion Whore House.

Fwd: JUNEAU, D'YOU KNOW?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Linda Spooner" <lin.spooner@gmail.com>
Date: 16 May 2018 2:37 pm
Subject: JUNEAU, D'YOU KNOW?
To: "Wally Spooner" <wally_spooner.renoop@blogger.com>
Cc:

State capital, biggest town so far. Wall-to-wall jewellery stores. Went up to peak of Mt Roberts in a cable car. Nice walking trails on the summit. Learnt to speak Tlingit, it's a nightmare of unpronounceable syllables and rising & falling tones. "I gu.aa yax x wan" Give that your best shot. No words for hello or goodbye. It's a nightmare singing some of the Beatle's songs. The scenery around here is stunning, fjords, glaciers, waterfalls & the weather is brilliant. I dunno what they moan about on Deadliest Catch.

JUNEAU, D'YOU KNOW?

State capital, biggest town so far. Wall-to-wall jewellery stores. Went up to peak of Mt Roberts in a cable car. Nice walking trails on the summit. Learnt to speak Tlingit, it's a nightmare of unpronounceable syllables and rising & falling tones. "I gu.aa yax x wan" Give that your best shot. No words for hello or goodbye. It's a nightmare singing some of the Beatle's songs. The scenery around here is stunning, fjords, glaciers, waterfalls & the weather is brilliant. I dunno what they moan about on Deadliest Catch.

HOONAH - ICY STRAIGHT

Non stop whales, feeding with groups of them surging out of the water with mouths wide open & crashing back into the sea. You know when they are going to do it 'cos the birds keep a look out and gather to feed on the remains. Saw bears also. Did a bit of Tlingit country dancing, I was a shark of the eagle tribe, Paul was a little furry thing of the raven tribe. FYI, ravens were white & are only black after getting stuck in the chimney during a burglary. Paul did the zip from the top of the mountain, one of the highest & longest single runs in the world.

SITKA

All Alaska was Russian, Sitka still retains some touches in town. The church, bishop's house & Princess Maksoutoff's grave are most notable. Fishing big here with lots of vessels. A bit of a chill out day for us, in spa & thalassa therapy pool. All very nice. Trying to build up stamina to stay up after 10pm. Not working so far.

KETCHICAN

Land of lumberjacks, big totems, trees & mists. About 10 thousand inhabitants, the 4th largest town in Alaska, talk about a remote state. Saw bald eagles, but no whales yet. Just set sail for next port. Pounds piling on, but clothes still fit. Just had some free shampoo as we sailed down fjord, can't be bad.