We camped  in one of our membership campgrounds in Birch Bay WA,   to recuperate after our cruise (yeah, we actually recuperate from cruises… life is tough!) ;)  Actually, we needed some time there to plan our trip into British Columbia and Alberta, because we hadn’t made any plans for after the cruise.  We also thought it was a good idea to stay put and wait until the July 1st and July 4th madness was over.  (For those of you who don’t know, July 1st is Canada day and July 4th is Independance day in the US).  Both events were celebrated loudly, actually it sounded like we were in a war zone on July the 4th, fireworks and firecrackers are big business in this part of the country.

Birch Bay is a pretty “beach town”, the beaches are not extraordinary, no white sand here , just lots of pebbles but they say that it has the warmest sea waters North of San Diego.  The tide goes out about a mile and the sun heats the pebbles, which in turn warm the water as it comes back in.  We are not really “beach bunnies” but the beaches were popular and many people were swimming.

Hard to go boating when the tide is out!

We did manage to go on two short excursion, one to Vancouver BC, which is  about 45 minutes from where we were camping.  Bear was so thrilled 😉 to go over the beautiful “Lions Gate Bridge”, between Vancouver and Vancouver North.

This bridge features two sculpted lions at the entrance. (not in the picture)

That was after the excitement of driving right through downtown Vancouver, with its high rise buildings, shops and traffic.  I thought it was so cool, Bear didn’t particularly agree, of course, I was not the one driving….   life is good with a chauffeur….  😉

We finally made it to our destination for the day, the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Chicken and Bear arriving at the Capilano Suspension Bridge

The old-style suspension bridge hangs 230 feet above the canyon floor and spans 450 feet.

In 1889, George Grant Mackay, with the help of August Jack Khahtsahlano built the first suspension bridge across the Capilano River.  It was made of hemp rope and cedar planks.  The ropes were dragged down the canyon and a team of horses swam the ropes across the river.  Then the ropes were pulled up the other side and anchored to huge buried cedar logs.  August Jack was only 12 when he helped build the bridge.

Nowadays, the hemp ropes have been replaced by steel cables, but that did not improve the stability.  Crossing the bridge still remains a thrilling very shaky experience.

So, I crossed the bridge and Bear stayed back on firm land.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Once you cross the bridge, another adventure awaits you.  The treetop boardwalk takes you high above the forest floor and gives you a squirrel’s eye view of a Pacific rainforest.  The 650 foot long walk is made of a series of cable bridges suspended in between platforms, some as high as 10 stories.

View of part of the Tree Top Adventure

The Douglas Fir trees found here were about 250 high but they can grow as high as 400 feet, and were there before Columbus discovered America.

Chicken is getting ambitious... two at a time? 😉

Another day, we decided to got to a small place called Point Roberts. (Click on link to see a map).   What is so special about this place is that, it is part of the State of Washington, but the only way to get to it is by going through Canada.  This 4.9 square miles area was cut from the mainland in 1846 when the treaty of Washington drew the international boundary between Canada and the US at the 49th parallel.   From then on, Point Roberts was separated from the rest of Washington State by 23 miles of driving through British Columbia.

Border Marker no. 1

This obelisk was made in Scotland and placed on this spot in 1865 to mark the start of the longest undefended border in the world.

We really did get a kick out of taking this next picture.  The house you see in the picture is actually in Canada, and this Canadian construction worker was a good sport and accepted to pose for a picture with Bear, who was on the US side of the cedar tree edge separating the two countries.

In this picture, Bear stands in the USA while his new Canadian buddy stands across the border, in Canada

Last but not least, I just have to post a picture of the cutest cow I have ever seen. She was minding her own business and happily grazing on some succulent Point Roberts’grass when I happened to see it.  The poor cow sensing my excitement, had to stop eating and pose for this picture.  Bear then, had to track down the farmer and ask what breed of cow she was… as you can see, I am easily amazed and very easy to entertain, because that was the highlight of my day at Point Roberts…  A Scottish Highland cow.  Enjoy!

No but, really, isn't she the cutest cow ever?

Only in Canada...

Chicken, Bear and I had a great time on our Alaskan cruise. (Ckick on pics to embiggen)

We boarded Royal Carribean’s Rhapsody of the Sea in Seattle on June 19th.  The boarding procedures went very smoothly and we found ourselves checked-in and ready for a drink at 11 am, the ship was scheduled to leave port at 4 pm, so we had a lot of time to  get organized 🙂    After signing up for “My time” dining, a galley tour,   buying the “soft drink” package and the “bottled water” package, we went to see Raymond,    who sold us our shore excursion packages.

Raymond was thrilled to have his picture taken with such big celebrity as Chicken!

We then made it to the buffet and watched people board the ship while we were sipping our drinks,   eating and relaxing.

Seattle skyline viewed from the ship

After a first day spent entirely at sea, trying to get our sea-legs  and holding our stomach down, we made it to Juneau AK.  We had a 3-part tour planned.  First we took a boat to an island where we went to a salmon-bake at the Orca Point Lodge.  The scenery was marvelous,   and the grilled salmon was deliciously prepared.  They explained to us that we were eating silver salmon, which is the best for grilling, since its flavor is mild and does not taste fishy at all when prepared this way.

Scenery at the Orca lodge

We then boarded the boat again and went on a 3 hours whale-watching cruise.

Thar she blows!!!

That was probably the highlight of the cruise, we saw quite a few humpback whales, including this mom and calf blowing.  Later on, we saw a baby whale showing off, jumping out of the water and twisting around, I was not fast enough to get a good picture though, all I got was a blur… sorry about that…

We also saw some postcard-worthy scenery.

Typical Alaska scenery

Including some wildlife like this eagle

Eagle

Then we boarded a bus which took us to the Mendenhall glacier

Chicken says I have to include this picture to prove that he was there

Chicken charmed another ranger into posing with him for a picture

I finally was able to sneak a picture of the glacier without chicken knowing about it

We then had to return to the ship for dinner and a show.  We left chicken in the room, his swollen ego and his desire to be the star of all the pictures were getting annoying.  After we came back from the show though, we discovered that he had a good time while we were away, he had made  new  friends!

Chicken and his friend

Chicken monkeying around with his other towel friend

The nest day, we were in Skagway, a very friendly little town.  We shopped for a while and then caught our tour with our gorgeous guide.  She lives in Skagway during the summer months and returns to Seattle for the worst of the winter months.  It seems like the majority of the population of Skagway leave for the winter.   Skagway experiences  violent hurricane force winds and deep cold during the winter months.

Our Skagway tour guide (with chicken of course... he was not going to miss that one!)

Skagway

Bear in front of the Red Onion Saloon and Brothel (anybody noticed that chicken still managed to be in the picture?)

The have a strange idea of what constitutes wall decoration in the Red Onion Saloon!

The most photographed building in Skagway.

This horse got really excited when he met Chicken

While we were taking our tour, we had the honor of being made honorary members of  the “Artic Brotherhood” Camp Skagway No.1 🙂

It was time to go back to the ship again, for a dinner and a show… pity.. 😉

The next day, we went up the Tracy arm and sailed in slushy water punctuated with iceberg all the way to the Dawes Glacier.  We were there early in the morning (we had to get up before 5 am in order to get good pictures).  Unfortunately,   Alaska only experiences 30 days of sunshine a year, and this was not one of them.  It was raining pretty hard which made picture taking quite difficult.

Dawes Glacier.... and Chicken.

Dawes glacier, early morning.

The ship then made a 360 degree turn, so everybody on it could get a good view, then turned around and we sailed away, in route for Victoria BC.

Sailing away from the Dawes glacier

That afternoon, we took a galley tour. That was very interesting.  It was surprising how small the galley was when you think of all the food that is prepared in it every day.  Patrick, the chef, explained to us the purpose of the different areas of the galley and details about how the food is prepared and plated when ordred, nothing is left under heating lamps and waiting.  This was the only galley for the ship, it served the main dining room and all the buffet and snack areas of the ship.

Cook working hard in the galley

It takes 7 of these 59 gallons steam soup pots to prepare enough soup for one day on the ship.

Chicken was very scared of ending up in one of the soup pot when we took this picture of him and Patrick, the Executive chef of the Rhapsody of the Seas.

That night, Chicken got in his mind that he wanted to audition for the show, so we took him to the theater.

Chicken auditioning in the theater

We’re sorry to say that he didn’t make the cut, but some of his fluorescent chicken friends did!

The show was called Fluorescence and it was a really neat puppet show.

Victoria is a very picturesque city, on the southern tip of the Island of Vancouver.  The weather here is moderate all year, averaging 45F in the winter and 75F in the summer, sounds good doesn’t it?

We shopped and took a horse carriage tour.

Victoria's famous Empress Hotel where tea is served every afternoon.

Government building in Victoria

Strangely enough, the winning design for the construction of the governement buildings had one big flaw, the architect had forgotten to include plumping, there was no bathroom in the original blueprints for the entire building….

Victoria's inner harbour

We had lunch in a wonderful restaurant with a view of the inner harbour.  While we were there, I just had to snap this picture:

His and hers silverware????

The ship sailed West towards the sunset that night, and when we woke up, we were back  in Seattle.

Cruising in the sunset

As far as beautiful scenery is concerned, the Oregon coast is up there with the best.  The coast offers a mixture of sandy beaches, dunes, rock formations,   rocky cliffs and forested hills.

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger, then use your back button to come back to this page.)

The blue of the sea really complements the blue of my plumage don't you think?

Pristine deserted beach

Near Florence, we found the Sea Lion Caves.  In order to get into the caves, we took and elevator down 280 feet into the largest Sea Lion caves in the world (according to Guinness)

Sea Lion Cave

This is home for the wild Steller Sea Lion, they live in and around the caves year round.

The bull can weigh up to 700 pounds and they bark  like dogs.

Sea lions on the rock, see the big bull?

They seemed a bit short-tempered and on top of barking really loudly at each other, they didn’t seem to mind having a good fight once in a while.

Sea Lion fighting

If you ever find yourself in Florence OR, don’t miss going to eat at the Waterfront Depot Restaurant, you will get out-of-this-world food for a very down-to-earth price.  We especially enjoyed the crab-encrusted halibut.  Reservations are highly recommended because it is very popular.

Best restaurant in Florence

Old Town Florence is a really cute shopping area, about two blocks of boutiques and restaurants.

Old Town

About 15 miles north of Florence we saw the Heceta Light House, built in 1894, its 0ne million candles beacon can be seen from 20 miles at sea.  It is claimed to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world, although we heard the same claim made about  the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, and if you ask me, Peggy’s Cove wins…  but that’s my humble opinion.

Heceta Lightouse

Wildlife is abundant on the Oregon Coast, it was the first time we saw Black Guillemots, really cute black and white bird with amazingly bright red feet.

Black Guillemot Sea Bird

We took advantage of the scenery and had a wonderful on-the-road breakfast by the sea 🙂

Breakfast with a view

This afternoon in the campground, I saw my first ever “in person”  beaver!

My first beaver encounter!