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M38A1
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I had the opportunity to return to Alaska for my fourth time recently, albeit this time on a cruise. My very good friends asked if I wanted to tag along for a 14 day 'adventure' with Seattle on the front end, a 7-night Alaskan cruise, and Seattle on the tail-end. Knowing when the best plans go South that's when 'adventure' begins, I said without hesitation "YES"! 
We drove to Dallas and caught a flight to Seattle where we spent three days just poking around. Staying right downtown, just about everything was within walking distance. Come cruise time, we boarded a Royal Caribbean ship "Rhapsody of the Seas" and took off to Alaska. We sailed straight from Seattle to Juneau, then up to Skagway AK, then back down to the Tracy Arm fijord, then down to Victoria BC and back in to Seattle. Spending another few days knocking stuff out in Seattle, we flew back to DFW and then home.
Overall, the cruise ship experience was a ton of fun. We had upgraded on pretty much everything, so my experience might have been a bit jaded. But none the less, the experience was quite positive.
Now, shooting was a different story. Seattle was actually not that bad when we left, but at sea, the weather turned South and put that gray rainy cold cast on everything. It was like that for Juneau, Skagway, Tracy Arm. Arriving in Victoria was again pleasant, and the Seattle let again spotty overcast. Kind of not ideal for shooting. But hey - you deal with what you have.
So let the trip begin!
Arriving in Seattle, we first headed down to the Market
There, we saw the market area, hit all the little shops, the first Starbucks location and the highest concentration of Toyota Priusis's in the world. Next, we wandered down to the old Worlds Fair area/Space Needle and visited the Chihuly glass blowing exhibit.
After the exhibit, we wound up at a wonderful place on the lake called The Palasades for dinner....
The next day we found ourselves back down at the Market area...
Then killing some time before a Duck tour we stumbled into the large chess game in a common area as well as a guy in leiderhosen yodeling with a goat.
The Duck tour was great as was our driver. We learned a lot about Seattle from this guy
After the Duck tour, we found ourselves at the piers and a big ferris wheel. Well, it IS vacation....
The view from the top
And a quick dinner at Ivars closed out that day.
Next morning it was time to board the ship
View from the bow
We sailed all day and were treated to this that evening
...and we wake up to this for the next few days.
We were in Juneau, the capitol and it was dreary. We walked around, hit the shops and had a bit of lunch then returned to the ship
Then this guys shows up
We sailed that night, waking up in Skagway. Again, more of the same weather, walk the little village and have lunch.
While there, we rode a bus up into Canada (about 27 miles) and had a wonderful tourguide tell us all about the 1898 gold rush and the building of the railroad to get prospectors over the mountain.
An "earthquake" bridge, designed to flex on the non-supported side
Along the trip up, we stopped at a few places. Apparently the miners also have the "who-do" spirit much like Big Bend
After clearing the border crossing checkpoint, we boarded the train for the 27 mile trip back down the mountain along the rail line built in 1900. This guys hat says it all
There was zero wind on this leg of the trip
Found this little gem hiding off to the side
Life can be hard here...
Anyone care to guess what this was?
(a snowplow rig on the front of the engine)
We closed out Skagway, boarded the ship and set sail that evening for the return leg back to Seattle with a few stops in between. Interesting in what we learned about Juneau and Skagway.... Those towns are basically open only May thru the last of September when the cruise ships are there. And we learned the cruise ship lines basically own all the storefronts at the destinations. So when they say "70% off", well, it's still their store! So that makes these literally tourist driven economies short of Juneau being the capitol and state government.
The next morning, we found ourselves motoring about 8 knots instead of the usual 22. Why you ask? We were in this rather small area and chunks of ice everywhere. Can anyone say "titanic" doesn't cross your mind?
All to see this at the 'dead end'
Now what I found most interesting about this part was the mechanics of the ship. The ship was 950' long or so and 100' wide. We weren't that far from either side of the passage. So how is this big old ship going to turn around in there? With the side thrusters of course. That big old ship literally pivoted on it's axis and did 2.5 rotations, thus pointing his nose the other way and departed. While parallel to the glacier, we had 250m on the bow and stern for clearance. Yeah, it was kind of tight. And it was 1000' deep too.
Lots of ice chunks on the way out. And a few sea lions
When everyone was cold and wet and headed for cover inside the ship, I looked back and saw this. I'm thinking this was the best shot of all for the glacier part...
Later that afternoon, we had bid on a bridge tour with the proceeds going to Make A Wish. We won, thus got to meet the Captain who was an absolute hoot. Totally professional, but a guy I'd like to spend an evening with talking over a beer or three.
Apparently ship design draftsman either use abbreviations or have a sense of humor
We sailed for a couple days and wound up in Victoria, BC with absolute sunshine and cool temps. Quite a nice surprise from the past several days. We found our bus that would take us to the Butchert Gardens followed by High Tea at The Emperess Hotel.
These guys sure like their big chess pieces....
A few random shots from the Gardens
So after the gardens, we got back on the bus and went to the Empress Hotel for "high tea". Man, what a hoot that was. A wonderful selection of tea with milk and so much food we couldn't all eat it. Included were scones, biscuits, desserts and finger sandwiches. Simply a delightful and amazing experience.
After tea, we were able to walk around a bit. Here's the Victoria harbor area
Alas, it was time to board the ship for the quick trip back to Seattle. One more night on the boat, then wake up early and get off in Seattle. You can see we had REALLY nice weather in Victoria
The next day we disembark, then figure out what we'll do in Seattle again for a few days. Well, we rode the mono-rail
We visited the Bollard locks
We saw the Bridge Troll and true Eastern block Stalin statue
Found "the" spot to shoot downtown
Killed a bunch-o-hours at the REI flagship store
Found our way to the Boeing Museum and Museum of flight
(There's wayyyyyy too many pictures to post here of this place. I'd suggest hitting this link to see the all)
We were kicked out of the flight museum a bit early for a "Gala" event where Mr. Boeing's first son was there. Got to see him which was kind of cool. Black tie affair, aircraft purchasers/airlines, big swing band, the works as well as the newest Boeing aircraft on display.
So we left there and hit the EMP museum. That was a very quick run thru as it was getting close to their closing time. This place was chock full of music and entertainment stuff, like a lego display including the Space Needle.
A movie section with the actual costumes and props for the movies....
So when the EMP museum closed, we killed a little time waiting on our reservation for dinner in the Space Needle. Here's the view from our table at one point on the 43 minute rotation
And about the same spot a few rotations later
And here's the needle after our dinner. I can't figure out if it looks like the Space Needle or some sort of alien spacecraft
The next day we caught a flight back to Dallas and then headed home. I think it's safe to say this was a good trip from an experience level as well as shooting opportunities.
.
We drove to Dallas and caught a flight to Seattle where we spent three days just poking around. Staying right downtown, just about everything was within walking distance. Come cruise time, we boarded a Royal Caribbean ship "Rhapsody of the Seas" and took off to Alaska. We sailed straight from Seattle to Juneau, then up to Skagway AK, then back down to the Tracy Arm fijord, then down to Victoria BC and back in to Seattle. Spending another few days knocking stuff out in Seattle, we flew back to DFW and then home.
Overall, the cruise ship experience was a ton of fun. We had upgraded on pretty much everything, so my experience might have been a bit jaded. But none the less, the experience was quite positive.
Now, shooting was a different story. Seattle was actually not that bad when we left, but at sea, the weather turned South and put that gray rainy cold cast on everything. It was like that for Juneau, Skagway, Tracy Arm. Arriving in Victoria was again pleasant, and the Seattle let again spotty overcast. Kind of not ideal for shooting. But hey - you deal with what you have.
So let the trip begin!
Arriving in Seattle, we first headed down to the Market
There, we saw the market area, hit all the little shops, the first Starbucks location and the highest concentration of Toyota Priusis's in the world. Next, we wandered down to the old Worlds Fair area/Space Needle and visited the Chihuly glass blowing exhibit.
After the exhibit, we wound up at a wonderful place on the lake called The Palasades for dinner....
The next day we found ourselves back down at the Market area...
Then killing some time before a Duck tour we stumbled into the large chess game in a common area as well as a guy in leiderhosen yodeling with a goat.
The Duck tour was great as was our driver. We learned a lot about Seattle from this guy
After the Duck tour, we found ourselves at the piers and a big ferris wheel. Well, it IS vacation....
The view from the top
And a quick dinner at Ivars closed out that day.
Next morning it was time to board the ship
View from the bow
We sailed all day and were treated to this that evening
...and we wake up to this for the next few days.
We were in Juneau, the capitol and it was dreary. We walked around, hit the shops and had a bit of lunch then returned to the ship
Then this guys shows up
We sailed that night, waking up in Skagway. Again, more of the same weather, walk the little village and have lunch.
While there, we rode a bus up into Canada (about 27 miles) and had a wonderful tourguide tell us all about the 1898 gold rush and the building of the railroad to get prospectors over the mountain.
An "earthquake" bridge, designed to flex on the non-supported side
Along the trip up, we stopped at a few places. Apparently the miners also have the "who-do" spirit much like Big Bend
After clearing the border crossing checkpoint, we boarded the train for the 27 mile trip back down the mountain along the rail line built in 1900. This guys hat says it all
There was zero wind on this leg of the trip
Found this little gem hiding off to the side
Life can be hard here...
Anyone care to guess what this was?
(a snowplow rig on the front of the engine)
We closed out Skagway, boarded the ship and set sail that evening for the return leg back to Seattle with a few stops in between. Interesting in what we learned about Juneau and Skagway.... Those towns are basically open only May thru the last of September when the cruise ships are there. And we learned the cruise ship lines basically own all the storefronts at the destinations. So when they say "70% off", well, it's still their store! So that makes these literally tourist driven economies short of Juneau being the capitol and state government.
The next morning, we found ourselves motoring about 8 knots instead of the usual 22. Why you ask? We were in this rather small area and chunks of ice everywhere. Can anyone say "titanic" doesn't cross your mind?
All to see this at the 'dead end'
Now what I found most interesting about this part was the mechanics of the ship. The ship was 950' long or so and 100' wide. We weren't that far from either side of the passage. So how is this big old ship going to turn around in there? With the side thrusters of course. That big old ship literally pivoted on it's axis and did 2.5 rotations, thus pointing his nose the other way and departed. While parallel to the glacier, we had 250m on the bow and stern for clearance. Yeah, it was kind of tight. And it was 1000' deep too.
Lots of ice chunks on the way out. And a few sea lions
When everyone was cold and wet and headed for cover inside the ship, I looked back and saw this. I'm thinking this was the best shot of all for the glacier part...
Later that afternoon, we had bid on a bridge tour with the proceeds going to Make A Wish. We won, thus got to meet the Captain who was an absolute hoot. Totally professional, but a guy I'd like to spend an evening with talking over a beer or three.
Apparently ship design draftsman either use abbreviations or have a sense of humor
We sailed for a couple days and wound up in Victoria, BC with absolute sunshine and cool temps. Quite a nice surprise from the past several days. We found our bus that would take us to the Butchert Gardens followed by High Tea at The Emperess Hotel.
These guys sure like their big chess pieces....
A few random shots from the Gardens
So after the gardens, we got back on the bus and went to the Empress Hotel for "high tea". Man, what a hoot that was. A wonderful selection of tea with milk and so much food we couldn't all eat it. Included were scones, biscuits, desserts and finger sandwiches. Simply a delightful and amazing experience.
After tea, we were able to walk around a bit. Here's the Victoria harbor area
Alas, it was time to board the ship for the quick trip back to Seattle. One more night on the boat, then wake up early and get off in Seattle. You can see we had REALLY nice weather in Victoria
The next day we disembark, then figure out what we'll do in Seattle again for a few days. Well, we rode the mono-rail
We visited the Bollard locks
We saw the Bridge Troll and true Eastern block Stalin statue
Found "the" spot to shoot downtown
Killed a bunch-o-hours at the REI flagship store
Found our way to the Boeing Museum and Museum of flight
(There's wayyyyyy too many pictures to post here of this place. I'd suggest hitting this link to see the all)
We were kicked out of the flight museum a bit early for a "Gala" event where Mr. Boeing's first son was there. Got to see him which was kind of cool. Black tie affair, aircraft purchasers/airlines, big swing band, the works as well as the newest Boeing aircraft on display.
So we left there and hit the EMP museum. That was a very quick run thru as it was getting close to their closing time. This place was chock full of music and entertainment stuff, like a lego display including the Space Needle.
A movie section with the actual costumes and props for the movies....
So when the EMP museum closed, we killed a little time waiting on our reservation for dinner in the Space Needle. Here's the view from our table at one point on the 43 minute rotation
And about the same spot a few rotations later
And here's the needle after our dinner. I can't figure out if it looks like the Space Needle or some sort of alien spacecraft
The next day we caught a flight back to Dallas and then headed home. I think it's safe to say this was a good trip from an experience level as well as shooting opportunities.
.
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