Seattle to Alaska

So we all arrived in Seattle to set out on a trip up to Alaska. Spent the afternoon in seattle wondering around the pike markets, watched the salmon be thrown about. Chad had a nice happy hour session with with Tony and Ben in the hotel bar to start the night which got the thumbs up - 15 pints for under $50! Dinner with the family at a popular seafood restaurant... Amelia's meal took a turn for the worse when she mistook the Salt for pepper... Whoops. Woke quite early in the morning and headed out in the cab... Robyn, Tony, brad, Amelia, Ben, Sam, coralie, Mavis... Half way to the airport Amelia realized she had left the passports in the safe, so we had to turn around on the highway and go bak to the hotel.....whoops again!

We arrived at this beautiful little town in Alaska called Sitka. We were picked up by our captain Bruce and we were taken to our boat (via the grog shop to get 6 cases of beer and 3 boxes of wines and spirits) the "Alaskan harvest". It was raining and the weather forecast wasn't looking good at all. The boat was beautiful and very warm and cosy - loads of space but we soon found out the boat is usually used for hunting trips for bear, mountain goat and fishing. But alas, we were in good hands and the crew were amazing. After the first day we were lucky enough to find out the weather man had been incorrect, we had beautiful weather the following 6 days. We saw orcas ( killer whales) a big beautiful pod of about 50 of them popping out of the water as far as the eye could see. Very rare to see so many at one time, we were very lucky, and all during a great sunset. We saw a bears on two occasions catching salmon up streams. Both times was a mummy bear with her cubs. We ate a lot everyday which is understandable when you have a private chef to attend to you. Another highlight was swimming in hot springs that overlooked a formidable glacier fed waterfall. Jumping back and forth from the cold water to the hot water was awesome - Chad also said the beer enhanced the experience. We kayaked out to mammoth glaciers which were collapsing in front of us, and creating small tidal waves which was a little nerve racking in our canoes. We also saw whales, sea otters, sea lions, bald eagles, dolphins and porpoises, seals and moutain goats.

All in all we had such a fantastic experience and everyone got along very well, no arguments at all, even after a few drinks in the evening and many games of 500. The cook was wonderful and catered to my silly diet which was fabulous. And to top things off, We also got to fly in from the boat to airport about 100kms on a sea plane which was also quite fun. The scenery was so beautiful, huge mountains with snow on them, rugged terrain, just spectacular. We have been lucky to have such a fabulous trip, although chad says we were probably 12-18 beers short of absolute perfection.

Chad and I are now on our new adventure in new York city, a bit different to the scenery we have just been experiencing. Although we have been told the can be quite the wildlife sitings in times square, haha.

Edwina