Continuation of Juneau Visit

 

This is Jimmy our tour guide to gold panning in Juneau. He was a hoot.

Surprisingly we were the only two on this excursion so Jimmy gave us the royal treatment. 

He first took us on a tour of some of the city. We got to see the Capital Buildings and he told us about how the marble columns got to Juneau. Then it was on to the Governors mansion. Wow what a large building. 

We were then off to the gold panning area. At first he wanted us to try to find gold in this river/stream.

It was pretty muddy on the slope to get down, so taking pity on me had us work the troughs instead. 

He filled our pans with sand and showed us how to clear off the debris and reach the sands that contained the gold and gold dust. Then how to get rid of the sand and keep the gold in the pan. 

I mostly found small flakes of gold, but Harvey found a very small gold nugget. We got to keep all that we found, and managed to do many washings before it was time to leave.

We got back into the tour bus and Jimmy decided he would take us to his bosses Salmon Bake..... Not a part of the tour we signed up for. 

We traveled to the outskirts of Juneau and learned that his boss salted the areas with gold so that people could find something to remember their gold panning. 

At the Salmon Bake we had an adult beverage, some salmon, salad, and veggies. Then we walked around the area. It was right near an old abandoned underground gold mine.

There was also a lovely waterfall and stream on the property.

The stream was not quite as lovely as there were many salmon that had finished spawning and were dead or very close to being dead.

Then it was back to the ship with full bellies and the pure joy of having met Jimmy. He was a hoot.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Day Three Juneau

 I got caught up on getting the garden in and some of the pumpkin puree used up from the freezer.... My goodness things seem to happen in bunches. Tomatoes are in now, and I am still trying to use up some of the pumpkin from last year. Muffins and pie made, next on the list is something my MIL used to make all the time. We shall see if I can replicate it.

At about 11 in the morning we arrived in Juneau. Lots of lovely sights along the way. Earlier in the morning the Canadian navigators left the ship via a small Canadian cutter. Now our US captain and navigators take over. 

As we entered Juneau harbour we saw a Disney Cruiseline boat. Man it was big.

Looking up into the mountains and hills surrounding the harbour we saw the gondola/lift that was one of the cruise excursions.

Not an excursion I would enjoy as I am terrified of heights.

Lots of fishing trawlers in the harbour as well. I got a picture of this one as they were moored very close to our ship.

We also sighted our first of the wildlife up here.

Lots of Ravens, who were not n the least worried about us standing and watching them. 

A small map of Juneau greeted us on shore along with this lovely totem pole.

LOL, every time I would try and take a picture these men would move in front.... So I am going with it. Hope they don't mind being on my blog!!

Our excursion here was Panning for Gold and it turned out we were the only two on this excursion. I need to do a blog post all on it's own as this was the best thing to have happened.

Enough for today I will continue later this week starting with gold panning and Jimmy our tour guide for this adventure.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Plan Monday

 Back to regularly scheduled posts today. 

Monday

Leftover chili on pasta. Serving this with cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes.

Tuesday

Leftover chicken made into a casserole. Depending on how many veggies I can add to the casserole, I may serve a side of mixed veggies as well.

Wednesday

Leftover ham from the freezer made into a casserole. 

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday.

Friday

Soup and sandwiches. I will make chicken stock then turn some of that into Chicken Vegetable Noodle Soup, served with either salmon salad sandwiches, or grilled cheese.

Saturday

Leftovers from Wednesday.

Sunday

Roast Beef, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, and probably a coleslaw to use up the remaining cabbage. This could end up being a Brisket meal however so stay tuned.

Lunches will be leftovers from meals or a sandwich.

Breakfasts will be yogurt, cereal or toast. 

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

What Is Considered Day Two

 Well we made it through the first night, no sickness, no rough seas and while I did not have the greatest of sleeps, Harvey did.

Our first day of cruising. Lots of water and coastline, still more finding our way around the ship. We attended a talk on the excursions that we could take, which was a wonderful introduction. I also went and found out the times our excursions were meeting in the various ports of call. Reminder...If you are told to download an app before boarding do so. It turns out that I couldn't get WiFi because I didn't. 

Now picture heavy post.... Or at least some pictures of open water, and us discovering more of the ship.

Our first stop of the day was the theater, where we got a glimpse of the excursions we had chosen. Such a lovely and comfortable place. We visited a few times in the evening to catch a concert pianist, a comedian and a dance troop. This however was our first introduction.

Next we traveled up to the Lido deck.

It was our favourite place to watch for whales. While we saw lots of spouts we were unlucky enough not to get any pictures of breeching whales. Harvey saw one breech twice while we were cruising back but wasn't fast enough with the camera. For such big animals they are exceedingly quick.

This is what they called the Atrium. It went up for two floors on the ship and was always well lighted.

This is the Ocean Bar. We met a lovely older gentleman here who sat with us a few days. Yan had just lost his partner a few months before and was taking the cruise they had planned together. This was perhaps one of our most liked places to have an adult beverage or two before heading to the dining room another floor up.

I am so glad that we discovered the lower promenade deck. Now I knew where to take my early morning walks.

Most of my remaining photos are of open water and not at all interesting for this day. I doubt very much if anyone really wants to look at distant shores or the wake of the ship.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Leaving The Port

 Our ship sailed on the 6th of September from the port of Vancouver, BC. A place where I was born but hadn't been back to in 64 years. Boy had it changed from what I can remember of my first childhood home.

Here are the pictures of us sailing out of the port. I am going to try and post day to day, but man did I take a great many pictures!!! Hope I can keep them all in order.

It is going to be very picture heavy when I post about our cruise so please forgive me.

The first day, well part of the day as we sailed at 4 pm, we stayed pretty much in our cabin and when we ventured out it was to find our way to the dining room. We also tried to locate a few other places shipboard. Heck we didn't find one area until two days before the cruise docked. But thanks to maps we did find most of the places we needed to be or rather wanted to be on the next day. 

We went to sleep thankful that we had made it to our destination with all our luggage and our sanity intact. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless

Home Sweet Home

 

Well we are back, actually we arrived home yesterday. Tired, working hard getting things done that need to be done. My goodness my tomatoes went crazy and I managed to pick a number last night and processed them all today. Many more need picking, but laundry took precedence for much of the remainder of today. It is going to take awhile to get caught up on what needs to be done around the old homestead. 

Bills also needed to be paid and I did that first thing this morning. When I went online to pay them a notification came up that I had a GIC coming due the beginning of October and the bank was offering me a special rate. That rate was really high so I clicked that I would accept it. It is set for another year, and I am hoping when the next one comes due the rate offered is just as excellent. 

I hope to get pictures of our cruise off my phone and onto the laptop sometime tomorrow. We both enjoyed it so very much and we will be planning a cruise of the Greek Isles. Hopefully that will be done in December or early January. Hopefully in a small cruise ship like we were on for this one. Those huge ones scare me a little bit, this one that had only 1450 passengers on it and was a perfect fit for the two of us. 

Off to try and catch up with all of you, which of course will be a task that I am looking forward to.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

Well, I did get as much as humanly possible done before we had to leave.

We are now at Kris's place and will hopefully help him with a few things before we leave for our trip.

I am getting very excited, but also a bit apprehensive as we have never cruised before.

Hope to visit all of you over the next couple of days.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.you