October 1 Miyako, Japan is the port for today and we were up at 7:45 to get the day started. Our tour today was a combination bus/train ride to/from Kuji City. We headed north along the coast by bus first, through the Rikuchu Coastline National Park. Very mountainous and heavily wooded with huge pine trees. There are many tunnels along the road going through the mountains. We made two stops along the way at scenic overlooks. Unfortunately, it's tough to figure out what the locations are called as there is very little English to be seen. Of course, I didn't remember [View Full Entry]

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September 30 Today finds us in Aomori, Japan where we were greeted pierside by a local drumming/instrument group. I just love those big drums! We had an early tour so were up at 6:45, had room service and headed off on our tour to Hirosaki. The day started out cloudy but ended up sunny; another beautiful day in Japan! We had about an hour drive to Hirosaki to several temples and "castles". On the drive out we passed many rice farms where the rice was just beginning to be harvested. They harvest the rice and then bundle the grass left over [View Full Entry]

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September 29 Woke up this morning to find Hakodate, Japan outside our window. So nice to finally get to land! We typically order room service on the days that we are in port so we enjoyed that and then went to Japanese Immigration. That went very smoothly with them looking at our documents and taking a picture and our fingerprints! Hey, I have nothing to hide but I wonder if there were any people that objected to that? Our tour today was "A Day In Hakodate" and began with a visit to the "Morning Market". This part of Japan is where [View Full Entry]

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September 21-27 The days at sea pretty much go by as a blur. Same thing every day. Up around 8:30, head to the Lido for breakfast then hang around reading or such for the rest of the day. Yes Marc, I can just hear you now although we aren't lolling by the pool with margaritas. It's freezing on this ship! We try to find a place to keep warm and with little to no sun it's difficult to say the least. They do have some interesting seminars on digital photography that I have been going to. But for the most part, [View Full Entry]

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September 20th Today is the first of 8 days at sea! Dave is wondering if he'll go nuts before we reach land. He isn't much for sitting around! Around 11:45 the captain came on and said that we were turning around and heading back east. Apparently a passenger had a medical emergency and we were going back to meet up with the Canadian Coast Guard! The helicopter came a couple of hours later, circled the ship and then lowered crew and the basket to hoist up the ill lady. Rumor had it that she had had a stroke. The packed her [View Full Entry]

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September 19 The day for the cruise to begin is here! Typical cloudy, grey day in Seattle but who cares! We are going on a 65 day cruise to some fabulous places! Got on board fairly quickly and headed to the Lido for lunch. Our room was ready around 1:30 so went down to see if any luggage had shown up yet. Only one of Daves bags had made it. Went out wandering around to see how the ship has changed since our last sailing in 2001. We had gone on a 16 day repositioning cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome [View Full Entry]

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Sept. 17 Ferry to Victoria We go up at 5:45AM to catch the Victoria Clipper to Victoria, BC Canada. It was pretty cloudy with some fog around. This trip took about 2 1/2-3 hours to get to Victoria. On the way the captain slowed and got very close to a small rocky island with lots of Pacific Harbor Seals on it. Look at those cute faces! Some mountains in the distance along the way. We were met at the ferry dock by the bus to take us to Butchart Gardens . My parents had been here a few years ago and [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up in Washington state. Some lovely scenery with fog made for some great pictures! I love scenes like this foggy barn. Everett, WA was next and is the home of the U.S. Navy. In Edmonds, WA the train skirts Puget sound for about 15 miles. Finally we enter Seattle, WA! Seattle is nicknamed the "Emerald City" for it's easy access to pristine mountain wilderness and Puget Sound. Took a cab to the Mayflower Park Hotel and settled in. This is a nice hotel located right in the dowtown area close to shopping and the famous Pike Marketplace. It's [View Full Entry]

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We left Chicago yesterday; thankfully getting out despite all the flooding. Woke up this morning to sunny skies and flat land! I had looked at the Geocaching website to see if there was anything to be found along our route at any of the longer stops that the train makes. When it makes "service" stops, it stops for about 1/2 hour so a quick grab of a cache is possible if it's close enough. Sure enough, someone had placed one right across the street from the Amtrak station in Minot, ND. The train pulled in, the doors opened and we were [View Full Entry]

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We have finally arrived in Chicago! We pick up the train tomorrow (Sun.) at 2:15PM. I just hope we get out without problems. The weather here is just awful with flooding rains from the remnants of Lowell from the Pacific, believe it or not. The remnants of Ike get here tomorrow. I was happy to see an email from Holland America regarding a "replacement" port of call. We will be going to Aomori , Japan. We still have 8 days at sea though! That will be interesting. As a friend of mine pointed out; most cruises last less than that! The [View Full Entry]

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