Day 12 17/05/2019 Juneau – Alaska Dog Sled Discovery & Musher’s Camp The sun woke us up early so we headed upstairs to the Lido Market to have a buffet breakfast. Breakfast consisted of bacon, scrambled eggs, a bagel, Danish pastries and coffee. If I continue to eat like this I will have to pay excess luggage going home! The food is so good. We decided to do a walk on the Promenade deck as the weather was lovely although cool. The sky was clear with no chance of rain. The ship docked at Juneau just before 12.30 pm Juneau is the capital of Alaska and their main industry is government followed by tourism. It is an island so everything needs to be brought in by ferry or barge. Most of their goods come from Seattle. ... read more

Day 10 15/5/2019 Vancouver – ms Volendam – Cruising I was as excited as a child on Christmas Eve and couldn’t sleep. I woke up early and waited for the ship to come in. I watched it dock and the passengers disembark. We finished packing and had the called the concierge and the sent someone to collect our bags. The Fairmont provides its guests the service of collecting your luggage and at the same time checking your boarding pass and passports and they take your cases to the ship and clear customs on our behalf. Wow that made it easy even though it was just across the road we didn’t need to worry at all about it. We decided to go for a coffee before we checked out of the hotel. The boarding of the cruise ... read more

Day 8 13/05/2019 Vancouver – Butchart Gardens – Victoria Up early to get ready for the tour to Vancouver Island to see the Butchart Gardens and Victoria. We decided to check in with the Concierge to make sure that they knew we were waiting for a tour and we were asked f we had booked the tour a while ago as the tour company wasn’t doing them anymore. They then quickly informed us that someone else had taken over the tours and they pick us up at the bus stop outside the hotel. E found the bus driver and boarded and was on our way. We picked up other people from other hotels and then headed for the ferry that goes to Vancouver Island It was a 90 minute ferry ride over. First stop for the ... read more

Day 6 11/05/2019 Maricopa – Shopping After the past full on days we decided to have a sleep in and slow down. Karly and Scott went to get the regular Starbucks order and we all hopped into the spa to enjoy it and talk about our trip to the Grand Canyon. Rob’s nephew is in the car business and had rebuilt a 1970 Chevetelle fully restored worth approximately $40K US and circa 1970 mint condition Barracouta valued at approximately over $1 million US. Ron said that they were very impressive. So while the boys went off to drool over the cars the girls went shopping. We ventured off to the outlet Mall and it was all about trying on clothes. I think that Karly and Penni ganged up on me as they kept bringing dresses for ... read more

Day 4 9/05/2019 Maricopa – Bell Rock – Flagstaff Up early to freshly baked “biscuits”. We finished packing for our overnight trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon . With our usual Starbucks to get us going off we headed to Bell Rock. The highways are amazing and all of the drivers are very respectful of other road users. As we approached Sedona and Bell Rock we noticed that the rain clouds were building up again. The mountains were spectacular and were very rugged until we saw Bell Rock which was aptly named as t was the shape of a bell. Even though it as a drizzle we decided to go for a walk around it as nothing was going to stop us from exploring it. The size and grandure of these mountains are just amazing. ... read more