Blogs from North America - page 23

Vancouver is a great city and very similar to San Francisco. There were lovely green spaces in every city we visited but Vancouver really has some terrific parks and gardens and some amazing mushrooms after the rain started. The VanDusen Botanical Garden was worth several hours of exploring, and the nearby Bloedel Conservatory within Queen Elizabeth Park had some great birds in a small space. If you have fewer than three days, though, you'll have to miss all that and focus on Gas Town, with its famous Steam Clock, and Chinatown, with delicious Chinese food and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, with its rotating exhibits and Emily Carr paintings. You need to make time for Granville Island Public Market, at least... read more

After sailing out of Vancouver we cruised up the Inside Passage. This is such a delight because it’s in protected waters and there is an abundance of sea life, bird life and beautiful scenery along the way. Happily for us the weather was dry and quite balmy the whole first week of our cruise. In Ketchikan, our first port, we escorted our group on a Distinctive Voyages land tour. We were fortunate with the timing because the salmon were running. We saw thousands and thousands of salmon making their way up rivers and creeks in order to spawn. It was mesmerizing to watch their determination to hop up the swim ladders and over the rocks and rapids to reach their final destination. We visited the Saxman Tlingit Native Village and learned about their history and the ... read more

We had originally made plans to travel south along 101 at the beginning of our trip, however the weather was not with us thwre were 35 feet waves crashing the shores and high winds, which is why we headed south and east. Imagine a 364 mile journey through one of Americas great wonderland, with wind sculptured coastlines, historic lighthouses and bridges, and world class recreational activities at nearly every mile post. This is the Oregon coastal road. The fact that we arrived at the same time as warmer weather and a long holiday weekend turned out to be a bonus. The coast experiences the wettest and windiest of the weather in Oregon, making for a dramatic coast line. As a result of all this weather the whole of the coastline is dotted with lighthouses dating back ... read more

Our two week trip began in Quebec City and ended in Vancouver, and we traveled by train through Canada with additional stops in Montreal and Toronto. For our longest journey we caught the trans-continental Canadian, which links Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper & Vancouver twice a week year-round over four nights using original stainless-steel coaches built for the Canadian Pacific Railway's Canadian in 1954-55. I showed up for our train ride to Vancouver expecting four days of relaxation and hoping for lots of beautiful autumn foliage. Yet I was kept occupied by the beautiful vistas continually passing by and by my attempts to capture photos of a portion of it, as well as by multiple Canadian murder mysteries. We started off along the Great Canadian Shield, where the best fall foliage was to be found, across the ... read more

Tour Day 7, Cruise Day 7, Hilo Hi – Hilo's Waterfalls & Gardens Tour (6 Hours) – The Hilo Walk of Fame is comprised of a series of banyan trees planted by celebrities. You'll drive through this leafy labyrinth en route to Liliuokalani Gardens. The latter is the most extensive ornamental Japanese garden outside of Japan. View one of Hawaii's most important statues of King Kamehameha -- the man who unified the islands into a kingdom. Enjoy expert commentary from your guide as you pass through the town of Hilo to Wailuku State Park. This is where you will find picturesque Rainbow Falls. Continue to the majestic Akaka State Park, where two gorgeous waterfalls tumble into an eroded gorge. The first is the 100-foot Kahuna Falls, and the second is the towering Akaka Falls, which plummets ... read more