Hi Team!
So the trip has come to an end. (Okay, it ended a month ago now, and I've worked 24 of 28 days since I got back. So... weeeee! :) )
But the trip has come to an end in Vancouver, Canada.
All of us got of the Star Princess calm and cool and relaxed. Very different from the hectic-ness of getting on. So I'd say the Cruise served that purpose of relaxing and enjoyment. Which is always good.
I bid farewell to my family at the airport after a day of driving in traffic and seeing a bit of Stanley park. And chilling in the hotel room with my Dad playing Carcassonne on the iPad. Seems a fitting way to finish up. My brother and family saw "Suicide Squad" for the second time on the trip! I wanted to go but was too tired to make it through a late flick.
I was a little sad that the trip was over, but also grateful that it happened. So grateful. It's wonderful to see people I love a lot and get to do something awesome with them. I look forward to our next visit! I hope all of you get to take trips with people you love soon. :)
After they rolled away I headed into Vancouver for 2 days of "backpacking" at the end of the trip. I stayed in a bunk at hostel, met some nice folks. And shared stories of travel. It was fun to look at the cruise route on Google Earth and see all the details of where we went from above.
I rented a bike and rode around for 7 hours. Around Stanley Park, which is this enormous park, much like Golden Gate park in San Fran. There were so many people on the bike path it was almost like a demolition derby. People were racing around, with views of the bay and cruise ships and a dozen cargo vessels waiting to come in. I wrote in my journal, ate a burger and enjoyed the people watching. And there were a LOT of people. And, quite frankly, everyone was gorgeous, fit and looked healthy. I know I live in LA, but folks, Vancouver is giving LA a run for it's money. Maybe because it was sunny and everyone actually had an excuse to be outside. Maybe because the lifestyle there is walking, biking, hiking and generally being active. Maybe it's the Canadian diet (though I doubt it's much different than the USA. But I could be wrong!) Maybe everyone works out all the time because they don't do any work. (I doubt that's it. lol). Anyway, it made for enjoyable people watching all around.
I rode all the way till sundown, which here was by 8:30pm, and dark by 9:00. How far south we've come.
The next day I took the bus to the sea-bus (ferry) to North Vancouver and another bus to LYNN CANYON PARK.
A gorgeous bunch of temperate rain forest nestled near a neighborhood. There was a suspension bridge hundreds of feet over the river. Pathways through the towering trees. And people jumping off cliffs into pools of water. And signs EVERYWHERE that said: Cliff Jumping Is Deadly. This area has already claimed several lives. That your fear is smarter than you are. And yet the people were unfazed as they leapt of 20 foot cliffs. And 30 foot cliffs. And one crazy dude leaped of a cliff that was EASILY 60 feet tall, over a waterfall and into a pool. He had a cast on his arm. Not sure where he earned that. Another guy dropped 25 feet off a bridge (not the suspension bridge) into a pool that couldn't have been 10 feet in diameter. This shit was crazy. I love cliff jumping and swimming and pools with waterfalls, but this was insane...
... and some of it looked fun too. You could jump off the bridge into a pool, then slide over a couple of 10 foot or 15 foot waterfalls down to the bottom. But there are signs EVERYWHERE that say how dangerous it is. (Did I mention this?).
I grabbed lunch and went to the 30 foot lake section, where there were even more people jumping into a gorge. Sure the jumps were only 10, 15 up to 30 feet. But there was a plaque dedicated to a 17 year old who had died there in March. I pointed it out to a mom who was there and she said: "Looks safe to me. You could die crossing the street.".
Good point, and that is a lot less fun.
So after surveying the jumps and the depths, I got on the 10 foot jump and hopped into the FREEZING COLD water! Yikes! That'll wake you up!
I eventually built up to a 20 foot jump into the deep part of the gorge. It was fun. Cold, goodness.
After that I hopped the bus to GROUSE MOUNTAIN for a cable car ride to the top. It's a pretty touristy area, but I figured a nice 3,000 foot view of Vancouver at sunset was a good finale to a great trip. I ate dinner and enjoyed the lights coming out.
The music playing at the restaurant was fun, and right before I headed down on the last tram, they played "Knocking On Heaven's door". It's a song that makes me think of my Mom because one of the patients at the hospital played it on the guitar when she was being treated. It was great to have her visit at the end of the trip. In truth, she visited a lot during this trip. In songs that were played in different places. In conversation. In feeling. The Alaska cruise was to have been my parents 35th wedding anniversary trip together... and as any of you who know me know, that trip didn't happen.
Well it did this year.
On what would have been their 50th anniversary, we took my Dad to Alaska.
:)
This is Craig Ouellette,
last member of the Nostromo (aka: Star Princess)
Signing off.
So the trip has come to an end. (Okay, it ended a month ago now, and I've worked 24 of 28 days since I got back. So... weeeee! :) )
But the trip has come to an end in Vancouver, Canada.
All of us got of the Star Princess calm and cool and relaxed. Very different from the hectic-ness of getting on. So I'd say the Cruise served that purpose of relaxing and enjoyment. Which is always good.
I bid farewell to my family at the airport after a day of driving in traffic and seeing a bit of Stanley park. And chilling in the hotel room with my Dad playing Carcassonne on the iPad. Seems a fitting way to finish up. My brother and family saw "Suicide Squad" for the second time on the trip! I wanted to go but was too tired to make it through a late flick.
I was a little sad that the trip was over, but also grateful that it happened. So grateful. It's wonderful to see people I love a lot and get to do something awesome with them. I look forward to our next visit! I hope all of you get to take trips with people you love soon. :)
After they rolled away I headed into Vancouver for 2 days of "backpacking" at the end of the trip. I stayed in a bunk at hostel, met some nice folks. And shared stories of travel. It was fun to look at the cruise route on Google Earth and see all the details of where we went from above.
I rented a bike and rode around for 7 hours. Around Stanley Park, which is this enormous park, much like Golden Gate park in San Fran. There were so many people on the bike path it was almost like a demolition derby. People were racing around, with views of the bay and cruise ships and a dozen cargo vessels waiting to come in. I wrote in my journal, ate a burger and enjoyed the people watching. And there were a LOT of people. And, quite frankly, everyone was gorgeous, fit and looked healthy. I know I live in LA, but folks, Vancouver is giving LA a run for it's money. Maybe because it was sunny and everyone actually had an excuse to be outside. Maybe because the lifestyle there is walking, biking, hiking and generally being active. Maybe it's the Canadian diet (though I doubt it's much different than the USA. But I could be wrong!) Maybe everyone works out all the time because they don't do any work. (I doubt that's it. lol). Anyway, it made for enjoyable people watching all around.
I rode all the way till sundown, which here was by 8:30pm, and dark by 9:00. How far south we've come.
The next day I took the bus to the sea-bus (ferry) to North Vancouver and another bus to LYNN CANYON PARK.
A gorgeous bunch of temperate rain forest nestled near a neighborhood. There was a suspension bridge hundreds of feet over the river. Pathways through the towering trees. And people jumping off cliffs into pools of water. And signs EVERYWHERE that said: Cliff Jumping Is Deadly. This area has already claimed several lives. That your fear is smarter than you are. And yet the people were unfazed as they leapt of 20 foot cliffs. And 30 foot cliffs. And one crazy dude leaped of a cliff that was EASILY 60 feet tall, over a waterfall and into a pool. He had a cast on his arm. Not sure where he earned that. Another guy dropped 25 feet off a bridge (not the suspension bridge) into a pool that couldn't have been 10 feet in diameter. This shit was crazy. I love cliff jumping and swimming and pools with waterfalls, but this was insane...
... and some of it looked fun too. You could jump off the bridge into a pool, then slide over a couple of 10 foot or 15 foot waterfalls down to the bottom. But there are signs EVERYWHERE that say how dangerous it is. (Did I mention this?).
I grabbed lunch and went to the 30 foot lake section, where there were even more people jumping into a gorge. Sure the jumps were only 10, 15 up to 30 feet. But there was a plaque dedicated to a 17 year old who had died there in March. I pointed it out to a mom who was there and she said: "Looks safe to me. You could die crossing the street.".
Good point, and that is a lot less fun.
So after surveying the jumps and the depths, I got on the 10 foot jump and hopped into the FREEZING COLD water! Yikes! That'll wake you up!
I eventually built up to a 20 foot jump into the deep part of the gorge. It was fun. Cold, goodness.
After that I hopped the bus to GROUSE MOUNTAIN for a cable car ride to the top. It's a pretty touristy area, but I figured a nice 3,000 foot view of Vancouver at sunset was a good finale to a great trip. I ate dinner and enjoyed the lights coming out.
The music playing at the restaurant was fun, and right before I headed down on the last tram, they played "Knocking On Heaven's door". It's a song that makes me think of my Mom because one of the patients at the hospital played it on the guitar when she was being treated. It was great to have her visit at the end of the trip. In truth, she visited a lot during this trip. In songs that were played in different places. In conversation. In feeling. The Alaska cruise was to have been my parents 35th wedding anniversary trip together... and as any of you who know me know, that trip didn't happen.
Well it did this year.
On what would have been their 50th anniversary, we took my Dad to Alaska.
:)
This is Craig Ouellette,
last member of the Nostromo (aka: Star Princess)
Signing off.
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