"Live" from Alaska! June 3 Volendam

This was my first cruise. As we were on vacation, I wrote this trip report but didn't splurge for the internet.

Nuts and Bolts:

Cast:

Melissa: I’m the planner of the trip, 39 year old music teacher. This is my first cruise, first time to go to Alaska, and even to see the Pacific! My family has had a rough year moving my parents to Colorado, they lived with us for six months then bought their own house. In November, I said to Reed, “I need a REAL vacation, where I can get a drink when I want.”

Reed: 50 year old Army Veteran. When he was about to retire, we wanted to celebrate his service, so we were deciding between an Alaskan cruise or Disney World. We had a four year old, naturally Disney was the easy choice. He is easy to please, yet hard to impress.

Katie: Our 11 year old adventurous daughter. She just finished her first year of middle school (how did that happen??). She’s a hard worker and awesome traveler. She’s just as excited about this trip as we are!

Set:

Hotels:

Seattle- La Quinta on 8th Ave

Vancouver- Best Western Plus on Drake St.

HAL Volendam: We chose this ship for the itinerary, Wednesday departure, and price. After reading CC, we knew Glacier Bay and Tracey Arm were terrific places to see. Wednesday departure was important so that we did not have to be a part of a massive amount of people in each port. If you look at the number of ships that are in a given port, the numbers are vastly lower for those who have a Wednesday leave and return vs. Saturday.

Excursions: The Volendam stops at Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan.

Juneau: Whale Watching! I have never been on a whale watching trip. Amazing since I’ve been to Cape Cod numerous times and lived in Connecticut most of my life. I had heard only great things about Harv and Marv and wanted to book with them, however, with my 11 year old daughter, they wouldn’t allow her on. I completely understand, I’m a teacher and I know lots of kids that I wouldn’t want on a boat with me! So we decided to go with Terry White of Juneau Adventures and their 4 hour excursion ending at Mendenhall Glacier.

Skagway: Emerald Lake. We rented a car through the Skagway Avis shop, downloaded Murray’s Guide. Then walk around Skagway.

Ketchikan: no formal plans in place. Totem Bight park and a leisurely walk on Creek Street.

Thanks for your report.

How was the pre-cruise hotel in Seattle?

Hope you enjoyed the Volendam.

June 2, 2015:

I can’t go anywhere without being recognized! We got up at 5a.m. but actually woke up at 4 something because I was so anxious about the trip. Made the long drive to Denver and the even longer flight to Seattle (8:30a.m. departure). We were at our hotel, the La Quinta on 8th ave by 11:30a.m. We chose the La Quinta due to its central location to the things we wanted to see, free wifi, and breakfast. It was also reasonably priced for the location. If you choose this hotel, the neighborhood is going through a revitalization (aka construction), however, the hotel is updated, clean, and I would recommend it to anyone. The only thing it is missing is a pool and hot tub.

Once we dropped our bags at the hotel, we walked to Pike’s Place Market. We were able to see 5th ave which has lots of upscale shops but nothing we didn’t have at home. Pike’s Market was terrific! The flowers are amazing there. I wish we could have purchased some for our trip. If you are hungry there are lots of places to find anything you could want, from fish to pastries. We bought some fresh peaches that were just dead ripe.

Holy Lobster Tail!

We ate there, wandered around some more then walked back to the hotel to take a nap in our room. Feeling refreshed, we went to Seattle Center. We went to see the Chihuly exhibit and the Space Needle. Again we walked about 10 minutes to City Center. As we were trying to find the Armory, I ran into some of my students!!! I couldn’t believe that we were not only in Seattle at the same time, but we actually ran into each other! I just can’t go anywhere without being recognized.

We stopped at the Armory for dinner, Kebabs, the food was OK. Then on to the Chilulhy exhibit. Oh wow! I saw some of his work this year when there was a show in Colorado Springs, but this was well worth the money! Katie and I walked through it twice to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

We wandered around some more before our time in the Space Needle. Then back to the Chihuly to see the gardens when you could tell lights were shining on the glass. Finally, we made our way back to the hotel. Looking at my fitbit, we walked 22,500+ steps today. No wonder my feet hurt!

Wednesday, June 3, 2015: AKA: Where’s the bar???

I’m not sure why we actually set alarms, all of us were up well before any of them were scheduled to go off at 5:45. After one of the best showers of my life (dual shower heads? BOOYA!), we went to breakfast and waited for our taxi to the King Street train station. After reading about what others experienced on CC, I expected a line and quite a wait to check in and receive a seating assignment. However, when we got there at 7a.m. for the 7:45a.m. train, we went right up to the checked luggage counter, then had one or two people in front of us for the business class line. The coach passenger line had a few more people in it and it wasn’t cleared out nearly as fast as the business.

Reading CC, the Cascade train is well run and mostly on time. We were some of the “lucky” ones to be delayed by an hour! Something was wrong with the engine, they had to swap engines and turn the cars around or something. By now I’m thinking, the ship will leave without us! Then I’m trying to explain to myself, it doesn’t sail-away until 5, you are OK. Instead of leaving at 7:45, we left at 8:45. We arrived in Vancouver just after 1p.m.

Our late arrival actually turned out to be in our favor, we walked into Canada Place, walked right up to immigration, right up to checking in, and was on the ship in less than 10 minutes. Granted, we had a Wednesday departure with only two ships leaving. I don’t know what most experience on a Wednesday, but being late into Vancouver may have saved us quite a bit of waiting in line.

Our room was ready, so we dropped off our carry-on bags and went to find a bar. LOL We received the Explore 4 package when we booked which comes with the drinking package. One thing I didn’t realize as we were getting our drinks was that the gratuity is not included on each drink you get! That is something I’ll need to check on later to see how much we owe at the end of the cruise. ****** When we received our final bill, every drink was free including the gratuity. So drink up!

We wandered around, ate at the Lido buffet, and got a few more drinks. When we came into our room, we noticed the beds were put together, we had requested them apart, neither of us sleep well when we are next to one another. We tried to separate them ourselves, but that didn’t work, so we requested at the Front Office to have our room steward Sumo separate them when he got a chance.

Dinner was in the MDR. We have anytime dining, so I didn’t know how long we’d have to wait for a table, turned out to be not long at all. The star of the dinner was the chilled berry soup. When my daughter was finished with it the waiter asked if she wanted more and she said, Oh yeah! I tried the French Onion soup and sorry everyone, I was disappointed. I make an amazing French Onion soup, while the one I had was good, it wasn’t excellent. Reed had the soup as well and said mine was much more watery than his, he said it was as if the soup was getting low and someone said, “put more water in it.” Reed had the prime rib which was excellent! I had the chicken salad, just enough to fill and be very good. Needless to say, we were stuffed.

Katie decided she wanted to go to the kid’s club, we were too tired to do much of anything, we walked around, spent some time on the bow, and saw a beautiful sunset while we were there. Reed went to the show for a little bit and we turned in early due to traveling all day.

Looking forward to your next installment. Excellent so far!

Great cruise review so far...awaiting the next instalment! :)

So far so good.

Looking forward to reading more.

Have a great cruise.

Great start...looking forward to reading more! Love having Explore 4 and trying new adult beverages. We always try to remember when we are calling it a night to get a big bottle of water for the next day at the bar since we never max out our # of drinks with Explore 4.

Thanks for your report.

How was the pre-cruise hotel in Seattle?

Hope you enjoyed the Volendam.

The hotel was great. We got a suite, master bedroom with a king sized bed and a sitting area. Katie had the pull out couch, she says it was fine, but remember she's a kid and can sleep anywhere. The bed was very comfortable. We didn't have much noise from the street and did have a view of the Space Needle.

Though the area is going through construction, we felt safe. There are several restaurants nearby and you can't get away from Starbucks (it is Seattle of course).

I'd stay there again! We paid less than $200 for the night.

Reed found his favorite place on the ship, the lido aft deck. Of course my favorite place turned out to be forward, specifically the Crow’s Nest. We spent the better part of the day hanging out there to read, hope to see wildlife, and just relax. I could get used to this cruising thing!

Reed taking one of his many naps.

Katie reading

I did join in on some line dancing and caught the end of trivia time. One of the other guests was impressed by my dancing and every time she saw me she said, "There's our dancer!" LOL

We found the Pina Coladas were very well made! I made some friends who also decided that the Crow’s Nest was going to be their hangout. This was also formal night, so we dressed to the nine’s with Reed in a tux, Katie in a skirt, and I was in a long gown. Who said Americans won’t dress up? We saw several tuxes about the ship and many gowns. There is a large Australian contingent on the cruise, so that might be why.

Hubby looking dashing in his tux.

For dinner we were able to try a bit of most everything on the menu. Appetizers: fruit boat, escargot, shrimp cocktail. Entrée: lamb (so very good), steak (nicely done), and pasta. Dessert: chocolate soufflé (oh my can I have this every night?), strawberries with balsamic, and Black Forest (no sugar added) cake. Just as I was trying to take pictures, my camera froze up. My NEW camera that came two weeks ago. I was just about out of my mind because we had whale watching on Day 3 in Juneau. Thankfully, it was just a problem because the battery was low. PHEW!

We spent the rest of the night doing laundry, WooHoo! And relaxing. The captain said it was going to be a rough night because we would be on open ocean and the weather was nasty. 4m waves. We could feel the boat rockin’ and rollin’. Even the people who worked on the boat were walking down the halls like drunken prom dates. This was the first night I decided to take some Dramamine, and boy did I sleep well.

great read! - keep it up.

We are going on a similar cruise July 11 - opposite direction but same ports. We are doing Marv and Harv but I am anxious to read about your whale spotting

Enjoying this post. We will be on the Volendam in August. We are also going with Juneau Adventures, 4 hrs, and would like to go to Nugget Falls afterwards. Wondering if we will have enough time. Did you take the shuttle back to town or taxi?

Enjoying this post. We will be on the Volendam in August. We are also going with Juneau Adventures, 4 hrs, and would like to go to Nugget Falls afterwards. Wondering if we will have enough time. Did you take the shuttle back to town or taxi?

We did have enough time. We were off the ship quickly, Terry met us at the dock, and we were at his boat in no time. He had us in to Mendenhall around 5:45ish, we didn't care about the Visitor's Center, and with three of us, a taxi was about the same cost as the bus ($35). We walked to Nugget Falls and back in about an hour with time to take some nice pictures.

We maneuvered Tracy Arm Friday morning and though cloudy, the scenery was beautiful. We did see three icebergs as we were coming up the channel. There were a few people taking a tender for a tour.

Unbeknown to us, the MDR hosted the Mariner lunch. When we went down to the Rotterdam, we requested a table, as were seated, I noticed the menu. I asked the Maitre D about it saying, “we aren’t a part of the Mariner Society.” He said, “don’t worry about it.” I didn’t question him about it and sat with a lovely lady named Vivian.

The lunch was beautiful. We received a glass of champagne. The dessert was a mixed berry tart, I could have eaten that all day long! It was delicious.

We docked in Juneau at 1p.m. The sky was cloudy but it didn’t look like it wanted to rain. We went with Juneau Adventures, Captain Terry White for our whale watch. It was just the three of us on board. What an amazing time we had. We saw a bunch of humpback whales, I think two mothers and two calves. I did get one picture of the mother and calf showing off their tails. Then the eagles, oh wow the eagles. They were out and did I ever get pictures of them. Finally, watching the sea lions was just fun. I really enjoyed that it was just the three of us with the captain. We saw much larger groups go out and I couldn’t imagine trying to fight for space so that I could take the pictures that I wanted.

Capt. Terry is very personable. We were talking with him the whole time. He had binoculars for us to use and provided some soda, water, and snacks. He kept in touch with others to see where the whales were and we had no problems spotting them.

Those are just a few of the ones I took on the trip!

Sea Lions hanging out on the channel marker:

Captain Terry drove us to Mendenhall Glacier where we walked to Nugget Falls (easy 1 mile hike!). Seeing the glacier was amazing and there were several icebergs as well.

We thought about walking around downtown Juneau but we were beat. We took a taxi back to the ship, ate the Klondike dinner at the Lido, and I went through some of my pictures and sat to write up more of this report. Tomorrow is an early day in Skagway and the drive up to Emerald Lake.

Skagway, Emerald Lake:

A few months before the trip, we decided we wanted to visit Emerald Lake, so I rented a car from Avis. We thought about the train, but the idea of being able to stop when and where we wanted, plus saving over $200 appealed to my frugal nature.

Throughout the trip, we’ve found that we enjoy dining in the Rotterdam (main dining hall) more than trying to fight people at the buffet. We’ve only eaten at the buffet (Lido) twice. I was afraid that dining in the MDR would take hours, however, courses come out at an appropriate pace, you don’t feel as if you are waiting an eternity for your food, nor do you feel rushed.

From the ship, we walked to Avis, got in and out quickly, and started the easy drive up the Klondike Highway. For those that are nervous about driving this route, don’t be, it is a very easy mountain drive, there are guardrails in places where there should be rails. Don’t forget your passport! Since we didn’t have to think about passports for a while, I almost forgot that one would be needed to enter Canada.

The drive up was AMAZING!! I’ve driven Rocky Mountain National Park and other mountain scenery, but wow. This was truly spectacular. At almost every turn there was a jaw dropping view. For you shutterbugs, don’t forget to turn around and look behind you.

Crossing the border was simple, just stopped in the correct lane showed passports and we were on our way into British Columbia. We used Murray’s guide to help us navigate through some of the more scenic sections. Don’t buy the guide for directions, it is a simple one road up, one road down, turn left at Carcross if you want to stop somewhere.

We stopped at Carcross. It is a tiny town (village?) with a few places to eat and shop. There is a shop which sells laser cut metal. Amazing work! We shopped at the general store and ate lunch at the Bistro. The burgers are wonderful, we tried poutine (YUM!), but I didn’t like their beer cheese soup.

A high school aged girl was trying to make some extra money by selling cookies and juice. We could hear her booming voice calling over and over, “Cookies, cookies for sale, and orange juice and lemonade too.” Thank goodness we didn’t need to hear her all day long!

We moved on up to Emerald Lake. Wow. Just Wow. I could have sat there all day watching the colors on the lake change. We then made the drive back down to Skagway. The views were still amazing coming back. Dropped off the rental and decided to shop around.

There are lots of places in Skagway to go if you are looking to spend a lot of money. I’m a frugal tightwad, not only were the prices I saw not in the same ballpark, we weren’t even playing the same sport. The vases with the gold leaf tips were amazing, but we aren’t the kind of family that can just say, “wrap it up!” when it costs $800. We did buy some things, but I was very surprised at the high cost of some of the souvenirs. I was also surprised that some places had a Cancun market feel, “here come into my shop… We have something special just for cruise guests….”

We were back on the ship around 6p.m. tired but felt that we had seen everything we could. I was excited because that night we had a reservation at the Pinnacle Grill as a part of our Explore 4 package. I heeded the advice of other CC members and if I saw two appetizers I liked, I ordered them! I had the Lobster Bisque (very good with an earthy undertone), crab cakes (good, but the sauce really stole the show), Reed had the lobster bisque and the shrimp cocktail (the shrimp were HUGE!).

We both ordered the bone in rib-eye. I’m sorry to say, I didn’t like it. Now, I LOVE ribeye. It is one of my favorite cuts of beef, but this was tough. I barely ate half of it. I was very surprised that it was that tough, Reed had the prime rib a few nights previously and it was wonderful. I had the tenderloin at the first formal night, though I didn’t care for the sauce, the steak was cooked perfectly and extremely tender. I thought this was a different cut of steak masquerading as a ribeye.

Dessert was wonderful, Reed had the lemon brulee and I had the chocolate volcano. The lemon dish was divine, just the right amount of lemon flavor. My chocolate volcano was extremely rich and decadent. We did order the cheese plate as well. The swiss and the brie were wonderful, the hard cheese (not sure what it was) and blue cheese were not. As I bit into the blue cheese I thought, “this is what a barnyard smell tastes like.” Don’t get me wrong, I love blue cheese, this one was earthy!

Katie stayed in our stateroom as Reed and I went to dinner. We showed her what she could order, etc… When we got back she was half asleep watching a movie. She went to bed and we went to the comedian, Lee Bayless. He was pretty good! Clean comedy. He spoke of the minor annoyances of the ship, not being able to find his room again, how to use the shower, and the fall he took just trying to get into the bathroom because of the step. He was happy to see all the hair gel available all over the ship (sanitizer) but couldn’t understand why the people on the ship had to remind him what day it was in the elevators. He thought there should just be one mat that says, “Today.” I get it, you are on vacation!

Great photos so far! :cool:

The hotel was great. We got a suite, master bedroom with a king sized bed and a sitting area. Katie had the pull out couch, she says it was fine, but remember she's a kid and can sleep anywhere. The bed was very comfortable. We didn't have much noise from the street and did have a view of the Space Needle.

 

Though the area is going through construction, we felt safe. There are several restaurants nearby and you can't get away from Starbucks (it is Seattle of course).

 

I'd stay there again! We paid less than $200 for the night.

Thank you for your reply.

Loving your review and great pictures.

Scenic Cruising through Glacier Bay:

When we woke up, were in Glacier Bay, hoping to see calving glaciers and wildlife. The day started cold and cloudy but as we approached John’s Hopkins glacier the sun came out and things warmed up considerably. Just when Katie was getting too cold to stay outside, stewards came around with hot pea soup. It was excellent.

Margerie glacier didn’t disappoint us. Several times in the hour we were there we saw calving. After we turned, in one of the inlets, there was a pod of whales, we saw whale spout after spout while we were in the Crow’s Nest. The ranger suspected that there must have been 5 or 6 whales there. Some with binoculars could see the tails as the whale dove. We also saw moose, bear, sea lions, and puffins. It was an amazing trip. The beauty of the glaciers isn’t to be missed.

If we didn’t have enough to eat, we attended the Dutch tea at 3p.m. I had expected trays of food on the tables with sandwiches, etc… This was more of a buffet line to get treats and sit for the tea. The food and tea were good, just not what I expected.

Tonight was the Gala attire/formal night. We had made a reservation for 5:15 but after eating all day, none of us were hungry, I cancelled the reservation and decided we would take our chances when it came to getting a table. We got to dinner at 6:30 and were seated almost immediately. Katie and Reed had the shrimp cocktail (the same HUGE shrimp we had a Pinnacle), I had the fois gras. I don’t know how you can make fois gras light, but HAL did. There was just enough apple to give it a lighter taste. I then had the salad which was good. Of course, I’m a seafood fan, so I had to have the surf and turf. I asked for a second lobster tail which was kindly obliged. Everyone at the table thought I was a genius for ordering two. The waiter was trying to get the meat out of the tail and I said, “go ahead and help the others, I’ve got this.” I had expected the lobster to be over cooked, but it was beautiful. The filet was amazing, tender and juicy. Dessert was the flourless chocolate cake which was wonderful.

We sat with some very interesting people, a young lady who was going to Georgia Tech and two from Calgary. We talked until 9:30. I joked with our waiter that we had been there so long we ought to have more lobster.

Tonight the magician performed, he was quite good. However, I think he was a little unnerved because of two incidents. First, just as the show was starting, a very large group of people came late and then walked in front of people trying to find empty seats. Guests started getting irritated and one lady even jumped up and started saying, “There’s a show on, go around!” One of the latecomers started arguing with her. Once he moved on a little, he saw some seats and went to go sit, but a gentleman was saving for his wife. This same latecomer started arguing with the man about the open seat and the man began gently, “this is for my wife.” I thought it was about to come to blows when the man stood up and had to tell the latecomer quite forcefully, “MOVE ON!”

If that wasn’t enough, about 10 minutes into the show, we hear the alarm. I start thinking, “crap, I don’t remember what each alarm means.” The captain of the watch came on to say a fire had been detected on the seventh floor in a stateroom. You could sense the audience tense up and begin to fidget. Several minutes later the captain comes on to explain that there was an electrical fire started with some wiring in one of the staterooms. It was put out and a crew was there to fix the issue.

Which ocean view room did you have? Did you like it? Any issues with noise etc?

Which ocean view room did you have? Did you like it? Any issues with noise etc?

1945 It was a great room. A little bit of noise that never got above what I would call white noise. Just a fan type of noise. However, when there was a course change or turn, we did hear quite a bit of noise, but I think everyone on the ship would hear it. I don't normally sleep well in new places, but I slept like a baby every night.

We docked in Ketchikan an hour earlier than expected, in no time we were off the ship and ready to explore. We hadn’t booked any formal tours, I had read enough on CC to know we could hop onto the bus to go to Totem Bight Park for just $2. We could have continued onto Saxman if we wanted, but we had our fill of totems.

The bus was FULL. Four ships were in Ketchikan that day, Volendam, Grand Princess, Coral Princess, and the Norwegian Jewel. One of the Princess ships was letting off just as we were getting off as well which added to the number trying to take the bus to the park, add in the local traffic and it was scrunched standing room only. The driver even had to stop people from getting on because he couldn’t take any more passengers.

We saw a Walmart! LOL The bus passes the small Walmart in town. On the bus we did speak to a few people who were taking the Alaska Marine Highway system to see the state. What a neat experience.

Totem Bight is a free park to visit. We were astounded by the beauty of the carvings. Katie was in charge of our map and read the descriptions of each totem as we passed by. The park takes less than an hour and by the time we were finished the next bus was on its way. Luckily, this one had fewer people.

We spent the rest of our time seeing the city. We shopped on Creek Street which is such a neat place. The shops and historic buildings were exactly what I was looking for when I wanted to see Alaska. The souvenir we coveted was a totem pole. However, if you also would like one, be prepared to pay for it. It is difficult to purchase one for under $100. We wanted the authentic made in Alaska ones, not the cheap imitation.

I was also amazed by the walrus bone carvings. They were gorgeous! However, again, be prepared to open your wallet.

We did look at the salmon prices and I was surprised that the prices were no better than what I could get at Costco. Needless to say, we didn’t purchase any.

All shopped out, we went back to the ship to get ready for dinner. Reed had the seafood cake (it was delicious), the Caesar salad, the strip (so tender and juicy), apple something. Katie had the strawberry bisque minus the green peppercorn (VERY GOOD!), turkey dinner (it was OK, but the turkey was very dry), and the watermelon sorbet (OMG I WANT THE RECIPE!). I had the pesto ziti and the crème brule (very good!).

We had another amazing night doing a little laundry, don’t be jealous folks! In the middle of the laundry, Reed came to tell me, “grab your camera and go outside!” I did and was treated to a beautiful sunset behind the mountains.

At sea heading towards Vancouver:

Today the mood on the ship was to try to squeak out as much enjoyment as possible on the last day of the cruise. We joined in the trivia game, scavenger hunt, and name that tune. Katie went to the HAL Kids, while there I spoke with one of the HAL kid’s supervisors, she said that on next cruise, the number of children is going to double and the week after it will triple from this week’s cruise!

The last night’s dinner was International night. While some less common meats were available, I didn’t find anything international about the menu. Lamb and quail were both available with beef. We were hoping for a more Polynesian flair, one tablemate was hoping for something Dutch. Everything was quite good, the presentation of the salmon tartar was beautiful. I had the quail, Reed had the lamb (it was excellent), Katie had the trout which she said was terrific.

After packing our bags, we went to the night’s show, Liar’s Game. “Hello, my name is Mark, I come from a small town in Texas….. Dallas.” The words which the crew had to define or lie about were hilarious. Clinchpoop, tittup, and chubble just to name a few.

It was today we found out that Chase, one of the cruise showmen is from Parker, Colorado, just an hour to the north of us. Small world!

Here is one of the amazing towel animals we had. This one scared me until I realized what it was.

We made sure to eat breakfast in the MDR for our final meal, grabbed our carry ons, and said goodbye. Our steward Sumo gave us a heartfelt goodbye, I think he enjoyed having Katie as a guest in one of his rooms. As we walked off the ship, several of the crew were waving goodbye. Picking up bags, going through immigration, and grabbing a taxi were all simple and quick. We were at our hotel by 9a.m.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus on Drake Street. The hotel allowed us to keep our bags in their luggage area and we were off to see the town. Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us that we could borrow bikes from them, so we walked, A LOT! We walked down to Grandville Island to the public market. This is much like Pike’s Place Market, except better laid out. There are a number of fruit, seafood, bread, etc.. stands around. Everything looked fresh.

We then walked back to the hotel taking the seawall route. We had hoped to see the Olympic Village, but I didn’t realize we passed it until we were at the science center. Oh well, it was a beautiful walk. On the way we saw Rodney’s Oysterhouse. One of our tablemates from Calgary told us that in Vancouver that is one of his favorite restaurants. We stumbled upon it by accident and it was marvelous. Fresh shucked oysters at the bar, their beer was great, and so were the oyster po boys. Oh yeah, and the view of the guys doing the shucking wasn’t bad either! Just saying ladies.

I looked at my fitbit and it said we walked 21,000 steps by 2p.m. My feet were hurting!! Katie and I went to the hot tub. Once I recovered a bit, we decided we would borrow bikes from the hotel and bike to Stanley Park. I asked Reed if he wanted to join us but he was battling the oysters.

What a joy biking the seawall is. We had a beautiful day, not too hot. We biked from where Drake meets the seawall, up to Stanley Park, around some of the park to the interior road near Beaver Lake and then took roads back to the hotel. It took us about 2.5 hours and I bet we biked between 15-20 miles.

I wish we had such a nice bike ride near our house, we have several great local rides, but nothing that flat and easy. Even Katie was asking if we could move to Vancouver!

After our ride, it was time for dessert, we went to Tim Horton’s. This was our first time visiting one, and when in Canada, that’s the coffee shop you should go to, eh? Good coffee, great donuts, and decent prices. It reminds me a lot of Dunkin Donuts, at least what it used to be until they changed their donut recipe.