When we first moved into this RV park we discovered that we were allowed to have small pet fencing and “some” plants. This was a first for us in over 10 years of traveling, and we definitely wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to give Jack a fenced in area so he could lay outside and watch the world go by. I also really wanted to have a few plants, if for nothing else than to block the large pipes next to our site, so before I left I found some pots on clearance and was excited about filling them up when I came back.
For those of you who know Lee what happened next will come as no surprise, but even after 35 years of marriage I have to say his commitment to doing something that really matters to him surprises even me. When I came back he had a beautiful little white picket fence constructed, with a front and back gate, all set up, and a handful of maybe 6 or 8 plants. That same weekend we went to a wonderful small nursery I had found, and bought a few shrubs and trees and plants.
This is what I saw when I came home!We added these Silver Sheen, they work great to help block the pipe, grow well in pots, and are pretty in the sunlight. When they sway in the breeze the sunlight makes the leaves look silver, they’re beautiful. The pots were a lucky find at Home Goods for only $15 end of season clearance. They’re HUGE. And we added some flowers
My other three plants were all flowering and we got hummingbirds and bees right away. The roses in particular were absolutely beautiful and will bloom here all year. When I saw my first hummingbird I bought one feeder and we got so many hummingbirds Lee bought 4 more. At times we have as many as 30 hummingbirds snacking in our yard and Jack really likes watching them through Lee’s desk window.
So in no time we had flowers, and plants, and hummingbirds. We even had a tomato plant, cilantro, green onions, and strawberries. For me it was perfect. But Lee, well Lee had other ideas 🙂
I should say at this point that Lee’s Mom and Dad have a gorgeous garden. And when I say gorgeous I mean they were on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch newspaper gorgeous. I recommend taking a moment here and clicking this link to a previous blog post about their garden. You truly have to see it to believe it. I mention that because when Lee decided he wanted to try and put a little water feature into our little space it’s not as crazy as it might initially sound. I will say though I was pretty dubious for a variety of reasons, but I should have known that when Lee wants something he generally makes it happen. He spent the next month scouring Facebook marketplace and little by little he created his pond.
Because we obviously can’t dig here and the center is twice as deep as the shelf edge, he used some wood to support the edge so it wouldn’t droop when it was full of water, and it worked perfecetly. The actual pond, pump, filter and waterfall spillway he bought used on FB marketplace from a bunch of different people, and a ton of work went into positioning it and raising and lowering the spillway until he got the perfect sound. Then we went to a specialty pond store and bought a few pond plants. The most expensive was the lily at $50 (ouch) but we only need one and it is really pretty.
Next he bought some stone pavers and then flowering plants to put all around the pond. Along the way he asked my opinion about colors and types of plants, which I appreciated but largely I stood back and tried not to get in his way lol.
I had the idea to put a couple of long hanging plants on hooks right behind the fountain to sort of frame the water fall with greenery and give it a background, and I bought the frog at a swap meet and added the spiky plant so he would look cool, and Lee just popped him into the spillway where he stands guard over the pond.
I was a bit worried that we were overdoing it and someone would say something, because some people are like that, but so far the responses from neighbors have been very positive, and the kids in the park are really fascinated. One older gentleman even stopped and told me we were the pretties site in the park, which was nice to hear. Beauty is contagious, too. Our neighbor added a bunch more plants, and some outdoor string lights, and a couple of hummingbird feeders, which was fine by me because they are greedy little buggers, and now we’re going through a lot less sugar. 🙂
Lee talking to some kids in the neighborhood. He added three of four different types of fish and somehow we even got a visiting frog, so there is lots to look at.
Since Lee likes sitting outside so much he also added some RGB LED pond lighting, a long string patio lights, and a few dozen flicker flame tiki lights hidden all over. I really like how the lights make the garden look at night. It really is beautiful, and since it’s temperate here year round we are really hoping we will be able to enjoy it in the winter months.
Knowing Lee this will be a work in progress as long as we live here, but I wanted to catch you up. Yes, we know that if we move ALL of it will have to go, but building something with that in mind is kind of freeing. I am sure there are lots of people here in the park who would be happy to buy or take various pieces of what we have done and in any event we have no plans on moving in the near future so why not enjoy it while we can? Our quality of life went up exponentially when we moved here from the previous park in the valley, and now it has shot up again, which is nice.
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The one place I really wanted to visit on this trip was Butchart Gardens in Victoria. It has been on my bucket list for many years now and I was thrilled that they had an evening excursion that accommodated my work schedule. First we got a excellent bus drive through the city and that definitely made me want to come back and spend some more time here.
Our bus driver was awesomeBeautiful buildingsThey have bike lanes blocked off all through downtown. LA needs this!!China townWE stopped at Tim Horton and got free donuts yummyChina town
The point of the whole trip was the gardens though and wow did they live up to their press. We have been to gardens all over the country, but this was really special maybe because they are so old or because they have been lovingly tended by the same family for over 100 years. It started with Jenni in 1904 who moved to a relatively remote area with her husband who started a cement plant and she ended up with a huge pit in her back yard. She started bringing dirt in and by 1912 had the beginnings of a garden. The pit is actually one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Frankly I could go on and on about how beautiful this garden is, but instead I will share the pictures. Over time it has expanded and some really cool fountains have been added, including a small moving fountain that may have inspired the Bellagio fountains. Simply beautiful.
I took so many pictures and really you couldn’t take a bad one and still I didn’t really capture the spirit of the gardens. The gift shops were also absolutely fantastic and I splurged a little there as well.
Two of my favorite things were a full working carousel and the moving fountains loved those. At one point it looked like an angel in it’s pattern and I loved it.
Loved loved this
All the fountains were really cool.
It’s easy in a place like this to miss the beauty of individual flowers but I tried my best to capture some of those.
It was a wonderful day and a terrific way to end the cruise. Our next stop was Seattle and then I flew home where I only had a couple of days work and then thankfully Labor Day weekend. I loved the cruise with Mom and was so grateful to be able to go. Three bucket list items checked for me and lots of quality time with Mom! Next up I try to recreate my garden experience in our new RV spot!!
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One of the most interesting things about the Canadian ports was how friendly they were. Getting into the country was very easy and unlike our Mexican cruise, marijuana is less of an issue because it is legal nationwide. We were barraged with signs on the cruise ship and Mexican ports around marihuana being illegal, but here you just had to declare it and it seemed like a small amount for personal use was allowed. It wasn’t an issue for me either way since I don’t partake but if you do its something to keep in mind.
Prince Rupert was our first Canadian port and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. Once again I opted for walking the town and this one was very small. I really wanted to get those crab legs but the few places that were open said they were out of stock and ultimately I just wandered around a bit looking at a few shops. I tried to get something to eat at one point but the one open restaurant just didn’t look very good so ultimately I went back to the ship and ate on the boat. Nice how you can do that if you want.
The next day though we were in Nanaimo and I really liked that town. We were only the sixth cruise ship to dock there that year and they had a wonderful shuttle with a guide who explained the town. It was raining pretty hard but I still had a lot of fun as I visited a Church thrift store, a few small shops, and a craft market they had setup just for our ship. The craft fair in particular was lovely and I spent more money there than anywhere else on the cruise as I loved what they had and wanted to support the folks who had braved the rain to sell to us.
We were the only boat on the dock and as the tide went up and down they kept changing how we got on and off the boat. It was pretty interesting.
Nanaimo is actually on the same Island as Victoria and only about 30 miles as the crow flies from that city. It is also across the bay from Vancouver and we saw sea planes taking off and landing all day along with helicopter flights to either of the two big cities. There are ferries as well, but they take longer and I was surprised by how many people were flying back and forth. The port building at Nanaimo doubled as a helipad office which was also pretty interesting.
It really is a very nice place and everyone we talked to seemed glad we were there. It isn’t super touristy yet and they were still working out the kinks of having cruise ships in their port but it was a very pleasant experience.
I bought my Mom one of these super cute
It was interesting going to two small ports back to back, but next up was Victoria and another bucket list item was checked off my list. You don’t want to miss that one!
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Our next port was in Juno, but unfortunately the rain that had been threatening starting coming down. We had been pretty lucky with rain so far, but since it rains 50% of the time in August in Alaska that couldn’t hold. It was also a work day for me and our shortest day in port and we needed to take a boat to the dock. Add all that together and I ultimately decided to skip this port which was a bummer because I still hadn’t had any crab.
We did have a lovely Alaska themed dinner on the boat, but despite the tons of Salmon options no crab at all. I didn’t actually get crab the entire trip despite numerous attempts to find a place that served it in various ports. In all fairness crab season ends around my birthday so I was a little late but I still wish I could have had some. I also really wanted to see the State capital building but ultimately had to settle for a peek of the corner of the building I could see from the boat and a google search for a picture. This is the only State Capital building without a dome and looks more like a fancy office building than anything else. Overall I was really cranky about the entire day and regretting what I felt I was missing.
JunoTons of ships in port in JunoThe boat that takes people to port. We left port at 4pm so you had to be back on the little boat by three. Since I got off work at 2pm didn’t seem like much point to going into town in the pouring rain.
Thankfully the next day we arrived at Sitka, which turned out to be my absolute favorite port. Even though we were departing at 3pm, it was much easier to get into town because we were right on the dock. The town also had wonderful shuttles which not only stopped at various places throughout town but had the best bus driver who talked about the town as he drove us.
Sitka has a really wonderful history as it started as a Russian settlement which was purchase by the US in 1867. It is only accessible by air or sea and is a working fishing town. The absolute best part is every single business (per local laws) is owned by someone who lives in the town which not only gives it a unique set of stores, but also stops outside companies from taking it over. There is pride when people talk about the town, and more than one person said they visited on a cruise ship and then decided to settle here. After visiting I see why.
Easy on and off the boat. Loved it!
The coolest thing about the town were the two churches right down town. The first one I went into was a Lutheran church and the people outside were extremely friendly and gave me a tour talking about the history of the town. I am Lutheran so I found it all very interesting including the huge organ in the church. There was a large fire of the original building in 1888 but some artifacts were at the local museum at the time and survived and I found the history fascinating and the people were so nice.
The organ
The church had a model of the old fort
Across the street is a Saint Michael’s Cathedral Russian Orthodox church and it was amazing. I love visiting churches on our travels and this one was steeped in history as well. I even lit a candle for Grandma Anna who is Catholic but I am sure she appreciates me thinking of her.
Beautiful
The churches co exist next to each other and have helped each other in the past which seems to be the spirit of Sitka. I would definitely love to go back and spend some more time there, and I mentioned to Lee that if we ever decided to live in Alaska this would definitely be high on my list. Next up we hit some Canadian ports and I was able to see the difference between Alaska and northwest Canada.
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I have wanted to go to Haines every since we visited Alaska back in 2016. Unfortunately we couldn’t make that trip work so I was excited to see the place where I heard Eagles were on the beach as numerous as seagulls. It was a great start when we pulled into port because the town was postcard perfect and I got to see an eagle fly back and forth right in front of our window. I didn’t get a picture of it but it was beautiful.
This was only one of two ports we stopped at the entire trip where we had to take a small boat to shore. That was a HUGE advantage to being on a smaller ship by the way because you lose 1/2 hour each way when you have to take a small boat in. Mom and I went together and walked around a little bit prior to her excursion then I was on my own.
You can see the small boat pulling up to the ramp
Haines had a small shuttle that went through the town, but it was on the slower side and the hills for walking were pretty steep. It also didn’t go very close to the shore unfortunately and the state park was several miles away and too far to go by foot. Basically I found that the cool stuff I wanted to see was too far for me to walk and with no other means of transportation my options were pretty limited. That was unfortunate because I had heard wonderful things about the area surrounding the town but I didn’t really get to see any of that. Instead I walked through the town area and ultimately got off when the shuttle stopped at the Natural History Museum. As small town museums go it was fine, but definitely not the experience I was hoping for.
Aside from the numerous stuffed animals they did have a few birds that were rescued. Seeing an eagle in a cage is definitely not the same as seeing them in the wild, but I do appreciate the work they are doing. They also had some wonderful information on the history of Eagles. In 1963 we were down to 417 breeding pairs now we have 316,000.
All in all it was pretty disappointing, but I cant blame that on Haines. I could have done an excursion or rented a car even, but I was trying to keep costs low. I will say as a general rule that if you want to see animals on an Alaskan cruise you are going to pay extra for an excursion. The good news is my Mom went on several of these and she saw numerous animals every time. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to Cruise stops and I learned some important lessons along the way. Oh one last thing, keep in mind Uber is not really an option. These are REALLY small towns and I am not saying they don’t have any Uber drivers, but it’s definitely not like the Mexican ports where private drivers are numerous and relatively inexpensive.
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You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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Our next day was a day at sea but we were going to go and see a glacier! I wasn’t sure how close we would be able to get to it, but since I had been on an up close glacier tour while I was in Alaska in 2016 so I was excited about seeing it on a big cruise ship. Since we had an awesome room and free room service our plan was to stay in for most of the day, which we did but I will say it was really chilly the closer to the glacier we got. Beautiful views though there and back and I used my phone and my long lens to take some pictures.
Because it was late in the season we didn’t see waterfalls until on the way out and it was a beauty. It was hard to get good pictures because we were kind of far away but I loved it. Turns out this was the only waterfall of the journey, but I’ll talk about that later.
The water was crystal clear and the mountains were green, or snowy, or foggy the views really changed everywhere you looked and because we were on a smaller cruise ship we got surprisingly close to the Glacier. Then a small boat pulled up and actually picked up some passengers who for $440 got to take a smaller boat right up to the glacier.
Our views weren’t nearly as close of course but with my long lens I got some nice shots. I didn’t see any calving of the ice but the captain kept spinning the boat slowly so we all got really nice views.
The glacierThis was as close as I could get with the long lens …see how close the little boat was.
I thought the captain did an excellent job given the size of the boat but when I talked to him later he was disappointed he wasn’t able to get closer. A significant amount of our time was taken up by loading and unloading the smaller boat and navigating that close to the shelf is a painstaking process.
I was disappointed that we saw no animals though because on my last glacier cruise we saw tons of otters and puffins. I don’t know if they were there and we didn’t get close enough or they just weren’t there, but I was glad I had my other experience. I will say that if you get this close to a glacier spend the extra money and get right next to it or go on another trip to Alaska and take a glacier cruise there. Although it was a very nice experience you are just lightly touching the experience when you do it on a cruise ship.
My other huge disappointment was we did not see Glacier Bay. That’s my fault not the cruise lines but I was hoping we would be able to see it. I am on a mission to visit all of the National Parks, but this particular cruise (some do) went to Hubbard Glacier instead of Glacier Bay. I tried very hard to find a way to get to Gustavus where the visitors center is but with my schedule and our itinerary I just couldn’t find a way to make it work. Oh well I will just have to plan another trip to Alaska to hit the remaining National parks 🙂
Next up we check out Haines where I heard Bald Eagles were like seagulls on the beach!
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You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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I knew there was nothing of interest for me in Icy Straits so I decided to splurge and spend $250 to join Mom in a whale watching tour. I have seen whales a few times in my travel but this was an opportunity to see humpback whales close up so off we went. The ships we traveled on were relatively small groups and there were plenty of places to be in the open air (or inside) and the three crew members were great answering all kinds of questions
Mom and I hung out on the back of the boat alot
The first thing we saw as we were heading out were some seals on a buoy. They were soaking up the sun and the captain stayed near them until we all got our pictures.
Next we saw otters and that was also really cool. We couldn’t get as close to them, but I brought my long lens camera with me and I got some pretty good shots. They are so amazingly cute I could have taken pictures of them all day.
Finally we saw some whales. And not just any but several humpbacks, a couple even had babies with them. Mom was hoping to see them crest which we never saw but there was lots of blowing and it was awesome being this close to them. What was super special was the whale tale pictures I got. We could have ended right there and I would have been super happy.
So cool
But there was more. The captains of the various boats were obviously talking to each other and we headed to another area where there were oracas!!! Seeing an Orca has been on my bucket list since I turned 50 and we went on a glacier cruise (no luck on that trip), but we saw multiple pods on this trip and even some babies!! So so cool.
Baby and Mom
Amazing. From a pure picture perspective though I got a few shots I was really proud of. One was a fish leaping out of the water and then the splash when it landed and the other was a bird with the shadow on the water. It was a really lovely trip and for me well worth the money it cost.
I even got a great shot of the boat.
Next up we visit a glacier in the big boat!
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You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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Our first day was a sea day which was actually pretty nice because it allowed us to get acclimated to the ship. That is also when I discovered the ship had intermittent cell coverage on sea days and I was really glad that I was only working on port days. I also discovered that it can get pretty cold on the sea and I was really glad I left all my resort wear at home and had jeans and long sleeved shirts! Trust me it’s chilly.
The next day we arrived at our first port of Ketchikan and I was happy we were able to pull right up to the dock. One huge advantage of being on a smaller ship is we could visit ports that smaller ships could not and most of the ports we were able to dock. In this case it was a short walk up to a giant gift store area and then a free shuttle into town.
We were right next to another ship which showed how small we were in comparison.
Ketchikan is a cute little town and they have the tourist trade down. The initial building was full of lots of collectibles and had easy to access transportation to excursions and the town. Since Mom was on an excursion I headed out on my own.
Unfortunately there were 3 more cruise ships on another dock so when I got into downtown it was pretty crowded. There were lots of little shops to look at and some nice sculptures but the prices were a little on the high side for me. I really wanted to buy some Alaskan gold but that definitely wasn’t in the cards for me on this trip. I did end up getting a small rock totem made by an Inuit.
Another thing was despite it being a tourist area the signage was not that great. Despite having a printed map and stopping numerous times for directions it took me a long time to find Creek Street. It was cool though and I was glad when I finally did. This was the red light district in the olden days and the houses are all up on stilts to accommodate the tides. It was really pretty and I even saw a seal cruising along below the houses. The later the day got the more crowded it became though and I headed back towards the ship.
Crazy tall totem pole
Overall the visit was so-so but the best thing I bought was a new lined rain coat. I have been using one I bought at Mount Ranier for many years and it actually had a rip in it. They had the same raincoats that said Alaska on them for only $29.99 at the main gift shop by the ship and I wore the heck out of that for the rest of the cruise.
The next day we landed in Icy Straits and it was such a small town I actually signed up for a whale watching excursion with Mom. I’ll talk about that more in the next post but first we toured the little town where most everything was closed. They did have a cool (and free) sky cable to take us to the little town and another for $50 that went up to the mountain and you zip lined down. We skipped the pay version and instead wandered around a bit.
The boats we used for the whale watchingI loved this Orca statue
Next up the whale watching tour which was a highlight of the cruise and a second bucket list item gets checked off. Oh and one last thing. On of these nights I saw the most gorgeous sunset I have seen in years. There is nothing quite like a sunset from a boat. This picture isn’t altered at all just the sky and sea in all its glory.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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When I went to visit my Mom a few months ago she mentioned she was going on an Alaskan cruise and asked if I wanted to come. Two factors were big for me to answer that question and they were cost and time. Cost goes without saying although ultimately since I was tagging along on her cruise I got a great deal but time was an even bigger factor. One of the things about staying in one place is I now really need my vacation and a 12 day cruise was stretching things. Yes I have three weeks, but Lee and I want to do things also so after a ton of research I determined I could go as long as I could work four of the port days. This would reduce the vacation time I would need and I thought it would be an interesting experiment about working remotely.
Now let me stop right here and say I absolutely loved the time with my Mom and the cruise with her was great. That being said as a reader of this blog she knows how I review things so my review of the experience will be more objective. But to be clear: Mom I had a great time!!
Let’s start with the itinerary because that matters. We are lucky here in LA to have ships leaving from LA, San Diego, and Los Angeles and a flight to Seattle was definitely on the cheaper side. Plus for a change I didn’t have to lose a whole day to travel which was a definite plus. Originally I was going to fly in the same day, but after a Cyber attack hit the airports out here and caused delays I backed it up a day. That meant I got in around 1pm which left me plenty of time to visit the Chihuly Garden and Glass. On a side note I checked three major bucket list items on this trip and Chihuly was the first of them.
Anyways, I was super nervous about working on a sea day and turns out that was a good call. Despite extensive research and the fact they might have Starlink it felt too risky and man am I glad I made that call. This particular ship wasn’t on Starlink yet and although we had some level of internet most of the time, it definitely wasn’t strong enough for Microsoft Team video calls on sea days. Instead I looked at my schedule and their schedule and determined the best work days were Juno, Sitka, Nanaimo, and British Columbia. I mention this now because I will be talking about the working throughout the subsequent blog posts.
I also made the decision to go easy on the excursions. A couple of reasons. I was trying to keep my costs down and only one port had an evening excursion on my work days. Secondly after our cruise experience last Christmas I was really curious to see what it was like to visit a port on my own. I also wanted to learn about being on a smaller ship (this one has a 680 guest capacity versus 4000 on Royal). I should say that I am no means a cruise expert having only been on 4 in my life and since the first two ( Princess and Carnival) were pre Covid I can really only compare this experience to Royal.
So let’s dive in.
We set sail on the Oceania Regatta which is one of the cruise lines smaller ships. It is also the exact type of ship my Mom sailed on her around the world cruise and we were even in the exact same type of room. Getting on and off the smaller ship was definitely easier with shorter lines and easier transition. They even had us watch a safety video at home and then talk to someone briefly when we came on board so we could skip the initial briefing.
We couldn’t go to the room right away so we wandered around and toured the ship which really didn’t take that long. It was pretty and super clean but the communal spaces were certainly smaller than our last experience. Makes sense though since there were so many less people and honestly it all seemed generally proportional to the smaller group of people.
Despite the buffet being smaller there was as much variety they only put out smaller batches and refilled them quickly. The cruise had two specialty restaurants (Italian and Steak) and only a jewelry store and one small shop. Less options didn’t really bother me to be honest except for the small gift shop. Because of the small space they changed out the merchandise daily, which was fun but the sundry area for personal products and snacks was woefully small. One of the best rooms was the library which was huge and had a great selection of modern, multiple genre books.
The spa and gym although smaller were actually less crowded than on the bigger ship and they had multiple wellness classes each day which were all included in the base price. I got a massage the second day and the service and price was somewhat comparable. On of my favorite things was afternoon tea which was free (versus a cost) on Oceania and had a small string section playing everyday with yummy deserts and sandwiches. I had never done afternoon tea in my life and it was pretty fun. We went most days.
They also had a free barrista all day (versus pay Starbucks) and a poolside restaurant with burgers etc that was again free. I hated feeling nickle and dimed to death on the previous cruise and I definitely didn’t feel that way on this one. In all fairness the price point for the base cruise was much higher but it feels like a wash between things being included and paying ad hoc. It was just nice not to get hit with a huge bill at the end of the cruise.
Although everything else was smaller the rooms certainly were not. They were good sized and ours had a small table and chairs and a nice desk area for me to work at. One of the best things was room service was 24/7 and included which was awesome for me especially on work days. Our room steward Anand was absolutely fantastic, so great in fact I ended up tipping him an extra $100 at the end of the cruise and wish I could have done more. In general I would say that although the service was good on both ships I would definitely give it to Oceania. Less staff yes but with less passengers people really started to recognize you and we saw the same people over and over again. One thing about the small ship was everyone was muti tasked and your waiter one night would be your barrista in the morning. (True story). I also liked how ethnically diverse the staff was and enjoyed talking to many people from different countries.
Snacks!!Anand was so great!! He really made the cruise for me
So let’s talk about the food. I had heard the the food was Oceania’s claim to fame and in general I would say the food was better. It still wasn’t to the level I experienced with Princess in the pre-covid days but it was pretty good. In particular they had a custom homemade sorbet everyday and the bread was AWESOME. I gained 5 pounds on this vacation and I think most of it came from bread. If you think I am kidding the bread below came with EVERY meal.
My real disappointment was the specialty restaurants. Don’t get me wrong the company was great and the service was also special. But the food was just not as good as the Royal specialty restaurants and I actually had to send back my over cooked ribeye on our Polo steakhouse night. They had all the bells and whistles including table side deboning of fish which I have never seen but the food itself was just so-so. But as I said the company and service were great and I really enjoyed my birthday dinner the first night on the cruise with Mom. She even got a birthday cake sent to our room which was really nice.
Impressive!The gnocchi was good!
So the tradeoffs between a larger ship and smaller ship seemed like a wash but this particular ship the biggest disappointment was the entertainment. Royal Caribbean entertainment was fantastic and they had multiple venues and two shows a night. Oceania by contrast had a much smaller group and the show every night was at 9:30. Even if I wasn’t working in the morning 9:30 is pretty late for me and after a 6:30 dinner (the earliest seating they had) I wasn’t up for staying up that late. Since the average age on the cruise appeared to be early 70’s I was kind of surprised the entertainment was so late and unfortunately I only got to see one 5:30pm show on the next to last night. It was a fun show in an intimate venue but I really felt like I missed out on some cool stuff because of the late hours.
One last thing I will mention in this post was how old school everything was. There was no app but rather we received a printed newsletter every morning and there was a 10 minute “TV show” byt the cruise director every morning talking about the day. At first I missed the Royal app to keep me organized but honestly I found the morning talk show and newsletter charming and I enjoyed how much information was available via the TV. When they had a thank you moment for the staff I was surprised by how many people from the staff I recognized including the captain who I spoke to on several occasions.
The morning show…delightful
It’s all a matter of taste I suppose and I can certainly see the appeal. I felt totally relaxed and taken care of the entire trip in a way I never felt on Royal. I am going to leave it here and get into more details in the subsequent posts. Looking forward to sharing the adventure with you.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperbackversion on Amazonor buy the Apple version on Itunes
Glass blowing has a special place in my heart. In a way it led to the full timing lifestyle and was the first hobby Lee and I did together as adults. Whenever I get the chance I try and see glasswork and Chihuly is definitely the best in the United States. For years visiting their Garden in Seattle has been on my bucket list but I have never made it happen until I traveled to Seattle to meet my Mom for a cruise and had the afternoon to myself.
I almost talked myself out of it, crazy how often I try to do that. It was a travel day and the Uber was too expensive, but then I gave myself a mental shake and off I went. And oh how glad I was. I couldn’t begin to capture the beauty or intricacy of the glass I saw, but I will tell you that when a small Chihuly bowl goes for a couple of grand, there is hundreds of thousands dollars worth of sculpture in this space. Plus it is at the base of the Seattle Space Needle and the views were a huge bonus. I don’t know if you will get my experience from the pictures I took, but I am so glad I checked this bucket list item.
When you walk in and pay your money, you walk from room to room. These rooms are tight and definitely not kid friendly, and the details on the individual pieces stop a continuous flow. That being said, folks were very polite and they had docents in every room to answer any questions you might have. The very first piece was all in white with crushed glass at the base that looked like snow. Really interesting. I also loved the various bowls in bowls. These pieces are incredibly difficult to do and the artistry blew me away. No pun intended 🙂
The rooms were loosely themed and the the most intricate from my perspective was a gallery with one large piece in the center and large sea themed vases all around. The scope of the center piece was huge (think town hall Christmas tree) but I probably spent the longest looking at the vases. Every time I relooked I saw something new. I actually recommend going through each room twice (that’s what I did) because looking at the pieces from a different angle was very interesting.
Loved the drawingsThe details on the main pieces were a little repetitive but gorgeous in scope
One of the galleries had large hanging pieces which completely blew me away. I was by myself so I don’t have many pictures for scale but they were enormous and I was a little nervous walking under them. It was clear all the pieces were mounted with extreme care but my mind couldn’t help picturing what a crash would look like. Not sure what that says about me 🙂
One of the small pass ways had a ceiling entirely done in pieces of glass. I would have loved to have spent more time in the room looking up but again it was a bit crowded and awkward for viewing. Beautiful though.
There was also a room with a huge boat with lots of balls in it. Aesthetically it wasn’t my favorite but I appreciated the craftsmanship.
My absolute favorite room was a huge garden. I loved this room so much both at scale and the individual details. If I had seen nothing else I would have walked away happy. I loved it so much I asked a stranger to take some pictures of me.
I didn’t think anything could compare with the garden room, but I was pretty impressed by a hug atrium with one large piece in it. Not only could you see the Space Needle through the roof, but the sculpture looked different from every angle.
Outside there was also a small garden with pieces displayed in natural dirt and with trees. Some of the scenes were great others not as much, but overall I enjoyed walking outside with the glass.
This piece was huge and impressive
My only disappointment was the kid doing a glass blowing demonstration was working on small glass work in a tiny area. They don’t have a working area you can watch which I get but it would have been VERY cool to see these artists at work. Anyways highly recommend if you are in the area. Yes the museum is pricey and its small but the level of work is off the charts. I loved it.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperbackversion on Amazonor buy the Apple version on Itunes
Camper Chronicles 