McCormick Family

Our last day... We were at sea most of the day coming down the Juan De Fuca strait into Victoria. We docked at 5 pm, we didnt have any excursions planned so we just walked on thru the town and back to the dock. At the docks there was a light house way out on a man made bridge of sorts so we walked out to the end where the light house was. Whew.. what a long walk. We went back to the ship, packed, ate dinner and played another game of scrabble in our favorite seats in the back corner of a lounge by a large window and watched as we pushed out at midnight on our way back to Seattle the next morning.

Only one day left.... NO!!!! Today we are at sea. We slept in, ate, played scrabble by the window watching the sea go by. Dave beat me more than once, but we aren't going to talk about that :).

In the evening saw a juggler who won the national juggling competition this year. He was hilarious and juggled 7 balls at once, pins while on a unicycle, torches lit afire, and a bowling ball, which he just tossed a few inches and caught. Then we were the audience for the newly wed - no so newly game. They had 3 couples: couple 1 married 60yrs, couple 2 married 38 yrs, and couple 3 married on the ship 4 days in. Of course the questions were suggestive and the answers more to the point. On that just killed us was from the couple married 60 years. The question was "Where is the craziest place you have made whoopee?" Answers from them was "On the Star Princess." The MC asked for them to be more specific. They said " well, usually on the balcony but last night it was to cold so we had to go in." :)

In the morning we will be in Victoria, British Columbia.

Today we came into port to in Skagway. We took a train on the tracks built by men in the great gold rush of the Yukon. The tracks were built thru the Alaskan and Canadian mountains to get to where the gold was. We went over the original trestles and one tunnel that was made by them, and most of of the tracks are on sheer cliffs. At the summit it was 3000 feet. We came around a bend and a black bear was about 4 feet for the train looking at us, wondering what we were all looking at.

We passed into Canada at White Summit Pass where the marker for the boarder is. Our buses were waiting for us in Fraser. We boarded them and went to the Yukon Suspension Bridge that crosses the Tutshi River and canyon. There are parts of this river that are rapids that are the highest class (cat 6) and no one has traversed it successfully.

From there we went back down the mountain on the buses (that was driven by a girl from Idaho). On the side of the road we spotted a mama black bear and her 2 cubs. We stopped and took photos and just as they went over the hill and out of site a bike rider passed. I would not want to be on a bike with a bear 6 inches off the road.

After going thru customs again we headed to Jewells Gardens for lunch. Lunch was ok and the garden was pretty but not worth what we paid and not for as long as we were there. As a mater of fact Dave sneaked off down the road to the gold mining tour for an hour.