A quick overview...

I'm back! I'm back home in Brisbane and I'm back in Blogland after a little break. 

I know some of you have been waiting to see photos from our Alaskan cruise, so in this post I will just quickly give an overview of some of the places we visited. I plan to do more detailed posts as DH and I go through all the photos we have on our SD cards...it's a few! 

Boarding the cruise ship...

The first and second days were sea days...just sailing along.

The next day was our first stop...Ketchikan. There were 3 other cruise ships moored at the same time as ours...so lots of tourists descending on this town...

The next day we stopped for the morning at the town of Juneau...

The next photo shows some of the buses parked ready to take people from the cruise ships on excursions to the local attractions. We had chosen not to pre book for any of these, instead opting to get a shuttle bus into the town from the dock and 'do our own thing'. Ironically a number of excursions had been cancelled due to the weather.

Yep! It was raining. The girls and I went up in the Mt Roberts Tramway...it was a bit windy and the 'car' blew around a bit as we neared the top.

That afternoon turned out to be wonderful. The itinerary for the cruise was to sail the ship into an area of glaciation. The weather caused a change of plan as there was a storm in the planned area. But the Captain took us to another area. I will write a post just on the glacier/s but will share a few photos now.

Mid afternoon, I looked out of our cabin and saw blocks of ice floating by...

As we continued sailing we noticed the floes had become larger...

It was getting colder too so I gave the family a laugh when I got my hat and scarf out of my suitcase...I hadn't needed these items before this on the holiday!

Eventually I got my gloves out too...the family may have laughed...but I was at last warm! 

The first glacier we saw...

A glacier meets the sea...

The next day the ship docked at Skagway...another charming town. The next photo is at the dock...not the charming town.

It was rather windy at the dock...and cold!

The township was a 10 minute walk away or you could take the shuttle; we did the latter. We were delighted to find that it wasn't windy in the town and we walked around there for a few hours.

We even found an old steam engine near the town hall building.

Luckily, it wasn't part of the train we would catch that afternoon. But more about that in a later post. 

So that's just a short introduction to the 3 Alaskan towns we visited. 

The Van Dusen Botanical Gardens

During our stay in Vancouver, DH and I visited the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. These are a completely different style to the more 'showy' Butchart Gardens but nevertheless still well worth a visit. And being free, very good value! Lol

The 55 acres of the gardens are divided into sections such as Mediterranean, Arctic Tundra, Southern Hemisphere, Sino-Himilayan were just some of th examples. Many of the flowering plants had obviously finished blooming but would have looked magnificent a few weeks ago due to the mass plantings. 

The day was hot but the Fern Dell was lovely and cool!

More ferns...there were so many varieties!

This shrub had almost finished flowering...it was a cardoon.

These plants are apparently related to the thistle family.

There were lots of plants that are able to survive with little water...

A number of the large trees had a large green bag at the base which provided water to the tree in an efficient way...

There was still lots of colour in the gardens despite many plants having finished flowering.

I liked the pineapple lily in the top right hand corner of the next collage...

Due to the drought the waterfall feature had been turned off but there were still a number of ponds etc, as well as some fountains. 

There were some art works spread around...

Lovely 'wild' areas...and we saw a squirrel run through here...

Near the entry to the gardens we had seen a warning sign...

But thankfully we didn't see any coyotes! As well as the squirrel though, we were very fortunate to see these two foraging in the undergrowth.

DH's camera was more up to the task than mine to take photos quickly and in the semi shade...

These raccoons were digging in the leaf litter and eating whatever it was they had found. We were absolutely chuffed to see some wildlife up close. 

There was also a veggie patch in the Gardens with some more of those giant tomatoes...

And an old tractor with metal rim wheels...I reckon it would have been a 'bone shaker' in its working life, but it wasn't going anywhere now...DH climbed up for a photo...that veggie patch is behind the tractor.

There was an orchard planted out...

Some fallen apples on the ground...

There were beehives...

And there was an English style maze. When my girls were little, I once got lost in such a maze in Mildura. Eventually DD1 had climbed the fence and hedge to come back and rescue me...so that has become a family legend...' Remember when mum got stuck in the maze' story. DH had heard this story so stayed close by me in this maze the other day...just as well! I kept going down the 'dead ends!'

Eventually we made our way back down to the main building and the exit...lots more formal gardens there...

And here we are, back at the main building and the exit.

We didn't cover the whole 55 acres in our visit but certainly got to see a lot of different plants and saw raccoons up close too! 

(A friend who was in Vancouver last December wrote and told me that these gardens are lit up with myriads of Christmas lights...she said that it all looked magnificent!)