Boog's Blog

May 16
Rain and colder

ICY STRAIT POINT, ALASKA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Strait_Point

Hot tub has been cold. Went to guest relations and asked the set point. 34-39. Not usable..

Rain. Nice steady downpour for our walk to the village of Hoonah.

The main town has native cable and pole carvers.  The national history park service of glacier nasty has hired several to create a village completed with carvings. A multi year project.

Exit from boat onto new floating dock.

Canoes being built

http://go.nps.gov/tribalhouse

Poles being carved

Dinner at sushi restaurant. Less said there better. No pictures.

May 15
Arrival after ride through inland water way. An old Russian town with the oldest Russian Orthodox church in North America.

SITKA, ALASKA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitka,_Alaska

The extreme heat, 78F, of yesterday has broken. Low 60s.

View from cabin.

Church,totem poles in sitka national historical park

May 13 perfect weather

All day cruising, no port stop. Heading towards Ketchikan.

May 14

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA
http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/About-Ketchikan/Photo-Galleries/Nature.aspx

Typical tourist port city. Quite charming in the main areas. No chain stores.

Another

KETCHIKAN

view

Salmon and fur are big businesses here. Otter has the densest fur.

Truman,stalin,churchill and avatars

Totem museum

As labeled

Tuscan dinner , just the appetizers

Inland water way, one of the trip highlights

May 12

Start of cruise from Vancouver.

As we were pulling out.

Our room

Art shot with the sun shining on the water at about 5:15 p.m.

May 9-11

A short stay before the Alaska cruise. As very often Michelle booked a fine hotel stay. QB started the trip with the tail end of a cold.

Warm
Vancouver art gallery
City walks, of course
Mink chocolate cafe for snacks
Very marginal pizza but the company was excellent
Purchased tea at Murchi’s
Walk in Stanley Park with Melanie and Craig
   Forest walk after reaching beaver lake
Salad lunch at TheTea House.
Dinner with the full gang: Brix&Morter
     Excellent

Visit to Art Museum worth special modernism exhibit, Mashup.

Koons

Italian fake greens

Pizza place with Melanie and Craig plus G&M

Melanie and Craig by totem poles

Boogs together

Beaver lake

Tea house lunch

Adventure now ended, some high points:

Steampunk clock Tokyo

Fine dinners at ryokans, breakfast not so much. Variety of experiences, very large variety.

Packaging and wrapping….unending, wasteful, generally elegant

Clean bathrooms almost everywhere but cold water and seldom soap

Mediocre pastries

Excellent homemade bread and deserts in kii mountain cafe, Saimensan music

Kindness of strangers, especially at rain stop, coffee and frozen persimmons

Kureman market Osaka

Okonomaki

Namba and unlimited shopping as well as dotonbori street

Nara: Isuien garden, persimmon scramble

Non-ending hard forested mountain passes without ridges

Shrines at Hongu, Shingu and Nachi. All grand shrines

Japanese baths

Buddhist hall of a thousand dieties

Not much in the way of wildlife

Some uncomfortable ryokans with convenient facilities

Good walking group on nakasendo

Post towns

Fall foliage

Chrysanthemums, displayed at Shinjuku national garden

Cleaning of Shinkansen train

Impossible navigation at Shiodome amoeba

Water taxi and low bridges

Kaiseki dinner at onsen

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Warmer, sunny

For our last excursion, a trip to the beach. Not just any beach but rated by Michelin as one of the top 100 of Japan. Takeno beach.

The same literature said that the beach is open for swimming from late July to the end of August.

Expanding the photo of the person walking on the beach notice the stoat or ferret being walked.

In Album 11/22/15

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Freshest sasshimi ever except when alive. Outstanding.

Surprising dish: pork ribs with salad and herbed mashed potatoes, served with knife and fork.

Perfect tempura: no taste of the oil.

In Album 11/22/15

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Cooler

A very different breakfast this am. Large room, Chinese style layout, different items such as macha rolls with soybeans, grilled persimmons, grilled chestnuts, two kinds, and grilled shiitake mushrooms. Sand fish and flounder, fruits in gelatin, the list goes on.

Bath here has indoor outdoor pools as well as jacuzzi and hot stream rooms.

Eggs dunking in a net bad in a grated box. Cut the to off to have some hard boiled eggs and sit in the foot bath to warm the toes.

Shops in the town are seafood based, no surprise as we are on the coast. Fish of a large variety as well as the ubiquitous crab.

One public onsen appears to be most recommended, naturally I needed to try it out. Good, very good but not as good as the one in the hotel for hotel guests. Better waterfall in the hotel, better rocks to sit by and on.

In Album 11/21/15

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Surprising good uni as well as other delicacies. In some cases I got a double portion. Easy to guess why.

In Album 11/21/15

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