Hawaii - Honolulu

 Totally exhausted from an amazing week in California, we made our way to Hawaii. American Airlines First Class reminded me more of a Jetstar flight. At least lunch was free and this is what we were offered:

“Macadamia Nut French Toast stuffed with marscarpone cheese, with pineapple papaya marmalade and grilled Portugese sausage”

……. A signature dish by Chef Sam Choy

I felt unwell reading it, looking at it was indescribable, yet others around me seemed to be immersed in its intriguing cornucopia of flavours ignorant of any potential health implications. Looking around I did note that many were in first class as it was the only seat size they would fit into, not that there is anything wrong with that of course!

Waikiki Beach

We landed in Honolulu to swaying palms and ukuleles.  Honolulu is everything you see on Hawaii Five 0. Waikiki beach is white, with Australian sand, and the hotels loom large right up to the waters edge cutting out the afternoon sun. It is not wave season so the water is calm and urine warm. The whole beachside area looks like the Australian Gold Coast on steroids, ecstasy, juju or whatever your preferred social drug is. Life is my drug.

My arrival euphoria was tarnished a bit by a very irritating and sad intrusion. Every street corner in Honolulu is haunted by people trying to overtly sell you time at a gun range with an arsenal of military weapons at your disposal. Honestly, they are worse than watch sellers on a Bali beach and that is saying something. If you look like saying yes, a van swings in from nowhere to whisk you off to start your weapons training. I DID NOT say yes but the number of teenagers getting into vans was disappointing.

A young pineapple

There is so much to see on this island that a day trip circumnavigating it is mandatory for first-timers and fun. We visited pineapple plantations, coffee plantations and cattle ranches in that order as it represents the changing face of agricultural endeavors in Hawaii. I stood in the valley where “Jurassic Park” was filmed and about thirty other movies including “LOST”. We moved on to Diamond Head to see the beach where the kissing scene from the 1953 movie “From Here to Eternity” was filmed, not that I have any memory of that. My older friends, Gary and Wendy, Judith or Jan may recall it.

USS Arizona

Next we visited Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona memorial. The country that owns Hollywood certainly puts on a good show. You walk through the museum to get the overview and then watch a film to get the personal perspective. The film is an aggregation of Japanese and American war footage giving an almost complete perspective of both sides of the Pearl Harbour raid. In the land of political correctness, Australia, there would have been counselors waiting at the end of the film as many left quite upset at what they had seen and heard. I was one of them, but I appreciated the candor of the film.

Still in a state of shock from the film we motored out to the Arizona memorial to be told that the drops of oil leaking up from the ship are tears of blood for the lost souls on the ship, great, that’s all I needed to hear. This could take years of counseling to get over….  

USS Missouri - sans Cher

I did not have any insight into American culture until I had completed my visit to Pearl Harbour. The memorial is both respectful and factually graphic which stirs and saddens the soul. We have been very lucky in Australia and we need to keep it that way.  

Emotionally drained, we headed back to Waikiki beach for some more sun, fun and retail therapy.

Historically, Honolulu has been populated by the Polynesians since 1100AD. Captain Cook popped in for a look, as he was just passing in 1778, but it was British Captain Brown that dropped by 16 years later who liked the place and named it “Fare Haven” which translates to “Honolulu” in Hawaiian.

Much later, the Americans decided to move in and set up a Pacific naval base.  In 1931, the Japanese were busy invading Manchuria and were pushing their way through China. They were upsetting the interests of the United Kingdom, the Dutch and the Americans. As the Japanese pushed through China in the years up to 1939, the world’s attention was temporarily diverted to Europe, as Hitler was moving into Poland and beyond. Meanwhile, Japan knew that the Americans were unhappy with Japans invasion of China and had imposed sanctions and matching threats of retaliation. Japan thought they could disable them by sinking their Pacific Fleet in Honolulu.

So, while a Japanese Government representative was in America discussing the lifting of sanctions and world peace, Japan’s military were sneaking around planning to attack Pearl Harbour. In 1941, the Japanese achieved their aim by delivering the worst naval disaster in American history and in doing so “woke a sleeping giant”.

Germany may have invaded Poland in 1939 but it was Japan, in 1931 that ultimately and inevitably led to the declaration of War by the United States.

 Some scuba diving with sharks will lift my mood;

“Ivan, turn the ship to Tahiti please!”

Universal Studios

So, after an exhausting, sweaty day in Disneyland I fronted up to Universal Studios. The benchmark was not set very high so we were prepared to have a modestly fun time. Being stalwart Australians, we stepped into the melee, handed over our $70 ticket and from the start the experience was far more relaxed and engaging. I think Universal had given thought to entertaining adults as well as children.

There was a careful balance of adult entertainment that could be found in the “City Walk” at the park entrance, which had the flavour of a city mall with a blend of upmarket stores and cafes away from the rides so the ambience felt more café than theme park. When you step through the gates into the dedicated ride areas the atmosphere was relaxing and less tired looking than my recent experience at Disneyland. There are some amazing rides like ET, Revenge of the Mummy and Jurassic Park that the child in any of us would enjoy so I set off with my shopping list of rides in hand.

I didn’t get far! 

Off to right of the main entrance was a small ticket box with a sign saying “Upgrade to front of line pass here”. This intrigued me, was there really a golden ticket that allowed you to step to the front of the hundreds of people already queued up for a ride? A legal pushing in, queue jumping card. The answer was YES! The extra fee was $45 and you got a gold star to wear around your neck to wear and wave on entry and you went straight to the front of the queue for the next available car. As I moved around the rides, very few people had taken advantage of this upgrade. I was like a pig in mud, a dog with its favourite bone, a disabled person in a wheelchair, straight to the front every time!

This theme park was scoring 10/10 and I hadn’t got on a ride yet. The rest of the day held more pleasant surprises that made dragging myself around a concrete jungle filled with the screams of distress of children, small and large, more tolerable and more fun. 

The rides are beginning to date but hide their age well. The tram ride/tour of the production areas of Universal, which has been running since 1915, is a mix of theme park ride and adult entertainment as you are titillated by the news that several current TV series and movies are currently in production on the site. This mix of ride and TV reality contemporises the older elements of the park, something Disneyland has not managed to do as well.

That said, the “Jaws” element of the Universal Studio tour is very, very sad. A sick old faded rubber shark rattles up to the side of the car and opens its gummy jaws as we pass. I had flashbacks of the way some of the passengers on the ship eat their breakfast. Once past, look back and you can see the shark being rewound along its track ready for the next ride full of people. This part of the tour needs to fade away as it ages the park, is disrespectful to the poor old shark, and has lost it “scariness” appeal.

We also drove past the Bates Motel, the Munsters House at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, an old Delorean from Back to the Future and Wisteria Lane of Desperate Housewives infamy. 

Another sign that the management of this park are watching customer comfort is the mist spraying fans that are everywhere in the park. The temperature and humidity are similar between Disneyland and Universal Studios but the blowing fans and mist overhead in the long lines makes a huge difference, not that I had to queue up with my Gold Pass. I saw many customers stand under the mist for a minute or two and then, refreshed, move on to the next attraction. The fans and mist made all the difference to staying longer at the park and spending more money.

Another pleasant difference was the superior quality of food and seating at the cafes and food outlets. I did not have to sit like Fred Flintstone chewing on a dinosaur leg in mainly outdoor eating areas that are not cooled in any way as I did at Disneyland,. Universal Studios appears to have a larger variety and number of indoor air-conditioned eateries that allow you to recharge the batteries. If you eat outside then the mist fans are all around to soften the sting of the humidity.

Back to the rides; rattling ride cars, 3D movie screens and loud explosions sums up most but they are different enough to enjoy and get just a little scared. We stayed all day and were not overly fatigued so we went out to the City Walk for coffee and to share scary ride stories with each other. 

Extreme Fun WARNING!

The Jurassic park ride is a dinosaur themed roller coaster ride with a wet finale, a very wet finale. If you take this ride first then expect to be wet to the bone for the next few hours. I have been splashed in rides around the world but this ride is ridiculous. Just before the final splash of the roller coaster several water jets blast into the air and fall back into the car as we pass underneath making sure everyone is wet, not just the ones at the front. Several well-dressed Japanese tourists were not very impressed and neither was I as I desperately dried off my non-waterproof camera, but they did a scream out me.

very very wet

We lasted half a day at Disneyland and left exhausted, we lasted all day at Universal Studios and stayed on to relax at the CityWalk, but tastes differ so your experience may differ.

Disneyland

Welcome to Disneyland

Once upon a time Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto played a big part in my life. Every Sunday night at 6pm, dressed in my striped pyjama’s, I would sit too close to the TV to watch Disneyland and I still know all the words to “When you wish upon a star”.

 I was also influenced by re-runs (no I am not that old) of other cutting edge shows. Could I run away to McHales Island? Could I be Eddy and live with the Munsters? Could I swap my less than perfect parents for the Cleaver parents in “Leave it to Beaver” and was “lost in Space” real or not?

 Now back to Disneyland…..

Mickey and Minnie and Pluto were all there, looking a bit faded in the 105 degree heat. I walked past a larger than life Walt Disney in search of the magic that I did not quite find. 

Thousands of parents had brought their children to share the magic of their own youth but I actually heard a child, in an American accent, say “Who is Mickey Mouse?” 

I walked through the park feeling a bit the same. The Park is an anacronyism of a wonderful time lost and perhaps best left in ones’ memory. Tomorrowland looked a bit like Yesterdayland and the Star Wars ride was showing it’s 30 year old theme.

For lunch, we sat in Main Street and ate a turkey leg that needed two hands to hold, measuring some 40cm long. It looked larger than most childrens’ legs which probably made it more appetising.  Isn’t genetic modification of food products wonderful, and it only cost $10. 

One can still have fun, does he look happy?

I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble but the park needs an update and some consideration of how to amuse the “big kids” who visit. No, I am not jaded but the $80 entry fee promised more than I thought I got.   

The day was a bit hot and sweaty and the rides a bit dated but I got to tick the bucket list and still managed to have a fun day.

A bit of history……

 In 1923, a man called Walt Disney went to seek his fortune in a small village called “Hollywoodland” He was an animator. In the early 1920’s Walt created “Oswald the Rabbit” and it became very successful as cartoon shorts in theatres. A young financially challenged Walt had licenced Oswald to Universal Studios for distribution rights so when things went sour over money, Walt walked away and Universal Studios kept Oswald. This run-in with Universal Studios would play itself out again when in 1990 Universal opened up a theme park to compete with Disneyland, but that’s another story. 

That experience was the foundation of Disney’s insistence that he would never again license any of his creative property, especially his replacement for Oswald – Mickey Mouse. In1927, Walt created Mickey Mouse, and the 1928 release of the film "Steamboat Willie" made both the mouse and the man famous. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Disney made many successful animated films and he decided to share his animation by building a theme park called “Disneyland”, America's first.

The idea of a theme park was likened to sideshow carnivals that had a bad reputation for attracting riffraff to town so no-one would lend Walt money for his grand venture. Disney decided to use television to fund his venture, and created a TV show named “Disneyland” that was broadcast on the then-fledgling ABC television network. In return, the network agreed to help finance the new park. 

Interestingly, Walt had named his park "Disneylandia" and it was the marketing gurus at ABC TV that convinced him to change the name to Disneyland, a bit like Hollywoodland.

The park opened in 1955, and had 18 attractions distributed over five lands, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and Main Street USA.  Disneyland received 1 million guests within the first three months of operation.  

Tomorrow we visit the competition, Universal Studios. I am not sure we will get thru the whole day.

Hollywood

not everyone's best comedian

Hollywood did not reflect what my TV based mind had envisaged. I was a little disappointed. Whatever Hollywood may have been, it is no longer.

Driving into Hollywood Boulevard renders two views that are antitheses of each other.  Look to one side of the street and see the brass “Stars” set in the footpath on the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre and the Dolby Theatre resplendent in vibrant, almost royal, colours. Tourist cameras flash at each other capturing the garishness of both the building facades and fellow tourists. Everywhere there is colour, movement, sound, heat and sweat.

the other side of the street

Look to the other side of the street and take in the chemist shops, liquor stores, cheap souvenir outlets and homeless people selling $2 maps revealing the homes of the stars. Both sides of the street are not quite ying and yang and perhaps this is more of a comment on poor city planning that of the people occupying the space.

My rose coloured glasses slipped down my nose a bit. All of that American television, that I pay Foxtel dearly to watch, had brainwashed into believing that I would see the worlds best cars being driven by the worlds most glamorous people cruising up and down the Boulevarde.

What I got was a view of too many tour coaches, no parking and cheap American Whisky from “Hollywood Liquor”, which sits beside the hostel and opposite Madame Tussauds’.  Clutching my bagged liquor I pushed my rose coloured glasses back up my nose and stepped across the street to hug the pert bosom of a waxy Lucille Ball, looking like she had just stepped out of “The long, long trailer”.

 It was safe, Desi was nowhere to be seen. 

So how did it get to this…………  

In 1800, Hollywood was a grassy field. By 1870, an agricultural community was flourishing in the area.  In 1886 Hobart Whitley and his wife, who were just passing, bought 500 acres and moved in. They named the area “Hollywood” as the native trees covering the hillside were called “California Holly”, hence Hollywood. The name became popular and stuck.  By 1900, Hollywood had a post office, a newspaper, a hotel and two markets, along with a population of 500 people which has grown to approximately 300,000 today.

Shirley could no wrong

In the early 1900s, motion picture production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to California because of the reliable weather and bright sunlight. Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight.

 The Biograph Company moved west to this little village called Hollywood with a troupe of young wannabe’s such as Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others.  They then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood called “In Old California”.  With this film, the Hollywood movie industry was "born". 

The now famous Hollywood sign was the work of an enterprising real estate salesman’s spin on marketing a new housing estate in the area and read "Hollywoodland". For several years, the sign was left to deteriorate until 1949 when the local Chamber of Commerce stepped in and removed the last four letters and repaired the rest, hence HOLLYWOOD.

Hollywoodland

Today, much of the movie industry has moved away from Hollywood but many historic Hollywood theatres are used as venues to premiere major theatrical releases, and host the Academy Awards.

I enjoyed visiting but it is now primarily a slightly seedy tourist draw-card, but so is Kings Cross.

San Francisco

the angle of the photo is the angle of the street

You could lose yourself here for several days. The streets look like every American TV show I have ever watched.

 

Let me start by saying that the better parts of San Francisco are away from the wharves simply because the waterfront and surrounds is losing it’s quirky attractiveness and becoming a cheap tourist mecca where the food is less than good and everything is way overpriced. That said, you must see Fisherman’s Wharf once and try the crab, not clam, chowder and then leave quickly. Crab over clam because the clams are all imported and the crab is local and fresh!

There are so many things to do and places to see that a plan of attack will serve you well. The high-end stores in Union Square are a distraction and the 50% off Macy’s sale was too tempting. After some retail therapy catch the big red bus in Union Square and a quick circumnavigation of San Francisco puts you back on track.

An important piece of tourist advice is to pre-book your Alacatraz visit on the internet as it is regularly booked out several days ahead.

Crab Chowder, not clam!

San Francisco’s 850,000 locals live across steep 43 hills in the second most densely populated city in the USA (New York is first).  The larger San Francisco metropolis houses 7.4 million people. You are either walking or riding up or down a steep incline for most of your time here and you certainly get a good workout.

In 1776 colonists from Spain, who were just sailing past, liked the place so they made friends with the Ohlone Tribes, who appear to have inhabited the area since 3000BC, built a fort in honour of St. Francis of Assisi and moved in. In the mid 1800’s the town of 1000 people grew as the Great Gold Rush attracted over 50,000 mainly Chinese immigrants seeking their fortune. San Francisco holds claim to the oldest Chinatown in North America.

Up top is great but cold, Macy's behind

IN 1873 the famous cable cars were introduced allowing easy access to the hilltops of San Francisco. These cable cars are one of the worlds most well known moving historic attractions. In 1906, three quarters of the city was destroyed in an earthquake and subsequent fires, similar in devastation, but on a larger scale, to what we have seen in Christchurch New Zealand recently. The rebuild took 10 years.

Today, San Francisco ranks 35th out of the 100 most visited cities worldwide, and is renowned for its fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz Island, and Chinatown. Sydney is 42^nd as at 2011.

San Francisco is spread over 120 square kilometres so the best way to explore, as mentioned, is the get on-get off red buses and the trams. For $US35 we got to see all the tourist must-do’s and drove across the fog bound Golden Gate Bridge, upstairs in an open top bus. We froze, got wet, and saw nothing due to a dense fog but it was great fun. When we got to the other side, the bus turned around to re-cross the bridge. 

Golden Gate Bridge and the famous San Francisco fog

As everyone realised we were going straight back over the bridge, all the upstairs Japanese tourists got up and rushed downstairs and all the downstairs English and Australian tourists rushed upstairs; who were the crazy ones?

Can you imagine the travel to work injury claims in Australia??

Riding a Tram up a steep street is an experience not for the feint-hearted. When you jump on, if there are no seats, you grab a “hang on” pole and stand on the running boards. The tram tracks are not so smooth and “holding on” is a focal point let alone trying to take photos with one hand whilst holding the tourist map in the other.  This was an attained skill over time but the trams are efficient ways to move quickly up and down the 43 hills.



Did you know?

·      The “fortune cookie” was invented by a Chinese cook in the San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden, in the 1800’s.

·      Denim jeans were invented during the San Francisco gold rush for miners wanting strong comfortable pants. 

·      The era and phrase “Flower Power” came from San Francisco which was originally Spanish named as “Yearba Buena” meaning “good grass”.  The Hippie generation was very strong in San Francisco and they took on the descriptive phrase.

·      Over the 30 years that Alcatraz was operational as a jail, 36 prisoners made 14 attempts to escape the island, unsuccessfully.

In summary, San Francisco looks a little tired and has a large and visible homeless population who are unpleasantly verbose about their views of passing tour coaches. Fishermans Wharf has also fallen away in the last few years and is a garish collection of tourist shops that are outlets for low quality chinese made tourist trinkets. 

Still a great time was had. Some say Sydney's Darling Harbour needs a makeover............

Victoria, Canada

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The Empress Hotel in the centre of town

Victoria is voted by “Conde Nast“ Traveler magazine, a very influential tome for the well heeled, as one of the best cities in the world and it will get another vote from me. It is a stunning must see, and linger longer, seaport. Every building, flowerpot and garden was in blossom in a spray of colours that warmed the soul in the chilly air.

Victoria, the oldest city and seaport in western Canada, started life as Fort Victoria in 1843 working as a Hudson Bay Trading Post. 360,000 people live here. This beautiful little city oozes British influence in its grand architecture and village feel. The Parliament buildings were built in 1893 to honour Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.   In the 1900’s this was the busiest seaport north of San Francisco. Today, the port is home to the Canada Naval Pacific Fleet. You can see both ships bobbing in the harbour as you take high tea at the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel.

This is a side street, you should see the main street!

After the austere and cold cityscape of Vancouver, Victoria was contrastingly welcoming and relaxing. There is quite a lot to see and do with a broad spectrum of shopping including the best Christmas Tree decoration shop I have seen outside of Germany. There are examples of Christmas accessories from all over the world. You could lose an hour just browsing this store. Also, the obligatory tourist focused shops are tastefully mixed in with the general and boutique stores of the local community.

Visiting the Castle in period style :)

There are several English style pubs that boast some excellent ales scattered down the High Street. Soon after landing I had James bring round the Daimler for a quick tour of the town. A quick stop for some cold champagne and we headed to Craigdarroch Castle which was the home of the richest man in British Columbia, Robert Dunsmuir. The castle was simultaneously breathtaking in its artisan work and saddening in its back-story. The Scotsman, Robert, came to Victoria to find his fortune and began working for $5 a week in the loal coal mines. Roberts’ determination eventually led to him being granted rights to independently mine and he soon found the richest vein of coal on Vancouver Island.

The Castle

Robert built the castle on hundreds of acres and lived a luxurious life with his family. After his death, one of his sons who had a bad run with alcohol began to sell off assets and invest heavily in the stockmarket, unsuccessfully. The land around the castle was slowly sold to satisfy debt and now a new estate of project homes sits all around the castle right at its front door. The interior though has been retained and is the grandest collection of Victorian period antiques, glass and woodwork in North America.

If flowers are your thing then the Butchart Gardens are a National Historic Site and when you stand at the railing and look into the Sunken Garden, imagine Jennie Butchart standing there in the early 1900s looking out into a wasteland. She wondered what she could do to turn an old limestone quarry into something nicer to look at. With determination she and following generations have built a privately owned floral show garden now visited by close to a million people each year.

The privately family owned gardens are open year round.

 Most things in Victoria are walking distance and University students operate pushbike taxi's and tours to subsidise their living costs. 

One of the cycle taxi students told me a joke: 

What is the difference between Australians and canoes?

Answer: Canoes tip! ( I think there was a hint in the joke but I didn't get it, deliberately)

Victoria is worth finding your way to……..  

Vancouver

The Disney ship was in port as we arrived. Mickey Mouse is on the bow.

  It’s a big city!

Moving south from Alaska we dropped anchor at Vancouver, a city of 642,000 but with an overall metropolitan population of 2.3 million. Vancouver is a modern and large coastal city that hosted the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games. The 10 metre high Olympic cauldron is now mounted at the front of the Vancouver Convention centre and was “turned on” for the night as the ship was in port.

Olympic Cauldron circa 2010

The lure of gold is what drew European settlement to this area. The Hudson Bay Company set up shop in 1858 and began buying gold from prospectors in a settlement called Gastown.

Gastown has the look and feel of “The Rocks” on the foreshores of Sydney with cobblestone streets and a pavement mounted steam driven clock that whistles every fifteen minutes. In the 1890’s streams of Chinese immigrated to this area to supply the labour backbone of the rail and road construction. This is reflected today in a large Chinatown area, the largest in Canada.

As a tourist destination you land in a large city that is bustling with its own sense of busyness so don’t expect warm and friendly hugs from the Armani, and lesser Hugo Boss, clad locals as they zip between skyscrapers. To do the tourist thing in a big city is daunting and you have to walk long distances between key landmarks so grabbing the hop on hop off red bus is a must but you won’t find anything like the Statue of David or the Colosseum in Vancouver, the Totems get close.

A lot of fun is had by going to the Granville Island Market which is a Sydney “Darling Harbour” or San Francisco “Fisherman’s Wharf” type of place with lots to eat and trinkets everywhere to be bought. It is named as “One of the Worlds Greatest Places” to visit.

Cute little mini-ferries. I don't think they would survive on Sydney Harbour.

The cute thing to do from here is to take tiny little toy ferries up and down the harbour to the various landmark places. These ferries are largely driven by teenage University students or dropouts who have not yet mastered the English or French language.  Any parent will recognize the unique odor and grunting language of these boys making communication on directions and venues easier.

There is also a 1000-acre park in the centre of town called Stanly Park that includes a large Aquarium and a Totem Pole Garden which can consume some of your time. Big cities do not effuse the culture uniqueness that many international travellers are chasing so you are left a bit cold, culturally speaking and climate wise. I have heard that Victoria is the place to find the Canadian village-like culture so that is the next stop.

         

Sorry

It's my only photo in my ipad, bugger not having USB ports! Ayers Rock at Dawn, it is RED, but that was another adventure

I left the ship to hitch down the west coast of the USA. I will be rejoining the ship tomorrow and will catch up with my blog. Sorry for going offline for so long. I have answered all the emails asking about my well-being and safety, thank you......... I now have a greater understanding, empathy and respect for the American culture, but more of that later..............

Juneau

High St Juneau

 

Anchorage may be the largest town in Alaska but down the road a few hundred kilometres is the capital city of Juneau, a larger coastal town of 31000 people. This is the centre of black bear country and they can be found regularly wandering through town. What is strange for a capital city is that Juneau is only accessible by air or water.

Many of the local people in this area fly floatplane aircraft the way others might drive the family car to and from the shops. The town has some interesting architectural features if you can see past all the “Big Sale” signs. Behind the main street are many Government buildings as Juneau is the Alaskan Capital The main Juneau shopping district is flagrantly pitched at the cruise ship market with three or so streets full of t-shirts, winter jackets and diamonds. Yes, diamonds are the specialty of this town allegedly cheaper than elsewhere in the world but they are not (shhh! Don’t tell the tourists).

There were three ships in port as we docked so there was plenty of eager tourist dollars up for grabs. Everything in town was lauded as being 50% off or more which was a little suspicious as the signs looked several seasons old.

As an example, a friend wanted to buy a diamond bracelet that was tagged at $US88000. Over the course of the day, and four visits, we got the price down through $50000, then $30000 and at the end of the day a last offer of $13000 + 5% sales tax. We settled on $US11000 flat and got an appraisal for $US24000.  Can you figure that out?

Enough talk of shopping, we took to the air in a Sea Otter floatplane to go salmon fishing up river. In the air we passed over several active glaciers and landed upriver at Taku Lodge. This lodge is famous for the story of one of its owners, Mary Joyce.

In the early 1920’s, Mary was the private nurse for the owner of the lodge, Hack Smith, the son of a wealthy lumber baron. Similar to the way Rose Porteous inherited a good part of Australian mining baron Lang Hancocks wealth, for services rendered, so did Mary. Mary became owner of the mountain lodge after Hack unsuspiciously died of a heart attack whilst hunting.

One day Mary decided that she needed bread and milk so decided to run her dogs down the road to Fairbanks and while there attend the Ice Carnival and maybe sell a dog or two. Some planning was needed for this, as Fairbanks was one thousand miles away so Mary allowed three months for the snow trek. The wooden sled was dusted off, the huskies all tethered up; a few Mars bars in the backpack and off she went. Mary averaged 20 miles a day in temperatures of -20 degrees celcius, quite a feat for anyone but quite a feat for a woman in the 1930’s.

Mary is a rightfully a bit of a heroine in these parts and the Spartan Taku Lodge is a humble shrine to her strength of character and resilience in an unforgiving climate and a male dominated time in history.

The fishing was great and the eating was better, washed down with Alaskan brew. Ten salmon gave their lives to the cause barbequed over Alder pinewood with brown sugar and bush lime.  

For those of you, who have read this far, firstly thank you, and secondly, allow me to share a fleeting personal experience some might measure as being one of those important moments in life. Satiated from a hearty lunch, I went outside to sit on the verandah and take in the Taku Glacier creeping slowly towards me in front of the lodge.

I immersed myself in the sounds of the cracking glacier opposite the lodge and the sight of majestic fir and snow covered mountains that towered above when a feeling welled up that I was unable to identify or control. Surprisingly, unchecked tears ran down my cheek in a silent conversation with nature that words cannot define or explain. I share this as I think I was meant to. It was fleeting, it was from somewhere deep inside and I have never felt it before. Nature was speaking to me and I could hear it. One of my friends then called to me and the moment was lost but the conversation will be with me forever.  

You might not need to come to Alaska to converse with nature but it sure has all the necessary elements and is beautiful beyond words. Add this to your bucket list, at the top.  

So, enough of that metrosexual malarkey, and back on the float plane to Juneau. We headed straight for one of the seven places on earth that you must eat at in your life, “Tracy’s King Crab Shack” on the waterfront. It is a shabby little caravan with a less than clean and semi water repellant tent erected beside it but the food is first rate and the ambience a unique experience. We ordered a plate of King Crab and a few beers and toasted life.

I am now reflecting on a very new and humbling experience that I do not yet understand.