Alaska Day 7--Victoria, Canada

Sept. 22, 2017

So long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! Goodbye!

~ The Sound of Music

Last day.

Are there any sadder words in a cruiser's vocabulary? We love the Eurodam and all  who sail on her, from our Captain Timmers, who's a seriously funny guy to our cabin stewards, Dewa and Ady. This has been a lovely week. We've been spoiled rotten. We've seen drop-dead gorgeous scenery. We've eaten spectacular dishes (though I'm happy to report I haven't gained a pound!).

But into each trip, that last day must fall. That means packing up to go home, which is bittersweet, because while we've had a wonderful time, we do miss our loved ones and friends when we travel. This trip has been easier though, because we were able to stay in touch via cellphone. Since our  final port--Victoria--is the only international stop, we've been able to call our daughters and my parents on each of the other port days.

We've been looking at our options for our big cruise next January and have decided we need a better way to stay in touch from the far side of the world. We plan to look into T-mobile, which reportedly provides free international texting and 20¢  a minute calls from 140 or so countries. (But that's another blog post!)

So today was our swan song for a number of things--last concert by Atlys, last time for me to have an Asian breakfast (yay for grilled salmon!), and last time for us to relax in the thermal suite. It makes me sad that the Pacific Princess, the ship we'll  board for the world cruise next year, doesn't have one of  those. But then I imagine how much a 94 day pass to the TS would cost and I'm a little relieved. We can definitely use that money for shore excursions instead.

Our actual stop at Victoria was only about three hours, and we arrived after the sun had set. I'm not really big on wandering about in crowds after dark, so we opted to stay on board. Our friends Mike and Joy sallied forth and managed to catch an interesting, albeit bewildering, bit of street theater. It was quite an extravaganza with tons of neon and search lights brightening the Canadian sky. The theme of the play seemed to be that oil and gas are bad, bad, bad and when are we going to wake up and stop stealing the fossils?

Um...maybe when you realize fossils just powered your light show?

Tanker pulled alongside to refuel the Eurodam

Someday, we may harness the wind efficiently (and without killing birds!) and figured out how to build batteries to store solar energy that won't spontaneously combust on occasion, but for now,  those fossils do us all a lot of good. We couldn't have traveled across the US with our camper and we certainly couldn't have cruised to Alaska without fossil fuel. Just my opinion. Feel free to express yours.

However, let me give a plug for this great city. If you go to Victoria, you should definitely visit Butchart Gardens.  When we lived in Seattle,  we drove over to the Kitsap peninsula and caught a ferry across the Sound with my husband's brother & sister-in-law. It's a glorious place on reclaimed mining land.

If it seems odd for us to have stopped in Victoria for such a short time, that's because it is. But it's the law--The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1866--which prohibits a foreign flagged ship from carrying US citizens from one US port to another without stopping in a foreign port along the way. That's why 14 day Hawaiian cruises end up wasting a day in Ensenada. (Sorry, Ensenada, but who wouldn't prefer another day on Maui?)

The DH's first experiment with the panorama function on his cellphone camera

More soon...