The Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex is one of those places I never get tired of visiting. We road-tripped back there over the weekend to get in one more visit before the multi-day passes we purchased last year expired.
You’ll need a pretty big tree for this ornament
On this visit, Connie noticed that the Welcome sign above the door to the Space Shop welcomed visitors in 9 languages, including Klingon.
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We went there over two days, and spent the second day at the Saturn V exhibit building. The bus tour takes you past the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Next to the VAB they’re working on building a new launch platform that will be used by NASA’s SLS rocket. It’s an impressively large structure and even larger than the launch platform used for the shuttle.
The bus then takes you past Launch Pad 39A. The last time I was on the bus tour, the pad was one of the stops and people were able to get off the bus and go onto the launch platform. 39A is being used by SpaceX now, so it’s not a stop on the tour anymore. I was on the wrong side of the bus and couldn’t get any decent photos when we went by.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center is always impressive, and it’s pretty easy to spend 2 or three hours exploring all the exhibits here. Next to the Atlantis exhibit, it’s my favourite exhibit at KSC.
Saturn V main engines
A new exhibit (new since my last visit to the Saturn V building anyway) is a memorial to the Apollo I astronauts (Ed White, Virgil Grissom, and Roger Chaffee) who died when a fire started in the command module. It’s a nice exhibit featuring personal items belonging to each of the astronauts as well as the hatch from the command module.
Apollo I hatch
Next time you go, make sure to reserve plenty of time for the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
After a day of cruising from the Endicott Arm, the final port of call for the cruise was Victoria, BC.
By now, I had managed to come down with a cold that left me a little drained and worn out, but not bad enough that I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the cruise.
After getting some breakfast, I headed off the ship with my sister and niece into Victoria. She wanted to go to Craigdarroch Castle, so we found a map (conveniently provided at the border entry) and walked over. It’s a bit of walk from the cruise terminal, but not hard and the weather was nice.
Our walk took us through some residential neighbourhoods, past the BC Legislature building and along the streets of downtown Victoria.
BC Legislature buildingGiant sequoia tree
After about 30-45 minutes of walking (wasn’t really paying attention), we arrived at Craigdarroch Castle, a large Victorian mansion built by Robert Dunsmuir who made a lot of money in coal mining.
Craigdarroch CastleCraigdarroch Castle
It’s a large, impressive building with an interesting history. The Dunsmuir family only lived in it a relatively short time (Robert Dunsmuir died before the castle was completed), and the mansion spent the rest of the time used for institutional purposes (military hospital, college, music conservatory, office space). The restoration and use as a museum was only a fairly recent thing. They’ve done a pretty good job of preserving and restoring the interior, including re-acquiring some of the Dunsmuir’s possessions.
One of the dining rooms in Craigdarroch Castle
After the castle, we walked back toward the downtown area and stopped for lunch at a place called J & J Wonton Noodle House. I went with the wonton noodle soup bowl, and it was pretty tasty. Would definitely go there again.
Walked over to Victoria’s Chinatown area and saw the big Chinese Gate.
Chinese gate in Victoria’s ChinatownLion statue
It was about time to head back to the ship, so we didn’t get to wander around Chinatown too much.
On the way back, we wandered through some open air markets near Chinatown and also at the marina near the Legislature building.
Marina market
At the cruise port, we found this neat sundial type thing where you stand at a spot depending on the time of year and use your shadow to see what time it is.
About 3-ish (+1h for DST) according to my niece
Had a good time doing this little bit of wandering around Victoria. Will have to visit again and spend some more time here.
The original cruise itinerary called for the ship to head to the Tracy Arm fjord and the Sawyer glacier at the end of the fjord. According to the ship captain though, there was too much ice in the Tracy Arm so he took the ship down the neighbouring Endicott Arm instead.
The ship was offering an all you can eat breakfast buffet in the Izumi Japanese restaurant (one of the specialty restaurants on the ship) for the fjord trip for $25/person, so we took advantage of it. The breakfast buffet (more of a brunch thing really) consisted of a ramen station, several types of sushi (rolls and nigiri) various dumplings, omlettes, skewered meats and sliced fruits. Being up on deck 13, Izumi offered a pretty good vantage point for the journey up and down the fjord.
As we ate a leisurely breakfast, we watched the mountains drift by. Quite remarkable. Soon chunks of ice started appearing in the water, and then the glacier was visible up ahead.
Cruising up Endicott ArmAt the end of Endicott Arm
At the end of the arm, about 0.5 nautical mile from the glacier, the captain stopped the ship and made it do a 360° spin so that everybody on the ship could get a view of the glacier.
Endicott Arm glacierEndicott Arm glacier
(I did some colour level adjustment of my photos with Gimp, so the glacier appears a little bit more blue than it actually is, but not too much).
It’s a pretty remarkable sight. From where we were sitting in Izumi, the end of the fjord looked pretty narrow without a whole lot of extra room for the ship to spin around in. At a later Q&A session with the captain and some senior officers, the captain said there was at least a couple hundred meters of space between the ship and the sides of the fjord. Plenty of room.
The ship stayed there for a while, letting everybody get a good look at the glacier, then sailed back up the arm.
Returning up the Endicott ArmReturning up the Endicott Arm
This was a pretty cool side journey on the cruise.
Next stop on the cruise was a little further north to Skagway, Alaska. It also happened to be the only cloudy and rainy day of the trip. Fortunately it was just a light drizzly rain and nothing too cold.
We got off the ship to wander around Skagway, which is a pretty tiny place. Doesn’t take long to get from one end to the other. We found the grocery store, a place to buy a couple of umbrellas and explored a bunch of shops as well as the Skagway Public Library.
Skagway is really close to the Alaska/BC border and a lot of the utility poles are decorated with the Alaska state flag, the US flag and the Canadian flag. It’s also not very far to get to the Yukon Territory either.
Flags
Skagway has a few interesting historic buildings still around from the gold rush days.
The Brass Pic – House of Negotiable AffectionLog building (Visitor Information Center)
Avoid the tourist trap cruise port jewelry stores and spend some time wandering around Skagway checking out the other locally owned businesses. Stop by the Radio Shack for electronics gear, movies and a hot dog.
Wander around Skagway past the cruise port jewelry stores
Cruising to Alaska seems to be on a lot of people’s bucket list.
Back from a nice long two week vacation (I think the longest one I’ve ever had) where we flew from here to Seattle, rented a car and drove down to Portland, OR to hang out with some friends for a few days, then back to Seattle to begin the cruise with my sister, brother-in-law and one niece.
After a day of cruising, we arrived at Juneau, Alaska. We had about 8 hours in port here. Connie stayed behind to explore Juneau a bit and I went on a Bike and Brew excursion offered by Cycle Alaska that I really enjoyed. The bike ride was about 8.5 miles along fairly flat terrain. Got to ride at a pretty easy pace and rode through some nice areas. Much of the ride was on the road, but with wide shoulders and relatively light traffic, it was pretty easy going.
Heading to the start of the bike rideOn the road
We rode out to a beach area on the west side of Mendenhall Lake where we got to see a fantastic view of the Mendenhall Glacier.
Mendenhall GlacierMendenhall Lake
The lake gets its colour from silt collected/produced by the glacier. The water is pretty cold too.
From there it was back onto the road with a brief detour onto a trail, and then finishing at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. We dropped the bikes off at a bus parking area a short distance from the visitor center and had some time to walk over, enjoy the views of the glacier and explore the visitor center.
Mendenhall Glacier Visitor CenterMendenhall GlacierMendenhall Glacier Visitor Center
There are trails that take you almost right up to the glacier, but I didn’t have time to wander down these. In the visitor center, there are displays and exhibits that tell you all about the glacier and surrounding area. Pretty cool place.
From here, it was back into the vans for the trip back to Juneau and the “Brew” part of the excursion. We ended the excursion at a place called Alaska Fish and Chips Company where we got to sample some beers from the Alaskan Brewing Company and one from Baranof Island Brewing Company in Sitka. We got to sample the Summer Ale (nice refreshing Kolsch style beer), White Ale (Belgian witbier style) and Oatmeal Stout (really liked this one) from Alaskan Brewing and a Spruce Tip beer from Baranof (this one had some interesting flavours and notes).
Here’s a map of the route we took on the bike.
After this, it was off to meet Connie at the Catholic Cathedral in Juneau. Tiny little church. It’s the smallest Catholic Cathedral in the US. Because of time constraints, she stayed for Mass while I went to take the trip up the Mt. Roberts Tramway (she had already gone up there by now). From the bottom, you go up a couple thousand feet to Nature Center where you can wander the trails, enjoy the view and grab some food.
Mt Roberts TramwayAbout halfway up the Mt Roberts TramwayJuneau from the top of the tramway
I wandered the trails up at the top for a bit, but didn’t have time to go too far.
Carved totemHiking the trail
There are several miles of trails that you can hike along. After exploring the gift shop a bit, it was time to head back down.
Heading back down the tramway
Met back up with Connie on her way back from Mass, and we headed back to the boat ship.
It was a pretty good day in the first port of call of the trip. I would have liked to explore Juneau a little bit more, but I’m glad I got to see what I did. I’ll just have to go back another time.
