July 2026 (Alaska and Canada)

 

What a month this has been. Just before we left Melbourne, we had the fright of our lives with our US ESTAs being denied (after they had been approved). The email came after hours and we literally had two business days to solve the issue or miss out on our Alaska cruise. Much stress and Googling and, in the middle of the night, we received another email saying we were approved again. A computer glitch apparently. Arrrghhhhh. 

We started with a few days in each of Homer and Seward. What a few days – on our first day, a moose stopped traffic (!!) then we saw brown bears (on a bush plane day trip), sea otters, harbour seals, salmon, humpback whales and bald eagles. Andrew also saw halibut which he caught on a fishing charter and we ate for dinner. Yummm!!!!!

The whales we saw were on wildlife cruises out of Seward and we were lucky enough to see them bubble-net feeding which is something we had never ever heard of. Basically, the whales spot herring and all blow bubbles together which scares the herring into a ball and the whales all come to the surface at once and feast on the herring. Scores of birds swirl overhead at the same time. It was an incredible sight and we saw it three times over two days!!

The bears were incredible too. We tried first on a float plane trip to Katmai National Park. We had booked this months ago but the weather was too bad and the pilot turned back. We ended up being in the air for three hours. 

Our cloud had a silver lining when we tried again a couple of days later, this time to Lake Clark National Park. We saw brown bears at two different spots and came within 5 metres of them. With the benefit of hindsight, not sure that was too sensible but we loved it!!

After those first few incredible days, we boarded our HX Expeditions cruise in Whittier (just outside Alaska) and had a wonderful 12 days. The ship was lovely, the crew friendly, the Expedition Team super knowledgeable and keen, the food great but the destinations were unbelievable!

We had zodiac cruises almost every day. Into the mouths of glaciers, through ice, up to rushing waterfalls, up to seal and sea lion colonies and along fjords. Absolutely divine scenery with wildlife every day from humpback whales to salmon to black bears. We also learnt about First Nation history and culture.

We had oodles of fabulous experiences but the one that took the cake was in Kake (sorry, couldn’t resist!). Seeing black bears, running salmon and bald eagles in the one spot all together with the backdrop of a pretty stream and forest was literally to star in our own movie! Later that night, seeing humpback whales from our ship whilst we ate dinner capped off a surreal day.

All good things must come to an end and so it was that our cruise ended in Vancouver, a city we had never visited. We had two days there and, unfortunately, it rained almost non-stop so another visit is required!

Off the cruise, we stored our bags with the Hop On/Hop Off Bus company and did almost the whole route passing through areas like the main shopping street – Robson Street – Stanley Park (enormous!), China Town, Granville Island and Gastown. We got off and wandered around Granville Island. On a clear day, it would be gorgeous. 

We also got off in Gastown and watched the iconic Steam Clock chime a couple of times (it chimes every 15 minutes). Despite the drizzle, we walked from Gastown to Robson Street, shopped a little and then walked back to the Cruise Terminal and hailed a taxi to our hotel. Thai for dinner and some Netflix the first night then off to the airport shopping outlets the next day where we bagged some bargains (the Canadian dollar is about the same as the Australian dollar so there were some good deals especially on “adventure” clothing).

The next phase of this amazing trip is an Intrepid tour of the Rockies – from Vancouver to Calgary. We have a small group of 7 plus our guide and driver, Neil. Neil is a long-time Alberta resident who has taken up tour guiding as a retirement “hobby.” He is a fountain of knowledge about the area.

Our first stop was two nights in Whistler which we loved, even if it was a bit “Disneylandish.” We had one included excursion which was to the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Center. We learnt a lot there about First Nations culture. Otherwise, we had free time and we explored the pedestrian Village (so cute) and did the Peak 2 Peak gondola experience. This is basically three gondola rides joined together and the views were amazing.

Fun fact – Whistler is the largest ski resort in North America.

From Whistler, we travelled to Sun Peaks for one night (the second largest ski resort in Canada) then onto Jasper.

Sun Peaks is also a bit “Disneylandish” with a real European feel and look. Our hotel, for example, looks just like a Swiss chalet. There are even shutters on the windows!

We would have liked another night in Sun Peaks so we could have explored and enjoyed it but that’s the disadvantage of a tour. The itinerary is fixed and controlled by someone else. We arrived at about 5.15pm, had an included group dinner at 6pm that was excellent and were gone by 8am the next day so a whirlwind stay.

I’ll let you know about Jasper and the rest of the tour next month.

In Writing Wins, I had one flash fiction story, a blog post for our cruise partner, Panache Cruises, and a flight review published:

• “Watch Out”, a flash fiction story - https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2026/07/watch-out-by-leonie-jarretta-whiskey.html

• Our First Ever Crystal Cruise https://blog.panachecruises.com/post/our-first-ever-crystal-cruise

• Air China Business Class Review for First Class Magazine https://www.firstclassmagazine.co/air-china-business-class-review/

On the subject of Panache, we have a couple of very exciting projects brewing for 2027. Watch this space!