Barcelona was high on the list of stops for our aborted trip to the Mediterranean in 2020. And we’re big Formula 1 fans, but hadn’t attended a race since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2018. So when a last-minute opportunity came together to attend the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, we jumped on it….
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Cedar Butte Trail
On most of our airplane trips, we prefer to pack light and bring carry-on luggage only. This saves us time at the airport and also avoids the risk of lost bags. For our upcoming trip to Barcelona, we had one hike planned, but not enough to warrant bringing our large hiking boots as we did…
Major League Sports Weekend
We’d normally take advantage of a long weekend and make a trip somewhere. But having just returned from Anacortes the previous weekend and scheduled to fly to Barcelona the following Wednesday, we decided that all three of us should take a staycation for Memorial Day Weekend. As luck would have it, three of Seattle’s five…
Anacortes
With two large marinas, Anacortes, WA is a popular boating destination close to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The city also is the gateway to the islands for those without a boat, with nearly a million arriving by ferry in 2021. That is how we visited the islands last fall. And Anacortes has been the…
Alaska Cruise on the Norwegian Jewel
One of the reasons we booked a cruise to Alaska from Vancouver, rather than from our home of Seattle, was to travel one-way through the Inside Passage all the way up, and to visit Hubbard Glacier and Seward. Ships departing from Seattle run mostly offshore, west of Vancouver Island, and generally only visit Southeast Alaska…
Seward Highway
The 125-mile (201 km) Seward Highway, between Anchorage and Seward, is considered one of the most scenic routes in the state of Alaska. Named a National Forest Scenic Byway in 1989, the 2.5-hour journey from Seward passes through the Kenai Mountains and between Turnagain Arm and the Chugach Mountains, with numerous lakes and other attractions…
Hubbard Glacier
Hubbard Glacier, at the head of Yakutat Bay, is the largest tidewater glacier in North America at 76 miles (122km) long and 7 miles (11km) wide. The terminal face is 600 feet (182m) high, with 250 feet (76m) hidden below the waterline. The 350 feet (106m) visible above the waterline is actively calving, filling the…
Glacier Bay
Dramatic Glacier Bay National Park was the only overlap between our Norwegian Jewel cruise and our 2010 Southeast Alaska trip on Dirona. But we could return here every year and never tire of the amazing scenery. On another unusually clear day for early in the season, we cruised slowly up Glacier Bay under a bright…
Skagway
During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 through 1899, roughly 100,000 prospectors poured into the Yukon in northwestern Canada, in the hopes of striking it rich. The main routes to the Yukon gold fields were from the southeast Alaska towns of Skagway or Dyea, across White Pass or Chilkoot Pass respectively. No roads or railways…
Juneau
Alaska’s capital, Juneau, is the only mainland US capital city with no road connections. The only way in or out is by air or sea. And despite having a population of only 32,000, it’s the second largest city in the US by area, after Sitka, also in Alaska. We arrived by boat, as do the…
