OT: Newark, Vancouver, Skagway | Page 4 | The Boneyard

OT: Newark, Vancouver, Skagway

Chuck said:
@Fishy, sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm headed to Vancouver with my wife for a few days this weekend. Flying into Seattle (from Newark!) and driving up to Vancouver. Staying 3 nights and then 1 night back in Seattle. We booked a few restaurants and plan on the whole bike thing in the park(s). Any can't miss things we should do? Any "best things ever" that actually suck and we should stay away from? Thanks in advance!

I think I'm looking most forward to the weather. A man of my carriage doesn't do well in the 90+ and humid weather we have coming our way. Looks like Vancouver is perfect spring weather (permanently).
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I'd recommend getting out to Vancouver Island for one of those nights if possible. The Royal BC Museum in Victoria is awesome, and Victoria itself and its environs can easily occupy you for a day. We had a car and were camping so we also drove out to Port Renfrow to check out the Red Creek Fir, the world's largest Douglas Fir tree. Actually, we only camped the first night; a black bear came less than 10' from our car just as we were getting in it to drive away after seeing the Fir, and my then-girlfriend, now-wife refused to camp that night so we slept in the car on a Victoria backstreet that night.
 
I highly recommend taking a seaplane tour around Vancouver. I believe we took one from Vancouver-Whistler as well. Glacier tours in Alaska were incredible. We went out of Seward.
 
Before this thread takes off @Chuck was asking Fishy, folks.
 
8893 said:
Sorry, I forgot to log in properly; I also post as Fishy.
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8893, I have golfed with Fishy. I know Fishy. Fishy is a friend of mine. 8893, you're no Fishy."
 
.-.
Dove said:
Before this thread takes off @Chuck was asking Fishy, folks.
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That's true. Thanks for quieting the noise. This is all part of our new entrepreneurial endeavor, "Gone Fishing: Tracking the Life and Times of the Boneyard's Throat Puncher." It's unauthorized, but so are all of those Start Tours out in Hollywood. Look for us in a town near you (if Fishy's been there). We're currently in negotiations for a fleet of Duck Boats.

I guess I'll take other recommendations though... since we'll be in Vancouver anyway.
 
How timely this thread pops up.
Would of ignored it last year.

I leave solo for Seattle on July 19th to meet up with my friends to catch 3 nights of Phish at The Gorge that weekend.
Then I drive back to SEA that Monday to meet my wife and kids (son 12 / daughter 8)) who are flying in and head to the Marriott Waterfront for the night.
Our 7 Day cruise to Seattle leaves on Tuesday with a day at sea Wednesday. Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.
Carnival Legend is the ship.
So far I have a glacier helicopter tour booked for us in Skagway.
Like @Fishy its part of my destiny to stand on a glacier. Sorry you couldn't take yours.
Looking at gold panning/salmon bake for Juneau maybe.
And I just might have to do a sea plane tour too at one of the ports.

A lot of the excursions look hokey, touristy and very expensive so I'm trying to choose my battle wisely.
Maybe one of those train ones? We'll see.
Kind of looking forward to spending some time in the towns shopping and exploring.

We get back that following Tuesday and are spending 3 nights at a friend's house on Bainbridge Island.
We'll be taking the ferry back and forth to Seattle each day to catch the touristy stuff there.
And then fly home that Friday.

I've been to Seattle a number of times for business and to the Gorge back in 1997 to see Phish.
We did that Summer Tour, but that's another story...
Really looking forward to going back and showing my wife and kids.
Plus the cruise of course!

Anyhow, that's my story.
Will certainly take any advice for those ports and report back after I return.
Gonna be an epic 2 weeks in the PNW for me.
3 separate trips in 1!
 
ElGuapo said:
How timely this thread pops up.
Would of ignored it last year.

I leave solo for Seattle on July 19th to meet up with my friends to catch 3 nights of Phish at The Gorge that weekend.
Then I drive back to SEA that Monday to meet my wife and kids (son 12 / daughter 8)) who are flying in and head to the Marriot Waterfront for the night.
Our 7 Day cruise to Seattle leaves on Tuesday with a day at sea Wednesday. Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.
Carnival Legend is the ship.
So far I have a glacier helicopter tour booked for us in Skagway.
Like @Fishy its part of my destiny to stand on a glacier. Sorry you couldn't take yours.
Looking at gold panning/salmon bake for Juneau maybe.
And I just might have to do a sea plane tour too at one of the ports.

A lot of the excursions look hokey, touristy and very expensive so I'm trying to choose my battle wisely.
Maybe one of those train ones? We'll see.
Kind of looking forward to spending some time in the towns shopping and exploring.

We get back that following Tuesday and are spending 3 nights at a friend's house on Bainbridge Island.
We'll be taking the ferry back and forth to Seattle each day to catch the touristy stuff there.
And then fly home that Friday.

I've been to Seattle a number of times for business and to the Gorge back in 1997 to see Phish.
We did that Summer Tour, but that's another story...
Really looking forward to going back and showing my wife and kids.
Plus the cruise of course!

Anyhow, that's my story.
Will certainly take any advice for those ports and report back after I return.
Gonna be an epic 2 weeks in the PNW for me.
3 separate trips in 1!
Expand ...

It's been 13 years since my wife and I took an Alaska cruise with two other couples. We're not big on cruises, so a lot may have changed. We loved it, and I think it'll be great for kids . We're trying to budget it with ours in the future. One of the problems with the cruise is that you get a decent amount of older couples so some of the excursions are a bit soft. We sought out things that were a bit more adventurous (including the chopper on a glacier). The best trip we took was booking a small fishing excursion in lieu of a whale watch or big group fishing boat. It was just me and my two friends and one other guy. We caught halibut and salmon, had a bald eagle grab some bait from the boat, saw puffins, seals, and whales closer than the whale watching boat the wives took. It was fantastic.
 
uconnphil2016 said:
Did you guys bring the in laws dog on vacation?
Expand ...
Vancouver is everything a city should be. Ocean, mountains and worldly cosmopolitan.The extra curriculars are either legal or completely ignored by johnny law. You can pay for a variety of them by credit card.
 
.-.
ElGuapo said:
How timely this thread pops up.
Would of ignored it last year.

I leave solo for Seattle on July 19th to meet up with my friends to catch 3 nights of Phish at The Gorge that weekend.
Then I drive back to SEA that Monday to meet my wife and kids (son 12 / daughter 8)) who are flying in and head to the Marriot Waterfront for the night.
Our 7 Day cruise to Seattle leaves on Tuesday with a day at sea Wednesday. Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.
Carnival Legend is the ship.
So far I have a glacier helicopter tour booked for us in Skagway.
Like @Fishy its part of my destiny to stand on a glacier. Sorry you couldn't take yours.
Looking at gold panning/salmon bake for Juneau maybe.
And I just might have to do a sea plane tour too at one of the ports.
Expand ...

I don’t know what order you’re hitting the ports, but I would recommend scheduling your glacier walk in whichever is the first of Skagway or Juneau.

That way if you’re weather-cancelled, you can reschedule for the next port.
 
Fishy said:
Enjoy yourself - Vancouver is awesome. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Expand ...

Agreed Vancouver is awesome. So is Toronto. So is Montreal.

Canada somehow along the way became a better country than it’s southern border mate
 
August_West said:
Agreed Vancouver is awesome. So is Toronto. So is Montreal.

Canada somehow along the way became a better country than it’s southern border mate
Expand ...
Quality cities for sure, the Canadian people are way cooler than Americans too.
 
superjohn said:
Quality cities for sure, the Canadian people are way cooler than Americans too.
Expand ...
Just ask them, lol.

I remember when I studied abroad in Europe while at UConn in the late 80s and I noticed that the Canadians all put Canadian flag patches on their backpacks to make sure that they weren't mistaken for Americans, as we had a reputation for being obnoxious and arrogant and they were pretty universally recognized as much cooler.
 
.-.
Can't believe I lived to see the day Newark is spoken of highly.

Someone must have seen this list.

25 richest cities in America: Does your metro area make the list?

24. New York-Newark-Jersey City, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa.

21. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn.

5. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass,-N.H.

4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.

Explains Bridgeport finally being cleaned up. People are riding bicycles along sidewalks where prostitutes use to walk. Now, we just need an airport. Maybe Sikorsky can grow?
 
.-.
Chuck said:
@Fishy, sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm headed to Vancouver with my wife for a few days this weekend. Flying into Seattle (from Newark!) and driving up to Vancouver. Staying 3 nights and then 1 night back in Seattle. We booked a few restaurants and plan on the whole bike thing in the park(s). Any can't miss things we should do? Any "best things ever" that actually suck and we should stay away from? Thanks in advance!

I think I'm looking most forward to the weather. A man of my carriage doesn't do well in the 90+ and humid weather we have coming our way. Looks like Vancouver is perfect spring weather (permanently).
Expand ...

You probably have your thing planned out but when we hit up the Pac NW, we flew into Seattle as well but took the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver. An unbelievably nice experience and dirt cheap. You can also rent the car much cheaper at your destination.

Enjoy Vancouver. It’s amazing. Some highlights I thought were great:
- Take a seaplane out to Victoria. Great place to meander around and eat. Once in a lifetime experience to take the plane (takes off right next to Canada Place) and the tickets are cheap and you can get them day of.
- Take the drive up to Whistler for the day if you can. Never been on the pacific highway in California but I have to imaging it rivals that. Breathtaking.
 
Fishy said:
I don’t know what order you’re hitting the ports, but I would recommend scheduling your glacier walk in whichever is the first of Skagway or Juneau.

That way if you’re weather-cancelled, you can reschedule for the next port.
Expand ...

Great point.
Our tour is at Skagway which is our first stop so that's thankfully covered in case weather is bad.
 
ElGuapo said:
Great point.
Our tour is at Skagway which is our first stop so that's thankfully covered in case weather is bad.
Expand ...

We really wanted to hike to Upper Dewey Lake in Skagway, but if I had to do it over again, I would have done the helicopter there and just figured something out in Juneau. It was a really great hike, though.

If you have time to kill around your heli flight and you want to see 8,000,000 salmon all in one place, walk over to Pullen Creek. If you’re in port, it’s off to your right near where the rail line. Skagway is only a few blocks in any direction, so it’s maybe a four minute walk out of your way.

Also, and I don’t know how this happened, but there’s a great Filipino restaurant there that doesn’t get the really heavy cruise traffic that Skagway Fish and Skagway Brewing get. It’s called the Gold Digger Mine and Dine.

If you’re looking for something to do in Ketchikan, they have something called the Behring Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour. It’s pure touristy, but I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a half-day so you have plenty of time to explore Ketchikan afterwards - Alaska Crab Tour
 
tykurez said:
You probably have your thing planned out but when we hit up the Pac NW, we flew into Seattle as well but took the Amtrak Cascades up to Vancouver. An unbelievably nice experience and dirt cheap. You can also rent the car much cheaper at your destination.

Enjoy Vancouver. It’s amazing. Some highlights I thought were great:
- Take a seaplane out to Victoria. Great place to meander around and eat. Once in a lifetime experience to take the plane (takes off right next to Canada Place) and the tickets are cheap and you can get them day of.
- Take the drive up to Whistler for the day if you can. Never been on the pacific highway in California but I have to imaging it rivals that. Breathtaking.
Expand ...

Saw this after getting to Vancouver. Glad I didn’t see it before because the train sounded cool, but we overheard a guy telling his friend that they planned on taking the train, but there was a water main break that washed out some track so they had to take a bus!

Beautiful city. It’s a bit crazy because it’s Canada Day. People seem to be as or more into it than the 4th of July at home.

Recommendation for a hotel. We decided to save a bit because we wouldn’t be in the room much. We’re at the Loden, a relatively small boutique hotel. It’s great. Nice room, nice staff and close to the water, but a bit quieter than the big places right on the water. Saved at least a couple hundred dollars also.
 
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