Seattle

We spent three days in Seattle, the cruise’s starting port, before getting on the ship. (I grew up near Seattle and still feel at home there.) We went to Pike’s Place Market, just as we did the last time we were in Seattle, and enjoyed eating the fresh produce and browsing the work of local artists. We drove out to Mount Raineer this time and wore ourselves out hiking up a steep, snow-covered trail.

My wife looked online for things to do and discovered the Science Fiction Museum, which has some cool memorabilia, movie costumes and props, and information about the history of science fiction and about the many other different worlds science-fiction authors have created. One exhibition called Homeworld discussed the value and relevance of science fiction, which reflected some of the same ideas I have begun exploring in my Journey to the Sea web site.

Alaska

The cruise stopped in three ports in Alaska (Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan) and one port in Canada (Victoria). We went on various excursions in each port: my two favorite were dog-sledding in Skagway and viewing totem poles in Ketchikan.

• Dog-Sledding: We took a helicopter ride up to a glacier and spent a couple of hours with a dog-sled team. Many of the dogs we saw had participated in the Iditarod, the prestige and internationally acclaimed race of over 1100 miles. Our short, two-mile ride was quite exhilarating! We really enjoyed meeting people following their bliss, especially talking with them about how they have made that pursuit financially viable through these excursions and through sponsorships. (You can learn more about the team at their web site, bartlettsleddogs.com.)

  

• Totem Poles: We visited two sites in Ketchikan containing totem poles carved by the Tlingit and the Haida tribes. Totem poles tell stories: some depict legends and myths, other recount tales from a particular family line, and still others commemorate the life of an individual. We learned about their history and how they are constructed, and we heard some of the legends depicted in the poles we saw at the sites (raven steals the light and fog woman and the salmon). These great stories reiterated how important myth is to me.

  

  I was particularly fond of the Tlingit style artwork, using red, black, and turquoise paint. We went back to Pike’s Place Market in Seattle at the end of the trip and met a Tlingit artist selling her art. I bought a journal with Raven on it. I jotted down her site and various others I discovered on the trip, and I may end up buying some art like this in the future.

Throughout our trips, we saw many different castles. From left to right, the castles in the pictures below are Old Sarum (near Salisbury), Dover Castle, and Windsor Castle.

• The castle at Old Sarum was abandoned in the thirteenth century, and only ruins remain today. You can only see the foundations of the walls and get a rough idea of how the castle would have looked.
• Dover Castle is in much better shape. It has been used for military operations throughout English history, including the Napoleonic Wars and the Second World War, but it is no longer a working castle.
  
• Windsor Castle is one of the three official residences of the Queen of England today. It is luxuriously decorated with tapestries, paintings, sculptures, etc. Unlike the ruins at Old Sarum or the military outpost at Dover, this castle is a place in which I would enjoy living.

The contrast between the different conditions and current uses of these three castles, all built around the same time, really fascinated me.

Oxford

In Oxford, we ate lunch at The Eagle and Child, a pub where the informal literary circle known as the “Inklings” met weekly for years. We took a walking tour of the campus, which included walking through the chapel at Exeter College (where J.R.R. Tolkien was a student) and seeing the Magdalen College tower from a distance (where C.S. Lewis was a professor). We also walked through Radcliffe Square around Radcliffe Camera and next to the Bodleian Library.

I would have liked to spend more time there, seeing more of the colleges and libraries and museums and just walking around campus. (I regret that I did not participate in the Honors at Oxford summer program when I was an undergraduate at the University of Oklahoma.)

Cambridge

We took a walking tour at Cambridge. We visited a few colleges, including King’s College and it’s famous chapel. (I love how green and manicured the lawns are in the middle of both the “courts” at Cambridge and the “quadrangles” at Oxford.) The Cam River runs through the middle of the town and seems to play a much more important part of life at Cambridge than does the Thames at Oxford, and seemingly everyone else was going “punting”. We ended the day visiting Magdalene College, where C.S. Lewis was a professor for the last ten years of his life.

Connecticut has only one National Park: the Weir Farm Historic Site. Three generations of American artists lived in the house. The first artist, J. Alden Weir, was an impressionist painter inspired by the landscapes on the property. (My wife and I have always been interested in the National Parks, but we have become more interested since we picked up a National Parks passpost in Hawaii.) I got the passport stamped and saw some paintings like this one, titled The Truants:

One night, we ventured to New Haven to visit Yale University. The Yale University Art Gallery had some really nice artwork. I saw my first original Van Gogh painting and Picaso painting:

The ancient collection was pretty fascinating. They had some nice Greek vases (I haved loved the look of Greek vases since I first saw them online at the Perseus Project), sculptures, Greek and Roman coins, and a really impressive Babylonian lion relief:

While we were in New Haven we also ate dinner at Pepe’s Pizzeria, established in 1925. Some argue that Pepe’s has the best pizza in the world. While that might be too bold a claim, the pizza was very good. (I definitely prefer New York-style pizza to the Chicago-style pizza I tried last fall in Chicago.)

The first week I went to Chicago; I didn’t have much time to be a tourist there because we still had quite a bit of development to do. The second week I went to St. Louis; there I had a chance to go downtown and see the Gateway Arch. The third week I went to southern California; one night I drove to Hollywood to see a movie at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

The fourth week I went to Seattle. After a full weeek of training, my wife flew to Seattle late on Friday. We spent the weekend enjoying the state of Washington. We went to some typical tourist spots in Seattle: Pike Place Market, the first Starbucks store, and the Space Needle. We also decided to make the journey south to check out Mount St. Helens. Washington is such a beautiful, scenic state — I had a very good time there!

Overall the training at the various locations went pretty well, and it was good getting to travel to various cities throughout the country. But I must admit: I’m glad to be home for a little while … before my next out-of-town project.