A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM 12/2 - Page 47 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Just got caught up with your last few updates! Your couples spa treatment for Mark's Birthday sounded wonderful! It's so nice that they served you fruit and tea during the experience. Although the price sounded expensive, it was probably comparable to other cruises and it was Mark's 50th Birthday celebration so it was suppose to be something very special!
Well, that was my logic. Just so long as I get something just as special for my 50th birthday.
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Your tour sounds quite interesting and it was so great that you got such a wonderful guide. What was the temperature like outside on this day as it looked quite damp out?
It's always damp in Ketchikan - at least that's my view from our two visits there, as they always seem to have rain in the air, even if it's not actually raining. I have it in my notes that it was in the low 50s.
Saturday 5 September – part four: are we going to see any bears?
I have to be honest, fascinating as the forest was, I think a lot of people were getting disappointed at the lack of wildlife sightings. I was looking forward to eagle sightings, but DJ told us that, with the amount of seagulls around, we wouldn’t see one. Apparently both the gulls and the eagles go for dead salmon, and as there were loads of gulls, they were scooping up all the dead salmon, so the eagles wouldn’t bother with what was left.
People kept asking about bears as well, although I was less concerned about that, given we’d already seen quite a few over the years. DJ showed us a bear claw, which was very neat. I have to confess I didn’t ask how she got hold of it…
Our next stop was the salmon hatchery, and it was fascinating to see it at work…
What was also fascinating to see were all the seagulls, launching themselves on any dead salmon they came across:
I am no fan of seagulls, given that I’ve worked on the coast, but at least here, I could see them at work, rather than just squawking around.
DJ noticed that there seemed to be quite a gathering further along the walkway where we’d just come from, and she radioed Maddie. Sure enough, a bear had been sighted down there. However, just as we were about to set off that way, someone noticed that we had a bear of our own just ahead of us. We quietly made our way over to a better viewing spot, although some of our group did start acting like kids at this point, and shouting in excitement, and DJ had to tell them to stay quiet and move slowly if they didn’t want to scare the bear away. Remember this…
She reckoned he was a juvenile, about two or three years old, who’d only recently been kicked out by his mother. From what we saw of him, he didn’t seem to be doing too badly.
He obviously decided that he didn’t want to eat his fish in front of us, and set off…
Now this is the point where some of the adults in our group started to act like kids again. They were literally running over to get a better view of the bear. Of course, the bear responded by running off himself. Oh well, at least we’d already seen some wonderful bear activity before these idiots scared the poor thing off.
Once he’d disappeared, we headed off towards the old saw mill.
I hate it when people are stupid. It just ruins it for the rest of us! At least you got some amazing photos of the bear though!
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A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure UPDATED ...
The spa looked Heavenly. We like to do them on land but have never done them at sea - might have to rectify that.
The Pacific Northwest has a ton of moss but I see what you mean about the way it is draped on the trees - reminiscent of the Spanish moss in the South.
Love the bear sightings with their catch - now that I haven't seen.
The spa looked Heavenly. We like to do them on land but have never done them at sea - might have to rectify that.
Oh you should, it's a great experience.
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The Pacific Northwest has a ton of moss but I see what you mean about the way it is draped on the trees - reminiscent of the Spanish moss in the South.
Love the bear sightings with their catch - now that I haven't seen.
I don't think I've seen many photos (outside of nature documentaries etc.) of it now you say it...
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What a wonderful morning at the spa!! Great pictures from your nature walk. I'm glad you were able to get some shots of the bears before people in your group chased him off.
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It's so nice that they served you fruit and tea during the experience. Although the price sounded expensive, it was probably comparable to other cruises and it was Mark's 50th Birthday celebration so it was suppose to be something very special!
What was the temperature like outside on this day as it looked quite damp out?
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Oh well, at least we’d already seen some wonderful bear activity before these idiots scared the poor thing off. 
Looking forward to more photos!
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