Blog posts with images from Austin photographer Brian Combs.
The next shore day on our July 2013 Alaska cruise was Juneau. This was the day I’d been waiting for, as we were going on a whale watching excursion.
For years, seeing whales in the wild had been on my bucket list. We’d gone on a whale watching excursion in St. Lucia, but did not see any whales (although we saw a huge number of dolphin).
Knowing the huge number of humpback whales that feed in the Stevens Passage, I …
The White Pass and Yukon Route railroad is a narrow gauge railroad between Skagway, Alaska and Whitehorse in the Yukon. Riding the line is a standard excursion for cruise ships porting in Skagway.
On our July 2013 Alaska cruise, we chose an excursion that took the train from Skagway to Fraser, British Columbia, Canada, and then took a tour coach back. This allowed us to differing scenery each direction.
The entire excursion took about 3.5 hours and was well worth …
In July 2013, the family and I took a cruise to Alaska. One off the days was spent sailing up Tracy Arm Fjord to see Sawyer Glacier.
We signed up for a room with a balcony so we could sit out there as the little one napped in early afternoon. As it happened, we were stuck on the balcony as we visited Tracy Arm.
I thought ahead and had my camera and lenses out there with me, so got quite …
I’m in New Orleans this week for PubCon Spring 2013. My family came along, so we had Monday to run around the French Quarter together.
We ended up at Grand Isle Restaurant for dinner, and decided to sit outside, since there was a nice breeze. Across a narrow courtyard from us was the sports bar Manning’s, which was hosting an alumni event for Ole Miss.
My father-in-law is an Ole Miss alum, so I follow their football team a …
There are certain restaurants I visit just about every time I come to Vegas: the oyster bar within Harrahs, BLT Burgers (for the milkshakes) and The Egg and I.
Sorry Carnevino, I’m over you.
My latest addition to this list is Shibuya inside the MGM Grand. It’s by far the best sushi I’ve had east of California.
On my most recent trip to Vegas, I was actually staying at the MGM Grand, so it made perfect sense to visit Shibuya …
Looking back at the blog, I just realized that I hadn’t posted any pictures from the season-opening Rice-Texas game. So, here they are, very overdue.
We have new seats this year, lower deck, west side, next to the south end zone. I certainly don’t miss the long walk to the upper deck, but the view is very different.
On the upper deck, we could see everything well all through the game. With these seats, it’s either a very good view, …
After the Scottish Highlands tour, our next stop was Cardiff, Wales. This meant a long train ride.
If we caught the 6:07am train out of Edinburgh, the ride was six hours long with only one change of trains. Otherwise, the trip would be much longer, with several changes.
We got our tails out of bed in time to catch the 6:07am.
We headed due west to the coast of England. In Crewe, we were to change trains for Cardiff.…
After we explored Stirling Castle, it was back in the tour bus for the ride into the Scottish Highlands. Again, our tour guide did a great job telling stories the entire trip.
Our first stop was Doune Castle, which gained fame as the shooting location for several scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I actually would have liked to have explored the place, but it was really just a potty break.
We stopped at a number …
For our second day in Scotland, we did the Loch Lomand and Stirling Castle tour from Rabbie’s Tours. Our first stop on the tour was Stirling Castle.
The is the castle that overlooks the battleground of the famous Battle of Stirling Bridge from Braveheart. Of course, reality was nothing like Braveheart, but that’s a story for another time.
Of all the castles we visited on our UK Holiday (and I think there were six total), this had the most …
After our road trip around County Durham, we jumped back on the train and headed up to Scotland.
Our first destination was Edinburgh.
We dropped our bags off at the hotel, and then walked up to Edinburgh Castle. We walked around the back side, toured the castle (after standing in the longest line of the entire trip), and then walked back down the front side of the castle (through the touristy section of town).
It’s imposing, to say the …
