The second part of our two-day "Mother's Day" mini vacation was a one overnight cruise from Vancouver to Seattle, on Holland America's Amsterdam.

The trip up was very pleasant... We took Amtrak 507 up from Seattle.  Very comfortable seats, more than enough room, interesting scenery, and more than enough opportunity to rest and relax.  It seems the train is a great way to travel!

Once in Vancouver, we took the Sky Train over to the waterfront.

When Seattle was building its bus tunnel, and gearing up for "light rail", the rails were put in at a different gauge than the cars were built with... so they didn't fit!  Vancouver bought the cars for the Sky Train from Seattle at a reduced rate, and the tunnel became a "bus only" tunnel.

Seattle is only just now getting light rail put in -- but that's a different story.

The ride was a quick one, and it dumped us out about a block away from Canada Place, which is the cruise terminal.

The building uses hi-tension fabric for its roof, fashioned to look like sails... it has a very distinct look to it!

Once we walked in, we had to check in.  I'd waited too long to do it online, so we actually had to check in at the desk, which took longer than it should have, but there was no line, so it wasn't too bad of a delay.

After check-in, we walked up the gangway into the MS Amsterdam, and headed to the room to dump our bags.

 
What a Room! =]

It was the same type of room we'd had before, but it seemed larger than the room on the Oosterdam... not that we minded in the least!  =]

Once settled in the room, we went to the Lido deck, to get something to eat... It WAS a cruise ship, after all -- there's pretty much always food someplace!  =]

We checked out the view, then set up the chess board for a game of chess...

I was winning big, and I had a good plan going... it was just a matter of time.

 
We were called to a safety drill, which is mandated by the US Coast Guard.

Its always fun to see everyone standing around looking silly, I think anyway...

 
After the drill, we returned to the game.

I lost my plan somewhere in the process of heading to and from the drill... and I lost the game!

Oh, well... there's always a next time! =]

 
After the game, we walked around, and admired the view.

There was a lot of activity going on in the harbor, and it was a great day for watching it all slide by while relaxing and just enjoying a very "unstressfull" afternoon!

 
They had some sort of casting off party, so we went to that, and enjoyed some good cheese samplings... then went out on the "upper promenade" deck, and watched the ship slowly make its way out of the harbor.

 
Vancouver is a city of about 2 million people, and its still growing.  This is what Seattle wants to become... a forest of hi-rise condo and office buildings.

Passing under the bridge was what we were up there for, along with watching the scenery.. it doesn't clear by much!

 
Once under the bridge, we passed by the headlands of the harbor... about two and a half years after a windstorm pounded the region - this slope took winds of over 150 miles per hour for several hours - you could still see the devastation and debris... it was pretty amazing!

More on the wind storm:

2006.12.15.WindStorm

2006.12.17.WindStormUpdate

From the little deck on our room, we had an awesome view...   we ordered hot chocolate and cookies, and enjoyed the scenery slip by.

After a while, we were in open water, steaming south to Seattle... it was an awesome day for a cruise!

 
We explored the ship to walk off some of our dinner, which was awesome!  Holland America makes a big deal about its central grand staircase... so that was one of the stops on our brief tour. 

We noticed the sun was setting, so we went out to the back of the ship, for a better view...  The ship was just ending a 21 day tour through the Panama Canal, and about half the folks had gotten off in Vancouver, and the folks who stayed on the ship were pretty tired, it seemed to us, because we pretty much had the view to ourselves!

It was awesome!

We stayed until the sun slipped quietly into the horizon...

 
From there, we went to the show... which was a tribute to Broadway.  We didn't recognize most of the songs, but then when we heard one that we knew, we realized that they weren't singing them very well at all... normally, the entertainment is awesome, but I guess after a 21 day trip, they had to dig pretty deep in order to not repeat themselves!

It was still fun, though!

Once we got back to the room, I played with the camera settings for a bit, and managed to get a couple of night shots that didn't come out all that badly.

The next morning, we were pulling into Emerald Bay, and Seattle's harbor. 

We packed up our bags and got read to head out... we were the first group to leave the ship, the "express departure" folks.

 
The ferry boats were shuttling the morning commuters around as we slowly made our way to the dock.

Once we docked, we made our way to the gangway, but there was a problem with customs not being ready, so rather than wait in the hallway, we went up to the Lido and got our last bit of 'free' food...

Before too long, they called our color group, and we headed out... in a few minutes, we were through Customs, in a cab, and on our way home.

The trip was short, but it was a lot of fun, and we left saying we'd definitely do it again!

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