Karla, There are ferries over to Victoria and the Gardens and a trip should be easy to arrange. They say you need 1/2 day at least because it will take you at least an hour from Vancouver. I'm terribly sorry we didn't have time to do that. Good thing I'm not a MG! I liked everything I saw about Vancouver. My camera is a Canon 4 megapixel digital. 5.4 - 16.2mm. I like the 3x optical zoom but of course wanted more. Right before the trip I bought a 4x telephoto lens on eBay that really gave me some nice pictures. I would recommend a telephoto since the distances and views are so overwhelmingly large. Great for seeing wildlife on the shore too. Best suggestion: invest in the highest power binoculars you can afford. You'll use them constantly for wildlife viewing. We were sorry we didn't have two pair along because we kept handing them back and forth. Actually we did bring two pair but I gave one to my brother and SIL to use. In Juneau, if you are looking for a restaurant try The Twisted Fish just a little ways to the left of the ship's dock. The crab legs are huge and FRESH. Look off the pier behind the restaurant for the harbor seal and her pup. Seriously cute. In Ketchikan, walk up Creek Street and find the store with the Ray Trout fish and raven designs. Great t-shirts and cards. Before you get back on board your ship in Ketchikan, stop across from the pier at the Artic Bar for a cold beer. Be sure to go out on their patio and take a picture of your ship. If you watch The Deadliest Catch, look for one of their boats in the harbor - they were giving tours earlier in the season but weren't there when I was. It's expensive but try to do one of the helicopter or float plane trips. Seeing the sights from above is amazing. Will you be anywhere near Haines? The jet boat ride into the eagle preserve was a highlight for us. We ferried over from Skagway to catch that trip. Have a great time!!!!

Ron, I'm sorry your obsession with the faulty 1990 USDA zone map seems to impede your ability to make educated guesses about plant performance based on more specific climatic data available from the Western Regional Climate Center and other sources. Let's start with Leavenworth's all time low: -36F. Then consider that these maples occur at much higher altitudes (another factor that cannot possibly be considered by the map, since all the weather stations in that area are in the valleys), up to at least 4,000', so they can probably live through colder temperatures than what Leavenworth experiences. And then let's not forget that some plants have more vestigal cold hardiness than they need to survive where they are native, from a time when our climate was much colder. Considering all those factors together, I think it's a safe bet that bigleaf maples from central Washington can survive most, if not all winters in zone 5, and may be growable in parts of zone 4 as well.

My DD, SIL and I took a two week Cruisetour to Alaska this past June, and we had a great time. We did the tour first, started in Anchorage, then to Denali, Fairbanks, then by bus to Prudhoe Bay, and back to Anchorage for a one week cruise down the coast to Vancouver, BC. The only place we had mosquitos was in Coldfoot, on the way to Prudhoe Bay, otherwise, it was great. Be aware, Alaska is very wild and remote once you get outside Anchorage and Fairbanks. There are very few roads, and along the coast, the only way to get to some of the towns is by boat. There is a great Marine Ferry system, but you have to have a lot of time. Denali was very good, though it rained most of the time we were there. We took the Tundra Wilderness Tour into the Park, you pretty much have to take an escorted tour. We couldn't see the mountain, but on our flight back from Prudhoe Bay to Anchorage, the pilot circled Mt. McKinley, twice, so we all got a good look, and great pictures. Fairbanks is pretty small, but it's nice. We were there on June 21, for the Midnight Sun Festival - you can't do that too many places. We had over a week of non-stop daylight! The bus ride up to Prudhoe Bay was the best part of the trip. It is a wild place. We crossed the Arctic Circle and my SIL took a dip in the Arctic Ocean. I liked Anchorage, I would like to spend more time there. The best way to see the glaciers along the coast is to cruise, that's actually the only way to get into Glacier Bay National Park. It as a spectacular place. You can cruise in a big ship (we did Princess) or you can take on of the smaller cruise ships or connect up with a tour into the park. We stopped at Skagway, Junneau and Ketchikan, there are a few other towns along the coast that are worth visiting too, and there are some nice towns to visit along the Kenai Peninsula to Seward and Homer. There are some good websites, such as Alaska.com and TravelAlaska.com, as well as toursaver.com. If you are going to do a cruise, of course log on to Cruisecritic.com, they have a whole discussion board on Alaska, as well as forums devoted to individual cruise lines and ships. You will love the trip, I can't wait to go back. Here is a link that might be useful: What I did on my summer vacation

Lovely, intense colour. Nice green "socks".