Cruising the Coast

Our trip home started with a mad rush of packing. Not only did we need to find all our stuff that had been strewn around my aunt & uncle’s house, but we needed to pack up the camper, pack for 3 days on a boat, get groceries for the trip, & say good-bye. The worst part? The good-byes. You’d think after 7 days of 7 extra people in the house, B~ & J~ would be all “SEE YA!!!” but they were not. A day before we were scheduled to leave, my aunt started campaigning for us to delay a couple more days. Why take the Friday ferry when we could take the Sunday ferry? As much as I would have loved to stay, my dad had a house to pack & we were still a good 7-10 days from home.

It was time for us to go.

Although it was wonderful to know that our visit was not a bother & they enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed them.

The ferry was the part of the trip I was really looking forward to. My dad had rented a state room

I was expecting something much smaller. What we had instead was 4 beds, a table & chairs, a bathroom with a shower & room to spread out. Plus there was the whole boat. The boat was great. There were forward decks, aft decks, a movie lounge, a couple of recliner lounges, a lounge with tables for playing hours of Go Fish. There was a full service kitchen & dining room & a gift shop.

I had thought I ‘d get a lot of reading done on the boat. Instead I spent most of the time watching for wildlife. I saw a black bear (didn’t have the good camera with so the pictures show a black thing on the edge of the water). I also saw many whales. That was what I was hoping to see.

Whale tail

I could never get a good picture of the breaching. I guess I should have read the manual for the camera to find the setting for rapid shots. Oh well, I saw breaching & it was really neat.

We also saw dolphins or seals. Not sure which they were.

The ferry stopped in a couple of ports, mostly in the middle of the night. Which was a bummer. I would have liked to done a little exploring but most of the time we were in port for only 45 minutes. The only exception was Ketchikan but we docked at 2am & left at 7am. Next time I’ll plan my trip so I can spend a day or two in each port & catch a ferry to the next town.

We disembarked in Prince Rupert, BC. Next up is the long drive home.

K~