Day 9: We’re Bad Campers, and We’re Not Hunters
Unfortunately, we had to leave Seattle. But, on the really positive side, we got to go catch a ferry to Alaska! Those are reasonable trade-offs.
One point, quickly, so you understand a picture from that part of the update: people are rather awful at being creative in naming their streets out here on the West Coast. Their numbered mostly, to the extreme. I saw one sign, but didn’t get a picture, of a 438th Street. Are you kidding me? Name it after a celebrity if you must! The picture I did get is of 300-something Street. C’mon people, amuse us travelers with something!
I saw that sign on the way up to catch the ferry. And we arrived in Bellingham in pleeennnnttyyy of time for that. Time enough that we could find a Starbucks for Ashley and me and a park for Mom and Dad to walk in.
We got checked in at the ferry place, and then went to go get our car in line to load on to the boat. That’s when one of the check-in officials asked if we had any propane or some other gas. We said no. Then she asked if we had any ammunition. Again, we said no. I said, “We’re bad campers, and we’re not hunters.” So that’s where today’s blog title comes from. That’s exactly what we are--bad campers and not hunters. What are we doing in Alaska, you ask? Hahaha, well…
We weren’t quite the last to be boarded, but we were pretty close. We got everything out of the vehicle that we thought we would need and then barely made it out to a deck to see us push off from the landing area.
Everything was beautiful going out. We headed west, and it felt like we were sailing straight into the sunset. Oh wait, we were.
Eventually it was time for bed. I think we’re still all not really used to the crazy amounts of time zones we’ve been through. We switched immediately to the Alaska time zone. So we’re now running four hours behind all you East Coasties! (Can you tell us the future?)
Day 10
I don’t really know how to break up these two days because I’m really writing Day 9 on Day 10, so…whatever…
We’re still on the ferry. We have until Tuesday morning on this one. The movement of the ship wasn’t really an issue until I woke up this morning. It took me a little while to get used to the bit of movement and some of the weird noises. Oh and being on a top bunk with a little wimpy rail that I still think I could roll over and end up on the floor…
There’s a lot of space on the ferry which is nice. We spent most of the day in the Aft Viewing Lounge. That’s at the front of the boat, right behind the prow. Mom and Dad walk around the boat a lot. I’ve been tearing through these books by Steig Larsson: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and then blazed through the last book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, last night and today. I know, I know, I’m sailing through the Inside Passage with my nose stuck in a book. What am I thinking? Well, it’s pretty, for sure. And I get up to try to see the whales that stay elusively out where they’re just specks in the sun-reflecting water. I stare out the window quite a bit too. But these books are good. Well, they were. I finished the last one tonight. My head hurts, and it took a bit for my vision to get used to looking at things more than an arm’s length from my face.
We played this game called Farkel today too. It’s kind of like Yahtzee. You have six dice and there are different point values for different things you roll. I won the first round. Dad won the second round. We’ll have to play again to give Ashley a chance to win.
Now we’re all tucked in our cute little bunks. We have to get up early in the morning because we’ll be at our first Alaskan destination, Ketchican. It’s just a short stop, about 3 hours for us. There might, just might, be cell service and internet tomorrow, in which case you’ll be able to read this. Otherwise, it’ll probably be Juneau before I get anything out.
I should probably shutdown the computer--it’s the only light on in our itty bitty cabin.
Day 11
Today was more interesting than yesterday. Today we actually got off the boat for a few hours in this town called Ketchikan (catch what if you can? I still don't know. Maybe some "liquid sunshine" as the Alaskans have termed rain. We did catch some rain.).
Another side note, these ferry people are...quite on time. We left Bellingham, WA at 6:00 pm on the dot. We got into Ketchikan like an hour early. We got into Juneau an hour early too (how do I know this on Day 11?? Hehe hehe!). I guess that's the way it goes on water.
Anyways, we get on land well before 8 am when we were supposed to dock at 8 am. Then we got off and caught the bus into town. Now, Ketchikan would be way more lively in probably 3 weeks or so. It is most definitely still what I would consider to be early spring. So...the salmon have yet to show up, and Ketchikan is built around salmon and tourists.
We took the walking tour of Ketchikan. The water from their main creek is crystal clear all the way out to the harbor area. We saw where the salmon would be, where they would jump, etc. if they were actually in the area. We walked past the salmon hatchery. We saw several totem poles. They were all rather "young" totem poles, 20 years old or so.
The main "event", according to yours truly, was when we went and found Ketchikan's tunnel. They claim, and it is true, that you can walk through, around, and over their tunnel. It's true, you can do all of these, and we did. But, why? That is the question. I do not have an answer unfortunately. It's odd, to say the least.
We got back to the boat a bit before noon. Then we kept on sailing. We ate lunch, then I went to our cabin for a nap. I didn't intend this, but I ended up sleeping for about 3 hours. I guess I hadn't been getting great sleep at night, I don't know. When I woke up, there were whales and orcas being spotted quite regularly. I think there were dolphins--or as one passenger said, fish with a porpoise. Hahahahaha.
We got everything packed up as much as possible, so we didn't have much to do when we docked at Juneau. The sun didn't set until almost 10 pm, and it was definitely still quite light outside when we decided we should go to bed around 11 pm.
Day 12: The Beginning
So I'm sitting in Heritage Coffee Company and Cafe, using their very, very slow internet. We saw several bald eagles while we sat and ate breakfast in Wal-Mart's parking lot this morning. The coffee is okay. There is some fun art on the walls. It's nice to be back in touch with a little bit of civilization.
I have another 40 pictures or so ready to upload, but unfortunately, that's going to have to happen later because it would probably take 10 years to upload them over this network. Sorry!
Right now it's sunny outside and fairly warm; it's in the fifties, I think. The plan, as far as I can tell, is to spend today around Juneau, see the sights, and then tomorrow head to Sitka. Then we pop back to Juneau the day after, then head to Haines. Once we get to Haines, we'll finally be able to travel mostly at will in our own car. You can't drive in or out of Juneau right now. A travel book I read says that there is a road being built in, but the residents are not very happy about that. The first sign I saw once coming off the ferry pointed to the left and said "End of the Road 24". I really want to go to End of the Road. Hahahahaha.
Again, as always, I don't know what service/access will be like. I'll get more pictures up as I can. I hope you're enjoying this. We are enjoying the trip so far!
Ciao from Isolated Capital. Ha, I should probably figure out how to say goodbye in some local language...I'll work on that. :)
We took the walking tour of Ketchikan. The water from their main creek is crystal clear all the way out to the harbor area. We saw where the salmon would be, where they would jump, etc. if they were actually in the area. We walked past the salmon hatchery. We saw several totem poles. They were all rather "young" totem poles, 20 years old or so.
The main "event", according to yours truly, was when we went and found Ketchikan's tunnel. They claim, and it is true, that you can walk through, around, and over their tunnel. It's true, you can do all of these, and we did. But, why? That is the question. I do not have an answer unfortunately. It's odd, to say the least.
We got back to the boat a bit before noon. Then we kept on sailing. We ate lunch, then I went to our cabin for a nap. I didn't intend this, but I ended up sleeping for about 3 hours. I guess I hadn't been getting great sleep at night, I don't know. When I woke up, there were whales and orcas being spotted quite regularly. I think there were dolphins--or as one passenger said, fish with a porpoise. Hahahahaha.
We got everything packed up as much as possible, so we didn't have much to do when we docked at Juneau. The sun didn't set until almost 10 pm, and it was definitely still quite light outside when we decided we should go to bed around 11 pm.
Day 12: The Beginning
So I'm sitting in Heritage Coffee Company and Cafe, using their very, very slow internet. We saw several bald eagles while we sat and ate breakfast in Wal-Mart's parking lot this morning. The coffee is okay. There is some fun art on the walls. It's nice to be back in touch with a little bit of civilization.
I have another 40 pictures or so ready to upload, but unfortunately, that's going to have to happen later because it would probably take 10 years to upload them over this network. Sorry!
Right now it's sunny outside and fairly warm; it's in the fifties, I think. The plan, as far as I can tell, is to spend today around Juneau, see the sights, and then tomorrow head to Sitka. Then we pop back to Juneau the day after, then head to Haines. Once we get to Haines, we'll finally be able to travel mostly at will in our own car. You can't drive in or out of Juneau right now. A travel book I read says that there is a road being built in, but the residents are not very happy about that. The first sign I saw once coming off the ferry pointed to the left and said "End of the Road 24". I really want to go to End of the Road. Hahahahaha.
Again, as always, I don't know what service/access will be like. I'll get more pictures up as I can. I hope you're enjoying this. We are enjoying the trip so far!
Ciao from Isolated Capital. Ha, I should probably figure out how to say goodbye in some local language...I'll work on that. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment