Vancouver

So we left cloudy Skagway, and ferried down to Bellingham. A 3 day ferry ride, and by the time we got to Bellingham, I was ready to stay on the boat and do it all over again, and again. What a fantastic 3 days. No schedule, no obligations, nothing to do but enjoy the scenery, the sun, my book and the animals. We saw orcas(killer whales), humpback whales and dall porpoises. Who knew it was going to be a whale-watching tour?! I thought spotting whales on the ferry was going to be more of a fluke. (haha).

All the amenities of a cruise ship(well, okay, no pool), but still. We camped out(for  free--though we had to pay to get on as foot passengers) on the solarium deck, one of 6 tents up there. Dozens more slept on the deck chairs, but there were cabins on board, if you were so inclined(and had money to burn). Cafeteria with tasty food, but the best cottage cheese I've had in a while, and a great choice of salads. We opted to make most of our own meals with groceries we brought, and to enhance them we had all kinds of sauces, salad dressings and stuff to add(sugar and raisins for our oatmeal in the morning!), all the hot water we wanted, use of plates and cutlery and a microwave. What luxury! We even had entertainment nightly in the bar--2 quirky guys who were just completing an Alaskan/Yukon tour played 2 of the nights to a packed house. Really neat sounding music. And to pass our time there was a glassed in observation deck, with interpretative talks given by the US Forest Service employees on board, movies to watch in the reclining chair lounge, and a solarium with plenty of deck chairs to sit out with binoculars looking for wildlife, or your book(binos on the lap waiting for the I-see-a-whale cry to go up). What fun. With absolutely nothing to do, I couldn't believe how fast the days went. Last night I slept on a deck chair on the deck, under the stars that were so clear.. Best part of it?! No bugs!! Spectacular sunsets from the boat too.

So, after arriving in Bellingham, taking a $25 taxi ride to the airport(there's no shuttle from the ferry terminal, 'cause that wouldn't be fair to the taxis! apparently), a shuttle bus to Vancouver('cause the taxis don't go that far), 4 city buses and we're at my friends place in Vancouver, starting to think about what we're going to do for supper.