Day - 9 Time for a hike

So after a fun filled day in Victoria we awoke fresh this morning and regrettably left our swank digs at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel for Vancouver.  The Oak Bay Hotel was one of the nicest places we have stayed and we hated to leave it.  Last night we soaked our tired bodies in the pool that overlooks the ocean and finish up with an invigorating hot tub soak.

Today was our forth ferry ride and I think our kids have had just about enough of them for this trip.  While I really loved riding them, everyone else was getting bored with all the waiting around.  Unlike the previous ferry trips using the Washington State Ferry system, today we rode on the British Columbia ferry and had a much easier trip.  The wait was less than an hour and the ferry was pretty modern.  It was also a very large boat and had a lot of modern amenities aboard.

Once back on the mainland, we headed to Vancouver and to our hotel.  After a short drive, we found our lodging and quickly checked in and went off to take a quick hike in the woods.  There is a famous suspension bridge, but the clerk that checked us in warned us it was expensive to visit and could be very crowed.  Instead, he pointed us to a closer site that also had a suspension bridge and was free.  Once we found the place, it turned out to be a great little hike in the woods.  While there were still a lot of people, we had a great time getting out and stretching our legs.

Well, we get back to our hotel and notice that the room has a very strong oder.  It smelled of cigarette smoke, even though the place has been non-smoking for over a year.  Kate was able to talk her way in to another room despite the place being booked solid.  So now, while we are not living quite the highlife we have been the last few days, we are all tucked in and doing well.

Day 8 - Tea for two

A couple of things to add about yesterday...The hotel we are staying at the "Oak Bay Beach Hotel" is beyond our expectations. The heater in the our room is a faux fire place with a big screen T.V. above the fireplace. The bathroom has a sunken bathtub with a sliding window above the tub, made of two wooden panels, that you can open up into the bedroom. No we haven't kept it open. The bathroom has a separate shower and a separate toilet that has it's own door. As you can guess we are very impressed and are enjoying the luxury of the hotel. There is also a beautiful outside swimming pool with an ocean view that is heated and a small beach with tide pools.
Today we slept in until 8:30am and had breakfast at the little cafe on the main floor. It had a very "Harry Potter" feel. We went to the Royal BC Museum. What a great museum! It was a bigger version of the Oakland museum. Not far away from the museum was the Empress Hotel where Kate and Mackenzie had late tea. Scott and Jack went back to the museum and saw beautiful totem poles.
We all went to the IMAX theater which is part of the Royal museum and saw "The Lemurs of Madagascar". This was Mackenzie's and Jack's first IMAX movie, it was great. Too bad all movies aren't IMAX movies. - Kate

Day 7 - Ferry Well!

Well today was basically all about ferry's in waiting, or was that waiting for ferry's?  Anyhow, the game plan for the day was getting ourselves from Orcas Island over to Victoria BC.  And though is sounds simple (and it sort of was in the end), it came with a bit of stress.

Seems that to get to Victoria (well Sidney actually, but we are going to Victoria) from Orcas, the best way is to take an inter-island ferry over to Friday Harbor and then catch the bigger boat over to Victoria.  The only issue was that we were not at all sure we would be able to get on the Victoria ferry.  I called the night before and asked about the route and was assured that everything was cool by the operator at the Washington State Ferry system, but I got a strange look this morning when I told the lady at the terminal I did not have a reservation.  Reservation?  Nobody said anything about a reservation last night!  I double checked with her!  Damn, there goes any sense of peace and tranquility for the rest of the day.  

So we get our tickets for Friday Harbor for free because the ticket agent felt bad for us, so a bit of a win to start.  But then, fog has rolled in and the boats are all running late.  Not too bad normally, but we only have an hour and fifteen minutes to catch the Victoria boat in Friday Harbor and it tends to be packed this time of year, so we sit in line at Orcas and sweat it out a bit.  Bummer!  Oh wait, did I mention that there is only one boat a day going to Victoria?  Yeah, double bummer and a potential disaster if we don't make it!  Finally we get on the boat and make it over to Friday Harbor and run over to the ticket and we were able to buy our tickets to Victoria!  Another win!  Oh oh, too soon to celebrate however as we bring our car in to the line the attendant assigning lanes is surprised at our lack of reservations and puts us in a lane with just one other car, so we get to sweat it out again wondering if we are going to make it on the boat or what.  

So the departure time for our ferry to Victoria comes and goes and then departure time plus one hour comes and goes.  I guess we needed a little extra time to sit and wonder our fate.  Finally we hear the horn and the ferry arrives and surprise, we are one of the first to load.  Whew!  We make it to Victoria a bit late, but we are here.  Quickly enough we find our hotel (another win as it is awesome) and check in and go out to have a fantastic dinner (after getting lost and running around aimlessly for a while first).  So that finishes out our day.  Tomorrow is high tea at the Empress Hotel for the girls and Jack and I will find something to fill a few hours.  

Day 6 - Eastsound and down!

Orcas Island managed to live up to its name, for today we be seeing Orcas!  We awoke to a steady rain this morning at our hotel in Eastsound, but we were undeterred and boarded our tiny craft in search of whales!  Our clothes were damp but our sprites were, uh, well they were sort of damp too (it was really raining hard ;-)  Anyhow, we cruised through some very beautiful scenery on our way in to Canadian waters were there were reports of recent sightings.  Our boat had two naturalist that provided information about everything we were seeing along with our captain who was the historian.

After a short 30 minute cruise, we spotted.....Boats!  Not bad news actually, as this was a flotilla of Orca watching boats that were following a pod of Orcas!  We joined in and quickly spotted a whole pod of Orcas swimming along in the rain.  We all jumped outside and got an eyeful of these awesome mammals.  The naturalists on board were able to tell us their names and all about how old each of them were and how they were related (or not).  Lots of stories and information on what we were seeing and why they were doing what they were doing.  One cool little side note: our captain was on the radio with a small little research boat that had four people on it monitoring the Orcas.  There were cold and exposed out in the weather, so we pulled alongside and provided them with hot coffee!  

All too soon, the Orcas were left for others to watch and we turned off to go and see other things.  Lots of Bald Eagles and sea lions as well as a couple of exotic deer left over from an old hunting island.  The area is littered with small little islands and outcroppings and it makes for some very cool sightseeing.  All in all, the tour was highly successful and equally highly recommended!  Fantastic boat and crew!  Our experience must not be too unique as the front desk clerk at our hotel was noticeably relieved when we told her which boat we were taking the tour on.  It was Eclipse Charters if you're ever in the area and are interested www.orcasislandwhales.com    (The Orca in the photo is named Mike and he is a member of the J-pod)

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting our stuff together for our early morning trip to Friday Harbor.  From there we are hoping to catch another ferry to Sidney BC where we can then drive down to Victoria.  For the next two days we will be at the Oak Bay Beach hotel.  

Alaska Cruise 2014! Day: 5

Today we made our way to the Washington International Ferry Terminal. We waited a few hours in the line of parked cars to board the ferry until about 10:20 A.M. We drove onto the ferry and headed to Orcas Island. The ferry ride was only a hour, but we enjoyed it. We were passing one of the islands with a fairly large house, it looked like a hunting lodge, a canon suddenly went off from the front porch. The ferry answered the canon with a loud tout from the ferry horn.

As we got off the ferry, we headed to Eastsound, a small town that had shops and our hotel " The Outlook Inn". It has really cute shops and its very touristy. We walked around and ate at an Asian food place called " The Kitchen". The food took forever too come, but to me it was worth the wait. We walked along the beach and noticed Jack picking up tiny crabs. I was surprised he was not afraid. If you picked up big rocks there were a lot of tiny, dark crabs scrambling to get back under the rock. It was a great little beach with lots of shells and crabs. The water was like glass, perfect for kayaking.
We had dinner at the Madrone Bar and Grill; fish and chips, burgers, and crab bisque soup, oh and of course clam chowder. Dad had a beer called "Mac and Jack".
We have a great room, more like a suite. Not much of a view but nice accommodations.

Alaska Cruise 2014! Day : 4

Another day has gone by and we have gone further into Washington. Said goodbye to Olympia and moved through Seattle and into Everett, Washington. In Everett we stopped in the Boeing Museum, for a look at how they make planes. This was something to remember ! We took a tour through the factory and it was so cool ! I think all of us were amazed. My dad was sure impressed, thats because this museum was all about what he liked. I thought  it was cool because we sat in models of airplanes and I love the feeling of a airplane. After the museum, we went to La Connor  a very small, but very cute town, thats where we enjoyed a really good Italian Dinner with pasta, pizza and cheesecake. We moved to Burlington, Washington, where we made reservations at the Holiday Day inn Express. The hotel is nice but all of us thought the Red Lion was better. ( The Red Lion was a lot fancier). Tomorrow, we drive to the ferry and take it to Orcas Island, we will be staying 2 nights there.

Mackenzie

Alaska Cruise 2014! Day's 1-3

Late evening slog up to Mckinleyville.  Pretty routine up until we hit Laytonnville and we come upon a wildfire along with what seemed to be thousands of firefighters and equipment.  Helicopters included.  As it was dark, we also got a show with the fire working its way up the mountains.  It was intensely awesome!

After leaving our dog Max with my parents for a couple of weeks, we headed north once more to begin day two.  First stop was the Illinois river to meet up with our neighbor Tim and Roselle.  We spent a couple of hours in a super cool spot where we could swim in the water and jump from rocks.  All too quickly we were back on the road and on our way to Bend to meet my sister and her family.  We had a great visit despite it being so short, but we had to keep moving, but only after a killer breakfast at McCay's.  

Day three was all about Mount Saint Helen's.  We drove about four hours north until we came on the visitors center.  The Johnson Ridge observatory was still over an hour away
, but the person in the visitors center assured us the drive was worth it, so we went for it.  After over 30 years, the scars have healed quite a bit, that is until you get close to the volcano.  Holy crap!  Even in person it is difficult to get your head around the scale of this thing.  Years ago I was able to fly around the rim in my old Cessna 182 and I was pretty impressed, but it is different on the ground.  You can see the devastation and get a sense of just how big of an event this was.  In fact, the desk clerk at the hotel we are staying in tonight told us they were able to hear the explosion over 200 miles away.   We finished the night at the Red Lion in Olympia Washington and are pretty happy to just stop for a few hours.  We are scheduled to visit the Boeing factory tomorrow and then off to Orcas island the day after that. Pictures coming.  

From Mackenzie:  Today was awesome but exhausting. We traveled from Bend, Oregon to Olympia, Washington! During the drive up we stopped at Mt. St. Helens. It was beautiful, and we got a great view from the observatory, which was 4,200ft in  elevation. At the last minute we made reservations at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia,  there food is pretty good, and the hotel is in a pretty wooded area. The rooms are great and reasonable. I am really glad we stopped at the volcano. I had done some research in 6th grade on Volcanos and Today I was excited to learn more. I can't wait to explore more !