Days 5-7
Bella Coola to Seattle
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| Early Monday morning, there's a low cloud cover as we board the ferry to depart Bella Coola. | The next 14 hours were spent on the "Queen of Chilliwack" on our way to Port Hardy. | As the clouds break up, there were some dramatic sky views. | Multiple rainbows just as we pull out of Bella Coola. |
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| More dramatic morning sky. | We slowly work our way out to open water, with skies clearing as we go. | The ferry had a nice solarium on the upper deck. | Margaret Osborne tells us a story in the solarium. |
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| Most of our group poses in the day room in the ferry. Chrissy Pasaj, a patient crew member, takes picture after picture with each person's camera! | Mom and Dick Osborne work a puzzle in the ship's dining room. | By prior arrangement, the ferry picks up a kayaker in open water. | A loading platform is lowered into the water, and the kayak is brought on board by helpful crew members. |
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| The bridge is open for visitation during most of the voyage. | Once in the open waters of Queen Charlotte Strait, the ship gets to rockin' and rollin'. Look at these two adjacent pictures .... | They weren't "fudged" - the camera was held snug against the railing while the boat rolled from side to side. | A nice sunset as we approach Vancouver Island from the North. |
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| This reminded me of Goldielocks - we have beds for Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. This was in our Port McNeil hotel room! | At Sayward, we stop at the Cable House for a morning snack. This "totem" is made entirely of logging equipment. A careful look shows pulleys, saw bars, and other interesting industrial salvage. | Outhouse art is taken to extreme here. | |
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| These weren't functional, but they were interesting! | The Cable House.... | ....gets its name from a wrap of wire rope used for siding! | A quick shot of the fog along Johnstone Strait from our bus. In this area, a submerged land formation (Ripple Rock) had claimed 114 lives over the years as unknowing ships crashed into it. In the 1950s, it was removed using just under 3 million pounds of explosives - this is still the world's largest man-made non-nuclear explosion! |
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| Most of our group awaits the Malahat train at Courtenay station. The Esquimalt & Nanaimo tracks run from Victoria to Courtenay - they end just North of the station. | A brief snack stop in Nanaimo with more nice flowers decorating the station. You can see many more pictures from earlier trips on the Malahat here. | The Victoria Clipper makes quite a splash departing Victoria harbor on the quick (2-1/2 hour) trip to Seattle. | Arriving back in Seattle on a gorgeous sunny day. |
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