So it begins

On the ferry

We started our journey to Alaska today. We began by packing up the car and riding the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. This is us sitting on the back bumper of the car with the hatch open on the ferry.

Bellingham

We stopped for lunch in Bellingham and went to The Bagelry. (https://bagelrybellingham.com/) Good, good bagels. Arlene ordered a whole wheat bagel with Italian cream cheese and a 12 oz latte. I ordered an onion bagel with Italian cream cheese and an 8 oz breve. We walked around downtown a bit and noticed how much things have changed since we moved away in 1995. The World Famous Up & Up Tavern is gone! (Added later: it is not gone. Didn’t walk by it? Missed it? Don’t know.)

Border Crossing

As we approached Bellingham and while we were eating lunch, we also watched the updating wait-times at the different border crossings. At one point the crossing at Sumas was 110 minutes while the crossing at Lynden was only 25. So we drove the the Lynden crossing; when we arrived there was no line. The border-agent-lady asked us what we were doing, how long we’d be in Canada, what exactly was the nature of the relationship between the two of us, and if we had any weapons. Going to Alaska… until Saturday… married… no weapons… really, no weapons of any kind. Ninety seconds of questions while she examined our passports then we were through. Easy.

Side Excursions

We stopped at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve. We took a pretty good pictures of a heron, a black-capped Chickadee and a Northern Flicker (which was a first because they tend to sit far up in trees and are not very big). Arlene definitely is the one with the eyes for herons noticing them standing in nests in far-off trees. Eyes like a heron, you might say. Gregory is entirely blind. If we included all of our bird pictures then that would be a lot of pictures. Birds don’t pose.

Then we drove a short distance Bridal Veil Falls. We parked in the first parking lot we found then walked in the 92 degree heat up to the actual parking lot which was too crowded anyway. We found a sign that said it was a 15 minute walk up the the falls and, while it was quite steep, the two of us covered the distance in about 5 minutes. It was an impressive falls for one that involved so little water.

Hope, B.C.

We’re spending our first night in the Mountain View Motel. Arlene discovered that Hope is the location of a yearly(?) chainsaw carving festival(?)/competition(?). The carvings are placed all around town. We wandered around looking at them finding a fair few of eagles and wolves and bears but also there was a dragon and one of Rambo. Arlene posed with a carving of an indigenous man and noticed that I had much in common with the carving of a wizard.