June 12 to June 15 Squamish BC to Ketchikan AK

We have been several nights without web access, so here is a partial catch-up. 

Sunday, June 12

Our Sri Lankan friend was still on duty when we checked out of the Chieftain. We had breakfast a few doors away and across the street at Chef Big D’s.  Jim had the possibly the best oatmeal he has ever had.  It was made with apple juice, cranberries, raisins and cinnamon. Ardith had an egg with super bacon, thin sliced potatoes and cranberry sourdough bread.  

Squamish is a big bicycling center.  There are over 600 miles of bike trails there.  Everywhere we looked we saw people on bikes and bikes on cars.  At one point Ardith asked “are we the only car without a bike?”

Again we were treated to fabulous scenery, especially near Whistler, an important site for the 2010 Olympics.  This was mid June and people were skiing on some of the slopes.

We had lunch at the Lillooet Cookshop.  It was good but not special.  Our waitress fawned over Jim’s camera.  She had just taken a photography course and received a 98, but lacked a good camera.  We watched out the window as a 2 car train blocked the road, stopping right in the intersection. A guy from the train got out and inspected a power or control box, then the train went back the way it came.

Today was mainly a long drive day, there was nothing super-special that we needed to see and we needed to do 19 hours of driving between today and tomorrow. Ardith did most of the driving because Jim gets sleepy easily due to sleep-deprived nights.  She is also more comfortable having Jim navigating than herself. It works well for both of us.  The scenery is marvelous.  It ranges from very pretty to spectacular.

We stayed at the Economy Motel in Prince George, BC.  It is the sort of place Jim looks for – inexpensive (relatively), clean, stuff working and friendly staff.  It was located in the old downtown that had been bypassed by highway.

We had dinner at Earl’s Restaurant’s outdoor patio.  We thought it was a local place, but found out later that it is a regional chain.  Jim loved his salad: romaine, walnuts feta, apple julienne, apple vinaigrette.  That came with a tasty chicken quesadilla. Ardith had wonderful chicken sandwich with brie, fig jam, apple and spinach on ciabatta bread.  The fig jam made it especially good.  We will look for that when we get home.

We passed the 4000 mile mark today and ended up at 4224 miles this trip.

Ardith suggested that we make reservations for our first night in Alaska which will be on Ketchikan, and “by the way, do you think we should make ferry reservations”?  When we did rough planning for this trip, we made the assumption that ferries ran a few times a day along Alaska’s inner passage. Jim looked at the Alaska Ferries’ confusing web site and realized that ferries have irregular schedules and they don’t even run daily.  A first look at the website made him think they only ran to Juneau once a week, which would have really messed up our tentative schedule.  They actually run every other day.  We made ferry reservations that night between 9 and 10 PM.  We made tentative reservations at a small B&B through an agency, but the agent was reluctant to call folks late at night.  The issue is that we wouldn’t be there until after 11:15 PM, when the ferry was scheduled to arrive.

Monday, June 13, 2011

We had breakfast at a place called Voltaire’s Café that was located in a bookstore.  Both the bookstore and café open at 7 AM.  We got there a bit past 7:30 and they were both doing a decent business.  The menu was limited, but our ham and Swiss scones were quite good and made there by the woman who ran the cafe.

It was rainy and chilly most of the day with a few breaks for sun.  The weather ruined the prospects for some pictures and enhanced others.  Again, the scenery ranged from tranquilly peaceful to amazingly spectacular.

We made a stop during a period of non-rain in the town of Houston (are we still in Texas?).  They had a pretty park the featured the world’s largest fly fishing rod.  Jim had toyed with the idea of specializing in oddities like this during the trip, but decided to focus on food instead.

We stopped for lunch in a very pretty town called Smithers, again during a sun break. We chose the Northern Star Cafe that had a Chinese Canadian menu.  In addition to us, there were 3 Chinese middle age women eating sandwiches and 2 Anglos eating Chinese food.  Jim thought about Chinese, but the dishes were bigger than he wanted.  We both had sandwiches.

One of the Canuck hockey players grew up there, hence there were signs everywhere supporting the team even though we were a 12 hour drive from Vancouver.  (It is the closest major league sports team, though.)

On the rest of today’s long trek there were more snow covered mountains, a glacier, lots of falls, and pretty valleys.

Again we found a nice, relatively inexpensive motel, the Aleeda. Since we had very little physical activity, we chose to have cheese and crackers and apples in our room and were quite satisfied.

Jim took care of several matters relating to his volunteer activities with Friends of Jug Bay and the Smithsonian business then finalized housing at the Bed and Breakfast for the next 2 nights.  Our cell phones don’t work in Canada, but we have Skype on our laptop and use that for calls when we have a good internet connection.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

We had breakfast in our room – granola and yogurt, and then did leisurely packing and more work on the blog.

It was another chilly, rainy day so we went to the Museum of Northern BC.  It had a lot of well illustrated details about the history and lives of local tribes and of other immigrant groups such as the Chinese and gold prospectors. There were several displays of groups of rooms from the past including a local camera store, a telegraph switchboard office, and a room set for tea.

Jim was especially intrigued with the old cameras and stories about the early business.

 We really enjoyed 3 silent movies from the early 1910s on building the Canadian transcontinental railway and the salmon and halibut catching and processing industries. 

There was an art exhibit by current artists and visitors could vote for their favorite artwork.  The museum is constructed of large wooden timbers and it faces the harbor.  Throughout the museum there are beautiful artifacts from the various tribes of British Columbia.  They are well displayed and each tribe’s history is also presented in written format surrounded by their artifacts and photos.  We were very impressed with the museum.

We drove around the town and found Smiles Seafood Cafe where we ate lunch.  Jim’s cream of chicken soup was outstanding. 

After eating we walked a bit and poked in shops. Ardith bought an unusual angel for her collection.  We picked up several things in a dollar store (that have a lot of things over a dollar).  Jim bought another pair of $1 reading glasses.  He started with four pair, lost 1 and broke 2.  This is the second purchase.

We were supposed to arrive at the ferry stop by 3pm (for a 6pm ferry) but the ferry road was blocked so we went back to the Aleeda Motel to use their phone and wait for the road to open because the official at the closing point said to call the ferry to see what arrangements they are making. After several attemps to called the unanswered phone we went back to the road near the ferry where we went a block, then stopped in a big multi-lane line.  When Jim walked to find out the source of the problem, he saw 2 motorcycles with trailers that resembled classic cars.

We found out that the top of a power pole had caught fire when an eagle landed on it. At first we couldn’t get through to the terminal. BC Hydro (the electric company) ignored the early call about an eagle on fire and they didn’t turn off power.  As a result power and phone access was out at the ferry terminal and checking in was slow because they had no computers to access the tickets.

The ferry couldn’t unload the arriving passengers and cars because the ramp was run by shore power.  The manual backup jammed.  At about 5:30, BC hydro(the local power company) said power was on, but it wasn’t.  We were lined up waiting to load, looking at the folks still on the ferry waiting to unload. 

We met lots of new friends while we all waited together.  The ferry was scheduled to leave at 6pm but we knew that wasn’t happening.  We were told maybe 8:30 and then at the earliest 10:30pm.   Our cell phones do not work in Canada so we tried finding a phone, initially to no avail.  At about 10pm, we found a very kind man who pulled out his cell phone and gave it to us to call the B&B where we had reservations.  The owners were very understanding and told us to call them when we got to the ferry terminal destination.

We were treated to a nice sunset as a bit of compensation, but it would have been nicer to see it from the boat.

The street lights on the boat dock came on at 10:50 – hopeful, but the sun set at 10:05 so they were on a different circuit and came on automatically.  We attempted to sleep in our car.  We did manage a bit of sleep until the electricity came on at 3:06am. 

Wednesday, June 15

Jim noticed the power’s return immediately, but Ardith got another 10 minutes sleep in the car.  That was about how long it took before the first passengers debarked from the ferry.  People who were leaving the ferry were very quick about it, considering that most of them were probably asleep when the power came back.  Shortly after 3:30, northbound folks started to board, foot passengers first.  We left the dock at 4:08 – 13 hours late.  We were able to get a bit more fitful sleep in reclining chairs that didn’t go back as far as our car seats, but we were in a big lounge with a great view.

. Jim stayed up about 20 minutes after departure to see the night lights along the way.  The fortunate thing was the time change in the right direction.  We got an extra hours sleep (well, semi-sleep).

Jim got up at early signs of dawn and took pictures of the lovely scenery under soft light.

The ferry company was kind enough to provide passengers with $12 vouchers for breakfast in the boat’s cafeteria, which started at 7 AM.  With that, Jim was able to get 2 huge raspberry banana pancakes, a muffin, a dish of fruit, 2 slices of ham and tea.  Ardith had fruit, eggs and bacon, toast and coffee. 

All along the way we have seen a lot of logs floating in the water or washed up on the shore.  It seems like it would be a good business to salvage them.

As we approached Ketchikan, we passed an area belonging to a large shipping company.  There was a stack of containers with an RV on top!

We arrived a bit after 9am and were the second car off the ferry. We got our tickets for the next 2 ferry segments and drove to our Bed and Breakfast.

 Lance and Loretta run the Channel View B&B as a hobby rather than to earn a living.  They only have a single place for guests.  We had the top floor to ourselves, consisting of a big bedroom, a small bedroom and a room with a round table, 4 chairs, refrigerator, microwave, toaster, coffee maker, shelves of books and games and about 50 stuffed animals.  We have a great view of the harbor.  There were 2 cruise ships when we got there and another came in shortly after.

We took a self-guided walking tour of downtown Ketchikan, walking there from our B&B.  Most of the shops cater to passengers coming off the cruise ships and close when no ships are in.  Ardith got invited to come in for a “free gift” at 2 jewelry shops, but turned down the offers.  Our host is a manager at the local department store.  We picked up a few things for “real people” there as well as a few trinkets.  There was a real gamut of stuff to buy there that we passed up.

Ketchikan claims to be the salmon capital of the US, have the most totem poles and have more rainfall than any other North American city.  We were fortunate to have nice weather in our brief stay here.

A stop on our tour was a small city park that had totem poles and also benches that were shaped like local fauna.

Our walk also took us onto Creek Street that for more than a half century served as Ketchikan's red light district, but is now home to trendy shops.

Our walk also took us past a fish ladder that makes it easier for salmon to swim another hundred yards where they are diverted into a fish hatchery.

Nearby, we went to the Totem Heritage Center.  This showed the meanings of various types of poles, with many examples.  These were historic poles and were stored indoors for preservation.  Many were displayed horizontally and were difficult to photograph.

Among many other fascinating objects were masks, button blankets and reproduction of old photos.  Ardith was taken with one of men with nose rings.

We took the funicular to the Cape Fox Lodge and had a wonderful lunch with a fabulous view, even better than from our B&B. 

Ardith had flatbread topped with chicken, havarti, mayonnaise and green onions.  She wants to try that at home.  It looks easy and was scrumptious.  Jim enjoyed fish and chips made with very fresh halibut.

We had a waiter on his first day on the job, being trained by another guy. He had just arrived in town 2 days earlier and started applying for jobs. He had worked summer jobs here for the last 8 years.  He is a substitute teacher in Oregon.  We met other young folks who are also here for the summer, including a girl from Virginia working in the department store.  We asked here where she stayed.  She told us the store had apartments for its temporary employees.

Since our B&B is perched high on a hill, starting our walk was easy.  The challenge was going back up, after some relatively easy up grade on streets, we were faced with a stairway with 126 steps.  Jim regularly walks up and down multiple flights of stairs at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, so this wasn't a big deal.  Ardith isn't used to that, but she made it with a few brief pauses. Yea!

We had a simple dinner in our “suite” in the B&B.  Jim picked up some frozen wraps from the local Safeway and we heated them in the microwave.

Jim went back out shortly before 10 and returned to the funicular.  When the cruise ships are gone, the funicular is free ($2 otherwise) and works just like an elevator.  He got a nice night picture from the top and also enjoyed wandering the nearly deserted streets for a time.