Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 368

Well, here we are out in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia nearing Alaska with our first stop in Ketchikan for a walk in the Rain Forest. It surely has been an adventure for me and much of my family including my daughter Erin, son Jason, his wife Kelly, their son Nathan and his mother-in-law Nancy Farrar. No one has gotten lost so far misplaced a few times but that was mostly documents as we went out of the country into another country Canada and now back into the US again. A passport is needed to make all the changes in lines like Disney, baggage checks and everything in your pockets at each check point. This is my first time on a cruise ship, the Discovery Princess, a seventy-deck ship, this one is carrying 4028 passengers, with a crew of 1100. We started off by flying to Vancouver, Canada with a short stop in Detroit. We stayed overnight in Vancouver and boarded the ship there the next morning along with the over 4000 other passengers, which went quite smoothly.

The worst part of the trip so far was driving to Rochester last Thursday in some of the heavy downpours from Rome to past Syracuse with warning about possible tornadoes and over fifty-mile-an-hour winds. After getting through the rain part the winds never stopped all the way to Rochester, and it was a fight to stay on the road. Many vehicles pulled over and they must have been there a long time as the winds were still blowing in the Rochester area part of the night. I followed one vehicle that was carrying two kayaks on the roof of the car on their sides and that car was off the shoulder many times before they finally pulled over and I got by them. The kayaks acted like windsocks, and the wind pushed them off the road.

I met my daughter and we traveled over to the hospital for another great event to hold my Granddaughter and her husband Chris’s first child and my third great-grandchild. Archer William Tanea was born 6 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long a keeper in my book and I even got to hold him in the hospital. He was so tiny I guess I don’t remember just how small they are as my daughter Erin was only 5 pounds and 15 ounces when she was born in 65. We took her into West Canada Lakes before she was six months old. In fact, she got to walk the Northville to Placid Trail from West Canada lake to Spruce Lake on her mother’s hip and back the day before she was six months old. That was a trip I remember well but she has only heard about it.

Back to the cruise we left from Vancouver on Saturday morning heading out into the Salish Sea, Canada past all the industry that takes place around that port and under a bridge that links two parts of the beautiful city. We traveled from the airport into downtown and then back not far from there to the boarding area for the ship. The streets were tree lined and many flowers were planted along the sidewalks and park areas. These things I noticed even as the Uber drivers were dodging traffic on both rides with them. Staying at the Holiday Inn we were looking right at Mountain Rainier covered with snow out from our room window. I got a beautiful sunrise out that same window the next morning. And then a sunset from the ship that evening before getting in the open ocean.

Once getting out into the open ocean there were chances of seeing whales of different kinds. Just this morning I got my Father’s Day present, and a whale went right by our deck window in a rough ocean quite a sight, one that I hadn’t seen since we were in Hawaii many years ago now.

Many more sighting to come as whales are in these waters feeding but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo above: Leaving Vancouver