Leg 5 – Rob and Cheryl’s Gigantic NARVO ( May 23^rd to June 2nd, 2016)

Vancouver to Alaska, The Far Islands and Back

Day 39 to Day 41 (May 23^rd to 25^th) – Vancouver Pause

They let us back into Canada without too much unpleasantness, although our particular Canadian Customs guy had obviously done his basic training with the US Special Forces as he displayed an atypical Canadian scowl throughout the interview, although I could have sworn, as we drove off, that he cracked a smile. You can’t keep those Canadians down man – eventually their basic pleasantness just comes shining through. 

We found our way to Brenda and Dave Killick’s house by the most tortuous route ever conceived by GPS. As we introduced Dave and Delia to them, we realised that we have known Brenda since our early married days in Durban, South Africa, and that our friendship with her predated that of Dave and Delia’s by about five years. It’s actually quite scary how the years have glided by – I guess they do when one is having fun. Dave’s cousin, Helen picked them up for a couple of days, while we had the evening to catch up with Dave and Brenda.

Monday May 24^th  (Day 40) Victoria Day - This was a catch up day to get some laundry done, catch up on much neglected emails and do the finishing touches on the previous blog entry. It was great to just put our feet up as it were and catch up with Dave and Brenda’s news too. 

Tuesday May 25^th (Day 41 Lavish  Her with the Love she Deserves. Our Beautiful Baby was in need of a bit of TLC at the Service Shop, requiring visits to two different locations so my day was planned to be sitting around waiting rooms, anxiously awaiting any unforeseen ailments. As it turned out I was the only customer at the first place where the service guy quickly informed me that he had found extra work that needed doing, of course, but he couldn’t do it that day, so we made a plan to leave it with him while we did the cruise. Then I had to go to another RV place to resolve a most puzzling electrical issue. When I explained the issue, the guy said “I think I know what your problem is” pushed one re-set button, which I had looked for but couldn’t find, and bingo we were good to go. I was grateful that our pocket book escaped serious damage on that one.

Wednesday May 26^th (Day 42) Alaska Ahoy – With the RV in the beauty shop being manicured and polished for ten days, Brenda was able to take us to their local train station at a relaxed pace for the journey into Vancouver proper to meet up with our cruise. Fortuitously as we arrived so did Dave and Delia, so we travelled through the lengthy boarding process together and checked into our side by side cabins. We had got so used to sleeping a few feet away from each other in the RV that having side by side cabins just felt kind of “right”.

We departed mid-afternoon on a beautiful sunny day and enjoyed watching, from the back pool deck the receding Vancouver skyline giving way to a narrowing channel of mountains and islands on either side of us. This has become the default outlook on this Inside Passage cruise as we have been treated to endless mile after mile of beauty beyond description.  The afternoon and evening were spent getting oriented to the ship, its people and it’s program.

Day 43 to 48 - Thursday May 27^th to Wednesday June 1^st – Top of the World and More. The cruise has had numerous highlights, but I will describe only three:

We have enjoyed being with Dave and Delia as they have been actively checking off Bucket List items along the way. The one unfulfilled item, which was hanging over Delia, was to do Karaoke before she checks out of this life. So on the second night of the cruise, we gave her the requisite nudge and she bravely stepped up and did a stirring rendition of “Top of the World”, which it is only dawning on me now, was quite suited to our geographic location. The crowd did a good job of belting out the chorus and we were delighted to witness Delia checking off one of her more daunting BL items. For my part, I am pleased to report that singing Karaoke has never made it onto my list.

The highlight of our cruise for us has been our visit to Glacier Bay, where we were in one of the most pristine parts of our planet, accessible to the public. Rangers from the Glacier Bay National Park boarded our ship early in the day and provided a running commentary of what we were seeing throughout the day. We spent about an hour directly in front of a wall of glacier, whilst the passengers were spellbound as we listened to the glacier, creak, groan and crack as it inches its way forward into self-oblivion. Alas, we never did get to see the big cahuna of a full on calving of a large ice floe, but we did see numerous chunks breaking off and falling majestically into the icy waters. We saw mountain goats scaling the peaks, bald headed eagles, sea lions, and whales galore. This was a day in which one could glimpse the beauty, crispness and variety of God’s Creation in all of its pristine grandeur.

The evening entertainment was all good, but one of the features of the cruise was to take in the various entertainment lounges in the evenings. One of our favorites was a husband and wife piano and violin duo playing in the Adaggio lounge. Man did they manage to plunk and bow their way into our heartstrings. Probably my favorite was singing 100 Beatles songs in the Piano lounge with Paul McD. This guy combined, wit, musical talent and a knack for knowing his crowd to provide a real crowd pleasing experience. He managed to make the Beatles sound better than they did themselves and every night we popped in to hear him play. Each evening the crowd listening in just got bigger. Nostalgia is a crowd winner every time.

Other than that, I can now say I have “done” Alaska. Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan – these are names that now roll of the tongue with familiarity, along with having improved my history of the area significantly. We have also been royally entertained, wined and dined, right down to have our morning tea delivered to us in bed every morning. Our waistlines, along with our photos, are firm evidence that we have been cruising for a week. All I can say is, “when’s the next one”?

Day 48 to 49 (June 1^st to June 2nd) – Tofino or Bust?

After the cruise, Dave and Delia were visiting with friends and family in Vancouver for a few more days, so we had a bit of time to do a more exploring and had decided to visit Tofino, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, right alongside the Pacific Rim National Park. There is only one road in and out, which travels through miles and miles of undeveloped forest, so it has the feeling of being pretty remote. We had met a couple, Martin and Kathleen Grey on board our cruise who lived in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. They had advised us to rent a car in Nanaimo and save the ferry fare instead of renting in Vancouver as we had decided. When we saw the line-up of cars waiting to board the ferry in Vancouver we were very pleased for the travel tip.

We were a bit dismayed to note that for the two and half days of our visit to Tofino, rain and grey skies were predicted throughout. We had found the weather forecast to be wrong often enough on other occasions that we decided to press on with our plans and caught the bus from Vancouver to the ferry terminal for the grand sum of $5.50 versus a $48 taxi fare which was our alternative. We picked up our sub compact car, a slight adjustment from driving my Beautiful Baby, in Nanaimo and set off as the rain began.

The drive to Tofino would have been beautiful if we’d been able to see much of it in between sweeps of the wiper blades. Nevertheless we made it safely to Tofino in time to ask the enthusiastic young guy at the Visitor Information office what there is to do in Tofino, when it’s raining. He did a good job of maintaining his enthusiasm, but faded fast as it wasn’t a long list. We left, for our hotel, armed with maps and brochures to keep us going for weeks and set off to begin our tour of the area. We were delighted to find that our hotel room looks directly onto the beach. On a clear day we might have been tempted to sit on our lovely verandah.

 Bottom line, the weather has been a bit of dampener to say the least. Tofino, and its nearby neighbor, Ucluelett (You-clue-let) are very quaint little touristy towns, and there are beaches and forest trails in the area which would be great to visit if/when the sun shines. Prices of just about everything, except gas seem to reflect its remoteness and the fact that choices are limited. We found that people walk on the beach even if it’s raining and intriguingly there seems to be a fashion trend in gum boots in town. Clearly the locals dress for dampness, at least as a possibility. We even saw a young mum taking her baby in the stroller on the beach today, in the rain. There seems to be a theme developing here.

Today (Day 49, June 2nd) we took a drive to Ucluelett and had a lovely walk around the cliffs and bays at the end of the peninsula, as the sun threatened to come out from time to time. We met an older guy, with a jaunty little pony tail. He pointed out a bald eagle on the skyline and proceeded to give us some local knowledge. He showed us his favorite spot for watching the winter storms. It turns out that Tofino/Ucluelett have a nice little thing going for people who love to come and watch the storms lash the coast while they sip on something genteel from the comfort of their hotel rooms. Someone in Tofino/Uke… have done a good job of seeing the silver lining in those storm clouds.  

We have actually thoroughly enjoyed taking it easy, reading our books, watching TV and finding a bit of time to plan the next three weeks of our trip in a bit more detail. So all things considered, we can now say “Tofino?? Been there, done that”. And I' m glad to say that the sun did eventually come out in time for us to have a lovely walk on our beautiful beach. Thank you Lord. 

 Tomorrow we are taking the long road, rental car, ferry, bus, train and bus, back to Dave and Brenda Killick’s for a final overnight with them. We also have to collect our Beautiful Baby from her spa. We’ll go to church with Dave and Brenda the next morning before hitting the road again with Dave and Delia in the afternoon. The open road beckons and next stop is the Canadian Rockies.