Return to the lower 48

After 3 days in Wrangell we discovered that we still had two more full days on the island.  We scouted around for more things to do; we had already taken in the local museum, totem poles, driven the entire road system, met the locals, picked and canned wild blueberries, and considered going to a movie (it started at 7 pm which was considered "too late" by Alexis). We did go and find some petroglyphs that we had previously looked for but were covered by high tide at the time.  We also found a trail that went to one of the highest points on the mountain.  Once again because of how wet the ground is the entire 4 mile trail was boardwalk.  It was a great hike but on the way down I had the bright idea of counting the number of stairs.  It doesn't seem that hard but an hour or two of hiking and counting later, we were over it.  We did finish the project and are proud to announce that the trail had 4174 stairs (each way) plus or minus 5%.  Our muscles in our legs that we didn't even know about hurt for days.  We spent the remainder of our time in Wrangell sitting at camp enjoying the views and solitude.



Back on the ferry after our 5 day stint in Wrangell we enjoyed being on the move again and seeing the coast line.  The first, and only, ferry stop during our 2 day trip to Bellingham was Ketchikan where we saw the Cornelia Marie tied up at dock (this is only exciting, and then only mildly so, for you Deadliest Catch fans).

The next two days on the ferry were great.  It was nice not to have to drive and to watch the scenery drift by.  Each night we would try to sleep under the heat lamps and I would get up early to get us coffee and watch the morning.  Alexis often forfeited her first cup of coffee as she slept in but that only meant that I got two!!



The second day on the boat we saw several pods of Humpbacked Whales, several more of Orcas, and a group of 100+ Dolphins.  I got some pictures of the Orcas and Dolphins but after I examined the photos they looked suspiciously like photos of plain ocean.  We also passed what might have been the brightest rainbow I've ever seen, and yes it was a "full double rainbow", man.

Landing in Bellingham was a bit of a shock, in less than an hour we saw more people, cars, and houses than we had seen in the past month.  We drove into Canada, for the fifth time, to visit the Ericksons, old family friends and my godparents.  They took us on a chair lift tour of Blackcomb and Whistler mountains.  The new gondola between the peaks provided great views and we got a bit of a hike in at the top of Whistler.  The late spring (I don't know if you can still call it a late spring in Sept.) was still evident in the large snow pack and the snow covered mountains.  It was a good thing that we got in a short hike because they fed us huge steak dinner and the following morning bacon and eggs benedict.  We had a great visit with them and then headed down to Seattle to visit with Alexis's friend Mary and her husband Brant.

Mary and Brant made us a great dinner of soup and cedar plank salmon.  The next day they showed us around Seattle.  We checked out several happy hours and then walked around the Capital Hill area.  We found an old brick clad water tower you could climb up in Volunteer Park.  The sunset views of Seattle were great.  After our Seattle tour we headed south to my parents house for a bid of relaxation and repacking.