Packed up and ready the night before, out of the stateroom by 7am, too tired to eat. Vancouver was warm and muggy, although I did get some nice shots of the forested landscape, the Lion's Gate Bridge (yes, it's just a bridge, but that's not the point) and some little lighthouses and interesting buildings.
We met with others leaving for similar destinations at 7:30am, said goodbye to the people we'd spent some time with and were herded through the terminal and onto the waiting bus around 8am. When the border guard came to inspect our passports he asked if I was bringing in any goods from Canada. I said, "We were only in the terminal," and everyone laughed. Our driver, Pascale, was originally from New Orleans with a fabulous Cajun accent and told us all about the Vancouver/Seattle areaa on our 3 hour ride back to the Sea-Tac Airport. She was great. I snapped the Space Needle from the bus.
We flew out at 3:05pm Seattle time (6:05 local) on Alaska Air for our return trip, which meant no use of digital cameras on takeoff/landing (?), no movies and no complimentary food on the long trip home. They offered a snack for $5.00 but I'd already bought a bagel sandwich at the airport for $8.00, so I'd had enough overpriced food for the day. We sat with a family with two girls under three, which was entertaining or loud depending on the point in the trip. Tracy, Terry, Melissa and Rebecca were from Juneau and would be visiting New York and Toronto. It was fun to be the tour guide for a change, giving them the local time for their watches, pointing out landmarks on our descent and giving them advice as to what to see. I got a nice picture of the sun setting behind us around 10:30pm local time.
We arrived around 11:20pm, got our bags pretty quickly and climbed into a taxi. I started my lonely car in front of Karen's around 12:20am and fell into bed around 1:20am. I can't believe it's over. But I will enjoy the memories and pictures for a long, long time.
