The Ferry

Here's a picture of the ferry.



Informed readers might notice that this picture is of the ferry in *Victoria*, not Port Angeles. Yeah, well... That's because we *just* missed the ferry we were planning on taking. That doesn't mean that we arrived as it was pulling away from the dock. Oh no. That means that we arrived at 4:05 for the 5:45 ferry. You would not *believe* how early people get there! Plus, there are these things called reservations. Didn't even occur to me... I really thought we were going to get on, but when the van ahead of us pulled in and had to park sideways, I knew they were full up. So we got to hang out for another 4 hours until the 9:15 ferry. We stopped at a book store and then had a lovely dinner at the Golden Gate restaurant (umm, Chinese :) about a block from the ferry. And then we went back to wait. And wait... I was pretty ok with sitting around in the car reading, but Haley was less patient. Eventually, she went to go play in the empty terminal we were parked next to. I could see her through the windows, but I couldn't hear her, which probably saved her life, or at least my sanity. When you're traveling with grown ups, you can get some alone time. When you're traveling with a kid, you can't say, "Hey, go amuse yourself -- I need a break, so I'll see you later!" Oh well :)

Anyhow, the was only one other person in the terminal. He was hanging out, listening to music on his laptop. Over the course of a couple hours, Haley went from playing with her doll, to miming, to dancing to the music he turned up for her.

I wandered in, to make sure she wasn't bugging the poor guy. Turns out he's got at least one kid himself, so he was pretty tolerant :) We got to talking about computers and webpages, and he joked that I should google him. Just did, and found out he's a musician. Kinda neat :) I listened to some of his music on his webpage -- not bad :) Kinda jazzy. Anyhow, there's our brush with a mildly famous person. Almost as exciting as Mom going to high school with Sally Struthers... *laugh*



Alas, the ferry didn't leave till 9:30, so it was very dark, and not as neat as it would have been during the day. When we got to Victoria, we *did* get our passports stamped (they normally just check, but don't bother to stamp) and Haley was able to ask about BC's official bird and flower :) So the day wasn't a complete wash... *grin*