DESTINATION--Inside Passage part 1

I'm back. Our expedition was most excellent.

I'm going to try not to get to travelloggy but still share some of the adventures scattered among my other posts. 

My dad spent his childhood on the Washington-Oregon coast.

Dad, on the right, his friend on the left, and his little brother in Tillamook, Oregon.

During this time his father worked as a tally man at several different lumber mills while his mother worked as a boarding house cook.

Some of Grandpa’s co-workers from the lumber mill in Tillamook  circa 1920.

Although I’ve lived most of my life in Idaho, I find myself visiting the Pacific Northwest again and again. It could be some kind of ancestral attraction like the generations of robins who return every year to revel in the ripening fruit of our cherry tree.

DH and I were only married a little over a year when he was drafted into the army and stationed in Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington.  We lived there for over a year with our first baby. Even before that I’d been to Seattle to visit cousins. Later there were several road trips, workshops, a work seminar, and then,

M/V David B at the Bellingham Marina

last September, DH and I went on that extraordinary five day boat ride through the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, we learned that Captain Jeffrey and his wife, Christine were looking for passengers to fill in some last minute openings on a tour of Desolation Sound, DH and I got out our passports and found our way on board for a trip into the British Columbia Inside Passage.

A short video of the view from the deck of the M/V David B

as we leave Bellingham Bay, Washington

You can hear the chug-chug of the old engine that 

powers our boat.  The David B is a 1929 restored

65 foot motor vessel.

DESTINATION--Inside Passage part 1

DESOLATION--Inside Passage part 2

RESTORATION--Inside Passage part 3

PROVISIONS--Inside Passage part 4

DETERMINATION--Inside Passage part 5

IMMERSION--Inside Passage part 6

NAVIGATION--Inside Passage part 7

OBSERVATION--Inside Passage part 8
ILLUMINATION--Inside Passage part 9
EXHIBITION--Inside Passage part 10

SEIZING THE MOMENT

Last September DH and I spent five days on the MV David B, a wooden boat owned and operated by Jeffrey and Christine Smith.  We LOVED the trip and wished we could afford one of the longer tours which go up into the Inside Passage of Canada and even on up to Alaska.  Then I got an email from Christine telling me there was a special offer of half price on a nine day trip up into Desolation Sound.  Were we interested?  It was one of those moments when you realize if you let it pass you'll always regret it.  I had a little cash in the bank I'd inherited and was saving for an emergency.  This was an emergency.  Long story short.  If all went well we've left Beavis to mow the lawn and bring in the paper.
We've left home.  We are on an expedition.

Below is a reposting of a report of our previous trip.

A few months ago DH and I began searching online for a way to spend some time exploring by boat.  We both agreed time on a giant cruise ship was out.  The crowds, noise, revelry and distance from nature just didn’t appeal to either of us.

So our interest was captured by a web site for Northwest Navigation and their boat, the David B.  She is a sixty-five foot wooden motor vessel owned and operated by Jeffrey and Christine Smith.

The Smiths spent eight years restoring the ship and its Washington Iron Works engine.

 They relaunched it as a tour boat in 2006.

Jeffrey is a skilled captain and Christine is an enthusiastic naturalist and accomplished chef.  It didn’t take much convincing for us to sign up for a five day tour of the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound in the northwest corner of Washington State.

In fact I was almost jumping up and down when we found the David B  at the marina in Bellingham Bay.

The weather was perfect the morning we boarded along with three other passengers.  Christine made sure we were settled into our comfortable rooms and then went to work in the galley.

Christine in the galley with Juliette, passenger and assistant chef.
Jeffrey is at the wheel in the pilothouse.

 Christine has a handsome wood stove in her galley

 where she creates scrumptious food with fresh bread for every meal.

DH and I savored the sunlight sparkling off the water as the David B’s three cylinder engine kept up a soothing chug which sounded to me like a cross between a Harley motorcycle and a fetal heart monitor.

The Sound was filled with plenty of other small craft plus the inter-island ferries that carry passengers to ports in the San Juan Islands.

Every day we stopped to explore something on some island.  This is Jeffrey bringing Jeff and Chris and Christine (yes the similar names were a bit confusing) to the beach where we would go on a hike around Sucia Island.

 Christine pointed out different trees, birds and plants and showed us creatures in the tide pools.

She led us on explorations of forest trails…

…and pointed out fossils

…in the mudstone of Fossil Bay.

We were never far from land and  we could almost always see 10, 700 ft. Mount Baker, a thermally active peak, second only to Mount St. Helens, in the Cascade Range.

Each evening Jeffrey found a quiet cove to drop anchor and each morning

was a relaxing experience of stillness spiced with aromas of breakfast

from Christine's stove.

Check out Christine's award winning book about the restoration 

of the David B

FAIR EXCHANGE

My granddaughter taught me what to do with too-long shoe laces.

I taught her the monkey way...

...to peel a banana.