Bishop Mahaffey, having a good time

We’re back in the lower 48, spending a night at a hotel because the flight home is much cheaper if we didn’t fly on the holiday. The hotel is nothing great, but adequate. It is so pleasant to have Wi-Fi!

Icon

Friday we were in Sitka. This was my second favorite port (after Homer). We were quite lucky to find Bishop David Mahaffery in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. He was answering questions, offering commentary, and in general having a good time. We had a good time walking nature trails and visiting shops. We closed out our time in Sitka by walking up to the top of the hill where the Russian Fort isn’t. (It was there, when the Russians were fighting the Tlingit Indians, but it’s not there any more.) When we got back to the ship we had lunch, and were lucky to see whales right off our cruise ship.

Sitka

Ray and Bonnie at the Horticultural Center (and Japanese garden)

Saturday was an “at sea” day. Fortunately, the seas were calm. Sunday we stopped in Victoria, British Columbia. We arrived in port about an hour behind schedule because the Coast Guard asked us to do a search and rescue at 1 AM. Our ship found the distressed fishing boat and was able to rescue one of the crew. Unfortunately, 3 other crew didn’t survive. You can read about it here http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tofino-fishing-boat-capsizes-1.3217622. We didn’t know about any of this until 10 AM, when the captain announced we would be docking late. Danita’s old boss, Ray, lives in Vancouver. He and his wife Bonnie showed us around. Victoria is a beautiful area, with amazing gardens and harbors everywhere.

Beacon Hill Peacock

We’ll be flying back on SW 2366, scheduled to leave Seattle at 12:45. We were thinking of going downtown to do a “Duck Tour” of Seattle. But I picked up a cold a few days ago. Danita got hers yesterday. I was feeling pretty bad for a day or so; Danita’s feeling pretty bad today. So we’ll just hang at our hotel and enjoy the free Wi-Fi.