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Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene, D’you Know Juneau?, KetchiCAN (we move here stat?)
Our last day on the boat. This would be a long day at sea, navigating the waters between Ketchikan and Victoria, BC, for a short night port-of-call.
Like Juneau, the kids were really excited that my friend Karen lived in Victoria. They’d both read a few of her books and were looking forward to another “locals tour” of a city. Plus, her kids were going to meet us for the evening, too.
We spent the day on the boat the same as other days — eating, drinking, gambling — along with being able to spend time on the upper decks watching for whales and other wildlife. We played trivia again, but never got a ship on a stick. There’s always next time!
Brianna and Henry discovered their love of towel animals at the Towel Animal Theater.
They also rekindled their love for ice cream (as if it ever left).
We didn’t think we were going to make dinner, but ended up going to the dining room at the last minute. And thank goodness we did! We got treated to more dancing, but this time the kids were invited (forced) to join in. It was a blast!
And then, just like that, we were in Canada!
We disembarked and walked a ways to meet Karen and her kids at the Parliament Building. Victoria is absolutely gorgeous. A mix between Seattle and the Alaskan ports plus a little bit of London. Felt like stepping back in time.
Karen and the kids got there and we walked towards The Empress Hotel, where we walked through to see the gorgeous interior of the haunted, historic hotel.
We walked through town, stopping in a few shops to grab super Canadian things like Maple Syrup (which we’re hoarding like there’s a shortage). The kids all got along like they’d known each other their whole lives.
Since we’d eaten already, we opted for a water taxi ride to see the city from the water. Y’all, a water taxi is literally a mini taxi that looks like a boat bumper car!
Because I was so taken by these small bumper taxis and catching up with Karen, I totally flaked on getting a photo. But you can’t NOT see this:
I’m not real sure where we ended up, but it was an adorable little area with all these floating homes. So this got us thinking that we still want to live in Ketchikan or Juneau BUT NOW, on a floating home. Every step of this trip has honed further in on our dreams. For real.
On our walk back to the Legend, we were treated to the most gorgeous sunset — our first in almost a week.
As we returned to our ship, knowing that this was our last port and that tomorrow we will disembark in Seattle and head back to Atlanta made us a little sad. But this was truly a trip to remember for all of us.
From the beginning of the planning of this trip to this final night, the kids were completely engaged, excited, and knew that it would be something special. It was a fantastic reminder that experiences are worth more than things — for all of us.
The next morning, we woke up, had a final breakfast in the dining room, and disembarked.
But not without Brianna getting some Gerry love… another memory to cherish when back in Georgia.
Until next trip…
