September 29
We discovered late in the afternoon that instead of Friday Harbor / The San Juan Islands (and our much anticipated Whale Watching Tour) we'd be heading to Anacortes due to the weather. But the one of the highlights of the cruise came earlier in the day when we met Jack and Karen Fish. Turns our they both went to Miami (Ohio) like Mary Pat and I, and then when asked about what he'd done for a living he said he'd been upper level management at GE in Erie - where Kim lived for several years, and her twin sister Karrie's husband had been in upper management. Turns out they were great friends and Jack was Randy's boss! Small world. So they joined us for dinner and then after dinner we played cards. We'd taught everyone a card game which is called "Boo-Ray" and is similar to euchre, but it also involves minor gambling of nickles and dimes. Most of the time the pot may at most reach a couple dollars. But tonight - amidst hours of laughter - it reached nearly $15 and I had a great hand. I was SURE I'd win, so I told everyone...."Listen, I'm not bluffing - do not play this hand, you WILL have to pay. You'd be best to just let me have the pot." But instead both Kim and Jack played. Kim was able to get out, but while I scooped up the pot Jack was left to match the pot :) Great fun.
This morning we awoke in Anacortes and it was in the upper 40s and rainy. Our morning excursion was a walk through the historic 9-block section of downtown (where our great friends David & Heather Enyart had lived until a couple years ago). We first had a 30 minute historical background presentation in the lounge then set out on the walk. The rain stopped and the skies were "clearing" but the wind was blustery. For Kim and I, we loved the cooler temps.
Our guide offered us an option to extend the tour through a couple of blocks of unique homes and see the memorial park built to honor the WW I veterans. What was most interesting about the park was that the rock walls were hand made with rocks picked up by volunteers....and there were a lot, A LOT of rocks!
After a wonderful lunch we boarded the busses for a second excursion. The afternoon saw us being taken by bus (about thirty minutes) to a museum which represented the entire county. There were three wings to show what is significant about the history and culture of the entire area. One full wing was devoted to a gentleman who taught the accordion and had an accordion band. One full wing. We were able to carefully examine everything in the entire museum in less than 20 minutes.
The second stop was at a small seafood production and sales shop where we were given a free salmon slider.....we were there about twenty minutes....
The cost for the afternoon's excursion was $45 per person. I think you'd agree it was "a bit overpriced." But most disappointing was that we were SUPPOSED to go to Deception Pass today. This is THE most highly visited tourist attraction in the Pacific Northwest with over 1 million visitors a year. We'd signed up for a jet boat excursion, but because the larger sister ship took our itinerary at the last minute this excursion was no longer available to us. More disappointing was that we were less than six miles from this iconic site and no option was provided by the ship to get us there in any shape or fashion.....highly disappointing.
Secondly, and maybe by this time tomorrow I'll be proven wrong, but there were three things that most appealed to the six of us about this itinerary (in addition, obviously to (a) traveling again and (b) more importantly traveling TOGETHER again)....they were, (1) Deception Pass, (2) the whale watching and (3) the scenic view with program director narration that was advertised online. Because our itinerary has changed not once but twice, the part of the cruise that is the most scenic and advertised as such will be tomorrow when we leave at 5:30 am and arrive around 8:30 am. Not exactly as promised.
