I always feel a holiday has really begun when I'm on the ferry. Any ferry. It's the clanging sounds and smells of rust and oil and salt on cold metal. And it's standing up on deck leaning over a rail to see the green sea churned white. Although whenever I lean over I always have this image of my glasses falling straight from my eyes into the briny deep. I know it won't happen, but it's one of those things I can't shake out of my head and I generally keep my hand close by to prevent it if it ever does happen.
Today was an especially nice day for a ferry ride. The air was hot, so the chill of cutting through the air was welcome. We walked the top deck and held our breathe as we came round the bow where the wind slammed into us. We leaned like an old fence to get to the port side. Turning the corner, we were then pushed by an unseen hand and our forward lean turned backward. My hair flew around my face from both sides and flapped around until we had walked a little way and the breeze subsided a bit.
After that refreshing turn we went indoors for the same treatment. We passed people reading, eating, chatting, playing games, texting and sleeping. Then shopping as we passes the gift shop. Which is a surprisingly good gift shop. I have bought several gifts over the last few years there that have worked out very well. I even bought a short purple rain coat that I use constantly. The ferry gift shop used to be abysmal, good only for magazines and candy bars and those pens filled with water so that if you tipped it one way the ferry would move.
I'm not sure I can say the same about the food. It used to be pretty bad, but it was familiar, and if you looked carefully you could find decent sustenance. I'm not talking about the Sunshine Breakfast, which was ghastly, and for some bizarre reason is still on the menu. But wonderful too because everyone knew about it and had had it at some stage of their lives. Guests were encouraged to try is as a part of BC costal life. The clam chowder was always very good. Some of the burgers were excellent. And the cinnamon buns were a given. The current incarnation tries very hard to be all things to all people, but the healthy things aren't all that healthy and quite pricey and the unhealthy things aren't quite unhealthy enough.
We settled down to read an old New Yorker magazine we hadn't gotten around to reading at home and before we knew it we were being directed down to our car. But are we parkd on Otter 4 or Starfish 4? I'm not quite used to the system but love the pictures of ocean animals used.
Today was an especially nice day for a ferry ride. The air was hot, so the chill of cutting through the air was welcome. We walked the top deck and held our breathe as we came round the bow where the wind slammed into us. We leaned like an old fence to get to the port side. Turning the corner, we were then pushed by an unseen hand and our forward lean turned backward. My hair flew around my face from both sides and flapped around until we had walked a little way and the breeze subsided a bit.
After that refreshing turn we went indoors for the same treatment. We passed people reading, eating, chatting, playing games, texting and sleeping. Then shopping as we passes the gift shop. Which is a surprisingly good gift shop. I have bought several gifts over the last few years there that have worked out very well. I even bought a short purple rain coat that I use constantly. The ferry gift shop used to be abysmal, good only for magazines and candy bars and those pens filled with water so that if you tipped it one way the ferry would move.
I'm not sure I can say the same about the food. It used to be pretty bad, but it was familiar, and if you looked carefully you could find decent sustenance. I'm not talking about the Sunshine Breakfast, which was ghastly, and for some bizarre reason is still on the menu. But wonderful too because everyone knew about it and had had it at some stage of their lives. Guests were encouraged to try is as a part of BC costal life. The clam chowder was always very good. Some of the burgers were excellent. And the cinnamon buns were a given. The current incarnation tries very hard to be all things to all people, but the healthy things aren't all that healthy and quite pricey and the unhealthy things aren't quite unhealthy enough.
We settled down to read an old New Yorker magazine we hadn't gotten around to reading at home and before we knew it we were being directed down to our car. But are we parkd on Otter 4 or Starfish 4? I'm not quite used to the system but love the pictures of ocean animals used.
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