Having spent four days, driving through the wilds of Nevada, It is time to reboot the vacation...
It is now the end of summer, and with the end of summer comes the shorter days here on the north end of our planet, and with shorter day come colder weather, sometimes even snow, and so, end of the tourist season in Alaska. A significant part of the Alaskan tourist industry is cruise ships... Lots of cruise ships... With the end of the Alaskan cruise season, the ships need to be moved to their new homes... hence the second half of my vacation... We are joining, sailing on Holland America's Statendam as she sails from Vancouver to San Diego...
So, today, we (the lovely Tina and I) are up too early after arriving home too late (myself, not the lovely Tina) at the airport before dawn... We are flying to Vancouver, which is in Canada, so are leaving from the International Terminal... Passports in hand... I search of Air Canada Ft 559...
It's a two hour flight... It hardly feels like it should be an international flight... I understand they speak English and accept American money... But passports and customs forms are required... We arrive about 90 minutes ahead of the flight... But this is an international flight and at least officially, we are late... We are supposed to be here a couple of hours before... It is not an issue, but we can't use the check in kiosk... We require human assistance... assistance is graciously offered and we Check in, check a bag...
Off to, and through security... The TSA officers all wear blue latex gloves, I understand the why, but, this makes an emotional statement... We, the passengers are somehow dirty... In some cases this might be true, but it is one more step in the process of dehumanization which is airport security. Today there seem to be more security than passengers... We pass through quickly, recover our stuff, put on shoes and belts, and head for the gate... It is 6:00 am... all but one airport shop, a Mexican grill is closed...
We find our gate, and board the plane after a short wait... And discover a curiosity... The seats are lettered A-C-D-F... There is no B or E... This is a smaller jet, an Embraer 190... There is no way they could shoe horn a couple of extra seats across, so why save the extra letters? Making the whole thing more ridiculous the little sign over the seats across which reads "17CA)"... Suggesting the graphic artist was unfamiliar with alphabetical order as commonly practiced...
The flight is not full... Carry-ons are not an issue... There is more leg room than expected... We settle in...
Below, as we fly north, broken clouds, fog... The clouds have a soft hazy quality that suggests ice and winter... I suspect the effect is magnified by the planes polarized windows. Of course, the coming of winter has is why the ship is fleeing south... Now, more than an hour into the flightThe is a stream of smoke, likely a wild fire. A single peak stands tall through the clouds and fog, Mt Renier or Mt Hood... More likely Mt Hood, based on the time left before we arrive. A few minutes later Renier appears below, settling the question.
The co-pilot comes on to announce we are beginning our descent... Soon I will have to turn off and stow the IPad... Then we will de-plane, disembark, line up for immigration, claim luggage, line up for customs... Find the train down town, find our ship, check luggage aboard, check in, then likely sit and wait to board... Such is the nature do travel... Rush, line up, wait, rush, sit and wait...
Now, downtown Vancouver Canada... We have checked our luggage dockside, but still have our carry-ons... People are still disembarking, so we take a walk... We have found the local Rogue brew house ("Kitchen and Wet Bar")... It opens in a minute or so, so, it appears the vacation, 2.0 starts.
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