Saturday morning we were up by 6:45am to pack everything up and head down to the ferry. We stopped at the little train depot where we bought a few Christmas presents (yes, Amy’s starting to think about that already). We stopped at a little café that sold Starbucks coffee and various small breakfast items such as fruit and granola cup. We were down at the ferry and lined up by 7:45am. They loaded us on third. We went up to the upper deck of the ferry and watched them load cars on. A bus bottomed out while driving on the dock so it took them about 45 minutes to get him onto the boat. We were off and leaving Skagway by 10:15am, about half an hour late.

We spent a large amount of our time that day out on the deck watching the scenery and taking pictures. The sun was very warm and favored us that day. We saw a whale and some porpoises. We eventually retreated to our room where we unpacked some stuff and snacked a bit on food. At 6:15 we headed to the cafeteria to buy dinner. Ernest ate a game hen with mashed potatoes and a salad, and Amy had a bowl of soup and a salad. We next decided to retreat to our room where we each read a book until bedtime. By 11pm the sky was almost dark, and by 11;30pm one could see stars in the sky. That was the first night since our third day on this trip that the sky was dark enough to see stars!

The next morning, Sunday, we ate breakfast in our room and headed out to the upper decks. The weather was cloudy, foggy, and drizzly. We stayed out and read until the drizzle had become too much. We took a walk around the outer part of the boat (a total of 8 laps which equaled a mile). We spent a couple hours in our room reading until we docked at Ketchukam. We watched cars unload and new cars load. We headed to the cafeteria for some lunch when we were bored watching the loading and unloading. After lunch we grabbed our books and headed to the observation lounge and read for some time. Amy wanted a nap so we retreated to our room where Ernest finished his book and Amy slept.

Not much more happened. We took the opportunity to relax and enjoy the scenery. We also watched a movie which they showed at 7:30pm. Monday wasn’t much different. We can’t say there was much to report on for that day either. Tuesday morning (today) we were up around 5:30am Alaska time (6:30am Pacific) and packed everything. We headed up to the observation lounge and watched as we came into Bellingham. Home never looked so good! All we wanted was to go home and see our cats. Sarah and Thomas had been on our minds almost the entire trip, and more so on the ferry trip home. As soon as we docked, we took our stuff down to the car and waited about 15 minutes before we drove off the boat onto the land we call home. We were home within 15 minutes. We decided not to unpack until we had some time with the cats. Sarah was an affectionate thing and soaked up the attention we gave her. Thomas we a bit freaked out with us, but within 5 minutes warmed up and hasn’t left our sides since. He refuses to let us out of his sight! So we have unpacked and find our home still in one piece. Linda took such good care of everything… we are indebted to her for doing such a wonderful job!