The Griggs Family Homestead: Day 5.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Day 5.

Day 5 was the only day on our whole trip that we were able to sleep in, at the B&B's breakfast is served early and we had a plane and a ferry to catch early in the morning the other 2 days, so we did. We headed down to breakfast at 9:30 and found some of our fellow ferry people also enjoying the restaurant. Oh I almost forgot. Most of the people we traveled with spoke English as a 2nd or 3rd or possibly even 4th language. It was very hard to talk to anyone. Several groups or couples had only 1 person who spoke English at all. And then not always very well!! There was a lot of languages being spoken all over the place. Papa and I didn't even know what a lot of them were. We heard Spanish, french, several different Chinese/Japanese, and maybe some Italian!! Some sounded the same to us but it didn't seem like the 2 groups could communicate to each other at all!! We were quite confused many times trying to figure out what language they were speaking. There was quite a lot of hand jesters being used when ordering and speaking. The hotel restaurant (quite well known all around for good food.) was over the water and we watched boats come in and go out as we ate. We also saw some sea planes take off. After a breakfast of fried potatoes, ham, bacon, toast and eggs we grabbed the camera and went for a walk down in Cow bay. I guess the story goes that the first dairy farmer in the area had to make his cows swim across to the island that is now Prince Rupert. They landed in what is now called Cow bay. Cow bay is a couple of streets of small shops and cafes and stuff like that. A lot of it is painted in the black and white of a dairy cow. While wandering though this area we picked up some gifts for Grandma and the little people we'd left with her. At one point we looked up and saw an eagle sitting and looking at us from the top of a 2 story building. Papa snatched his picture!! We looked into going on a whale watching tour but decided not too when we found out it would only be humpbacks. We really wanted to see Killer whales (also called orca's) but the season was over for them so far north. If we'd known that in Victoria I'm sure we would have done a tour there. Oh well something for next time. We walked to a nearby grocery store and bought a couple of bags of easily eatable food for the train ride the next day. We walked back to the hotel several hours after we'd left it with sore feet and arms and Papa's back hurt him so badly he called around and found a masseuse that was open and set up an appointment. While he was gone, it was a bit away and he had to walk there and back and had an hour long session, I dozed and watched some daytime TV which we never do because we don't have a TV. It was called The Last 10 Pounds and was a neat sort of way to think about losing weight. Though I have more then 10 lbs to lose. Papa got back limber and ready to go out again so we headed back to Cow bay to the little sushi place we'd seen there. When we got there we found out it was closed for the afternoon so we bought a few more little things and headed back to the hotel. We were almost back when we noticed a lot of people looking out into the harbour. So we looked too. A cruise ship was docking! A HUGE ship that held about 2,700 passengers, we found out later. It took them over 45 minutes to unload just the passengers that were getting off!! And they had 2 walkways to shore. Papa snapped more pictures. By this time I was getting woozy on my feet. It was after 3:30pm and we'd not eaten since 9:30!! The movie store was right by the motel and we did a quick peek and came out with 2. THEN we headed back to the hotel and some long awaited food!! We ate again looking out over the water. I had a fisherman's chowder and a penne pasta dish and Papa had oysters and some other kind of seafood. He ate seafood the whole time!! I did for most of it too. YUMM. After I started to feel alive again we had a nice romantic dinner! The rest of the night was spent relaxing in our room watching movies and getting ready for the next day and another early morning.