adventures in bc ferries
my mom has a friend from ontario in for the week. she's never been out west before, so she's pretty excited to see as much as possible.
so far, they've gone up to grouse mountain and done the zip treking thing, gone to the suspension bridge and done granville island, stanley park etc.
so yesterday my mom decided that they should go up the sunshine coast a bit and see sechelt.
i had to tag along, because as pathetic as it is, i have never been up the coast and also never been to any of the gulf islands either.
here's a map to explain.
basically it's all part of the mainland, but because of the land (mountains, inlets ect) you have to take a ferry to reach this area from vancouver
now, i'd like to point at this moment that i have an extensive knowledge of vancouver and the surrounding areas. but the sunshine coast... i got nothing.
i had never even seen this map before yesterday.
i. had. no. clue.
not only is this unusual for me, but it makes me very uneasy.
my existence in life revolves around having a plan.
i need a plan to survive.
mostly an exit plan.
i need to know where we're going, how we're getting there, the logistics of it all, and the same details for the return trip.
i can go somewhere and not know what i'm going to do while THERE... shopping, eating wherever, wandering aimlessly is all fine with me... as long as i know how we're getting home and at what time we have to make connections and the logistics of the travel.
this trip was very far out of my comfort zone.
so my mom says we're going to gibsons.
i'm like cool. you've been there before?
she says yes. lots of times on boat cruises.
okay.
here's the part i didn't know.
my mom had indeed been to gibsons several times, but has never taken the ferry there.
they always would take a private boat and dock it right in gibson's at molly's reach.
well... the ferry doesn't go to gibsons.
the ferry goes to langdale. several kilometers away from gibsons.
so we're on the ferry, the three of us...
and we've walked on the ferry instead of driving the car on. to save money.
well, we realize we're stranded in langdale, which is really just the ferry terminal. there's nothing else there.
we laughed a lot. because we were pretty fucked.
and it was pretty stupid to have just got on a ferry with no fucking clue about what was on the other side.
so we end up sweet talking the travel ambassador on the ferry into driving us into gibsons.
sweet sweet charmaine.
she laughed at us a lot.
well, mostly giggling.
she seriously was the cutest lady. and used the phrase "oh my gosh"
which totally killed us.
she's a retired lady that volunteers on the ferry to give people information on the sunshine coast.
totally adorable lady.
so after charmaine saved our asses and dropped us off in gibsons, we had lunch at molly's reach.
which totally kicked ass.
i had a delicious chicken sandwich with maple smoked bacon, jack cheese, chipotle mayo and guacamole on it. yummers.
oh, and clam chowder on the side. because we were in seafood country after all.
and a raven ale.
we ate on the patio.
yey for patio!
anyways, gibsons was totally cute, we poked around in a million little shops with crafts and homemade goods and thrift stores and all that good stuff...
and then we caught a cab back to the ferry terminal.
there's our boat coming in...
and no, that's not the dock that we have to board the ferry on.
i just have a penchant for rusty items.
(insert joke here?)
anyways, despite the day starting off as a comedy of errors, it ended up being a lot of fun and really quite beautiful.
and for those that have never spent time on a bc ferry... well, it ain't all roses, but on a beautiful summer day, you get to spend your time staring at this:
it's pretty fucking alright.
they don't call it the best place on earth for nothing.
so far, they've gone up to grouse mountain and done the zip treking thing, gone to the suspension bridge and done granville island, stanley park etc.
so yesterday my mom decided that they should go up the sunshine coast a bit and see sechelt.
i had to tag along, because as pathetic as it is, i have never been up the coast and also never been to any of the gulf islands either.
here's a map to explain.
basically it's all part of the mainland, but because of the land (mountains, inlets ect) you have to take a ferry to reach this area from vancouver
now, i'd like to point at this moment that i have an extensive knowledge of vancouver and the surrounding areas. but the sunshine coast... i got nothing.
i had never even seen this map before yesterday.
i. had. no. clue.
not only is this unusual for me, but it makes me very uneasy.
my existence in life revolves around having a plan.
i need a plan to survive.
mostly an exit plan.
i need to know where we're going, how we're getting there, the logistics of it all, and the same details for the return trip.
i can go somewhere and not know what i'm going to do while THERE... shopping, eating wherever, wandering aimlessly is all fine with me... as long as i know how we're getting home and at what time we have to make connections and the logistics of the travel.
this trip was very far out of my comfort zone.
so my mom says we're going to gibsons.
i'm like cool. you've been there before?
she says yes. lots of times on boat cruises.
okay.
here's the part i didn't know.
my mom had indeed been to gibsons several times, but has never taken the ferry there.
they always would take a private boat and dock it right in gibson's at molly's reach.
well... the ferry doesn't go to gibsons.
the ferry goes to langdale. several kilometers away from gibsons.
so we're on the ferry, the three of us...
and we've walked on the ferry instead of driving the car on. to save money.
well, we realize we're stranded in langdale, which is really just the ferry terminal. there's nothing else there.
we laughed a lot. because we were pretty fucked.
and it was pretty stupid to have just got on a ferry with no fucking clue about what was on the other side.
so we end up sweet talking the travel ambassador on the ferry into driving us into gibsons.
sweet sweet charmaine.
she laughed at us a lot.
well, mostly giggling.
she seriously was the cutest lady. and used the phrase "oh my gosh"
which totally killed us.
she's a retired lady that volunteers on the ferry to give people information on the sunshine coast.
totally adorable lady.
so after charmaine saved our asses and dropped us off in gibsons, we had lunch at molly's reach.
which totally kicked ass.
i had a delicious chicken sandwich with maple smoked bacon, jack cheese, chipotle mayo and guacamole on it. yummers.
oh, and clam chowder on the side. because we were in seafood country after all.
and a raven ale.
we ate on the patio.
yey for patio!
anyways, gibsons was totally cute, we poked around in a million little shops with crafts and homemade goods and thrift stores and all that good stuff...
and then we caught a cab back to the ferry terminal.
there's our boat coming in...
and no, that's not the dock that we have to board the ferry on.
i just have a penchant for rusty items.
(insert joke here?)
anyways, despite the day starting off as a comedy of errors, it ended up being a lot of fun and really quite beautiful.
and for those that have never spent time on a bc ferry... well, it ain't all roses, but on a beautiful summer day, you get to spend your time staring at this:
it's pretty fucking alright.
they don't call it the best place on earth for nothing.
Perhaps your next Ferry Adventure should be over to Victoria. Soon. Just saying.
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