crustycurmudgeon
Well-Known Member
I figured I'd finally sort through the pictures and post some of them. Last month my friend Jeff traveled from Anchorage to Sacramento, where his mother lived. She recently retired and it was decided she'd move up to Anchorage to be near her sons. She wanted to keep her car (2004 Chevy Aveo) and needed a way to get it up there. Yeah, she'd have been better off selling it and buying another car there, but she insisted on keeping her car. Jeff helped get her packed up and she took a plane to Alaska. I took the train to Sacramento and met Jeff there, where we began driving her car north. We didn't drive the whole way.
We went to Bellingham, WA, where we boarded the M/V Columbia of the Alaska Marine Highway. The ferry reservation was made too late to reserve a stateroom, so we planned on sleeping in the public areas for the 3 nights.
After boarding, I scoped out a spot on the solarium to set up our sleeping bags while Jeff drove the car on and went to the purser's office to get on the waiting list for a stateroom. He was #17 on the list and it didn't look promising.
Sorry for the crappy iPhone pictures. We had a pitcher of beer in the lounge and then went to eat dinner, the whole time hearing names being called out from the waiting list. Halfway through dinner we heard Jeff's name called and we went to see what they had for us.
It turned out to be a 4 berth outside cabin with a sitting room (the most expensive option, at $588 for 3 nights). Fearing that this would probably be our only chance, we took it.
The weather was pretty nice in Bellingham, but north of there it got cloudy for practically the whole trip up to Haines.
We went to Bellingham, WA, where we boarded the M/V Columbia of the Alaska Marine Highway. The ferry reservation was made too late to reserve a stateroom, so we planned on sleeping in the public areas for the 3 nights.
After boarding, I scoped out a spot on the solarium to set up our sleeping bags while Jeff drove the car on and went to the purser's office to get on the waiting list for a stateroom. He was #17 on the list and it didn't look promising.
Sorry for the crappy iPhone pictures. We had a pitcher of beer in the lounge and then went to eat dinner, the whole time hearing names being called out from the waiting list. Halfway through dinner we heard Jeff's name called and we went to see what they had for us.
It turned out to be a 4 berth outside cabin with a sitting room (the most expensive option, at $588 for 3 nights). Fearing that this would probably be our only chance, we took it.
The weather was pretty nice in Bellingham, but north of there it got cloudy for practically the whole trip up to Haines.
