Johnstone Strait

Day 16 – Saturday, July 13, 2024 – Cruising the Inside Passage

Today was spent on the water, cruising the inside passage, We did see one thing we hadn't seen the entire trip…the sun! The water actually looked blue today, the rest of the trip it had been basically gray. We spent quite a bit of time on the bow looking for humpback whales and orcas. There was definitely activity, but I didn't get any good looks.

We went to one of the other premium dining restaurants for supper as we had some nonrefundable ship credits to use up.

Day 17 – Sunday, July 14, 2024 – Vancouver

We arrived at the port in Vancouver early in the morning and had to be off the ship by 9 am, so no sleeping in. Rather than taking the time to go to a restaurant for breakfast and have to get up that much earlier, we chose to have room service delivered to the room.
After disembarking the ship, we headed to the Vancouver Aquarium where we enjoyed a sea lion show and other animals.

Day 18 – Monday, July 15, 2024 – Traveling home

With a flight scheduled to depart Vancouver at 12:40 pm, we didn't do anything besides have breakfast and go to the airport Monday morning. We thought today we would be able to have lunch at the place at the airport that Keith had wanted to at the beginning of the trip, only to learn that flights to the US are out of their own terminal instead of the International Terminal. So, we ate standard airport food.

We were supposed to arrive in Denver at 4:38 pm and Kansas City at 8:43 pm. Our flight left Vancouver on time, but when we got to Denver, we had to circle the airport as it was closed for weather. The pilot warned us that we may have to divert to a different airport as we had a limited amount of fuel. And sure enough, a few minutes later, we were on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota. The Denver airport reopened about the time we landed in Rapid City, but by this time, our flight crew had reached their limit, so couldn't return the plane to Denver. We had to disembark in Rapid City and wait for a new crew to arrive from Denver. But, before we could go to a gate, they had to call in airport employees that had already went home for the day, so we got to sit on the plane. When we finally got off, we were thrilled that the one restaurant in the airport was open, so we could get something for supper. I'm not sure, but I think they may have also been called in to reopen. With very limited staff, they did a good job of trying to keep up with all the business. Unanticipated instances like this is why I over pack snacks while flying, but the reality is I hadn't over packed for this trip home as much as I probably should have. If we hadn't been able to get off the plane or if the restaurant hadn't been open, I think I would have been in distress mode, but fortunately that didn't happen. 

We finally had a new plane and were headed back to Denver. We landed about midnight. The motel shuttle had stopped running for the day, so we had to get a taxi. We got to our motel room about 1 am, with no toiletries or clean clothes for the next day.
 

Day 19 – Tuesday, July 16, 2024 - Traveling Home Day 2
It was a short night as we had to be on the motel shuttle back to the airport at 7:30 am for our rescheduled flight. Everything was on schedule today. My eldest had been going to pick us up at the airport on Monday night, but couldn't get off work to do so on Tuesday. When we were getting ready to leave Rapid City Monday night, I had posted on Facebook about our flight adventures and asked if anyone wanted to pick us up and one of our friends volunteered, so we didn't have to take a taxi home from the airport. It felt good to be home when we finally got there.