If you live in the Vancouver area, you have spent hours at the mercy of the BC Ferries Corporation. From lineups to buy tickets to lineups waiting to board (sometimes there’s even a sailing wait or two).

Spending money for the service to get to and from Vancouver Island is expensive.  That being said, in under two hours you get to see more of the beauty that our coastline has to offer.

I like to catch an early morning ferry, usually mid-week if possible.  No waits & no crowds.  It’s been a couple of years since we’ve trekked across the Strait on one of these vessels.

On a nice day, I enjoy walking around the outer decks with the wind at my face.  The scenery is a magnificent spectacle to behold.  As a child, I remembered on windier days aboard the ferry, I would lean into the gusting wind pretending to fight an unknown force.

Almost every trip I end up stopping at the brochure stand to see what I could be missing out on in this Province of ours.  Lots of it is touristy junk, but sometimes there is something I haven’t heard of or seen before.

Many a boat ride has consisted of playing cards as well.  I had an old deck that my mother returned to my son after our visit this week.  Ah yes, crumpled and fold cards with a missing Ace of Clubs card handwritten on a Joker instead.  The creases showing off what the cards are if you can remember each and every fold or tear.  But a hearty game of “Go Fish” always seems appropriate when crossing over on the ferry.

And of course there is the loading and unloading of the vehicles and passengers.  I’ve traveled many different ways on the ferry.  Sometimes by car, sometimes by bus, and other times as a foot passenger.  Each has its own quirks.  

But in the end, we all safely arrive at our destination, happy to see friends and family or happy to be on the last leg of the journey home.  The experience of BC Ferries is one that many in BC have endured or enjoyed.  Sometimes there’s a storm adding excitement to the tide.  On occasion there is a pod of Killer Whales swimming alongside of the boat.  

Look! I made my photo artistic and stuff!