On Friday nights we pack a picnic dinner and head for the Alaska Ferry Terminal. If we are early we can watch the cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, motorhomes and semis behind driven onto the ferry. 
The schedule calls for the ferry to depart at 6:00 p.m. - but often it doesn't leave until 7 or 7:30. We don't know who the captains are, but we know which one is piloting the ferry because of the speed of loading and the prompt departure. Sometimes the ferry is loaded so slowly you swear you could carry the vehicles on by hand and be faster - and other times they zip right along - into the big open doors and quickly positioned according to their disembarkment schedule. 
Some captains blow the whistle - loud and long - some give a tiny toot - and some don't use the whistle at all. It is my favorite sound and I wait and wait for that moment - relishing every single second of the long whistles! It echos back and forth off the hills of Bellingham. No one speaks while the whistle blows!
And they are gone - off to adventures and vacations and happy times . . .
There are often sailboats in the bay before and after the ferry departs . . .
And clouds - always the clouds!
Puffy clouds off across the bay - some of those clouds are in British Columbia, Canada . . .
8 comments:
Absolutely Beautiful!! I am GREEN with envy!! LOL!!
Marilyn
Beautiful cloud photos! One time when hubby and I were driving semi, we took a ferry.... what an experience!
One of our 'must do' activities whenever we visit my folks in Seattle is take a ferry ride! I used to love them as a kid....we took them often, just for the fun of it! It was cheap entertainment for a family of 7 on a school teacher's salary. And we were allowed to wander around the decks, anywhere we wanted, cuz you couldn't get lost! And Dad would splurge and get us all hot chocolates, and it was like going to Disneyland for us!
I know.....we were so easily pleased, right!?! LOL
I've always had a fascination with ferries, often taking them as a child. This would be on my list of things to do too, if I lived in your parts. What fun! Love to stare at the clouds too. :)
Lovely photographs.
Maureen
Helloooooo - that's me waving at you from this side of the water!
Jo, your photos are absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing them. Looking at them makes me feel so peaceful.
Your puffy clouds are gorgeous! I used to be terrified of the ferry horn when I was a little girl. I'd cry and hang on to my mother until it stopped.
There is something about the blast of those horns, sometimes if I'm feeling sentimental it will bring tears to my eyes. But it is an exciting sound, perhaps because of the adventures that await after departure. You too live in such a beautiful part of the world Jo. ~Lili
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