Bryce Canyon

Today was one of the shortest drive days at 3.5 hours.  We were in Bryce Canyon around noon, and after lunch, spent the afternoon checking out the park.  The park hasn't really changed much since I was there few years ago, and there wasn't really enough snow to make the scenery any different.  Still, it was a nice break from the driving.  As for walking Millie, we couldn't really do any of the hikes since they don't allow dogs on most of the trails, which are snow or ice covered anyways.  On the way into the park though, about 14 miles out, there is the Thunder Mountain trail.  The trailhead is at the first scenic view point as you head towards the park.  We only walked around for an hour, but since there wasn't anyone around, we were able to let Millie run around off-leash.  Actually, I think the area outside of the park was a lot nicer than the park itself.  If you're going to go into the park, you really want to spend time doing some of the hikes down into the canyon.

One of the things I noticed today, a bright sunny day, is that my eyes are now more sensitive to light than it used to be after living in a dark place for two years.  I find myself wearing sunglasses a lot more than I used to.

Ketchikan to Bellingham

Ketchikan

The ferry ride from Ketchikan to Bellingham started off okay.  We watched couple of movies the first night - MIB3 and Battleship, which helped make time go by.  The rest of the 1.5 day ride didn't go so smooth....

We were on the Matanuska, a sister ship to Malaspina, the one I took from Bellingham to Juneau two years ago.  Malaspina was an old ship, but this one seemed even older, and it wasn't anywhere near as nice as Taku, the one we just took from Juneau to Ketchikan.  This didn't really matter too much though.  The main problem with the trip was that we couldn't get Millie to pee or poo for about 30 hours while on the ferry.  Since there are no port calls on this leg of the trip, we are given 15 minutes at 0815, 1415, 2015, & 0015 daily to feed and walk our dogs on the car deck.  It was quite distressing to not see her go pet call after pet call.  To make matters worse, I got like 2 hours of sleep the first night on the ferry thanks to a book I couldn't put down.  By the 18 hour mark I was worried sick about Millie, thinking how uncomfortable she might be and wondering whether she'd end up going inside the car where she has to stay the rest of the time.  Every other dog was doing their business but Millie and this one other dog.  The owner of the other dog seemed quite upset too and we kept asking each other "did your dog go?"  I'm not usually an emotional person but I was really worried sick and balled on the car deck.  The Watchman saw that I was upset and came over to reassur me that my dog is ok (she was wagging her tail) and it's not uncommon for some dogs to hold it the entire trip.  That made me feel better.  Due to the lack of sleep the first night, I spent quite a bit of time sleeping mid-day again.  Millie eventually did pee at about the 30 hour mark, but she didn't poo until after we got off the ferry.  (I stopped feeding her after the 2nd meal.)  I hope I never have to take a dog on a long haul ride again.