Well it was a good breakfast, if a bit early. Yesterday it looked as though our companions would all be elderly single ladies, but today a few more couples joined us. However, it is definitely still an ‘all seniors’ tour.
At the airport we got our own check-in line – one of the perks of being on a tour, I guess. The airplane was old enough to have actual propellers, but that also means it has the extra legroom from a decade ago, a decided plus.
It was, of course, raining in Sandspit when we landed – normal Haida weather. The grass sure is green here.
The tour director took us on a walk (in the rain) around behind the airport mainly to kill some time, I think. We saw our first eagle of the day up in a tree.
Then we piled onto a repainted school bus to drive to take the ferry to the north island. A beef sandwich was provided for lunch, eaten standing while waiting for the ferry.
The ferry between the two big islands. It is the last ‘grounding’ ferry in the BC Ferries fleet.
We were taken by bus to the Haida Heritage Museum which has a wonderful display of old and more recent totems and other artwork. A teenaged Haida girl gave an excellent presentation on the five exterior (relatively new) totem poles associated with the museum. That alone multiplied our understanding and appreciation of totem art many fold.
Then the bus was off to Skidegate to allow us to walk along the modern version of the beach full of totems and longhouses that you have seen in the old photographs and the art of Emily Carr. Today it is just houses with a few small modern totems.
The sight of eagles has become commonplace. They are sitting on the totems, in the trees and in groups on the beach. There are as many eagles as ravens.
Once again, back on the bus and whip back to Queen Charlotte City, (which is actually a village, now known as Charlotte) where our motel is located. After a brief pee stop it was again ‘back on the bus’ to Skidegate for dinner. Such is life on a tour.
There is a Haida lady (Roberta Olson) who opens her house and cooks dinner for tourists such as us. She pushes a few tables together in her living room and sets it for 20 with an assortment of crockery. Her kids do the serving. It is the kind of place where the tour director shows up with a few bottles of wine in a plastic bag. The food was excellent, not too strange for us, although some people didn’t eat much. There was an appetizer of bits of seaweed, dried herring roe on seaweed, smoked salmon and fried bread served on a scallop shell, followed by an excellent potato and halibut soup.
The main course included salmon, smoked salmon, more herring roe on seaweed (fresh this time), cold venison, rice flavored with seaweed, potatoes, peas and carrots. Dessert was a simple cake and whipped cream. Altogether a wonderful homey meal (paid for by the tour, including gratuity, so we have no idea how much it was worth). We later learned that other tour groups do similar things at other houses, so it was not an exclusive experience.
Then it was ‘back on the bus’ to the motel, and a brief walk around town, such as it is, completed the day. A full day it was too, from the five o’clock start this morning, and it doesn’t get dark here until well after 10.
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