The End

This 5-day trip went way too fast.  It seemed like 3-days, wished it was 8.  

It’s not a trip for everyone.  There’s no TV, no casinos, no bingo and such.  No karaoke, no dancing, no nightclubs or bars.  No exercise equipment, no waterslides, no deck chairs or pools.  No on-board shopping or t-shirt shops on shore.  No, not even a jewelry store.  We had none of that.  Thank goodness!  

So what was there?  Rod’s pictures capture it well.  If you like what you see below then you’d probably enjoy this trip too.  I sure did.  

For those of you who know Rod, it will come to no surprise that he brought some specialized radio equipment such that we were able to create a mini Wi-Fi  hot-spot within our room.  No one, repeat no one else on board was as able to connect to the internet, at any time.  We could, not every day but often enough to post most of what you see below.   

There is one last thing I want to mention before ending this post and that would be the food.  Shannon our cook, a true chef really, performed magic in the galley every day.  The food was incredible, 5-star quality.  

I was up early every morning, always between 4 and 5. And always the first arrive in the dining room.  After saying good morning to Shannon who was always baking bread at that time, I would be greeted with a hot cup of coffee.  And soon thereafter, a baking sheet right out of the oven would arrive in front of me with an offering of the cookies-of-the-day.  Either that or muffins so hot I’d have to wait 5 minutes for them to cool.  That was my early morning routine. Not occasionally but every day! 

How many people do you know baking their own hamburger buns.  She even does that too.

Sunday afternoon as we arrived back in port, the entire crew of 6 lined up on deck to bid us farewell.  Shannon was there and when it was my turn for goodbyes, I gave her a big hug and whispered, “Shannon, I’ll miss you tomorrow morning.”

Mike

   

Track of the Aurora Explorer October 14 - 19, 2014

Second half of cruise

First half of cruise

Pilot house was always a busy place

Captain Ron at the helm

Shoal Bay

Shoal Bay used to be a community of over 1,000 people, now just a few buildings mark the property.  

A small stream bisects the property

Wood fired pizza oven artistically decorated

Hot house doing well in late October

Nicely decorated table

Fresh eggs here

Raised vegetable garden

Gnome topped shovel sculpture

Some of the Aurora Explorer guests and crew visit the vegetable garden

Nicely stacked wood pile

This is a complete bulldozer that is buried 

A peek at the Pub which is open in the summer

Aurora Explorer lies at the face of the Shoal Bay dock

Indian Stuff

The two highlights from yesterday, for me at least, were the stop to Billy Proctor's museum and the white sand beach.

Billy has this Smithsonian quality collection of indian arrowheads, spears, fishing hooks, cooking implements and other artifacts in his museum, some labeled 8,000 years old.  Most were made from stone, volcanic glass, and bone (whale, deer, elk) but a few from teeth, whale and beaver.  Just picked them up in the woods and from the beach did he, from here and there, over the years he's lived up there.  I love this kind of stuff.  Seriously, I could have spent the rest of the day talking to him about these finds.  The bottle collection was neat too but It was the arrowheads that made the day.  

Then somewhat related was the white "sand" beach in the I sland group named, the Burdwood's. This beach was not of sand at all but of shell.  Clam shells.  Millions and I mean, millions of them.  The islet we landed on was a clam midden, the largest Indian clam midden I've seen.  I don't know how deep these shells were but at least four feet thick given one exposed bank I could see.  But it's not the shells themselves that are of particular interest to me.  Instead it's the thought of people, family's, kids, thousands of years ago gathered together here on this wind swept islet eking out a living trying to survive.  Eating clams!  Day after day!  Don't like clams - maybe you don't live.  

....still thinking about it.  

Mike

A few more stops along the way

Fueling a tug

Now there are some tire chains!

Landing at the Burdwood Group

Interesting pattern

Burdwood white sand beach 

Aurora Explorer

Shanna getting another shot

No better way to go ashore

Mike taking a picture of me taking a picture of him

Part of our group taking in the sights on a windy day

Lacey Falls and the Aurora ramp

Lacey Falls in Tribune Channel

Lacey Falls

Lacey Falls

Lacey Falls up close

Just in a days work

Delivering fuel to a fish farm dive barge

Log Skidder

Billy Proctor's and Pierre's Echo Bay

Billy's black smith shop 

Billy Proctor's Museum and Store

Billy's fishing boat

Opp's we pulled a cleat off the dock

Furniture delivery at Pierre's Echo Bay

Pierre's Echo Bay Marina with no boats

Leaving Pierre's Echo Bay 

Pierre's Echo Bay Marina

Engine Room and Billy Proctor's Museum

Aurora Explorer Engine Room

Billy Proctor's Museum on Gilford Island

Billy has collected many bottles from garbage dumps in the area

Blue bottles on a rainy day

Something old and something new

Billy and Bob Carter (our deck hand) discuss the old days

Colorful insulators

Some of Billy's yard art