Vacation: Day 2

Day two of our vacation was Sunday. We went to church in Bryan's last area. He had a really great time seeing everybody and the progress they've made. (I was introduced as Sister Elder Merrill, which was hilarious.)

Bryan found his old apartment. It's still there!

Stanley's parents were visiting from Taiwan. They went to sacrament meeting for the very first time! As a wonderful "coincidence", one of the speakers was a first-generation member in her family, and was from Taiwan! She bore her testimony in Mandarin for Stanley's parents. It was a very spiritual experience for everybody there.

Bryan and Cory

The Thackers had a fun lunch for us and some people in the ward and I was able to meet lots of people that Bryan served with! It was a lot of fun!

Bryan's mission president and his family invited us for dinner at the mission home. (Bryan was weirded out to be there as a non-missionary guest. I thought it was fun.) Suzzie was even there! (Our friend from high school.)

(Handing over the keyboard to Bryan...)

We planned on staying the night on Orcas Island which means taking a ferry that left the mainland at 9pm.  We planned on arriving at 7:30 because summer lines can be long, but we got a late start.  We arrived at 7:45 or so and saw the dock emptying.  Ferries never run early, so I was really confused. 

I whipped out our tickets, handed them to the worker in the booth, and said, "Orcas Island.  Are we going to make it?"  His reply surprised me.  "You're cutting it real close, buddy..."  "Great..." I thought.  He put a special orange tag on our wiper which means we're special and directed us down a lane.

As we get to the end a lady books it up to the cone at the end of the lane, throws it off to the side, points to the ferry, and yells to me--the much confused driver--"Go!  Go Go Go!"  I drive on to the ferry just as the dock lifts up and it pulls away.  Now I'm wondering if this ferry really goes to Orcas...  

So, I pulled out the schedule and found out that the 7:20 ferry to Orcas was running way late, and that we barely snuck on the end.  We landed an hour early, were able to see some people, and had a fun and stressful story when all was said and done.  The end!

 (Back to the resident blog-owner...)

Now for some pictures of the ferry ride...

Yes, I'm wearing the same shirt a second day in a row. Don't judge. You work with what you have when you're going to like six church functions in an eight day span, while on vacation.

This is what a ferry dock looks like.