Day Eight - Audrey & the Albion Ferry

Audrey says the prices on our gas stations looks awfully familiar.. right up until I pointed out that the numbers were in Canadian dollars, which are about half of the British Pound. She then asked what all the whining about gas prices were about.

Audrey may be English, but she still thinks dunking leaves in hot water and removing the leaves is a bit silly. She thinks if you like leaves you should eat them, not drown them.

CTV is one of Canada's national broadcasters. I spotted the truck at the parking lot of the Albion Ferry and couldn't resist asking if I could take a picture with the truck and Audrey. The driver thought I was a loon until I explained that Audrey is a "Flat Stanley" Obviously having children and done similar things he was suddenly all okay with it and asked where Audrey was from and why a bunny..

Audrey wondered if she was going to be on the six o'clock news, but alas, he was waiting on the reporter.

A bit about the trip now! The Albion Ferry (which is actually two ferries named the Kulleet and the Klatawa) has been operating across the Fraser River from Fort Langley to Maple Ridge since 1957. Recently, the Golden Ears bridge opened twelve kilometers down the river and they're closing the ferry service down. The problem people have with this is the Golden Ears is a toll bridge, something new to us. And when the Port Mann (the main highway's bridge) gets replaced in 2013, it too will be toll. One will have to go way out of one's way to avoid tolls and will instead just waste gas money. Some are saying put the Albion Ferry on the same budget as the SeaBus (passenger ferry between North Vancouver and Vancouver) and it'll save money in the long run.

It doesn't *hugely* effect me at this point, I don't mind paying the $2.75 toll every once in a while, but I can understand how locals are frustrated.

Audrey didn't seem to mind the ride across too much, but she didn't have a lot of shade and it was a hot summer day!

She said the sights were pretty enough, but did the ship have to roll as much as it did??

Here she found a nice cool pipe to rest on! (She's a smart bunny)

Of course, I was quite unpopular when we both realized I hadn't thought to bring any snacks or water! They were both in my car in the parking lot for the ferry.

I hadn't seen much point in driving onto the ferry, off at the other side, and back on again so we just walked on and stayed on when we got to the other side. The ferry staff didn't seem to think that was particularly unusual.

Here we arrive at the north side in Maple Ridge. While the cars were unloading, Audrey and I walked to what was now the front of the ferry and got one of the better seats. Of course, the seats are the metal things they tie rope to, but that's immaterial, right?

Here they're loading on the cars. Audrey was worried that a little bun could easily get run over, but I assured her the staff are very good at keeping passangers both big and small safe!

We got good and comfy at the front! Audrey's wondering about the safety of it all!

"What keeps someone on the ship??" she asks looking at the chains that are all that block the exit. I said common sense. She was very suprised there's not a lot of humans jumping off then, apparently bunnies don't think much of humans and their survival instincts.

Audrey made sure to test the safety equipment. She had no intentions of going down with the ship if there were any emergencies!

Audrey doesn't understand how Sage possibly likes wind in her ears. I explained that Sage is a very strange rabbit, Audrey agreed.

There's the other ferry in the background having just left the south terminal. Its about eight minutes from dock to dock, the ferries leave every fifteen minutes and never seem in a particular hurry.

And here we come into the dock at the south side. Audrey seems very happy to see land again!

"Are we there yet??" she asks. "Not far now," I reply.

And from the Ferry we went on to the Fort Langley fort .. but that's a post for tomorrow, I need to get some sleep! Audrey's kept me very busy!