Our weather has been extraordinary for January in western Washington - 50's and sunny. Not wanting to waste any of our opportunities to be outside in the sunshine, we decided early this week to spend today (Friday, January 22, 2010) riding another ferry. We left home at about 10 a.m. to be ready to catch the 1:10 p.m. ferry leaving from the Main Seattle Ferry Terminal. Dick had also scheduled to look at a car (1963 Avanti) in downtown Seattle at 12:15 p.m.. Since we arrived in Seattle at 11:30, we found the place where Dick was going to see the car and then drove to the ferry neighborhood to find a good parking lot. Parking was one of the big unknowns for this trip. The ferry terminal is in downtown Seattle and does not have its own parking lot. We found a parking lot just one block from the terminal that charged $16 for enough hours for our trip - a bargain!
We had discovered that the parking near the apartment building where Dick was going to see the car was all metered. Since we did not have parking meter coins with us, we also made a brief stop at a fairly odd candy shop for change. In that candy shop was one guy sitting behind a small counter working on his laptop and behind him were two shelves with maybe 15 smallish jars of various candies like jelly beans, gummy things, gum drops. Near the door there were two pairs of shoes for sale. The place seemed mostly empty. Even so, the fellow minding the store was willing to swap a $1 bill for 4 quarters. It was good we made that stop because while Dick looked at the car our parking meter was checked twice.
Once the car errand was complete, we parked the car in at the Trust Parking at Yesler Way and Alaska Way. It was almost time for the ferry so we jogged straight to the terminal, got our tickets for the trip ($6.90 each, round trip) and boarded the ferry. Walk-on passengers board the ferry from the second floor of the terminal and enter the ferry on the main passenger deck. Autos board the ferry from street level and are loaded onto the auto deck.
The ferry left the dock within just a couple minutes of our boarding. The view of Seattle and Mt. Rainier was spectacular.
The ferry we rode was the M/V Tacoma. It is one of the three Jumbo Mark II class ferries
operated by the Washington State Ferry system. These are the largest ferries carrying passengers and vehicles from place to place on Puget Sound. This particular ferry was built in 1997. The Jumbo Mark II ships are 460’ 2” long, with a 90’ beam. They hold 2500 passengers and 202 vehicles and 60 commercial vehicles. It takes power to carry that kind of load! The Tacoma has 4 diesel/electric engines with 16,000 horsepower that can propel the ship at 18 knots. The travel time from Seattle to Bainbridge Island is 35 minutes. If you are hungry you can buy packaged food on the boat. If you are sleepy, there are long bench style seats in one of the cabins where you can stretch out to take a nap (many people nap on the ferry!). Lots of the seating comes with a table so you can work, play games, or simply lean while you ride. We walked all over the ship (never did find the swimming pool, though) and made sure we saw everything.
At Bainbridge Island, we landed at Winslow. Just like we boarded the ferry right onto the passenger deck, so we disembarked from the passenger deck onto a passenger gangway that led directly into the terminal. We were, at all times, kept well away from the cars. At Winslow there is a large parking lot connected to the ferry terminal. Our introduction to Bainbridge Island was a walk through the parking lot. Once we got to the road, we walked all around the town, from the small boat harbor, to the museum, the length of the main street and then back to the ferry terminal. We saw lots of cute stores and plenty of condos. My friend Laurie had recommended the Lavender cookies at the Blackbird Bakery so we stopped in there. Sadly, they were out of cookies and too well stocked with customers. We set out at 2:40 to catch the 2:55 p.m. ferry back to Seattle. The prospect of driving in Seattle/Everett rush hour traffic was a powerful incentive to be on the 2:55 sailing! We got back to the Bainbridge Island terminal in plenty of time to get on the ferry for Seattle. When they made the boarding announcement they called the sailing “the late boarding 2:55 ferry." We were indeed boarding 5 minutes late - so honest! The passengers just line up along a long hallway and walk on. All the tickets sold are round-trip tickets so there is no ticket taking or checking on the Bainbridge to Seattle leg of the trip.
The Bainbridge Island terminal is in a cove, so the ferry maneuvered out of the cove and into
the main channel between the island and Seattle. To get to the channel, we had to cross a big patch of logs and other flotsam. We both commented that we would never take our little boat through an obstacle like that. The ferry went through as if there were nothing in the water at all. The trip back to Seattle was just as scenic and beautiful as the trip to Bainbridge Island.
And we beat the traffic on the way home.
