Last night we arrived home from the adventure of a life
time. Sunday we rented a car and left at
4am to visit friends on another Island.
Last year we met a group of university students from a nearby island, all
studying here in our city. They are
currently all on summer break. We have been
invited many times to visit them and finally saw an opportunity to do so. So, early Sunday morning we picked up two of
them and one of their moms and drove 3 ½
hours to the ferry port at a famous beach town; last year this same drive took
us almost 6 hours. Upon arriving at
7:30am we learned the first ferry had just left. So we waited 4 hours for its return. Since we arrived so early we were the third
car in line to board. Unfortunately
all trucks and busses have priority, so the second ferry at 11am quickly filled
with trucks and busses leaving room for only two cars. Though this was quite frustrating there
was one more ferry that evening. Our
ticket and number in line was still good for the next ferry so we went to the
beach. The day was cloudy and quite
drizzly, so we mostly sat under cover. The boys did play some in the sand! After grabbing a bite to eat we went back
down to the port to line up. After
waiting an hour, one bus boarded the ferry, then all traffic was stopped. We shortly learned the ferry was cancelled
because of bad weather. It was to leave
the next morning at 4am. We headed back
to the main drive and quickly found lodging. One of our companions received a phone call
from a family member working on the ferry, informing us, only the vehicles
which were currently lined up at the port would be allowed on in the
morning. We decided to forgo a night of
sleep in the car, especially with Caedmon and Whitman, making 7 of us in total. This also meant skipping the early morning
ferry. No big deal we thought, there will be others!
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| Cars and motorcycles lined up and waiting for the ferry. |
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| Trucks lined up for the ferry. Only the one on the far right was in use. |
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| Flexible boys, making good use of e-books, apps, and movies! |
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| Two of our friends, accompanying us to their home! |
The next morning, Monday, before we even left for the port
we found out the rest of the ferries were cancelled for the day because of bad
weather.
Better weather was expect early
morning Tuesday, so we agree to stay another night at the beach.
We found another place to stay closer to the
port and just hung out.
Normally an unexpected stay at the beach would be wonderful,
but the weather was so windy, cloudy, and rainy we mostly stayed in.
Whitman and John ventured down to the
beach.
They briefly touched the water,
went for a walk, then came back with Whitman’s lower lip quivering.
Tuesday morning we headed to the port at 4am. After a couple hours we learned, from our
friend’s mom, currently on the island we desired to reach, all ferries were
cancelled until July 6th.
This whole time there were absolutely no port employees around to gain
further information. A little later we
saw a posted note announcing all ferries were cancelled until the 4th
of July, or until the weather improved.
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| Our breakfast stop after leaving the port for home. |
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| Regardless of the restaurant, the options were: rice, chicken, fish, shrimp - fried or grilled. |
By 9am we were on the road, heading home. It was a trying trip, but we were able to continue building
relationships with our friends and practice a lot of language. We took a different route home, taking us through a mountain area, which made for a great outing at a tea garden. It was not at all like we planned, but we
couldn’t have imagined a more fixed ‘closed door,’ and through it all we were
provided with patience, flexibility and attitudes we needed to endure.
Next time we'll fly!
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| The Tea Garden |
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| Tea Garden |
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| Cassowary bird at a small zoo at the Tea Garden |
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| our friend's mom, hoping to return home AND return to work |
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| Very small zoo, but the setting among the garden was beautiful! |
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| It was quite cool; Whitman's pj's were the only long sleeves and pants we brought |
