Ok, I'm a little late writing this journal.  Yesterday was a very long day.

We woke up early in the morning so we could join the others for breakfast.  We thought my class was at 9:30, but unfortunately it was at 9, so breakfast was cut a little short.  As per normal, we just did the buffet.

Class went very well.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the domino knitting project they were asked to do.  Then we went to eat some more - lunch time!  We weren't terribly hungry, so again we went to the buffet.  Not a great selection, but it worked.

At 2pm, we docked in Prince Rupert, BC, Canada.  The pier sure didn't look like much.  Tons of locals watched as we arrived and docked.  That was something we hadn't seen.  We disembarked as quickly as possible to avoid being late for our bear watching tour at 2:20pm.

We checked in with our guide at 2:15pm, then went to where we were asked to wait.  And we waited.  And we waited.  At 3:05, our boat finally pulled up.  By this time there were many of us that were already regretting this excursion decision.

We boarded the boat and headed off to find the bears.  Much to our surprise, it was a 2 hour and 15 minute boat ride!!  We couldn't believe it.  We arrived, found a huge grizzly bear to watch for 30 minutes, then left to get back to the ship before all aboard at 8:30pm.  We just made it, arriving at 8:20pm.  I was parched.  The only beverage we were able to get on the boat was Iced Tea, which I can't drink.  I was not amused.  Admittedly, the bear was really cool.  He swam for us and did all sorts of stuff.  But all-in-all, I wouldn't recommend this tour to anyone.

We also found out that our ship is the only one that docks in Prince Rupert, so they don't get much tourism.  From what I hear, they shouldn't get any.  There were some cute shops with stuff from local artists, but not much.  And I haven't met anyone who was happy with their tour there.  We'll see what happens - I lodged a complaint with the ship's excursion manager.

We got back on board, changed clothes, then went down to Shogun, the Japanese restaurant, for dinner.  Toni was supposed to join us but we couldn't find her, so it appeared to be just the two of us.  About 15 minutes into dinner, Sally and Toni came in and sat with us for a while but didn't feel like eating.  Dinner was very good.  Desserts were phenomenal.  Life is so good on a cruise ship!!