Alert Bay and Friends

We've traveled this stretch 3 times and never stopped at Alert Bay, home of the U'Mista Cultural Center. Today we took a break from chores and walked onto the B.C. Ferry from Port McNeill to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. 

The ferry landing is a 1/2 mile walk from the Cultural Center. We're not usually huge museum buffs but feelwe short-changed this place with too little time to take it all in. It was fantastic!

The art, history, documentary films, potlatch collection of masks, robes, weavings and more was the best First Nations exhibit we've ever seen. We only had 3 hours before our return ferry and wished we had a whole day.

Down the road is the cemetery, grave sites interspersed with a vast collection of totem poles. 

This tribe/band takes great pride in their town. It's well-kept, welcoming, and rich in history and culture, made easy to experience for those of us only here for a brief visit. Impressive!

On return from Alert Bay, Ed and Jolene on 42' Kadey Krogen "Bennu" came aboard for Happy Hour. We met them in Anacortes a few years ago, saw them later in Port Ludlow, then at their winter home in Why, Arizona last February, and ran into them again here yesterday. What a treat!

Port McNeill has been a good stop.