Today we kick off what will be a 3 week trip through the San Juan Islands and into the Canadian Gulf Islands, then back across the Georgia Strait to Vancouver and up the British Columbia coast. We intend to reach Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands before heading back south and returning to Bellingham.

We flew with our friends, Tom and Lisa, from SFO to Everett Washington’s Paine Field. After a quick flight, Tom and I had to go pick up our Enterprise rental car so we hopped in an Uber to do that. When we arrived at Enterprise, we were informed that they didn’t have the size car we had reserved (big enough to accommodate the large amount of luggage the four of us had). The guy first offered us a pretty spiffy looking Mini Cooper. Uhhhh…nope. The next choice was a 4-door pickup truck. The catch was that it had some pretty severe body damage.

As we drove to Bellingham, we had a great time speculating about how this could not possibly be a real Enterprise rental car. There were no identifying markings anywhere suggesting it was owned by Enterprise. Not even the keychain which would normally include specific information about the vehicle, like the license plate number.

We spun some great stories about how the rep was probably having us move his car for him or smuggle some illicit materials. In the end, it turns out it was likely part of their commercial fleet which consists of vehicles they rent out on a long term basis to companies. Much less exciting than our stories.

We stopped for lunch on the drive at a great little Mexican place we found.

After lunch, we decided to go straight to the boat to drop our bags since they were mostly sitting in the open bed of our sweet Chevy Silverado. We arrived to find Sea Stock ready and waiting.

After a bit of a boat tour/orientation for Tom and Lisa, we head to the market to get some initial provisions. We couldn’t fully provision yet due to the restrictions on things you can bring into Canada. Even still, we managed to buy a good amount of groceries. We also bought a cooler and some ice to keep stuff cold while we went to dinner since we didn’t want to return to the boat before we ate. We drove south down Chuckanut Road to The Oyster Bar. It was a restaurant that Tom and Lisa were familiar with that had stunning views over the water and great food.

After dinner it was back to Sea Stock to unload groceries and call it a night.