Catching up on Ketchikan
| |
Saturday, July 10 |
| Our final stop was Ketchikan, a town much more to the Inland side of the famous waterway. This had been a major logging camp and later boasted of a pulp mill, but today it survives on tourism from the cruise ships. Store hours are, plain and simply, the ship hours. Ketchikan is the first (or last) port for all the cruises, and there do appear to be a lot of them. We skipped the pre-planned shore excursions and made our way by public bus to the heritage center to learn about Totem poles. Many poles were monuments commemorating the death of a loved one, or of a prominent leader. We took a taxi to a native village where we saw new poles being made -- one just finished had been commissioned by our sister cruise ship, the Radiance, and one being worked on was commissioned by the Peabody museum in Boston. We were invited to commission our own for a mere $500 per linear foot (minimum). |
| Back in town we joined all the other cruise passengers getting last minute gifts from "Alaska." My job was to find something for the newlyweds from Long Island, John and Elise, with whom we have been sharing our dinner table all week. I was tempted by some coasters, and even some nice coffee mugs, but realizing that a present is not a present if you have to lug it, home, I settled on some pot holders and a barbecue mitt with Tlingit designs. |
| Ketchikan gets more that 200 days of rain, but we were there for its first true summer day with a cloudless sky. Everyone was having such a great time ashore that we all grumbled about being back for a 2:30 reboarding, when the other (rainy days) had only required our being back by 5:00. It turned out the reason for the early departure was to that we could head into the "misty fjord," a most amazing place, which would certainly give Yosemite a run for its money if it weren't for the fact that you usually can't see much because of the mist. We had a perfect evening with swooping eagles and sea planes. I suggested that perhaps the solution to Yosemite's problem would be to flood the valley, where the parking lots and souvenir shops are, and let everyone experience the mountains from the quiet solitude of the ship's deck. No, I am just kidding -- that's what they are going on the Yangtze! |
| Speaking of quiet, there are some good rules that prevent ships from broadcasting on their outside loudspeakers while in these natural habitats. While it might not bother the bears, it would certainly spoil the experience of any hikers or birdwatchers out there. |
| Our final day was "at sea" with the promise of scenes from the inland passage. Again, it was a beautiful day, warm enough for even adults to try the outdoor pool and Jacuzzi (although I stuck to the indoor option). Chris and I invited five friends for Irish coffee in our stateroom at 5:00. It turned out all our guests had interior cabins with no windows at all, so our room with floor to ceiling glass and a balcony looked very luxurious indeed. We we were not trying to flaunt the luxury, but just to share it with our table mates, John and Elise, and another couple, Ron and Nancy (!) who were also from long island. Ron is the rabbi of a conservative temple in East Meadow LI and we met the second day at lunch, where I was curious to know how they managed with the highly structured (and excessive) meal options. They manage quite well, although the ship seemed to have given little in the way of thought to what must in fact be a large contingent of the cruise trade. Our final guest was Debbie, a woman traveling with her daughter whom we befriended the first day when the airplane lost her luggage. |
| We had a fabulous sunset that last night as we headed for Vancouver Island, and what will be our brief Canadian adventure. |
