Sep. 27th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Each day keeps getting better! Woke up at 6 a.m. and opened my eyes to look out our balcony door at Ketchikan's mountains and a gorgeous blue sky. That view, combined with the cool Alaska morning air (we slept with the door cracked open) made a wakeup experience I will likely think about (with envy) every remaining Monday morning of my life.
We grabbed a quick breakfast before leaving the boat for our first excursion - the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, which we enjoyed. The lumberjacks... lumberjacked (springboard, boom run, log rolling, chopping contests, etc) and injected a fair bit of comedy and audience interaction. One lady got to take home a tiny log chair carved with a chainsaw in front of our very eyes.
The show lasted about 45 minutes, giving us almost an hour and a half before our next excursion. This was good timing, since we had to be back on the boat by 1:30 p.m. for a 2 p.m. departure. We used the time to meander around Ketchikan. Most notably, we visited Creek Street, which runs along Ketchikan Creek.
The Coho (silver) salmon and pink salmon are still running, so we got to see thousands of big fish stuffed into this tiny river. Watched them traveling upstream... such a weird phenomenon.
They work so hard to jump up waterfalls and crazy obstacles just to lay their eggs and die. I wonder if they realize they're going to kick the bucket soon. I think the hundreds of already-dead fish might clue them in. That's a lot of work with a morbid payoff. Other than seeing the salmon (who aren't on the cruise company's payroll), we found Ketchikan surprisingly touristy. And I don't so much mean that local people were the ones trying to make a dollar on we vacationers -- I would expect and even support that. Tons of jewelry stores selling tanzanite and diamonds and amorite and Guess watches and "gold in quartz" clogged the streets. They all bail in winter season, leaving boarded up stores all over the city. Kind of sad. Ketchikan did seem like a cute town, though, once we got past "cruise city." Definitely wish we had more time to explore the park behind Creek Street. The region is literally a rainforest. I always equated rainforest with heat, but I now understand how cooler temperatures and such a lush, verdant environment can coexist.
We got back to the boat around 11:20 since our "Totems Traditions Tour" met to leave at 11:35. Found the tour lady after a few minutes. She seemed a bit frazzled - checked our tickets and told us to sit on a bench until the second bus came (first was apparently full). Flash forward 40 minutes.... still no bus, and tour lady is hiding in a van somewhere while 8 frustrated tourists sit on a bench waiting... Finally one of our fellow benchmates found tour lady, who had apparently FORGOTTEN ABOUT US. She ended up just piling us into the van and driving us to the totem park. Once we got there, the mood lightened considerably. Our actual tour guide was great - very mellow, knowledgeable and subtley quite funny. The totem park was lovely. We walked through the slightly chilly forest until it opened up to a big lake. Several tall totem poles stood around the like like they were watching the water.
We didn't have time to do any more sightseeing after the totem tour since we had to be back at the boat by 1:30. Our forgotten gang of 8 went straight to the tour desk to complain about our unpleasant tour lady and missing part of the excursion. They ended up comping half of the price (yay!). Justin and I went to the Princess Theater for another naturalist talk after that - this one about Alaska's geology and glacier science. Cool stuff. Afterwards, we joined Rob the Naturalist and others in the Wheelhouse Bar for post-presentation discussion. Topics of conversation ended up ranging from Palin again to climate change to healthcare. All really interesting and surpringly not too controversial. We went up to 14 aft after that for more whale watching. Not long after we got there, we saw what looked like "lensing," an effect that happens when whales are bubblenet feeding. Sure enough, whales started diving in those areas! Got some excellent tail photos. Seeing humpbacks that close is just beyond amazing.
The whales eventually left (or the boat left them), but we got to watch a gorgeous sunset.
Once it got dark, we changed into our "smart casual" ensemble again and went to dinner, this time at the Italian-themed Vivaldi Restaurant. Our ridiculously decadent dinner included:
Justin - shrimp cocktail, eggplant parmigiana, a WEIRD jellied beef consomme (aka clear cow jello), a spinach salad, aged NY strip steak and the previously-mentioned Love Boat dessert.
Kate - Proscuitto crudo with melon (I could have died happy right at that table. SO GOOD), rustic minestrone, spinach salad, rabbit with homemade noodles / brown gravy / bell peppers, and tiramisu.
Yeah, after such gluttony, we just went to bed. The boat hit some rough water as we did, but exhaustion and the food coma quickly overruled that sensation. We passed out, so in love with Alaska already and looking forward to another port day!
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