Our first day was a sea day which was actually pretty nice because it allowed us to get acclimated to the ship. That is also when I discovered the ship had intermittent cell coverage on sea days and I was really glad that I was only working on port days. I also discovered that it can get pretty cold on the sea and I was really glad I left all my resort wear at home and had jeans and long sleeved shirts! Trust me it’s chilly.
The next day we arrived at our first port of Ketchikan and I was happy we were able to pull right up to the dock. One huge advantage of being on a smaller ship is we could visit ports that smaller ships could not and most of the ports we were able to dock. In this case it was a short walk up to a giant gift store area and then a free shuttle into town.
Ketchikan is a cute little town and they have the tourist trade down. The initial building was full of lots of collectibles and had easy to access transportation to excursions and the town. Since Mom was on an excursion I headed out on my own.
Unfortunately there were 3 more cruise ships on another dock so when I got into downtown it was pretty crowded. There were lots of little shops to look at and some nice sculptures but the prices were a little on the high side for me. I really wanted to buy some Alaskan gold but that definitely wasn’t in the cards for me on this trip. I did end up getting a small rock totem made by an Inuit.
Another thing was despite it being a tourist area the signage was not that great. Despite having a printed map and stopping numerous times for directions it took me a long time to find Creek Street. It was cool though and I was glad when I finally did. This was the red light district in the olden days and the houses are all up on stilts to accommodate the tides. It was really pretty and I even saw a seal cruising along below the houses. The later the day got the more crowded it became though and I headed back towards the ship.
Overall the visit was so-so but the best thing I bought was a new lined rain coat. I have been using one I bought at Mount Ranier for many years and it actually had a rip in it. They had the same raincoats that said Alaska on them for only $29.99 at the main gift shop by the ship and I wore the heck out of that for the rest of the cruise.
The next day we landed in Icy Straits and it was such a small town I actually signed up for a whale watching excursion with Mom. I’ll talk about that more in the next post but first we toured the little town where most everything was closed. They did have a cool (and free) sky cable to take us to the little town and another for $50 that went up to the mountain and you zip lined down. We skipped the pay version and instead wandered around a bit.
Next up the whale watching tour which was a highlight of the cruise and a second bucket list item gets checked off. Oh and one last thing. On of these nights I saw the most gorgeous sunset I have seen in years. There is nothing quite like a sunset from a boat. This picture isn’t altered at all just the sky and sea in all its glory.
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