Ketchikan, Alaska

We were a little late getting to Ketchikan, AK this morning. We didn't arrive until almost 10:30am because of rough seas last night.

We went to the Bistro for breakfast this morning. The Bistro serves a much smaller selection of breakfast offerings than our usual Lido buffet, mostly just pastries, some sliced meat and fruit. We both had smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel (Ross) or toast (Shannon), along with fruit and a cappuccino.

After breakfast, we took a tender to Ketchikan. When we left the Symphony, it was cloudy, but not really raining.

Fifteen minutes later, when we arrived in Ketchikan, it was pouring rain. I estimate about 1/3 of the people on the tender didn't even get off. They just stayed on and went back to the Symphony. Of course, we didn't let the rain stop us.

There was an interesting statue of an eagle near the dock that many people were taking pictures of.

The main drag looked almost exactly like the other Alaskan towns we have been to, full of jewelry and trinket stores.


We stopped at a post office and I wrote and mailed several post cards.

This beautiful totem pole was in the center of town.

We made our way to Creek Street, which is a historic part of Ketchikan. The entire street is a wooden boardwalk that was built above the creek. It used to be the red light district, but now is full of historical buildings, local art and curio shops. We thought it was one of the most interesting places and the best shopping location for the entire trip. In the picture below, Ross was standing on a regular street, and you creek street is across the creek and behind him.

I am standing under the entrance sign to Creek Street.

Ross is standing in front of the infamous Dolly Arthur's house. Dolly referred to herself as a "sporting woman", but I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine what sport she was playing.

We thought this fish bench was adorable and I was about to take a picture of Ross in front of it when nice couple we had met at our wine tasting walked by and offered to take the picture of both us.

There is a hidden trail in the woods leading from one of the main roads in Ketchikan to Creek Street. It was aptly named "Married Man's Trail" because the single men were able to use the public way. :)

At one point the creek turned into more of a rushing waterfall. I wish I had a better picture, but behind Ross is a "salmon ladder" that many of the salmon use to make their way up the stream instead of the rapids. The creek was so flooded, running high and fast that we only saw a couple of salmon trying to get up it though.

After viewing the salmon ladder, we headed back to the ship. We made it back in time for afternoon tea again.

I mentioned the scone's right? And the fresh whipped cream and strawberries? Oh my, these were good.

As the Symphony prepared to sail away from Ketchikan, I desperately tried to post my blog and send some emails before I lost contact with the Internet again. I took one last picture of Alaska before we headed back towards San Francisco.

We lounged around, reading, until it almost dinner time. Ross snapped this picture of me getting ready.

It was another casual night (as all port days are), but dinner on this ship is never a blue jeans and t-shirt sort of casual.

We ended up being invited to eat dinner with our friends again this evening so I wasn't able to snap any photos of our food. We had a wonderful time talking with some of the members of the Cruise Critic message boards I read, along with 2 lovely couples we met from Australia.

After dinner we went to see Dale Goneyea, who is a comedy pianist. Ross and I both thought he was wonderfully entertaining. The highlight was a very funny song about our cruise set to a montage of the Les Miserables sound track. (Something like: "At the end of the cruise, you're another size bigger! And that's all you can say for the life aboard...") I was very glad we went to his show, and I would recommend seeing his show if you get the chance.

Only 2 days left of our cruise! Tomorrow and the next day will both be sea days as we head back to San Francisco.