THE CAPTAIN DID A WONDERFUL JOB OF PARALLEL parking in Ketchikan, squeezing the Maasdam between the Celebrity and Carnival ships, while another, smaller, cruise ship is anchored offshore. It isn’t yet 8AM and we can see hoards from the ships swarming the pier-side shops of this self-proclaimed “Salmon Capital of the World” and “Alaska’s First City.” For some reason the sign doesn’t mention Ketchikan is the wettest town in Alaska, something the Chamber of Commerce keeps stumm about.
Tight Parking in Ketchikan Statue and Rain Gage
Holland America reinforced our reluctance to book shore excursions. We received a refund for one of our three excursions in Russia — no explanation given — so we rebooked it. And they had no record of our reservations to Misty Fjords here in Ketchikan. They vowed to “look into it” until I showed them our computer with the receipt and demanded they print our ticket. Oh well, it will probably rain!
Misty Fjords Flight-seeing by floatplane
As it happens, it didn’t rain and our “wilderness cruise” to Misty Fjords went as planned. Our little sight-seeing boat was packed with folks from 4, count ‘em, 4 cruise ships. Except for a few dozen, maybe more, Bald Eagles, wildlife was scarce.
Bald Eagle (for the woman from Phoenix)
We did manage to scope out a few surf scoters, marbled murrelets and a pigeon guillemot. The commentary by the young women naturalists was very informative and entertaining. The scenery was pretty spectacular, more so if you’d never been to Alaska before and they even served us some Alaska clam chowdah.
Diamonds are forever The 3 Bears
After lunch back aboard the Maasdam, John wandered around Ketchikan for a bit, searching for anything that may have been authentic. Perhaps the salmon was real Alaskan but I don’t hold much hope for the diamonds, Tanzanite, hats, T-shirts, mini-totems, stuffed bears and other goodies they were flogging.
Searching for authentic Ketchikan
