Alaskan Cruise, Part Sicks

Our cruise is now heading towards Ketchikan, Alaska's Number One city (It is deemed #1 because it is closest to the continental United States).
Ketchikan was my travel partner's favorite stop on the cruise.  It is a beautiful town with a lot to see.   Ketchikan is Alaska's fifth most populated city with over 14,000 people living in its boundaries.  It has National Parks, rainforests, a thriving harbor area and the world's largest collection of standing totum poles.   It also has more jewelry stores per capita than any city I've ever visited.   But let's start our tour, shall we?

Here's our boat slowly backing into our port.   Unfortunately that other cruise ship slipped in and stole the spot away from us, so we had to find another spot to park.   When we left, the two captains were exchanging driver's licenses.



Landing in Ketchikan.   As you can see, I am still wearing the same clothes.   Why didn't someone tell me there were no coin laundry on board?

This is the shopping area around the port.   We got some great bargains as it was the end of the tourist season.   The cans of salmon were only slightly past their expiration date.

Another shot of the waterfront.  In the back you can see the Tongass National Forest.

The buses are lined up, waiting to take us to our excursions!

I'm in Ketchikan!   I tried to sind an appropriate song, but what rhymes with Ketchikan?

This was REALLY GOOD. 

The entrance to the sanctuary.   If you look in the shadows
you can see me behind the tallest pole.   My travel partner
is to the left, posing with a smaller totum. 

Our booked excursion was at the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary, where we were told we would hike through a rainforest and possibly encounter bears, bald eagles and other wildlife.   I am happy to report that we did both.   Here are the pictures I took while on the tour...

We're now in the rainforest.  I was trying to get a picture of a bear and two cubs but somehow they eluded me.   Stupid bears.

This bear was fishing for salmon.   If you look near the bottom of the picture you can see all the salmon on the other side of the river.   Stupid bear!

Our national bird, posing high above the zipline paths.  Those salmon don't have a chance.

Leaving the forest, we hiked onto this bridge that overlooks Herring Bay.   Even the seagulls were eating the salmon.   Nature's first law of survival:  Don't be a salmon.

If you look carefully, you can see a seal in the bay.  I'm sure he was attracted by the free meal that was available in the bay...  Yes, he was hunting for a bear.

Not everyone was eating salmon.   Here's a picture of my travel partner feeding lettuce to reindeer.   Neither one of these two eat salmon.

Being too cheap to buy lettuce, here I am faking out a reindeer by feeding him nothing.   Let me tell you something I learned on this trip:   Those antlers hurt.

 

In this part of the tour they showed us a bald eagle and an owl that were permanent residents of the sanctuary.  This owl kept rotating his head through the guide's speech, which freaked me out completely.   I didn't hear a word she said.

This guy is a professional totum pole carver.   The current pole he is working on is a giant bear with outstretched arms, probably reaching for a salmon.   Stupid bear!

We also got a chance to visit Creek Street, the former red light district that is now a shopping area and tourist attraction.  The area was "active" until the 1950's when the government finally clamped down on this practice for good.   There is a path in the back called "Married Man's Trail" that was used an escape route from the raids for many years.  The path goes up into the forest and now provides a beautiful view of the area.   For some reason, I'm not able to add captions to these photos, so you'll have to add your own witty commentary.

 

 

And with that, we leave Ketchikan and head for our last port-of-call, Victoria, BC.   Hope to see you there!