Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Alaska part III






July 21 Friday

Ketchikan Alaska…  We had both awakened very early…  ordering coffee from room service… watching the forests go by…  now 10:30… passing small fishing boats as we enter the channel where Ketchikan is located…  The ship docked at about 11:00 am…  We walked off a few minutes later… heading up towards Creek Street, finding a  pop-up post office where we mailed letters and postcards…  then walked about a bit visiting a book store and several of the shops…  I may have found a tie, a neck tie, something I was looking for… a quest completed.

We asked about the Totem Pole museum… and found the trail along the creek (the “married man’s trail”) which would take us there… not the alternative, known as “huff and puff” aka the road not taken…  The married man’s trail started on a wooden walk way along above the river… passing above the fish ladder where no fish were to be seen… then followed the road along the creek and eventually to the Totem Pole Museum…



The Museum was fantastic… preserved but not restored totem poles… Six standing, the others laying in storage… there were other artifacts including robes, baskets and bent wood boxes…  There was a representative of the Native community present to answer questions… It was a very, very good museum.  

Leaving the museum, we tried to visit the fish hatchery which was closed for renovations… then walked back down along the creek… Back in town we wandered looking for food, returning to the New York Hotel, which we had found earlier… when looking for the museum…  We sat and ate… local sea food with local beer… All was good…



We returned to the ship, through the tourist shops…  then once aboard decided to go back out in search of a wifi connection… we found one… a fisherman’s dive bar… on the dock but not tourist forward… We found beer and a wifi password… sitting at a table away from the bar where a woman was looking for a boat in search of a deck hand…  We found our internet and I posted the next of the blog posts…

Having communicated with the outside world, we returned to the ship… in time to wander and watch them drop ropes and sail away, into the grays of the passage… To dinner and to bed only after walking the decks...

July 22 Saturday

We awake late to gray skys with some “shippy” motion… Cruising Inside Passage, yet not yet there… we are crossing a gulf, open to the ocean…  We look for whales… we find none… we explore the ship… Gael gets her nails done then does the kitchen tour… I attend the captain’s talk, then the “America’s Test Kitchen” demonstration, then we find each other for the Captain’s Mariner’s brunch… we get our ships tiles… we toast the crew… we have a wonderful lunch…

We continue to wander the ship… looking outward for never seen whales… reading (I am on Harry Potter II) and just enjoying the ship…

Eventually we enter the inside passage… we are again near land… heavily forested land… we are in a confined seaway, with ships and barges nearby…

We are consumed by packing for this is our last night aboard…  we pack then rework the packing and bags but eventually are satisfied.

We have dinner enjoying a bottle of wine I brought aboard… we attend the magic and comedy show… we end up on our balcony with glasses of single malt… watching the world turn to gray, then grayer, then disappearing… Near midnight we push the bags outside into the corridor and we are into bed, our final night to fall asleep to the sound and motion of the sea

July 21 Sunday

At Dock at Vancouver (7:00 am)…  Eventually all vacations must end…  We both awoke early…  We were in the outer harbor at Vancouver…  We showered and watched from our balcony as we passed under the bridge into the inner harbor, then docked…  


We went upstairs for breakfast, sitting at a table near the pool… then as they started to called groups to disembark, returned to the room… We were in what was supposed to be the last group to disembark, brown 3…   They are calling lime 1,2, & 3… which are listed on our schedule… but also yellow and red, neither of which appear in any of our information…  Our cabin door is open… our neighbors mostly gone… Our balcony has been taken over by crew, cleaning and preparing for the next batch of passengers… who will start boarding in a few hours…

Eventually, on time they call “brown 3,” our group, our number, and we make our way downstairs to the gang plank… off the ship to the baggage claim area, to Canadian immigration then out to the hubbub and confusion of people finding their way home… we find the luggage check area and check our bags, for our flight is some hours away…  Then head out to explore.

Once on the street outside, I find the railroad station where we can catch the subway train to the airport… then we look about… we have no expectations of plans… we find a kind woman who has a vest saying “ask me”… she suggests Grand Isle… we head out walking south towards Grand Isle… past bars, tattoo parlors and a store selling medicinal cannabis for dogs and a Fred Flintstone faux car…

We find Grand Isle but initially can’t find our way there… locals supply directions… we arrive to find it as wonderful as suggested… It is shops, markets, a children’s market, a bead store (Gael likes beads) and such… there are buskers… there is a cement plant decorated as to belong next to a market and a bead store… We wander, into and out of stores… into the market with wonderful flowers and inviting foods… eventually finding the local brewery where we have beers and pork sandwiches… the service is notable… we acquire sufficient Canadian currency to take the bus back to the cruise dock where we have stored luggage near the subway station…

We find the bus stop, board the bus but our currency is not correct for the bus… but the driver asks if we are taking the train, then gives us transfers to make us legal on the way, even without fare…  for the train would issue transfers for the bus…

We exit the bus, reclaim our luggage and consider a taxi but the locals all say take the train…  We do, at a fare substantially less than a taxi… arriving at the airport likely faster than the taxi… 

We check bags, (moving heavy items about again) then clear security, then US immigration, then with two hours before our flight find a place for a beer…

Eventually we board… find our seats and places for carry ons…  and settle in for the flight home to Vegas…  As expected we arrive… regain baggage, and Nat and Ryan pick us up… home to Gaels and the dogs, then Gael takes me home with my dogs to my home… Home…

I drag bags in… take a few minutes to look about and off to bed… my bed…   

Vacation over...

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