Ketchikan

When I was at the school board meeting last week (SS adoption), one of the board members asked me what I was doing this summer, and after hearing that I was going on an Alaskan cruise, commented that Astoria looked like a lot of those little Alaskan towns.  Ketchikan fits that bill.  We arrived around 6 o'clock this morning, and so we had a view of town as we were eating breakfast on the boat. It didn't hurt that it was overcast, the city is built on a hill, and it was misting: Astoria!

Our shore adventure today was Sea Cycling. I think it's supposed to be one word, but the autocorrect is exhausting. ;)  It's basically a paddle boat built up on kayak pontoons.  Of course, it was raining, so we had a real Alaska experience. I mean, you're not having a good time until you're wearing waterproof gear!

We paddled around the...bay? Strait? I have no idea what to call this little body of water. Edit later: Ward Cove! We pedaled out to where we would leave on the ship, so I know we were in some sort of normal waterway channel, but we only saw one other boat, so we were a little removed from the harbor.

First we hugged the coastline in to an estuary and up a river a little way. As the guide goes out every day (probably more than once a day), she had local knowledge about the animals we were seeing. She had seen the seal pup near their dock when it still had the umbilical cord attached, and a mother and baby bird (no idea what species) she knew was the last baby the mom had left after spring in the animal kingdom. Once we got around on the other side of the channel, it really started to pour. I'm not sure the other couple was having quite as much fun as we were, but we thought it was comical.

In addition to seeing the beautiful sites, we were also dealing with two things, independently. I was focused on trying to get my left leg to complete each rotation of the pedals, which took all my will power, and some acrobatics with my toes and hips. Meanwhile, I abandoned my partner all together in trying to figure out how to steer the boat. There was a rudder that was both touchy, and had a delayed reaction. We zigzagged a little bit as T&L figured out pedaling and steering!

Back at their dock, we were treated to an "eagle show". They had some herring that they chucked in to the water, and about a dozen eagles arrived out of nowhere. I've seen plenty of eagles in my life, but never this close up. We could hear their wings flapping - it was powerful. And the sound when they snatched the fish out of the water was pretty amazing too. I've never seen anything like that.

I had trouble loading the video in Blogger; I hope you can see the video on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/cLybGGeLs3A

We were pretty drenched when we got back to the cruise dock, but as we had two hours left before departing, we had to sneak in one more adventure!  Our guide drove us up to the Totem Heritage Center where we saw some amazing totem poles. They have one of the largest collection of unrestored totem poles in the world. Some of the ones on display are from over 100 years ago.

Fun fact, and something that I didn't know, totem poles are planted in the ground for a variety of purposes, and then left there, even if the people move on. It is not tradition to move them to another location.  The Totem Heritage Center was founded as totems around the area were being vandalized, and some of the stories were being lost.

We were the only ones there, but we still felt the need to whisper. These aren't religious symbols, but they felt very powerful, and instilled a lot of awe in them. We only had a little time here, before the shuttle came, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, but we were both so glad to have made the stop.

And then, we got on the free city bus to take us back in to town.  Ketchikan is small, but it was a circuitous route! We were not the only tourists on board, but it was close. And apparently though our genetic code is Alaskan, we scream tourist! We had several nice, though strange, conversations with locals on the bus.  My "favorite" part was when the bus stopped in front of Safeway, and the driver left the bus running and went in the store. Nobody on board said a thing -- apparently this was normal or acceptable behavior.  He came back with something under his jacket - I'm sure I don't want to know what!

Getting back on the boat, we were cold and wet, and had missed lunch. But guess what they serve at 4pm? High tea! Okay, maybe not "high tea" but a tea like service. We had scones, and jam, and coke, and french fries. ;) Don't tell the Queen.

After a nap, we were treated to some whale displays during dinner! We are getting very excited about tomorrow's excursion which is whale watching out of Juneau!