Ketchikan Continued

Ketchikan was one of our longer days in port. Since we went Ziplining in the morning, we had time in the afternoon to explore the town.

Here are some pictures of the town from the bus on the way back to the pier.

Here is a handy map of Ketchikan.
Shan and I returned to the boat to drop off some stuff and stopped to poise for a picture.
When we got back off the shp my favorite tour – the duck tour vehicle was close by.
As you can imagine the area surrounding the pier is filled with souvenir shops and since we were there near the end of the tourist season everything was on major clearance specials. Shan and I were able to get all our gifts for super cheap!

Alaska is known for their wildlife, but many people who visit never get to see any live wildlife, so many of the stores have large animals to take pictures with. Shan and I decided to have a little fun with the bear.

Can you tell me where this store is?
Let me tell you about my morning…
Here is a cute little street.
I loved the salmon store sign – totally me!! Here is the fish house.
The local marina
The town looking out to the rainforest.
Ketchikan is known for their Lumberjack show – we didn’t go, we didn’t even think about going, so not our thing, but in case you want to go – here it is.
Here is our home for the week!
Another view. The afternoon in Ketchikan was just beautiful – the weather was a sunny fall day and we enjoyed wondering around town. Since we were in the States we were both able to use our phones and took some time to contacts our families. When it was time we got back on the ship and got ready to sail away. Shan decided to take a nap and I went out on the deck to watch as we left.

Here are some of the beautiful sights of Alaska
Here is a float plane

Here it is closer.
Here are docks for the barges. Here is a barge – this is the most common form of transportation in Alaska. If you look closely you will find a pick up truck and two boats among the cargo. This is the city from the ship.
During the election one of the big buzz themes was the bridge to no where in Alaska. This bridge was going to be built to connect the Ketchikan airport to the town. Currently the only way to get to the airport is by ferry. The ferry only costs $3 each way, which is not a huge expense it costs a lot more to park at any other airport. The airport is pretty much off by itself – there is nothing else around. So someone thought a bridge needed to be built to connect the airport to offer an alternative way to get to there. This bridge was going to cost millions to build and most locals did not think it was necessary - so it became the token example of a pork barrel sending project.

Anyway – here is the famed airport the subject of the bridge to no where.
As I was wondering around the deck I found the kids area of the ship – yes cruise ships have areas and activities for kids of all ages – I was a bit jealous when I found out the teen area had a wii and rock band and no adults were aloud. Here is the kid’s pool
Here is an area for kids to ride some bikes.
I also saw this black smoke coming from the ship – not sure it that is supposed to look like that.

Tuesday night at dinner we sat with two other couples and conversation lagged a bit. It was the only night we didn’t really enjoy our dinner companions. After dinner we had some time before the show so we went to the casino and Shannon won $20 on the penny slots. We were captivated by these people putting quarter after quarter into this game that has a pile of quarters that get pushed towards the end and any that fall off you get. On the quarters are two piles of money and you try to get that to fall also, because you then win the money. We saw people spending so much money for such a little return. We went to Steve Morris's show, but did not enjoy it as much as we had during the opening show.

We then went to the Vista Lounge for the Motor City show. It was good – all that great Motown music and costumes from the 60’s and 70’s. During the middle of the show Shan and I had a conversation about wither or not the dancers were singing back up. I think being in the smaller venue we were that much closer to them and could tell they didn’t have microphone battery packs on – they had the mic, but they were not hooked to anything. It was quite entertaining trying to figure that one out. After the show JJ was standing outside in the hall talking to some passengers – as we walked by I caught his eye – it made me very happy. :) Now I just needed to talk to him.

After the show we went up to Skywalkers and good ole DJ Tony was over talking to us before we even sat down. It was very obvious he was only interesting in Shannon and he became a bit over bearing. We didn’t want to be up too late since the next morning was the scenic cruising through Tracy Arm Fjord beginning at 6 am. Tony wanted us to wait for him to close down Skywalkers and then go up to the buffet for some dessert, but we declined. Then he wanted to join us during the scenic cruising and asked for our cabin number – we didn’t give it to him, but took his instead. After we got some dessert and went back to our room, Shan and I had a long chat about Tony and decided not to call him in the morning. We then went to bed with the alarm set for the 6 am scenic cruising.

Tuesday, September 16 – Ketchikan, AK

Tuesday was our first day in port. It was a foggy day in Ketchikan, a city that measures rain fall in feet, but we did not have any rain. Which is very rare for a September day. Here are some pictures as we are approaching Ketchikan. We planned a zip lining excursion for our adventure in Ketchikan and we were scheduled to go at 8:30 am. Getting off the ship was no problem – other then the fog the weather was fine – temps were in the mid to high 50’s which is the best you can ask for in Alaska in September. Here is the Star docked. It is not a blurry picture, just the fog. Here Shannon and I are at the Ketchikan welcome center. To get from the pier to the Zipline we had to take a bus. The bus was a classic – I think it was from the 60’s or 70’s. We had to get a picture taken by that too. The bus driver served as a tour guide as we drove, he pointed out salmon in the river and taught us the five types of salmon- chum, sockeye, king, silver and pink and we passed a bald eagle perched in a tree. The driver also told us about the history of Ketchikan and that they average over 250 days of rain a year. With all the focus on Sarah Palin the driver also gave us his opinion on her. It was interesting to hear about the impact her nomination had on the state of Alaska. For me this trip could not have come at a better time.

We arrived at the Alaska Canopy Adventure and we were so excited for this crazy adventure. The zip line course consisted of 8 lines and three bridges through the rain forest canopy about 150 feet in the air.

Here I am in front of the sign.
Here is Shannon.
In order to get up the Mountain to start the zip line we had to ride in this contraption…
Before we left we both ran to the bathroom – a port a potty – which is so ironic after avoiding the bike tour port a potty for the entire tour, it is on my vacation that I have to use one. Shan and I were the last people to get on the vehicle and our “seats” where literally a seat on a wooden crate.

Shan was not sure what to think of it all.
I was just happy to finally be on our way.
As I mentioned before it was pretty foggy - here is the rainforest on the way up.
Here is a tree that has fallen down – they were so tall!!
These are the trees as we got at the starting point.
When we got to the start we needed to get all the gear on. Here Jacob is helping me make sure everything is secure. He also had me put my hair back – the last thing we wanted was my hair to get tangled in the lines. This is Bob and Candace – they were part of cruise critic group who had decided to go zip lining with us before the beginning of the cruise. Here they are all ready to go, while one of the guides is passing around a trash can for anyone who had gum to spit is out – it can be a choking hazard when you first take off and gasp from the sensation. Here Shannon is ready to go.

So am I –
At last I have all the gear. Once we were all set they went over the mechanics of zip lining – where to put each hand, how to keep your legs, how to lean back, how to break, how not to break, how to make sure you make it to the platform, how to land…. Basically 15 minutes of what to do and what not to do - so much to remember. I became a nervous wreck – not from fear of falling or the height, but from being afraid I would not remembering everything. The first line was a short practice one. Shannon was the first of the whole group to go.
Ready to go
Waiting for the signal.
I was the second to go and I totally forgot to break at the end. When I got to the platform I was told I needed to break or I would fall off the platforms. Which made me even more nervous. The second line was a bit longer but still not too long – this time I did everything right, but was still nervous. Here I am getting ready to go on the third line.
At this point we had slip into smaller groups and we had Christopher and Jacob as our guides. Christopher is the one who pushed us off and Jacob is the one who caught us at the end. I was standing on the platform getting ready to go on the third line an Christopher asked me how I was doing – I said I was okay – he said just okay? You need to be doing better then that. So Christopher get me on the line, hanging off the platform ready to go when he stopped me. He then swung out next to me and started swinging me all around. I just started laughing and totally loosened up. He obviously knew I needed to stop thinking so much and relax. That totally did it and from that point on I had a riot.

Here I am in the middle of the third line.
Remembered how I mentioned it was foggy – here is one the lines – we could not see the where it ended, but I was not scared, the line was still up it had to end somewhere over there.
Here is Shannon coming on one of the lines – can you see her way out there?
Here she is getting closer
And closer
This was one of the bridges we walked across. Shannon again was the first to go and I asked Christopher if we all went at once (when we zipped we went one at a time) He said yes and so I followed along and so did the people behind me. Once we got a few feet onto the bridge, Christopher said stop – only one at a time and Shannon said the look on my face was priceless – I along with those behind me rushed to get back to the platform when Christopher said I am just kidding. It was too funny – he got us good!! As we were crossing the bridge we saw a black bear eating salmon from the stream.

He is really down there – just not the greatest picture, but we were 150 feet above him.
This was when I learned that salmon die after they spawn – it is kind of sad.

After the bridges we had a few more lines to go. Here is Shannon on one of the lines
Here I am.
At the end we got a medal for our work and here we are with Jacob and Christopher.
Here is the company’s sign if you are every in Ketchikan I would highly recommend this adventure.

Shan walked over to get a picture of this caribou

We also got a picture with the totem poles out front.