May 19
May 20-21
May 22
May 23
May 24
May 25-26
May 27
May 28
May 29
May 30
May 31-June 1
June 2-3
June 4
June 5
June 6-8
Woke to more fog. So, we went in search of breakfast. Our tour this morning starts soon after docking, so we needed to finish breakfast before most of the restaurants started serving...
We wound up picking up some cereal and yogurt at the Pool Bar and bringing them back to our room, which was much warmer...
Our ship pulled into port (Ketchikan) about 8. The fog was so thick that the dock wasn't visible until we were within about 20 feet of it!
We debarked and walked down the pier to the jet boat that would take us on a tour this morning. We boarded the St. Nona, an excursion sight seeing catamaran, for a trip out to Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness Area. Once the fog burned off, the views were fantastic!
These three photos show one of the reasons this area is refered to as Misty Fjords. Even as the fog burned off, there was a hazy mist over most of the area.
By the way, the definition of a fjord is a glacier carved valley which fills in with seawater, so the dropoffs were steep and the waters were deep.
The photo on the left shows Carl watching off the bow on the upper deck as we slowed down to look at something.
The photo on the right shows our wake as we sped to another location. When the boat was moving this quickly, I retreated to the enclosed main deck. When we slowed down to look more closely at something, I'd climb up to the upper deck. I wore the wrong hat for staying upstairs when we were really ripping along!
The boat would slow whenever wildlife or evidence of wildlife appeared. The photo on the left shows an active bald eagle's nest high in a tree near one point. It took a while to spot this. The crew insisted that there white eagle heads visible some days, but they weren't in residence when we were watching.
.
These two photos show different views of New Eddystone Rock, an island in the middle of the channel. We wound up circling it! When the first explorers first saw this rock, they thought it was a sailing ship under full sail... In reality, it's an eroded lava tube!
These three photos show some of the scenery we saw as we penetrated the Wilderness Area. The photo on the left shows one of the many ribbon waterfalls that dot the walls of the fjords. In reality, this fall is quite wide, it's just so high that a photo can't do it justice. The center photo shows the view back up one of the side fjords. The photo on the right shows the abrupt transitions from wooded forest to sea that characterize this area.
They fed us a short snack on the way back (chowder and smoked salmon taste), which was enough for my fragile stomach for lunch.
Once we returned to Ketchikan, we walked around town a while – out to Creek Street, up it to Married Men's Trail, past the salmon ladder, on to the Totem Heritage Center. All places I went to on my last Alaska trip.
The photo on the left shows a sculpture located on the dock showing the many types of people that helped settle Ketchikan. It's new since my last visit.
The photo on the right shows a new metal sculpture located on Ketchikan Creek. It's a brightly colored salmon representing the many salmon that climb these falls (and the salmon ladder just beyond) each year to spawn.
It's also at the base of Married Man's Trail. This trail is an old one that clambered along the creek so that married men could slip out of their homes higher up the hill and visit the brothels that lined the lower part of Ketchikan Creek!
Then back through a couple of souvenir shops plus a quick trip to a grocery store for a small box of saltine crackers (in case the motion gets to me again) and back to the ship about 4. I'm pooped!
Another really good dinner. We had the same enchanting waitress as last night (Kerti from Bali). Kerti would make it a point to say something to us every time we saw her. She even intervened with the head waiter a couple of times to have us seated in her section. She was delightful!
I fell asleep early again.