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We sailed into Wrangell this morning, arriving at the dock about 8.
These two photos were taken through our cabin window as we approached Wrangell. Stray spots on the photos are where the sea spray splattered our window.
Once off the ship, we caught a bus (literally a school bus) for the Highlights of Wrangell tour. It was an interesting tour, considering how small the town is. Carl kept referring to it as Mayberry...
The tour took abut 2.5 hours. If one was just driving the route, it would have taken about 20 minutes... Small town.
The first stop was the local museum, which was interesting. One of the interesting exhibits was samples of the pelts of the various animals that have been trapped in the area. By far the softest was the sea otter pelt. I can see why they were trapped nearly to extinction. Another was had a display of what the various salmon varieties look like in the ocean and when spawning. Quite a change in appearance!
After the museum, we drove over to the area near a native tribal house. At first, I thought they were going to let us off the bus to get a closer look, or at least get photos from the shore, but they didn't! We also picked up our local "guide" who had learned a bunch of native lore when he was little, but he hadn't considered it important at the time and was having to relearn it all. They could have left him off...
From there, we rode to the local Totem Park. They had a collection of 5 or 6 weathered totem poles. The local native didn't know any of the stories behind them, so, again, why was he there? The photo on the left shows a detail of one of the totem poles. This detail depicts Big Raven instructing Little Raven in something.
From there, we drove through the boat lifting facility, which is extensive and interesting, sort of. I guess they needed some place else to take us.
Then up by the golf course? Again, just a time filler.
Our last stop was at Petroglyph Beach. It was the most interesting stop of the tour. Several of the black rocks on the beach had figures carved into them. Origin? Unknown.
The photo on the left shows one of the better preserved petroglyphs with some beached old boats in the background. The photo on the right shows another well preserved petroglyph that someone had moved to the edge of the beach to slow erosion. Most of the petroglyphs were stylized drawings - spirals, swirls, indecipherable shapes.
There were other things to see at this beach, also. One item which caught the attention of several of us was the old stump to the left. It's a piece of driftwood that was very well worn and had lots of interesting patterns. Another was a dog that would fetch any stick thrown for him...
The photo the right shows Petroglyph Beach in context with the mountains and water behind. The platform like feature in the distance is the viewing platform. Access to the beach was from that platform.
From there, we drove back to the dock.
We had planned on a hike in the afternoon, but we were both inexplicably tired. So, we had lunch in the Compass Rose, then headed for the cabin for naps, which were interrupted by the men chipping and repainting the side of the ship. We never did figure out what all the other bangs and noises were, but they were loud.
It was a lazy afternoon followed by a good dinner. I'm still avoiding wine, however, settling for ginger ale.
We checked out a bad movie (Total Recall, the remake) from the dvd library. I fell asleep before it ended....