Ketchikan today, it averages 14 feet of rain a year and has rain on average 320 days a year. Today, blue skies and warm and not a drop of the wet stuff. Touristy town like the others, full of tshirt, jewellery and crap junk shops, most of which are owned by the cruise lines. No suprise as to why they stop there then. Nice town however, as they all have been, clean and neat with friendly people. Its an old logging town, so we went and saw a cheesy lumberjack show. Wandered around town after that. There was plenty of crab [View Full Entry]

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We got up very early again at about 5.30am when I realised that we were right next to the coast. A pilot boat was guiding the ship to the Ketchikan pier. Ketchikan. Heather got up quickly and didn't see a little boat going past, she flashed at them as she was topless... Lol (like im ever gonna see them ) We got up immediatly and went out to take some pictures and manage a sunrise picture and video of the boat coming into. There were 2 coast guards boats following us with matchine guns... Two boats were already there and one [View Full Entry]

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Cruise West Alaska Tour - 24/07/08 to 16/08/08 On the flight from San Francisco to Ketchikan we changed flights, saw Vancouver Island and had a good view of the Rockies. Beth got good photos of the snow covered peaks, but we do not know what their names are or if Mt. St. Helen is one of them). Kechekan Our Westmark Cape Lodge room gave an excellent view of the harbour. We did not take any optional activities but took the cable car to go down to Creek Street. These shops, built along the Ketchikan Creek (in Australia we would call it [View Full Entry]

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In August of 2008 ten members of the Menezes family took a seven-day cruise on the Holland America Lines ship Volendam. They left from Vancouver Canada and sailed to Seward Alaska covering 1,400 miles. The ship made stops Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway with visits to Glacier Bay National Park and College Fjord. On the last page is a picture of the participants from top left, Mikey, Donny, Maya, Michel, Karen, Sylvan, Maxanne, Rachael, Jane and Billy. It rained the first five and a half days of the cruise but that’s Alaska. We had a wonderful time. In Ketchikan we took the [View Full Entry]

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What's hot: Totem poles What's not: Cruise fatigue Travel lesson of the day: Take the local bus. from Kathy: Ketchikan is one of the rainiest cities in North America, with more than 160" of precipitation annually. Giant slugs and giant vegetation and sagging porches are testament to the humidity. We arrived at 6 a.m. to grey drizzle and learned that this could be considered a weather bonanza for Ketchikan. It is 52 degrees. The kids stayed in bed while Paul and I went exploring. At the Native Trout Hatchery, we watched s [View Full Entry]

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So Brandi & I have spent over a month in Alaska. We got here on time for the longest day of the year, it was a dusky kind of light out until a little after midnight, and we were told it was light again around 3:30 or 4 the next morning, but neither of us could verify that. The weather has been sometimes sunny and beautiful, but mostly gray, and often rainy. It never gets really cold or really hot, which makes sense considering the island of Ketchikan is actually a temperate rain forest. The scenery is amazing. We live right [View Full Entry]

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Our campsite is on a cove and the surroundings are quite beautiful and peaceful. There are mountains across the inlet and little wooded islands dot the water in every direction. We awoke again this morning to clear blue skies and sunshine. Today we are driving into Ketchikan to tour the city and it’s history. The Tongass Historical Museum is the best place to see the history of Ketchikan. There are artifacts, photos and text depicting this city through the years, from the once Native fishing village to the Wickedest City in the world to the Salmon Capital and tourist Mecca that [View Full Entry]

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Sleeping onboard the ferry was quite pleasant. We both got a great night’s sleep, which was good, since we were awaken with a knock on the door at 4:15 am, and a soft voice telling us that we arrive in Ketchikan in a half hour. The last 24 hours aboard the Taku was very pleasant and very relaxing and a great way to travel. Driving ashore in Ketchikan at 5 am on a Sunday morning, we found the streets quite empty. Macdonald’s provided our breakfast before we cruised around the city, getting ourselves oriented with our home for the next two [View Full Entry]

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Catching up - first opportunity. We have been crusiing some time. 17th June - Vancouver Orientation on bus - round Stanley Park, Graneville Island - LJ bought some silk stuff. Then back to hotel for lunch. Afternoon free, guess what Lin went shopping along Robson street, the place to be for all the designer shops. In the evening we did a see level to sea level trip with a dinner thrown in. That was up the observation Tower (the lookout) looking over the harbour and cruise port (where we sailed from) then a walk through the port area for a meal [View Full Entry]

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This morning we woke to snow capped mountains which was something completely different for us especially for Soph who had never seen snow before, we also woke with the ship docked at our first stop the Alaskan town of Ketchikan. Kethcikan is a beautiful town set at the bottom of mountains and only accessable by sea and air, infact if you want to get to their airport you actually have to catch a ferry to another island. As part of the cruise they have a set of shore excursions you can choose to participate in (at a cost obviously), we chose [View Full Entry]

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