Blogs from Ketchikan, Alaska, United States, North America - page 7

This afternoon we drove our car and camper onto the M/V Columbia (Alaskan Marine Highway System). Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the US combined, and more than half of its coastal cities are unreachable by road. In 1960 (just one year after statehood), Alaska voters passed a bond issue to initiate a state-owned Marine Highway System that would connect these communities. The ship can carry 931 passengers and lots of vehicles. Amenities include a dining room, a snack bar, coctail longe, theater, and a small gift shop. Many pitched a tent using duck tape on the bridge and cabin decks. Some slept on the floor or on reclining chairs. Since the journey from Bellingham, WA to Ketchican takes 38 hours, we decided to pay extra for a private two-berth cabin complete with toilet, ... read more

Greetings from an eagle.... read more

Ketchikan... read more

Today was another cold and wet day in Alaska. But it was also my last day there so I braved the cold and headed out off the ship. I didn’t have any big plans for Ketchikan today, just wandering around. I headed down to Creek Street and roamed through the shops there. I walked to the far end of the street and discovered a path there called “Married Man’s Trail” - a reference to the fact that Creek Street was the home of Dolly’s and other brothels, so that trail had have been the way the men would sneak down to visit the ladies. From Creek Street, I wandered down some of the streets of town I hadn’t been down before. Tucked away down one, I discovered a little alley area where a wilderness group had ... read more

In Ketchikan, right near where the ship docks, is the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. I’d read before that it is totally kitchy and tourist-tacky but great fun. Add in the fact that we could get treated with crew passes and my friends and I were sold. We’ve been packing our days with tours up until this point - in fact today I’d thought I was going to go on another tour but I didn’t get space at the last minute - so today we decided to go see the show. And it was goofy and it was kitchy and it was tourist-tacky but wow was it a fun show! Four guys competed in teams of two in various lumberjack events. One represented Team Canada (Dawson Creek) and one Team USA (Spruce Mills) and the audience was ... read more