Have fun in Ketchikan? You bet'cha can!!

---

All got a little active during the night. Woke up at 1.30 am and found the ship doing its own little version of the Samba. Probably wasn't particularly rough but after the smooth sailing we've enjoyed so far, doing what old men do several times a night became just that little more challenging and requiring just a little more attention to detail! But with resolute attention to detail managed to avoid embarrassment. Was a little bit concerned as it is not a well kept secret that I am not the worlds best sailor, but as it turned out went straight back to sleep. Another disaster averted.

Awoke at 7am and Sandy's first words were 'man the ship was getting thrown around last night'. The fact that it woke Sandy is a testament to the fact that it obviously got a bit of a roll on as it takes an awful lot to wake that girl. Not much of a view out the window as low cloud, thick fog and drizzle all working together. Absolutely no complaints about the weather. We are here in late September and this is our first rain. We have been spoilt. After breakfast kids migrated back to kids club and their mates and Sandy and I wandered the decks gazing at the mist and as it lifted a little all the small islands dotted along the ships passage. Very picturesque but lousy for photographs as just too dark and dreary on the camera if not the eye.

At 11am we joined the kids for a family scavenger hunt. Standard thing of moving around the ship locating things off a list and then returning with them by a set time. We were determined to win it, okay I was, and I was very concerned about my childrens complete inability to cheat...even when I gave them directions it did not come comfortably to them. One of the sections involved collecting the signatures from seven different types of ship personnel. We had five and I forged the last two and the kids were shocked. As it transpired it appears the Queensland family were even bigger cheats as they beat us by two points. I congratulated them and said it was nice to see Australians winning again. They laughed. Politely.

At midday we docked in our last Alaskan port of call, Ketchikan. Kids wanted to go to kids club. Sandy said, 'like hell', and we dragged them ashore, through the rain and around the streets of Ketchikan. Sandy really liked this place, we all did. Walked to an area called Creek Street, way up the other end of downtown. It took about 6 minutes. Creek Street are all old houses built on pilings alongside a river which flows into the ocean a few metres past the last house. There is a raised walkway through the maze of houses, most of which are now shops and galleries. Street is about 200 metres or so long and the last house is famous, it is called 'Dolly's House' and there was a lady on the doorstep who invited me and the children in for a family friendly tour of the establishment. It's a brothel. To be fair it is now a museum as opposed to a functioning bordello, but I struggled to see how there could be such a thing as a family friendly tour and when I asked the same was told they discussed history and the evolution of women's rights. I asked if they had 'Tui's beer advertisements in Alaska. Take a moment to imagine the kind of questions an 'educational' tour of this facility would cause to spring from the minds of a 10 and 8 year old.

What the kids were captivated by was the river itself. The river is perhaps 15 metres wide at its widest point along Creek Street and sits between rock faces rising a couple of metres out of the water before the buildings and walkway of Creek Street top them. The rock shelves and face are littered with literally hundreds of dead Salmon who having spawned are now dying in the river. Nature is a mysterious beast. There are still others struggling down stream, having negotiated the rapids and the narrow white water funnel at the top end of Creek Street. Amongst the salmon are seals. Right below us just a few feet away, very, very well fed seals. What we watched was amazing, as in the same way a cat plays with a mouse or a bird, the seals were playing with the salmon. Picking them up and doing barrel rolls with them, knocking them upstream, swimming into them deliberately and generally just tormenting them. Incredible to see and watch such a thing and we stood there in the drizzle and did just that.

At around 1.30 we took the kids back to the ship, fed them and much to their relief abandoned them at kids club and we returned to town. Spent a few hours just walking in the rain, looking into tacky tourist shops and deciding if we did or didn't really need a totem pole fridge magnet. Didn't won. Then followed the directions of Lonely Planet to the best coffee cafe in Ketchikan to find it is now an Irish Pub.

Ended up in the Tribal House Cafe, its a title only, its a cool little cafe through the back of a convenience / drug store that had wi-fi. Good wi-fi, hence the ability to download more photographs in the two blogs we published for Juneau and Icy Straits Point. Spent an hour there, partly for the wi-fi partly for the really good coffee and then ambled, through the drizzle, back to the ship and our offspring who had not missed us in the least. Sandy and Caitlin have been to the Broadway musical numbers show tonight onboard and Reuben has been to the movies. I went to Cova and listened to a guitarist playing the Beatles and Eagles numbers. Ketchikan was really cool and a good note to finish the Alaska phase of this trip.

Tonight and tomorrow we sail all day to arrive in Vancouver early Tuesday morning.

---

Photos

Down on Creek Street...
Just a little bit moist out. Below the bridge are salmon, some swimming downstream others dying and dead along the way.

The ones that didn't make it...
Hundreds of dead salmon line the riverbanks. A little bit of an odour even in the drizzle. In full sun would have been overpowering.

When a seal just wants to hold someone...
It was very overcast so the picture is even poorer than usual. This seal had a salmon about 4o cms long in its grip and was rolling around it with it.

Ready made office...Sandy wanted this in.
The Tribal Culture Cafe...last in a number of cafes where we have availed of their free wi-fi. I am developing a thesis that the quality of the coffee is directly related to the speed of the wi-fi in remote locations. Better the coffee, slower the wi-fi. The ipad and keyboard were fantastic...

Comments

[Audra]

What old men do several times in the night...
Sit down... :)