More on Cruising in Alaska

One of the joys of cruising, I found out, is the pampering you get.  Not only does your room get cleaned, bed get made, bathroom get straightened up  and everything put in order every morning; it also gets ready for you at night.  It would mysteriously be ready for you when you finally got back to your room in the evening.  Bed turned down, candy on the pillow and the Princess Patter (a news letter schedule for the next days happenings) on your bed.  One day I quickly hid put my sleeping attire under my pillow after the bed had been already made, I was in a hurry.  That night not only was all the aforementioned things done but, there was my sleeping attire...neatly folded on my bed ready for me.  Oops!  If we wanted(and we did) a softer bed, they put a foam pad on it for you.  Whatever you asked for would just show up.  WAALA!  I loved it.  And have I mentioned the food yet?!?

We were at sea  Sunday afternoon and all day Monday.  Tuesday morning we pulled into Ketchikan.  I woke up at 4:30 that morning and was amazed at the snow covered  mountains we were passing through and watched the ship docking for the first time.  The little town and the houses on the banks, the 'float' planes or taxis that fly; it all was beautiful and such a different world.   Just a note:  Alaskans, per capita, have more airplanes than any other state.  Alaska is so large and so remote that flying becomes a necessity.  It was really strange to see that many planes taking off and landing on the water.  Ketchikan is the 4th wettest place on earth.  It is know as Alaska's 'First City' because it's the first major community travelers stop at as they journey North on the famed inside Passage.  Located on an island, Ketchikan began life as an Indian fishing camp. It has the world's oldest collection of totem poles and has a colorful Indian history.

We disembarked the ship to go on our first  excursion.  I had signed up for the Misty Fjord and Wilderness Explorer.  It was raining but I didn't care; I had my Mickey Mouse rain poncho on, I was ready....


We got on a large catamaran, one of the fastest sightseeing vessels in Alaska, for our excursion.  Misty Fjord owes it's incredibly lush landscape to water: saltwater passageways, freshwater streams, waterfalls and frequent rainfall, averaging 160 inches a year.  It has been difficult describing the Misty Fjord without writing a book, so I'll stop now in fear of boredom sitting in for the reader; I'll show you pictures instead.  There are a lot and picking what to show has also been difficult.  I just wish you all could have seen this.

Entering Ketchikan. 

I like this house, would love to see the inside.  It looks so rustic and so fitting in this setting.

 One of the many planes I saw.

 Off the ship and waiting to get on the bus to take us to the catamaran.  It rained off and on most of the day.  For the rest of the whole cruise-sunny and warm.

A friend took this picture of me in my Micky Mouse poncho, but you can't see Mickey, he is on the back.  People looked, I smiled.  We are on the catamaran; the lady behind me with the grass, cone hat on is a born and raised native Indian and was one of our naturist on the tour. She gave us a lot of information; much of which was about the three tribes that are the original people that live here.

This is New Eddystone Rock.  It is basalt that rose from a volcanic vent through fractures in the floor of Behm Canal.  The glaciers scoured away most of the flow and left behind this rock and several other islands.  

It is called Misty Fjord after all, have to have the misty mountain picture.

 The markings on the mountain sides that where created by the glaciers.  They are beautiful.  There are also markings called 'eyebrows' because of the shape left when a piece of the rock falls off due to nature occurrences.

 Just one of the 'many' waterfalls we saw.

The markings on the sides of the bank were caused by the glaciers as they moved, I thought they were beautiful and interesting.

This was the coldest day we had on the cruise.

Of course we saw many eagles.  To spot them you looked for a white dot in the trees and zeroed in with your camera.  They are, in my view, an amazing creature.

 If you look closely at the next picture you will see a red design.  It is a sun, painted on there many many moons ago by one of the three tribes that inhabited this area.

 Can you see the purple star fish?  Or sun fish as they like to call them.

This tour was about 5 hours long, they served us refreshments and had coffee and hot tea available for the whole trip.  It was a great introduction to Alaska for me.  There were many excursions to pick from in Ketchikan; I think I picked the right one to go on.