Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan – the salmon capital of the world! This town is also built on a steep hillside with many buildings built on pilings over the water! The name Ketchikan comes from a native term, Katch Kanna, which translates into “spread wings of a thundering eagle”. Along with the many eagles around, there are also a lot of totem poles!

Our cruise director informed us there was an 80% chance of rain so to dress warmly and bring our umbrellas – good advice!

The ship docked right at their marina so it was easy getting off and we headed to our 3 ½ tour of the day which was the Crab Bering Sea Tour – we boarded the Aleutian Ballad boat and were on our way! The Aleutian boat used to be a commercial fishing boat and was featured on the show, The Deadliest Catch. But after a huge storm sunk the boat, the owners brought it up and decided to do tours with it to show people how the men actually fish on a commercial boat!

It was cold out – very cold – but there were overhead heaters on the boat, and they soon passed out long fleece-lined raincoats for us to wear! The boat was a little rocky heading out and I was hoping that my patch worked well enough so breakfast would stay down!

Our first stop was close to the shoreline and a great place to see eagles – we could see a few flying around and going up to a nest – soon the deck hands were throwing fish out and my did we get a show! The eagles would swoop down in the water and grab those fish almost faster than you could click your camera! They were amazing to watch and at one time there were between 15 and 20 eagles flying right beside the boat – what a sight!! I’m hoping my pictures captured it all!

Then we were off a little further into the ocean where they started hauling up the crabs!! WOW – huge cages full of 3 different kinds of crabs – they brought them out so we could hold them and take photos! The deck hands also gave us all kinds of information about commercial fishing and story after story of their experiences! All in all a fantastic tour!!

It did start raining when we got off the boat – but shopping was all very close and we ducked into a huge store where I found my ornament from Ketchikan, none other than a totem pole!! Because we had to be back on the cruise ship by 12:30, we didn’t have much time at all to look around but I was bound and determined to see a totem pole – so we walked around a little while and sure enough, we located a couple of them!

Back on the ship we grabbed some lunch and then went to a presentation on the Alaska Gold Mining – very interesting! For dinner, we had a special seating time and the waiters presented part of the meal dancing and singing!! We all wore chef hats and the meal was superb!! My favorite was the appetizer which was brie cheese covered by a puff pastry with crispy onions on top served with a cherry/apple sauce – very tasty!

And to end our evening, we went to the movie, The Mosquito Coast, an older movie that I had seen years ago but it was good the second time around too! Then it was back to the room to enjoy our chocolates, mail, the next day’s itinerary and a reminder to push our clocks an hour ahead! Our time is winding down………………………..