Alaska: Ketchikan

 Thursday, July 6, 2023, Ketchikan, Alaska

We didn’t arrive until 12:30 pm. A huge Norwegian cruise ship was across from us, and there were long lines of people returning to their ship as we arrived.

Our ship is the small one. 

It was another beautiful day. The sign said Welcome to Alaska’s 1st City. Most everyone took a shuttle into downtown, almost a 30 minute ride. Holland America was able to dock right near town, but not us. We were taking the Duck Tour in the early afternoon. It provided its own shuttle to their pickup point a little past the ship’s shuttle’s destination.  

We climbed on the amphibious vehicle and listened to the safety briefing. Then we rode us through the historical district with the guide pointing out major sites in a lighthearted manor. We took pictures of places we wanted to go back to later, like the Salvation Army Thrift Store and Parnassus Books. 

In the Duck tour vehicle, with the Ketchikan sign in the background. That’s my hat.

From the water portion of the Duck tour

We arrived at the put in, and after a safety check drove into the water for the aquatic part of the tour. It was pretty tame, with information about the various types of boats in the harbor and saw some eagles and seals.

Dropped off back downtown, we were on foot. The city is nestled right next to the hills so there were some uphill trekking. We walked along Creek Street. Along the river there is a boardwalk called the Ketchikan Salmon Walk. Unfortunately, the salmon were about a week from arriving, so we did not see one salmon. There were two museums. We arrived at the lower one, but realized we really wanted to be at the totem museum. 

Creek street board walk

With closing time coming up, we hustled up the hill from the Salmon Walk, it as steep. Before we found it, we got to an administrative building with nice totem poles, but no museum. They redirected us down to a Main Street, then we went up and up, through a park, and with many people helping to direct us, got to the Tongass Historical museum 15 minutes to closing. This museum had the oldest and best preserved totem poles and cultural artifacts. We “focused” on taking pictures of as much as we could. They did not charge us admission. 

Back down the hill to town, we tried an Asian restaurant and just couldn’t get along with the owner (how could that be?). Just a few doors down there was a Mexican restaurant for an OK lunch. 

Somewhere during this time there were postcards to mail, which was made possible by a couple from the ship who showed up just in time to loan us a pen (we dutifully returned it later). 

Mailing post cards (again)

After much walking, made it back to the Duck’s pickup spot. The meeting place for the ship’s shuttle was in a different dock area than what we had used, so realization hit us that we didn’t know which way or how far to go. Some ship passengers looked familiar so we began to follow them. More shipmates joined the procession. When we got there the bus was waiting at the light to leave. Charlie (figuratively) threw himself in front of the bus and saved the 10 of us an hour wait. A good thing, because everyone was bushed.