Wet and Wild Ketchikan

Arriving into Ketchikan was a breath of fresh air after the roughness of the previous day. Our time in Ketchikan was the shortest of all our ports with us getting in at 10 am and all aboard was at 4 pm. This was the place that I was really excited to go out and explore, however, we had an excursion booked for 12:30 so we had just under 2 hours to go out and explore before heading back to the ship for lunch and to get ready for the Lumberjack show and Saxman Native Village. 

We headed out to the city in the rain, a typical day in Ketchikan as they are the liquid sunshine capital of the world. We wandered into the stores that had our free items from the coupons that came with the map that the ship gave us. Afterwards, we wandered through the shops, stopping at a local vendor who was selling prints of the paintings that she does in the offseason. Mum and I picked up one each, with me Otters are particularly of fascination. We then headed further into the city, making our way to Creek Street. So named as it follows the creek out to the harbour and is a particular tourist attraction. 

When we had had enough of the shopping, we headed back to the ship to warm up a bit and to get away from the smell that followed us around whenever we were near where the Salmon had run. After a quick lunch, we headed back out into the weather and made our way to the Lumberjack show, via the meeting place just outside of the cruise ship docks. 

Once at the show and after some shopping, we made our way to the outside arena to watch the boys do their stuff. They did all of the usual show off tricks with the axes and even some with a chainsaw. They ended the show off with the traditional log roll. 

After the show, we then headed out by bus to the Saxman Native Village and Totem Park. Here we learnt a bit more about the Tlingit culture and specific customs of the Native people. At one point we were treated to a traditional song and dance in their clan house. This part felt very familiar to mum and I as this was a very similar experience to visiting a local village back at home. The only difference between knowing that we were not at home was that they let us keep our shoes on and they let us take photos. I only took one photo inside the clan house as back at home to take photos in the meeting house is pretty bad taste as the houses are sacred ground. Once the show was over, we went outside and got to see some of the totems and go into a workshop and listen to a talk about carving them. 

After a quick breeze through the gift shop, we headed back to the ship, making it there just in time for all aboard. 

That night, mum and I decided to make it our second formal night as we had missed the other one due to the weather conditions. We dressed up and headed out to the lido deck to have a drink and watch our final sail away. After this, we headed down to the dining room and had a delightful dinner with some people who were on the cruise as part of a tour. We then decided to take in the show and after a few minutes of the show, we could feel the movement if the ship, so we headed back to the stateroom to watch some movies.