Ketchikan

Today the ship docked in Ketchikan, Alaska at about 6am. I woke up to gorgeous blue skies and decided I had to explore Ketchikan since it supposedly rains ALL the time! I walked around the city for about an hour (it’s very tiny) and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather. We are one of three cruise boats docked in this port, and we’re only here until 4pm this afternoon. Ketchikan is also known as the salmon capitol of the world, and there are salmon symbols/figures/restaurants/shops EVERYWHERE (Ketchikan comes from the native name for the salmon-abundant stream in town). It’s a lovely coastal town, and the main attraction is the Lumberjack show (admission for crew is $1 – I think I’ll have to check it out next week) – turns out lumberjacking is a highly competitive sport. I went to get some coffee (of course) and the one woman working there was on the phone for approximately 5 minutes while I waited to order, and then told me all about her conversation with her sister when she unapologetically got off the phone….this is just one of the many unique things about Alaska, I imagine…

The landscape is filled with evergreen trees and snow-capped mountains. The town is so small that its local paper only comes out once a week (as our Cruise Director says, the ship casts a shadow that covers the whole town). The zip code is 99901….pretty much as far away as you can get from my 01970 east coast zip code! There seem to be 4 main roads in Ketchikan: Main Street, Dock Street, Front Street, and Creek Street…you get the idea. Ketchikan also boasts the world’s largest collection of totem poles. Some other shore excursions are fishing and sailing/flying through Misty Fjords.

I had some more trainings to complete today so I didn’t have much time to explore Ketchikan, but I’ll have more to report next week. Tonight we have two big band sessions in the Rendezvous Lounge and a late-night Jazz Jam. We pass through Tracy Arm at 6am tomorrow and I’ve been told it’s worth getting up for!