Alaskan Cruise Day 6 ...... Ketchikan Alaska

Hello Ketchican.  Catchy name that one!  Did you know its the salmon capital of the world?  Nope nor did I but we all do now!


  See proof, the sign says so.



There were four cruise ships docked!  Two Princess ones, us and an NCL one.  John liked the NCL colours, the kids liked the huge movie screens up on the Princess top decks (How come our ship doesn't have one of those?). We are the ones with the dark blue hull.

Ketchikan is actually on an island, with its airport on another island.  You have to take a boat across to get there, although most air traffic is once again float planes.  These are seriously cool things and  if you can get the Sarah Palin images out of your mind, they would be worth the $150 for a flight if we had more time.  It was fun just watching them take off and land.  Most of the houses are along the waters edge and have their own docks with either a boat or a float plane....if you are rich both.  Land is a bargain but building would kill you. 

Coming into port we saw orcas dear a dry dock.  Biz was pressed up against the window calling "Here fishy, fishy, fishy", must have worked.  No photo once again!

The Ketchican Duck Tour was our first activity for the day, its a bus tour with a difference, you get to drive around on the water.  You should have seen the kids faces when we were going down the boat ramp.  Like all good boat ramps there was some dude parked on it when we wanted to get out. So we did lappies in around the docks.  As you do!

 

Fishing is the other big industry (apart from tourism and timber)

There is even a Deadliset Catch tour There is one here which was in the show early on.

This isn't the boat!   

Told you these things are cool, look his and hers!

A little more about Ketchikan.

Here the kids are hanging off a statue in the port. 

Every photo he stuck his tongue out, every one!

Whats the best thing about the duck tour? Sticking your head out the port holes like a puppy.

Class my kids, all class!

Glacier Bay....more photos

 I'll say nothing but let you drink in the visual splendour .....

that is Glacier Bay National Park.

Now try and so some work after SOMEONE leaves me a comment!

Day 5....Glacier Bay National Park....Sunday July 15th

This was the day I had been waiting for.  Bella and I were up early for our now standard two dippy eggs, toast and bacon.  She has been eating really well this trip.  They had told us that early in the morning you might see Humpback whales then a little further on orcas as well as sea otters and seals.  Bella notice some dolphins and ea otters playing while we were eating.  Headed out on deck to see what we could see (no bear yet Mum!).

It was a little grey but the cloud had started to lift and you could see little glimpses of the sun, it was just magical.

Eventually we were joined by the boys team, who finally got out of bed. They fuelled up on Vegemite toast (got to love that they had Vegemite on the boat), pancakes and a big breaky for Daddy, the kids decided they wanted to go to Club Hal. John and I got to go up on deck and take it all in.

Then they said that a bear was sighted on the shore near the sail boat.

Sure there is a bear, ita the black blob and I am running with that!

 

Anyway this started to make up for the bear!

Other people looking, they served pea and ham soup on deck for the glacier spotting.

 

Icebergs, Rhys asked when we saw him at breakfast if we had seen any icebergs. Hadn't then but we started to now.  He had learnt about Titanic, (did I tell you a family two streets over, from where we live,  were lost in the sinking?), and was worried we might sink.

Getting bigger.....

Me and pink blankie.

Oooohhhhh

More to come, bit slow on the upload..............that's the computer not me!

Day 4.....Skagway Alaska...Love that word, Skagway.

Saturday July 14th, means we are in Skagway. 

While eating breakfast, yep I understand why everyone puts weight on while on a cruise, the kids said they saw a seal.  No one else did, so it was a bit of a yeah sure sweetie moment. 

Its a teeny little place, who's roots lie with the gold rush in the Yukon.  In its time it must have been on heck of a place.  Now less than a thousand people live here and most of the business is reliant on the cruise ships that dock here. 

Not too shabby a view to wake up to

Here is the ship and a glimpse of the train, more about that later!

There is a town bus that for $2 a trip or $5 unlimited all day

You can read more about Skagway here and here

Bizzy and Nanna B on the bus, it stops all up and down the main street.

The main street is called Broadway.  The shops have all been done up in period style and the sidewalks are all wooden.  Takes a bit to get use to.  Like all the ports, there are a heap of jewellery shops, mostly diamonds and tanzanite.  You have to barter the prices, which is something I hate doing.   I did hear one bracelet start at $1600 and the lady walked  away at $250 cash.

The ship had a shopping consultant who "is there to get you the best deal" , although I wonder given the amount of bling she had on, who the best deal is for?????  They have sessions on the cruise ship about shopping and give out freebie vouchers.  Its all tat but we thought it was fun to pick up a few for Biz.  She of course loved it.

Aaahhh didn't go in here, it was a brothel and is one of the most popular tourist attractions.  You need to be over sixteen to visit, so it must be ..... educational?

Biz and the Bear

Biz heading back to the ship.

 

Oh and there really was a seal, sorry kids!

Okay it is as good a photo as the bear one, wait until you see the whale ones!