Alaska Cruise Day 6

Friday, August 4, 2006

Today, we arrived in Ketchikan at 2. Our shore excursion tickets said 11am, but since we didn’t arrive at 2, we were a little confused. After wandering around in the masses for a bit, looking for someone holding a sign with “Best of Alaska, Orca Cove Kayaking”, we finally found a pay phone and called them. It turned out that our tour was really scheduled for 3:30 and someone would be over shortly to meet us. When we left the phones and headed back to the dock, sure enough, a teen-age girl was there holding a kayaking paddle and the sign that we were looking for.

We were the only people she was picking up, so we walked back to the shop right away. The shop was about a five minute walk away (she hit at least one hanging store sign along the way with the paddle). At the shop, they took our jackets and had us put on water pants and jackets along with pfds. While getting ready, two other people, a mother and son (Olga and Mike) joined us. We also had the mother of the guide, who would meet us on the boat at the cove. With that, we got in a small speed boat and were soon zooming our to orca’s cove.

After about a ten minute fast and bumpy ride, we pulled up to a larger boat moored in a cove with a number of kayaks on lines floating out behind it. We were transferred to the larger boat where we met our guide, yet another Mike. So we have three women, and three men, and all the men are named Mike.

They gave us water skirts to put on which are used to seal water out of the kayak. I got in first, and since Mike was the “captain,” the one who had control of the rudder, he got in the back seat of our two-person kayak. We paddled around a bit while waiting for the other two kayaks to get ready.

I think we were on the water for about three hours, in that time, we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife (just salmon, starfish, ducks, and seagulls), but loads of absolutely beautiful scenery. Lots of little coves and inlets which were quiet and serene. Pretty much the whole time we were out there, there was a gentle drizzle. It makes it hard to take pictures, but it does look pretty. As long as we kept moving, it wasn’t too cold, but I did notice that when we were done, my hands didn’t want to straighten out and they just felt like ice.

On the boat, there was a nice surprise. They had set out a spread of smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, crackers, and hot chocolate. We all sat in the wheel house and chowed down. It was heaven, just the right way to end the trip. There’s a funny story about the salmon that the tour company owner told us. Apparently, he’s friends with the owner of the salmon company and was selling his cans on the boat. The cans had the label of the salmon owner and soon, people from all over the place were calling him to get more after having gotten some on the boat. I guess he made the salmon more as a hobby, not as a full-blown commercial business, and he didn’t like getting calls directly from consumers, so they made a different label specifically for the tour company.

The weather was taking a turn for the worse, and they needed us to go lest the fog create problems, so we were soon ushered back to the little boat and blazing home. The lady who drives the small boat, Kim, brought along her little dog who’s some type of mutt. She says he always wants to come, but hates it while the boat is really going, specifically when the boat hits waves or wakes and gets really rough. Yet, when we pulled into the dock and the doors were opened, he ran straight to the front of the boat to watch us pull in. A different type of hood ornament.

Back at the store, we returned to our normal gear and took a walk around Ketchikan. Along the way, we looked across the street and saw the Ketchikan fire station with two guys hanging out in front. We walked over and Mike introduced himself as a fellow fire fighter. They let us go in and see their trucks, including a ’26 SeaGrave. They also took us upstairs where they gave Mike some patches in a self-addressed envelope so he can send them some of his. Mike also bought a T-shirt. We all talked story for a bit and we eventually went on our way. Just as we were leaving, the ambulance got a call and Mike took a picture of the station and the ambulance as it was leaving.

We continued our way to Creek Street, buildings built to hang right over the water. Along the way, we came to the site where the ambulance had gone (an injury of some sort) and the fire truck pulled up, so Mike took a picture of the truck too. Creek street was once where the bordellos were, many years ago. There were ladies with names like Dolly and Blind Polly. Now, it’s a tourist area with quaint shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, it was after 8 and everything was closed, so we took a few pictures, saw a seal or two, and made our way back to the boat in time for the 9:15PM final boarding.

Obviously, we had missed dinner, so we decided to wait for the special, one-night-only, midnight buffet! We thought we couldn’t wait that long, so we placed a room-service order which never showed. It was just as well as it turned out we weren’t that hungry after all. So at 12:15AM we joined the masses to go stuff our faces. I don’t understand what all the fuss was about, we both thought it was highly overrated. Yes, there are ice-sculptures, and things are nicely presented, but people are pigs, and unless you were one of the first in line, everything was more or less demolished.

The food was basically appetizers, or pupus, while Mike and I were looking for a proper dinner. I took some things, but most of it was rather tasteless, so I didn’t eat much. We also made the fatal mistake of not getting dessert right away. It turns out that items, once gone, are not replenished. When we went to the dessert table, most trays were empty, and those that were still there, didn’t appeal to me, both in what they were and in that they looked rather handled. So we skipped dessert and just went back to our rooms and back to bed.