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Ketchikan - Wednesday, July 15
The ship arrived at Ketchikan about 6 AM (after setting our
clocks back an hour for Alaska Daylight Time). It took
about half an hour for the crews to securely tie the ship to the dock
and to put the gangplanks in place. We could then leave the ship
to tour Ketchikan.
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Salmon saltery was established in the Ketchikan area in 1883. A
couple years later additional land was purchased from a local chief to
build a cannery along the banks of the Ketchikan river. This area
developed into the current city. In the late 19th centruy, the
discovery of gold and copper in the area created a need for a mining
supply center. Ketchikan quickly became this supply center for
all the mines in the surrounding area.
The town was officially
incorporated in 1900 with a population of about 800. With a
flourishing Salmon canning business and all the mining, followed by the
influx of cruise ship tourists, the town grew to its present population
of about 14,000.
It is world famous for the abundance of incredible totem poles in the region with the largest being 55 feet high!
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As we were approaching the dock, we passed this area of the shoreline. I count 9 floatplanes in this picture!
Most, if not all of these planes are used to give sightseeing tours of the area.
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The marina alongside the ship is very pretty.
The town is largely built on the hill sides, with the only flat
areas being built over the water on pilings..
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We took a Duck tour. The duck is an
amphibious vehicle patterened after the WWII military ones, however this
one is newly built. |
The duck took us on a fairly complete city
tour. There were a lot of gift shops along the pier. This
area is built on a boardwalk over the water.
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This is an example of the local totem poles. You can have a totem pole carved for you at about $2000 a foot of height.
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We are currently driving down the launch ramp
with the front end of the duck about to enter the water. It was a
very smooth transition and we just drove away as a boat.
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We toured the water for about the same length of time we toured land. Here we see a marina.
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As we approached the cruise ship docks, we could see that another ship had joined us. The Coral Princess is on the left.
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One of the local canneries caters to the independent fisherman. They bring their fish here and the cannery does the rest.
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| We get a fairly close up view of our ship as the duck prepares to turn around and take us back the way we came. |
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As we approached the launch ramp to drive
back up to land, we saw this other duck, similar to ours (only yellow)
just entering the water. |
After the Duck Tour, we went to the
Lumberjack Show. They had 4 US and Canadian lumberjacks who
competed in about a dozen events. Here we see them in a chopping
contest.
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One of the last events was log rolling.
The USA contestent is about to get wet. Our section of the
stands was assigned the Canadian team to root for, while the other side
was assigned the USA. Sadly, our side (Canada) won the
competetion, but only by a little. |
This shows one of the many stairways to access houses high on the hills. Some are much higher than this one.
If
one of these stairways is the only access to two or more houses, it is
considered a street and named as one. The city is responsible for
the maintenance. If you look closely, you can just see a green
street sign at the base of these stairs.
I cannot immagine
living where I had to climb up and down something like this every time
I left home or returned! Pity the poor moving crew or even the
UPS man.
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Much of the downtown is built over the water.
These piers are about the only level land in Ketchikan, and are
supported entirely on pilings.
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The ship left port at about 2 PM, making this the shortest day in port of the cruise.
In
the evening there was a show starring Adrian Zmed, a popular 1960's TV
and general entertainment star. The show was put on in the
Universe Lounge which I guess seats about 200. I assumed it would
be a fairly simple show being in the lounge. I was wrong!
It was a marvelous show, starring along with Zmed, the entire cast of the ship's singers and dancers.
Zmed
starred on Broadway in shows such as Grease, on TV on T. J. Hooker
among others, and in the movies in films including Grease 2 and
Batchelor Party.
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It was a full length show with many singing
and dancing numbers. The stage was very interesting with several
sections that could be raised as much as 4 feet, and revolve.
Interspersed with the numbers, the projection screens would show clips from his "teenage hearthrob" days and from his TV series.
I
was only sorry that the show was not better publicized, as our
performanc was not even full. I understand that the later
performance was packed. |
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