The Sister-In-Law Cruise Event - Days 6 & 7

29 August 2024 – Day 6 – Ketchikan  

30 August 2024 – Day 7 – Victoria, British Columbia

31 August 2024 – Disembarkation – Seattle

 

Ketchikan is an interesting mix of old commercialism and new commercialism.  Right off the cruise ship docks there are umpteem new stores full of things Alaskan, such as seed of indigenous flowers, smoked salmon, and various animal fur items.  (I buy the flower seeds for friends – they grow well in the Pacific Northwest.)  And there are the pseudo-Alaskan things made in China.  Tons of gold, possibly mined in Alaska and fabricated elsewhere.  That area is always interesting and always bustling!

 

One place even has a life-size female orca, just in case you didn’t see one while cruising!

 

And then, if one walked inland toward the hills and to the right of the super tall totem pole with a soaring eagle on top, you can reach the old part of town.  This area along “Creek Street” (because there’s a creek, not a road) was, once upon a time, the red light district.  Bars, brawls, and women.  The stores are now upscale and artsy, although one place does advertise itself as having been one of the larger brothels back in the late 1800s or so.

 

The buildings are as colorful as this neighborhood’s past, with wooden walkways over the creek and various treasures tucked away along the route. 

 

People gather to watch the salmon swimming upstream to spawn, and back downstream to, sadly, die.  As one little girl very solemnly told me, this is part of their life cycle.  (Seriously, we were watching the salmon and looking for seals, and she explained the life of the salmon to me.  I think she was all of five or six.  She really was so serious about it, this upcoming marine biologist.)

 

We did see an adult seal in the creek, periodically bobbing up to look around before diving down to eat more salmon.  We also see one young seal, just a splash and a glimpse of a short seal still with his baby spotted fur, practicing its salmon hunting skill right below the small bridge where we stood!  SO exciting!

 

Ketchikan, like most of the Alaskan panhandle, has a somewhat mild but wet climate – rarely freezing but often cloudy-foggy-drizzly-misty-raining-or-pouring.  Grey and wet.  This creates very lush vegetation, with the evergreen tree filled forests and the berry bushes and huge ferns growing below.  Gorgeous and very very green.

 

I love the stories of the totem poles.  So here’s the description from the sign about the totem pole entitled “Raven Stealing the Sun,” a Tlingit legend.

 

“The Raven Stealing the Sun kootéeyaa (totem pole), commissioned by the City of Ketchikan, honors the Taant’a ­­Kwáan Tlingit who have inhabited the local area since time immemorial.  Tahltan/Tlingit master carver Dempsey Bob and his nephew apprentice Stanley Bevan (Tsimshian/Tlingit) designed and carved the pole, which was raised in 1983.

 

“The totem pole tells of a time when the world had no light.  Raven discovered that the sun, moon, and stars were hoarded by a powerful chief.  Raven changed form, appearing as the Chief’s grandson, and cried until his grandfather gave him the boxes containing the heavenly bodies.  Then Raven, with his trickery, opened the boxes, bringing light in the form of the stars, moon, and sun to the earth.”

 

Isn’t that a wonderful story?  In Tlingit lore, Raven often helps humans, although Raven is decidedly tricky and not always to be trusted.  On the totem pole, Raven is the top figure, holding the Sun in his claws.  Below the Sun is the Chief’s daughter, sitting, and the bottom figure is the Chief, wearing a tall hat.  According to the signage, “Baby’s face in the hat suggests Chief’s Raven-ness.”  So I guess this Chief was somehow related to Raven.

 

Anyway, that was our exciting morning in Ketchikan.  We only had a short morning in port due to our ship’s schedule and itinerary.  But we hit the town’s highlights, two species of animals, and enjoyed our final stop in Alaska.

 

On our last full day, we spent most of our time at sea, sailing along the west coast of Vancouver Island, which meant we really were on the Pacific Ocean.  SO many whales!  We didn't see much of each whale, just their puff cloud as they exhaled, and maybe a bit of back and dorsal fin as they dove back down.  Very few tail flaps.  Very few spy hopping moves (when they pop straight up out of the water and look around).  Only one whale, in the distance, slapping one fin on the surface of the water, repeatedly!  We could barely see the whale, but the splash was large enough to see that.  Over and over again!  Marine biologists say this is one way humpbacks communicate with each other.  Possibly because the females don't have the loud "singing" voice that male humpbacks have, so they slap the water.  Fascinating to see!  We spent our afternoon up in the buffet area because that really does provide a great view across the water - we lost count of how many whales we saw!

 

That evening we stopped in Victoria for several hours.  It was after sunset, so it didn't look like there was much open.  Normally I'd go to the provincial museum, a wonderful place.  But walking around a quiet city after dark, when there aren't many people to ask for directions - nah, I can give that a miss.  I did go up to the "crow's nest" area of our ship, on deck 11, and had a great view of the capitol building all lit up.

We arrived in Seattle, and went through the disembarkation process.  This included going through Customs and Immigration because we were returning to the US, but it was minimal.

Sister-in-law headed to the airport for her evening flight home.  I dropped by to visit a friend who had been ill part of the summer, so that was our yearly meet-up.  Then drove on home to Bellingham, to finish packing for our annual migration southward.

One more blog about Bellingham, and then I'll post the southern trip blog.

And here's the map of our cruise, plus large photos of the amazing totem poles: