Ketchican

On May 11th, we awoke at sea off the west coast of Vancouver Island heading north to Alaska. (Sound like a song...) The sea was quiet and the sun was shining. As a matter of fact, during the 10 days of our trip, it rained only 1 day and we were at sea that day. We were told repeatedly that this was unusually good weather for a trip to Alaska.

We decided to have our breakfast in our room as room service on the ship is free, except for a small tip one gives to the person who delivers the food. That morning I went to the gym to get some exercise. I find this important on a ship where one tends to eat more because it is always there. My routine is never to use the elevators on a ship so that I get to climb and go down some 20 floors on any given day. Tough the first few days, but it gets easier with exercise. The day at sea was relaxing and we spent it partly in our cabin reading and partly in the main forward lounge where the view is always spectacular.

We met the Fiske's for dinner which was formal that evening. This means that one needs to put on a tie. Our 6 pm sitting was a good time as it allowed a long evening. Waiting for the 8 pm sitting can be tough for may people. We did not try any 3 or 4 of the specialty restaurants as one has to pay for dinner there and the food comes from the same kitchen. It is just an other way for the ship companies to increase revenues and in fact cost passenger double what they charge as food is already paid for in the ticket costs.

The next morning, the sun came up at around 5am so I was able to see our approach into Ketchican which is along a beautiful fjord not much wider than 30 yards. The water is deep but on that morning is was mirror clear. We pulled into the new cruise ship pier and within 15 minutes of our arrival 3 other cruise ships arrived. Thus between crew and passengers, the population of Ketchican which is 7000 had just doubled in about 30 minutes!

Ketchican used to live off logging, pulp and fish canning. The pulp industry has disappeared and salmon canning is done by one modern cannery which operates only 2 months a year. Thus tourism is the main industry now. Ketchican is also known as the town which would have got the "Bridge to nowhere" which was being pushed by the Alaska senators. The bridge would have been longer than the golden gate bridge and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. It would have gone from the town of Ketchican to a small island on which 50 people live and where the Ketchican "International" Airport is now. The airport is called International as it has a flight once a week to British Colombia in Canada. The airport is currently served by a ferry which takes about 350,000 cars across to the airport per year compared to 43 million across the Golden Gate bridge. This bridge would have cost US$398 million. Luckily, this project was thrown out by congress.

We had booked a tour through the ship to take a 4.5 hour boat trip down to Misty Fjiord National Monument located some 40 miles east of Ketchican. We boarded our fast boat just across from the pier at which our ship was tied up. This boat can travel at 30 knots which is superfast. The trip out was beautiful as one traveled through calm water with mountains rising right out of the water. The scenery in Alaska is certainly more impressive than anything we had seen and far more beautiful than any pictures show. It is also a place where one sees more wildlife than anywhere in the world outside of Africa. During this trip we saw many types of fish and water birds, bears, moutain sheep and goats.

The trip to the Misty Fjiord took about 90 minutes. We then stayed in the fjord for 30 minutes before heading back to Ketchican. This trip was worth the money we paid. When got back to town we still had time to visit the many shops catering to tourists. I found one which was selling authentic, made in Alaska native art. I was fascinated to see the beautiful pieces this store had which were made out of Walrus tusk ivory. The walrus ivory is worked on in two small islands off Nome and certainly rivals any ivory work I have seen in my travels. I got Brigitte a piece as a souvenir of our trip. It is expensive but beautiful.

That evening we headed out of Ketchican north towards Juneau, our next stop. We passed the Ketchican airport, sorry International airport where the terminal is about 200 below the level of the runway. This means departing planes have to go up a steep incline to get to the one runway of the airport which does not seem very busy. Who knows, a US$400 million bridge could have made all the difference?