Our last Alaskan port was Ketchikan. Ketchikan is a really pretty, touristy town with about 11,000 residents. The bus driver said they get about 1.5 million tourists per year. There were 5 cruise ships in port today so we did our part to contribute to those numbers.
The issue is that NCL decided it would be smart to build a pier outside of town. This is terrible for the cruisers because you have to get off the ship and then wait to take a shuttle into the edge of town. Then, you can either walk the 25 minutes to the downtown area or take the free shuttle. To make matters worse, the NCL ship that we’re on is only in town for 4 hours. So there’s not much time to do much of anything once you’ve had to do all of that traveling.
Everyone in our party woke up early to be off the ship as quickly as possible. Oh, and Ketchikan gets a TON of rain. And it was raining when we were there. We got the shuttle to town and then got on the shuttle to downtown. The rain was coming down in a steady stream.
We headed to Creek Street, as series of shops and restaurants on stilts over the water. It’s really pretty, but much prettier when it’s not raining and you can take your time to meander. But it was still nice and we visited several shops. Jamie and Lizzie headed for the bookstore, so I found a cafe and had some coffee to wait. After we reconnected, Lizzie and I decided to walk to do the shops while Jamie went to the museum.
Lizzie and I went into several stores to look at Alaskan products such as small souvenir totem poles, jewelry, dish towels, etc. Just about everything you can think of. Lizzie collects polished rocks so found a few for her collection. I bought a small wooden carved dragon fly. That was pretty much the extent of our purchases, but it was nice to window shop and people watch as we made our way back to the ship.
In the afternoon, the group met in the Observation Lounge at our normal spot and played games. Phase 10, Yahtzee and Left, Right, Center were on the list for today. But there really was no point to any of us playing against Marge. She won every single game by a landslide. We kept saying she needed to buy a lottery ticket or spend some time in the casino. But Bob vetoed the casino.
Jamie, Lizzie and I headed to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was really good. Bob and Marge went to the main dining room and then went to the Choir of Man show. They said it was awesome.
I did go to bed pretty early. I didn’t even hear Jamie come in and I woke up in the middle of the night thinking she was missing. But the lights were off so I figured they had to be turned off somehow so I rolled back over and went to sleep.
Tomorrow is our last day and we’ll be having a sea day for most of the day, but then spend a few hours in Victoria, Canada. So we’re nearing the end.
