Day 9

Ketchikan

Since we weren't due to arrive in Ketchikan until 1 PM, Ron thought he'd try his hand at piloting the ship.

He did a fantastic job of docking between the Disney ship and another one behind ours.

On the back of the Disney ship, one of Donald's nephews was up to no good.

We had signed up for the Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer out of Ketchikan.  If we had known it involved a long boat ride, Ron might have reconsidered.  But we hurried to the front center of the downstairs enclosed area and he was okay.  Luckily there was only a relatively short section of open water.

We took off under our normal damp skies.

Uh-oh.  I hear the theme from Jaws.

But no, not sharks, whales.  I was out of my seat and running upstairs to the open deck before you could say, "Orcas!"

Among the thousand or so pictures I took, these couple were the only keepers.  It was certainly a thrill to see them.

The next thing that drew me out to the cold upper deck was this unusual island.  Called New Eddystone Rock, the basalt formation was part of a volcanic vent, which was shaved by glaciers until only this point remained.

We hadn't realized that Misty Fjords is a National Monument comprising 2,294,343 acres.  Hey!  We can cross that one off.  The low lying clouds seemed very appropriate, and, in person, it was beautiful.

The captain took us close for a good look at the cliffs . . .

And waterfalls.

We went up an inlet to look for the seals that tend to hang out there.  I did see one, although I wasn't quick enough with the camera.  Although when I looked at this picture, I noticed what could be a little head in the water on the far left, but it's way too far away to tell for sure.

When we arrived back in Ketchikan, it was (what a surprise) raining.  I bet you can guess the one item of clothing I was so happy to have brought.

The residents are obviously very connected to the water.  I think there were as many boats as houses.

There was an interesting sculpture honoring the different types of people who contributed to the settling and development of Alaska.

And one more towel animal.  Although we had seen this monkey on our Hawaiian cruise last year, he still made us laugh when we discovered him hanging around our room..