Day Twenty – June 25, 2008
We awoke to continued calm seas on Wednesday morning, temperatures between 50 and 55 degrees, and overcast skies, with intermittent drizzle. It’s a typical summer day in southeastern Alaska.
We slept through two ports of call last night, Petersburg at midnight and Wrangell at 0415 hours. Unlike cruise ships, the ferry does not plan its port stops for the pleasure of the traveling tourist or the souvenir vendor. The ferry’s job is to transport people, vehicles, and goods up and down the Inside Passage on a regular schedule. It’s a work horse, not a show pony. There is no formal black-tie or theme dinners, no baked Alaska deserts, no live entertainment, or over-priced prom-like pictures for seniors who will never look at them again after they get home from their cruise.
We did enjoy one port stop today however. We arrived in Ketchican, AK. at 1130 hours with a five-hour layover in town. Before disembarking into the rain, Lane made reservations with Alaska Seaplane Tours for him, Tim and Sylvia to take a float plane ride to the Misty Fjords National Monument. I had previously experienced the Misty Fjords float plane tour, so I elected to go into town and shop instead. Their driver “Taylor” picked us all up at the ferry terminal in a van and took us directly to the airplane. I walked into town from there. The trio enjoyed a great one and a half hour ride to the Fjord in a bright yellow (easily located when crashed on snow & ice, pun intended) 1966 Cessna 185 Skywagon on floats piloted by Ryan McCue, pilot and president of Alaska Seaplane Tours. The cost of the flight for the three passengers was $600, including two water landings.
The good folks at Alaska Seaplane Tours took pity on us walking the 2 ½ miles from town back to the ferry in the late afternoon rain and gave us a ride in their van. Thanks Loren, Ryan’s wife, and Taylor, Loren’s sister, a medical school student working the summer before returning to school, all very nice people. Alaska Seaplane Tours can be contacted at: www.alaskaseaplanetours.com/. Give them a call if you are in the neighborhood and in the market for a seaplane ride.
After the seaplane ride we all met up and went to the local Harley-Davidson T-shirt store near the cruise ship docks where Tim and Sylvia succumbed to the illness and bought another T-shirt. Later, we had a nice lunch at Steamers, an upstairs restaurant overlooking the docks. There were three cruise ships in port today, from Princess, Holland America, and Celebrity cruise lines. Cruising is huge business in Alaska, and business was good in Ketchican today.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon roaming through the dozens of shops along the docks, and Ketchican’s famous Creek Street that once contained a string of bordellos during its heyday. One, “Dolly’s House,” has been restored and features a museum as a tribute to the oldest profession.
It rained on us all afternoon in Ketchican and didn’t stop until we departed at 1730 (5:30 PM) hours for Bellingham, WA. 37 hours away.
We awoke to continued calm seas on Wednesday morning, temperatures between 50 and 55 degrees, and overcast skies, with intermittent drizzle. It’s a typical summer day in southeastern Alaska.
We slept through two ports of call last night, Petersburg at midnight and Wrangell at 0415 hours. Unlike cruise ships, the ferry does not plan its port stops for the pleasure of the traveling tourist or the souvenir vendor. The ferry’s job is to transport people, vehicles, and goods up and down the Inside Passage on a regular schedule. It’s a work horse, not a show pony. There is no formal black-tie or theme dinners, no baked Alaska deserts, no live entertainment, or over-priced prom-like pictures for seniors who will never look at them again after they get home from their cruise.
We did enjoy one port stop today however. We arrived in Ketchican, AK. at 1130 hours with a five-hour layover in town. Before disembarking into the rain, Lane made reservations with Alaska Seaplane Tours for him, Tim and Sylvia to take a float plane ride to the Misty Fjords National Monument. I had previously experienced the Misty Fjords float plane tour, so I elected to go into town and shop instead. Their driver “Taylor” picked us all up at the ferry terminal in a van and took us directly to the airplane. I walked into town from there. The trio enjoyed a great one and a half hour ride to the Fjord in a bright yellow (easily located when crashed on snow & ice, pun intended) 1966 Cessna 185 Skywagon on floats piloted by Ryan McCue, pilot and president of Alaska Seaplane Tours. The cost of the flight for the three passengers was $600, including two water landings.
The good folks at Alaska Seaplane Tours took pity on us walking the 2 ½ miles from town back to the ferry in the late afternoon rain and gave us a ride in their van. Thanks Loren, Ryan’s wife, and Taylor, Loren’s sister, a medical school student working the summer before returning to school, all very nice people. Alaska Seaplane Tours can be contacted at: www.alaskaseaplanetours.com/. Give them a call if you are in the neighborhood and in the market for a seaplane ride.
After the seaplane ride we all met up and went to the local Harley-Davidson T-shirt store near the cruise ship docks where Tim and Sylvia succumbed to the illness and bought another T-shirt. Later, we had a nice lunch at Steamers, an upstairs restaurant overlooking the docks. There were three cruise ships in port today, from Princess, Holland America, and Celebrity cruise lines. Cruising is huge business in Alaska, and business was good in Ketchican today.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon roaming through the dozens of shops along the docks, and Ketchican’s famous Creek Street that once contained a string of bordellos during its heyday. One, “Dolly’s House,” has been restored and features a museum as a tribute to the oldest profession.
It rained on us all afternoon in Ketchican and didn’t stop until we departed at 1730 (5:30 PM) hours for Bellingham, WA. 37 hours away.
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