Alaska Cruise, Part Three - Ketchikan

On Day 5 we arrived at our first Alaskan port, Ketchikan.  (Edit:  click on the pictures to biggify.)

This city averages about thirteen FEET of rain a year.  It was misting when we arrived.  On my trolley tour of town in the afternoon, the driver shared that if it doesn’t rain for three days they call it a drought.  If the air temperature goes above 70°F (21°C), it’s a scorcher.

The native Tlingit people are famous for their totem poles.  I took an excursion called Lighthouses, Totems and Eagles, another little boat trip!

Alaska is remote.  For many areas all goods must be brought in by either air or water.  This barge was at anchor.  Along with the containers are four boats and a truck!  I said something like, "we are really in the boonies."  A crew member said, "No.  This is the big city compared to where I live." 

There’s an eagle in the next picture.  Look for the white spot in a tree; that’s it’s head.  The nest is just to the right of the bird.  Our naturalist said there’s an eagle’s nest about every mile, on average. 

This next one is a tallest totem.  I don't remember if it's the tallest in Ketchikan or Alaska.  The same totem is on the far right in the second picture. 

 

Phyllis and Silvia in blue (two ladies I met on this excursion) in the cabin with their backs to the camera.

They fed us on this excursion - fruit, cheese and crackers, and a marvelous salmon dip!  Quipped, "We know they don't feed you on those cruise ships."  The food is up on the table to the right.  
 

The tides in this area run about sixteen feet.  All that brown is algae, exposed at low tide.  There's very little of the rock exposed at high tide. 

So there's a light house.

When we were cruising across a channel, bubble net fishing humpback whales surfaced about 15 feet from the boat right in front of me!  Three large pyramidal heads rose up then sank down again.  No picture.  No time!  The skipper said that was the closest he’d ever had whales to the boat.  It was awesome.  Humpbacks are huge.  We saw just the tips of their mouths, and they were a good ten feet out of the water.

WooHoo!  Boat and plane!

We wondered how much they paid this eagle to sit on the marker for the tourists.

Back at the dock.

I had about a half hour between when we got back to town and my next excursion.  Bought some earrings and a hat before catching the trolley tour of Ketchikan. 

The sun came out!  This is A Big Deal in a place that gets so much rain. 

We went to the Saxman Native Village.  From what I saw, no one actually lived there.  We didn’t have time to see all of it, though. 

The totem on the right is Seward’s shame pole.  You can tell it’s a shame pole because there’s only the person on top, and his face is white and his nose and ears are red.  Seward (the Secretary of State who purchased Alaska for the US) earned this pole because of his behavior at a potlatch.  The local chief gave him many gifts.  Seward should have given many gifts in return, but he left with his loot.  They waited for quite a while, thinking he’d come back with the gifts.  When he didn’t, they carved this pole.

To the right of Seward’s pole is the Lincoln pole.  I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of that one!  Anyway, a ship called the Lincoln arrived at a time two local groups were fighting.  One group requested protection, and were allowed on the ship.  Afterwards, they wanted to carve a pole in thanks.  Only living things can be on the poles, so they asked for a picture of the person the ship was named for.  So there’s an Abe Lincoln pole.

I took this next picture walking up the gangway to the Sea Princess.

The sun stayed out all afternoon.  I got sunburned in Ketchikan!  We sailed just before sundown.

While that was the view from the port side, here’s what was happening to starboard.

There was a Dutch cruise ship in port, and they left just before we did.  We followed them to Juneau. 

After I took that picture, a group of humpbacks surfaced off the starboard bow.  Bubble net fishing.  A circle of dark pyramids.  It was too dark for pictures, at least for my camera, but there was enough light left we could see them.   We saw them surface like that three times.  I still can't believe I saw whales doing that twice in one day!