Adventures Off-Board

So far I’ve been off ship 4 times.

The first time I believe I already mentioned as a brief hour jaunt around Skagway last Tuesday.

Then, on Thursday, I got off in Ketchikan to explore.  Ketchikan is the nicest little city!  (and not so little really as it’s the 4th largest city in Alaska).  I ended up eating lunch at the Fish Pirate Saloon, just because the name was awesome and had some really tasty Alaskan cod fish and chips.  I wandered for a bit and window shopped and then hiked to a small trail in the temperate rainforest just outside of town.  This ended up being a lot more work than I was expecting with some serious elevation to the get to the track and then a nice long walk back to town (total about 2 hours) but it was super peaceful in the rainforest and while I didn’t see any animals really, the vegetation was very interesting.

After that, I did a bit more window shopping and then went over to Creek Street which is built above a salmon spawning creek.  I got to watch the salmon spawn (or at least look like they were) and then see them fight to get upstream against the current, including some awesome leaps up some rapids.  I chatted with an older couple as we watched them fight to get up the fish ladder – it was one of those things that the more you watched, the more you realized just how many salmon there were in the water!

This week, I’m hoping to do an excursion through the ship that will let me explore the fish hatchery, a place to help raise eagles and a native village.  Cross your fingers I get on it :)  If not, I’ll explore the hatchery and eagle place on my own since it’s a distance but ultimately walkable.  The weather the whole day was also gorgeous – 60s and sunny, which is very, very rare for Ketchikan, which apparently gets rain something like 300 days of the year.

On Saturday, we were back in Vancouver and Diana very kindly took me dress shopping.  I found a very not-me dress that actually fits really nice at H&M and a pair of shoes.  In all, they cost me about $10 less than my budget so I was most pleased!  (Even more pleasing is the fact my first payday is tomorrow).  Then we wandered Vancouver a bit so at least I know where things are.  This week, I’m hoping to find a Starbucks with free (actually legit fast) wifi.

Today, we’re back in Skagway (I didn’t get off in Juneau again for a variety of reasons) and I’m currently trying to use the wifi at the library but the connection is ridiculously slow.  Not sure if it’s just how it is or because there are so many people from the cruise ships trying to use it.  So I’m typing this in between replying to comments on my blog thus far.

Tomorrow we’re back to Glacier Bay for scenic cruising and then Thursday we’re in Ketchikan again, as I mentioned above.  Saturday, when we’re finally back in Vancouver, I will hopefully be able to update with a few pictures as well!