Lumberjack show. So fun!
Ketchican, Alaska, Catch Me If You Can. Or, Saskatchewan, like some gentleman asked the cruise director the other day, about when the ship would arrive at Saskatchewan. haha. Or perhaps it was just a joke. We're not going there!
BUT
We did go to Ketchican Alaska. 8,200 population. Cute shore town who used to be the Salmon capitol of the WORLD. Till it was over-fished. Still is the top Salmon producer, but with only one cannery and only has 10% of what they had at the peak in the 1920's. People are so stupid--overfishing, over-cutting trees. Now they are over-touristing. ha. But, in it's prime and pristine condition, the fish were plentiful, the water and trees plentiful, so the natives stayed put here rather than continue to be nomadic as thy had previously been in other areas of the state.
I decided to purchase a shore excursion via my Norwegian APP this morning. Our original one was cancelled to the Totem Bight Cultural exhibit and Lumberjack show. I decided to just buy the lumberjack show tickets that were available through Norwegian. I knew they would be more $ than just getting them on shore, but they would also guarantee that the ship wouldn't leave us behind! And it didn't.
I did wake up feeling much better this mornig, but I didn't go stretch or watch the ship pull into port from up in the Spinnaker Lounge. I woke early before 6 am, lounged, I blogged (successfully!) and then Mike and I had a nice, leisurely breakfast together.
We got off the boat after a brief rest in our room (because, you know, eating makes us SO tired. ) But I really WAS tired and didn't want to overdue it, so we rested and re-grouped, then left around 9:30 am or so. Oh, and Butch and Donna found us at Breakfast, so that was nice. We already had our food by they time they sat at the table next to us, but we got to visit for a bit. We ran into them in town later, too! It's nearly dinner time as I type this on Monday, and we haven't seen Robert and Janet all day.
Our large ship is docked way out of town. There were already three ships docked in the downtown port area, so the Norwegian Spirit docked in the old Pulp Mill area out of town. It's now a privately developed area since the pulp mill closed down in the 90's. When we got off the ship, we rode a (school) bus shuttle service 20 minutes into town area, but it was still a ways off from the actual downtown. So we hopped onto a free city bus/shuttle that made a loop through the main part of town. So we got a good look at the lay of the land, figured out where we needed to be and did it from that with a minimum of walking for Mike. We paid a little bit to see the Tongass Museum. It was wonderful. Made me smile. Now, if SALMON had been running up the Ketchikan creek, it would have been oh-so-spectacular because large glass walls over-looked the beautiful Kechikan creek. Lovely. They had a great colleciton of old lumber-milling equipment and photos, old fishing equipment and photos, and films, etc. Even their special exhibit was a lot of fun. Fossils AND art. The Great Terrain Wreck. So punny. A nice museum. And nice bathrooms. It was welll worth the $5 each to stop in there.
Our next stop was the Discovery Center, down the street and around the corner. It was a Department of Forest Service center, so Mike's National Parks Card got us into that for free. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but it was informative and very well-put-together also. Rainforest information, plus films and other things. And it looks like it is a big part of the Ketchikan community , judging from the amount of school-children art work that was hanging from their walls. Nice totem poles, too. Kechikan is known for its many totem poles. I was impressed.
Then we walked across the street to the Great American Lumberjack Show. It was really cute, about an hour long. Wonderful skills of chopping, sawing, log-rolling, lumber hoisting and climbing, etc. Fun times, great Emcee. We were fortunate to find a shuttle that would take us out to the dock where our ship was! That was a pleasant surprise, as we'd missed lunch and were getting hungry and didn't really want to do a lot of wating on buses. We knew where we could get a city bus back to our original shuttle drop off, but liked the shorter option much better.
Once back on board, we grabbed a snack at "The Local" cafe and headed to our room for a nap. Honestly, this vacationing is really hard on us old guys! I can hardly keep my eyes open and Mike actuallly DID nod off during the lumberjack show. For real! I don't know how he did it . . . it was noisy in there! They were using chain saws!!! Haha.
And, in spite of being in a temperate rainforest where rain falls most days of the year, guess what?! We had sunshine. 😊
Tonight we have dinner on our own since Donna & Butch, Robert and Janet both have reservations at a High-end restaurant that our tickets didn't qualify us for. But we have plenty of options! We plan to have a professional photo taken, Plus watch a game "show" in the Spinnaker Lounge at 7 AND a broadway show - tunes concert after that at 8.
And then to bed. Zzzzz
I was so hoping for time in a hot tub on board, but they close the pool area very early. And blogging and resting ( reading for Mike) is a bigger priority.
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