After a huge 5 course gala dinner last night we had vowed to be sensible with meals and to get more exercise today. Thank goodness we started well! Shortly before 8.00am I was in the pool and HRH was out on deck for a brisk walk. So far so good. Breakfast was, well let's say, not too overindulgent but justified by our plan to skip lunch as we'd be in port. Good. I even unpacked my walking pole and on went the boots ready for a few hours in Ketchikan. With no tour activities planned we'd identified a couple of trails we could take on and which would keep our minds firmly off food. Still good. The sky was clearing of cloud, and as soon as the ship docked we were at the Visitor Centre picking up a map. The must-sees in Ketchikan are an odd mix and after Skagway, we thought this town, with its heavy Native People influence, would be easily covered in an hour leaving time for a decent walk out of town. Hmmm, didn't quite work out like that. No sooner had we picked up the route to the historic centre than we got distracted when the so-called 'salmon ladder' turned out to be a river teeming with hundreds of fish, all swimming madly upstream to their nearby spawning ground. Well, there was 45 minutes of static excitement before we had barely started! Call us easily impressed but this was a sight to behold so whiling away the best part of an hour simply following their progress up through white water caused by several gentle flights of rocks was easily done. If I had been a bear, I could have reached in and scooped up an armful such were their numbers and proximity (there we go - thinking about food again!) At maybe 200 yards long the ladder represented quite a challenge for the fish. Just as well they were working hard. Someone had to! We even spotted three somewhat lazy, over fed seals, lolling about amongst the salmon, too stuffed to be bothered to hunt. Hmmm, we know that feeling!
Right, come on - time to make an effort. Next stop Creek Street. Turns out, what looked a bit of a walk away was about 10 steps! Did we overlook the map scale? Clearly ...
Creek Street is built on stilts, right on and over the creek, and although is today mostly trinket shops was once the busy red light district of town. Welcomed by the many ladies of the night and fuelled by liquor, fishermen would arrive in their droves, and off load rather more than just their haul at the cannery! The most famous 'sports woman' of all was Dolly Arthur, an astute business woman and much loved in more ways than one. She plied her trade at the head of Creek Street from the early 1900s for 40 years, and in fact only left her house there in 1973 when failing eyesight and ill health forced her to move to a nursing home. When she died a few years later she was found to be incredibly wealthy and the attendants at her funeral numbered in their thousands. We, rather less energetically, took a short tour through her 4-roomed slightly tatty house, now a 'museum' (of sorts) before giving ourselves a bit of a talking to about our sedentary morning! At least Married Man's Trail (all 0.2 miles of it, and so-called because it offered a slightly more covert route to the brothels than the main street) was uphill through the woods. If we got a sweat on however it wasn't down to the effort but rather the result of a sudden surge in temperature! Up went the Mercury, and down went our resolve to hike. Still, lovely to stroll to the Totem Heritage Centre in the sunshine.
This married man was headed AWAY from Creek Steet. Just sayin'.
Ever wondered what all those carvings on totem poles mean? We figured they were merely decorative or symbols to ward off spirits. Turns out some were just house address labels! Ok, so I'm over-simplifying, but truly the purpose of some totem poles was to indicate the heritage of a local family so others knew where to find them. Others had perhaps greater significance, being erected in memory of someone's passing or even to house ashes after death, whilst on occasion a totem might be erected to shame a miscreant for wrongdoings (until amends were made and the totem chopped down). All in all, we managed, nerd-like, to mosey round the air-conditioned museum for a good while before realising that breakfast had by now become something of a distant memory. Hmmm ...
Just going to slip this in quickly, quietly .... a mere snack (OK more of a lunch) happened next. Well we needed to buy a drink, and stuff. It's fine. Really.
And so Ketchikan was almost complete. By this time my feet were really hot in my heavy hiking boots, HRH was in fear of burning and frankly the cool of our stateroom seemed to be beckoning. Nice.
Once divested of unnecessary layers, having picked up a book each and with a view to finding a lounger on deck somewhere, we next set off in search of a refreshing cup of tea. And we found one - oh boy, did we ever!
Having not previously been in the right place mid-afternoon we hadn't really acknowledged that something rather special happens at 3.00pm. Trust us to discover this today. That delicious and welcome cup of tea soon turned into the whole nine yards when we were ushered to a white-cloth-clad table in the Manhattan Dining Room and presented with open sandwiches, scones and cake! Well you just can't say no when the charming staff have gone to so much trouble - can you?
Led in by our greedy curiosity and out by our belly buttons there was now no choice but to find that quiet deck lounger and read (euphemism for nap! Whoops).
Such a varied and unexpected day simply had to be finished off in same vein. A pub quiz. Yes, I know this sounds like something innocuous but HRH isn't a fan of group activities, so getting him to go was an achievement. Turns out it was just 30 minutes of general (albeit Amerco-centric) general knowledge and despite initial reservations was a spot of good fun, that saw us each given an Alaska pin for being runners up.
Right, I'm not even going to mention dinner, and the film we then sat around watching. I'd be too embarrassed. And anyway I'm now tired. It's been a busy day. So there. Wa-e ak-we*
** Shame she didn't go a bit further really!
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