Day 4: Petersburg to Wrangell to Ketchican

Finally I am getting a good wireless connection! Stopped in Petersburg, AK last night around 1am. All I remember is that it was raining and the wind was whistling against the ship. Enough to wake me up. As far as I could tell, too, we got in to port late. So I only saw Petersburg from my stateroom window at 2 am. It looked dark. Wrangell, AK was our next port of call at 5:15 am. I woke up just before we started up to leave. Too bad, too. I was hoping to at least acknowledge the narrows as we drove into Wrangell. Shawn said he felt all the turning though. The rest of us rested. Nick and Stella slept all night and didn't wake up until 8am. It was so nice.

The bulk of our day was spent in the beautiful and busy town of Ketchican, AK. We got in to port around noon and didn't have to be back on the ferry until 4:45 for a 5:15 departure. So we scrambled off board and over to the bus stop right in front of the terminal. You see, the ferry boat docks on the edge of all these little towns. Whereas the cruise ships dock right smack dab in the downtowns. Today there were four gigantic cruise ships in Ketchican's downtown. Tourists were scattered everywhere. It seemed that the Lumberjack Show was quite popular with several cruisers! We opted for lunch at a very local joint. Pioneer Cafe was the spot. We think we were the only non locals in the place. There was a group that we recognized from our ferry that hopped in a booth across from us. But then they quickly left because a very old man was smoking in the booth behind them. This place didn't exactly have a smoking section. My guess is that this man and his wife have been coming to Pioneer Cafe for decades and they had some kind of squatting rights on the place. The food was really great. All four of us stuffed our bellies with our last "Alaskan" meal. After lunch we toured Southeastern Alaska Discovery Center. It was recommended by the Ranger on board the boat but it was truly worth it. The center had beautiful displays and descriptions of life and history in Southeast AK. EVerything was very well done. It was a well spent hour and $8. Then we wandered the streets. Not much else we were interested in. If I walked passed one jewelry store I passed 100. That is for the cruisers, I know. There were also 100 souvenir shops. We have plenty of Alaska keepsakes. So we headed back to the bus stop. I have to say, the town was much bigger than I imagined. Compared to Sitka, it was a bustling metropolis. I was disappointed that there weren't really any restaurants in the main downtown area. We had to scout out our lunch spot. But I understand--the cruiser have meals on their ships.




Now we are back at sea for the next 36 hours. Our next stop is Bellingham, WA on Friday morning. It hasn't hit me that we are leaving AK yet. Everything around us still looks very much like AK--HUGE mountains, snow, eagles, water, trees, fishing vessels. But I know that this boat is taking us very far away. (sad face now) Well, I am done for today's post. We are heading out to the deck for cookies and fresh Alaskan (and maybe Canadian, I'm not sure) mountain air.

Night, night.