Ketchikan

Cy looking out our deck at Ketchikan.

Well, it has been two weeks since I have written anything about our Alaska cruise.  Long story...Ray got sick during the cruise but did manage to go on all of the excursions and get some good pictures.  I stayed well until the last day.  I will write about that last day later....what a nightmare...but now, I can look back and smile...maybe later I will find more humor in it.  For now, I will try to catch up on our cruise. 
We left Vancouver and had a day at sea on our way to Ketchikan.  The seas were rough and lots of people were not feeling well.  For me, the rolling is peaceful...especially at night...gently rocking to sleep. I am sure most people welcomed the quiet water as we sailed and docked at Ketchikan.  We had signed up for the "Everybody Duck" excursion...an amphibious vehicle that would tour through the streets and then drive into the water for a tour along the shore.  We got there late and were at the tail end of the line.  Somehow the excursion was overbooked so there was no room for us.  We were told we could take the one three hours later.  No big deal...we spent the time walking through the streets and getting a flavor and history of Ketchikan.



Ketchikan

This was the Duck we were going to ride through the town and in the water.

One of the Totem Poles in Ketchikan that we saw while walking around town.

Dolly's House of Ill Repute :-)

Docks at Ketchikan

Another picture of Dolly's House.

Another Duck we saw while in the water.
 

This eagle had caught some sort of marine life.

This eagle wanted to fly along with us.

 

 We left Ketchikan after a pleasant day of seeing wildlife and learning a bit of history, too.  Now we head to Juneau where I hoped to see some whales on our whale watch excursion.

On our way to Juneau....the mist on the mountains was stunning.

Waterfalls and mountain streams.

Juneau
 

Catch Us in Ketchikan

It is Monday, June 2, 2014, and we are on our first full day of the cruise to Alaska.  This is my second cruise to Alaska, but Ray’s first.  We spent two nights at Vancouver at the Pan Pacific Hotel.  What a beautiful view we had!  The sky was blue with puffy white clouds.

This is the view from our room.



This is Vancouver as we are leaving on the ship.

This is the sunset from our hotel room.

Now we are headed to Ketchikan where we are signed up to go on the ‘Everybody Duck!’ excursion in the morning.  After that we hope to get some good pictures of Ketchikan.  I don’t have a good photographic record of my last trip to Alaska because that was the first digital camera I had.  In the excitement of getting pictures of the glaciers crashing into the ocean….I accidentally formatted all of my pictures that were on that media card.  Fortunately, I had some on other cards, but lost a lot of pictures.

This sculpture is called "The Drop"...Ray took this picture of it from the
hotel window.  I am leaning on it.

This is a zoomed in picture of me
leaning on the drop,

Right now all of the decks on the ship are closed because of rough water.  I know many people don’t like the rolling of the ship, but I like it.   Since this is a small ship it does not have the big stabilizers that the larger cruise ships have….so at times we have felt like we are on a gentle roller coaster.  (I learned about the stabilizers from a man who sat with us at the wine tasting this afternoon.)  I am just glad that our room has a deck so that we can sit outside and watch the waves…even though it is a bit nippy.

Ray snapped this picture of me as we were leaving Vancouver,

Ray tried to catch the rainbows formed from the mist of
the large waves, but he couldn't quite get it.

I told Ray that when I was on my first cruise to Alaska
it was hot most of the time.  Well, he still does
not believe me...because it has been quite nippy,  Ray is
enjoying the sun on our deck. :-)
 

This is our ship coming in.  We could see it from our hotel room.

 

 I am going to let the pictures tell the rest of the story because I am short on time…and also short on internet time as it is a bit (no….really a lot) expensive to buy time.  I will write more when I get back to Ohio.

Cy is saying good-bye to Vancouver

I am looking at a beautiful sun set on our way to Ketchikan

I am going to let the pictures tell the rest of the story because I am short on time…and also short on internet time as it is a bit (no….really a lot) expensive to buy time.  I will write more when I get back to Ohio.