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Alaskan Cruise--2014: Part 1 Part 2 >> Part 3 >> Part 4 >> Part 5 >> Part 6 >> Part 7 >>
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We decided to take a 2-week Alaskan cruise to & from Seattle. We flew from Jacksonville to Seattle on a commercial flight, took a bus to the port, and boarded our ship, the Amsterdam. She's the same one that we sailed on our around the world cruise in 2012, so we felt right at home.  

Our itinerary is dense so there are not many sea days to rest up between ports, but that's okay with us.  

We took some photos from the ship around our port in Seattle.  A much larger Princess ship was in the adjacent berth. The sky was amazing.

 


A well protected and densely populated marina was in front of us. 


At 4pm, as we sailed away, the famous Seattle skyline came into view. 


A well-defined front of a tidal current rolled under us and offset our wake.

 
We took a tour of the flowers around the ship and thought that the arrangement of the orchids festooning the moose antlers was the most interesting and apropos for the voyage. 


Our first stop in Alaska is Ketchikan, "salmon capital of the world." The ship was flying both the U.S. flag and the Alaskan flag-a blue field with the Big Dipper and the North Star. Also the Holland flag, the Holland American flag, and the yellow fever flag to show that we are a healthy ship. The coastline as we come into the port is quite rugged with gray skies and mist hiding the mountain tops.


Some places along the waterfront are tidy and others–not so much...

 
As we come into port there are 2 ships already there, including the Statendam, which we were on for our Panama cruise in 2013. A crew member is ready to throw a line to the pier.


We passed the Coast Guard station.


As we pull in, a sea plane took off. This is a major transportation mode in this state.

   
There are crossing guards in town for all the pedestrians–2400 for just the Amsterdam and the Statendam alone.  We immediately head out to Creek Street. The whole port side of town is built on pilings for several blocks. 


Dolly's place on Creek Street is one of the more famous or infamous–Dolly was a successful working girl and madam during the gold rush days. She had borrowed $1700 (a large sum back then) to purchase the house and paid off the loan in 2 weeks.


Now it's mostly art galleries, souvenir shops, and restaurants. Dolly's place is a museum.

  
 Oh yes, it was raining pretty good, but we had our ponchos and had dressed in warm layers. Ferns were just unrolling their fronds for the summer.

   

 

 
The salmon swim up this creek to spawn and a fish ladder is in place to allow them to swim past a steep section of the creek.


There's an alternate route up the creek with an appropriate name.


We were headed for a trail head, but detoured through City Park. Everyone we talked to about the trail said that we really, really needed to wait for the shuttle or to hire a cab because the road was so steep. We didn't.

 
There were a few people at the trail head who had taken the shuttle.


But for the most part we were alone on the trail to enjoy the flowers like these lovely yellow violets.
 

  
There was a slight odor of skunk cabbage in the air.


We hiked for more than 2 hours up the Deer Mountain, but turned back when some hikers coming down said that there was ice on the trail just ahead.

 
Looking back up Deer Mountain, the mists rolled through the spruce trees.


Looking back down toward Ketchikan.

   
If we'd taken the shuttle, we would have missed the gardens and the other parts of town where the locals hang out. We liked the "Gone fishin'" sign under the eave of this house.

  
They get a lot of rain here. The average year's liquid sunshine gauge measures 12.5 feet! 


A totem rises above the flowering crabapple tree in Whale Park near the center of town.


A sculpture on the dock depicts the various parts of the town's history.


A look back at Deer Mountain from the ship does show the ice or snow toward the top.


Looking toward the left side of the mountain there is a long waterfall. If we ever come here again, that's where we'll head.

Tomorrow we'll be doing some scenic cruising up a fjord called Tracy Arm.

 

On to Tracy Arm ... >>

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