The Cruise - Day Six - Ketchikan

Day six found us on our way to Ketchikan. When I awoke before 7 and went out to our balcony, I spent about an hour just enjoying the view and watching the world pass us by. One thing that caught my attention was just how serene the waters were. I tried to capture them in this picture here, and also the variances I saw in currents, or whatever that is where you can clearly see differences in the water. I also saw a whale pop out of the water and go down, tail and all. Not as chilly as it had been around Juneau the day before, it was a relaxing morning to settle in before breakfast.

When we arrived in Ketchikan, our first thought was that well, this looks a lot like Juneau, just a little smaller. Same look of the port, same bunch of businesses and houses right up against the mountain, but one house in particular caught my attention. This yellow number you see to the left looked like it was perched so much on the edge that if you leaned too much to that side of the house, the entire thing would come tumbling down the mountain. No thank you! Guess this is not the kind of home you'd raise your kids in.  :)

Once we arrived we set out on a very short excursion, we were only in Ketchikan for a few hours, to see a Lumberjack show. I have a lot of pictures of this, but for the sake of upload time I am only sharing one here on the blog. The show was really enjoyable and very funny, which wasn't something I expected. And when you live in an area that doesn't have this type of activity, you never think about the fact that, for these guys, being a lumberjack is not only a way of life, but they participate in these Timber Sports as well. There is a whole circuit, I guess.  The guy on the log roll you see here closest to us had recently been down in California fighting the wildfires. Yes, lumberjacks can help reduce the spread by harvesting trees. Such a needed thing that too many places don't understand. I remember that from all the times we have visited South Dakota. Too many trees increases the fire risk and makes it easier for fire to spread, so thinning them out is an important thing to help the ecosystem. Let them run wild and you stand likely to lose far more than you ever gain from keeping them there. Nature is a fickle thing, and it's kind of fascinating to think of all the work, all the research that goes into knowing how we keep things safe and looking beautiful without taking away all that beauty. Quite the responsibility we have!  :)

After the lumberjack show we did a little shopping, where I finally nabbed another t-shirt to add to my collection. I do this on every vacation, and I only grabbed two this entire week, which is shocking for me.  Luckily, Katy made up for it with jewelry purchases, so I don't feel like we did nothing while we were here.  :)  As in Juneau, the merchants were happy to see us, the first cruise there in 18 months. I will say that, as I write this, I saw another cruise ship heading back the way we came, so I suspect within a week Ketchikan will have another set of guests to entertain.

We boarded the ship a little earlier because we wanted to get back for dinner. All but Katy, Nell and I had plans to go to the sushi restaurant on board. The three of us wanted our traditional dining experience, but they had asked us to dress up last night. Here we are in our Sunday (OK, it was Saturday) best, me with two of my favorite people in the world. Aren't I lucky? Yes, yes I am. :)  The meal was great and, as usual, our service was impeccable. Our servers all week have been Viktoriia, who is from Odessa in the Ukraine, and Hannah, who is from Kenya. Such sweet spirits and we have had long conversations especially with Viktoriia, learning about her life a little bit and sharing ours as well. 

After dinner, and before we headed out to the evening's entertainment at 9:30 (every night is a late night on a cruise ship, I have learned), we went back to our room to change. Each night our deck steward leaves a new towel animal or character on the bed. Last night Zac arrived in the room first to find this little guy, propped up, holding the remote, and the TV was on. HILARIOUS!  He has done some pretty cute things this week, which just lend an additional bit of joy into each day. Not everything has gone smoothly on this cruise in terms of restrictions, etc., but I have to say, we have never, ever, ever had service this good in any hotel we have ever stayed in. Anton, our deck steward, puts every single housekeeper in every hotel anywhere to shame. He literally cleans in our room 3-4 times a day, emptying the trash and making sure things are ready for us. He raises the bunkbed when he first cleans and lowers it each night for Zac to sleep in.  And the service in the restaurant that we have received has set a very high bar as well. Great food, yes, but the service...it's nice that every night, and if they see us in the other restaurant, Viktoriia and Hannah greet us by name. They remember our orders and they look out for us.  These three people have been my favorite staff on the entire ship. Well, OK, there might be a fourth. A bartender, Oliver, works in the evening venue (the theater) and also is in a bar on the 4th deck each day. Oliver is from Spain, and we have developed a rapport. It's fun getting to know these people and they really do make the cruise better.