Tag: Ketchikan

Ketchikan, Alaska, on Friday, August 30th, 2019

On August 30, 2019

Juneau, Alaska

Ketchikan is near the southernmost tip of Alaska’s panhandle and is a small town squeezed between mountain and sea. It gets its name from the Tlingit Indian name, Ketchikan, meaning “Thundering Wings of an Eagle.” If you climb the 3,000 foot Deer Mountain that overlooks the town, the town, a Tlingit summer fishing camp, sprawls in the shape of an eagle in flight. It’s only a small town of 8,245, but it has Hoona beat hollow (our first stop at Icy Strait, Alaska) because that town only has 760 residents AND it takes 3 and 1/2 hours to get to civilization by boat AND that boat only runs 2 days a week! So, as our guide said, “Everybody knows everybody and we have zero crime.”

Helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier.

Ketchikan, which is near Craig, is known as the Salmon Capital of Alaska, but Salmon cities abound up here in the North to Alaska area. All we have for an “activity” in this town is a trolley pass for the day. We plan to wander in and drift around among the many jewelry stores and those that are touting fur or bamboo goods (because they are softer than cotton).

Hubbard Glacier.

We did our flying (both plane and helicopter) on the past 2 stops, and all I can say for those of you thinking of making this trip is to bring plenty of money for the opportunities to fly over the glaciers. They don’t give those trips away and you’ll be shelling out hundreds, per opportunity. Well worth it? For us, yes, because I don’t anticipate strolling over to Sarah Palin’s house to watch Russia from her porch any time in the future, and this will probably be my only chance to visit our 50th state.

Craig on the glacier. There is actually a town named “Craig” near Ketchikan, where we dock today.

Mendenhall Glacier.

Cruising the Mendenhall Glacier.

Passing ship (the SilverSea?)

Craig and Connie Wilson on Mendenhall Glacier on 8/29/2019

This trip ends on Sunday, as we go back to Vancouver, British Columbia to depart for a plane trip back to Chicago, flying through San Francisco, this time.

Alaska Now and Tomorrow!

By Connie Wilson

On August 26, 2019

In travel

Vancouver beckons.

Vancouver Harbor, 8/25/19.

I’ve been trying to upload photos taken here in Alaska for the better part of the last hour. No luck. We’re in the ocean, heading for Icy Strait Point, which we will reach at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. (That is 5:30 p.m. Quad City time).

So far, I’ve managed to shut my left hand index finger in the rest room door on the airplane flying here (Chicago to Denver; Denver to Vancouver) and sat for the duration with my finger plunged in a glass of ice. It’s a lovely purple color right now. I also think I have pulled something in my back pulling my computer bag with my 900-lb. purse perched atop it. Both of these are “no nos” for the experienced travelers among you, which apparently leaves me out.

We have booked 3 tours off the boat. One will be tomorrow at 4 p.m. when we do the Glacier Bay Flightseeing for 2 hours in a fixed-wing plane flying over Point Adolphus and Icy Strait. Glacier Bay National Park is the destination, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Three point three million acres with the ancestral homeland of the Huna Tingit. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to see the pictures until I can get home to post them. The Internet here is not great, even though it costs something like $175 for 2 devices per person for the week. (The plane trip is $399 per person, so….)

After Icy Strait, it’s the Hubbard Glacier on Aug. 28 and Juneau on the 29th. We’ll do the Mendenhall Glacier by helicopter and guided walk for 2 and one-quarter hours. ($369 per person).

Following Juneau, on Friday (Aug. 30) we hit Ketchikan and I think we’re doing the historic Ketchikan trolley, although there are so many different options that I now am confused as to what we ARE doing.

I bought a jacket on the ship today, since it is getting quite chilly and my London Fog coat with the metal buttons is not cutting it. The buttons used to amuse Ava and Elise (the granddaughters) for hours, but they set off all the alarms at the metal detectors at the airport and won’t stay closed.

I got an e-mail from Amazon today giving me 5 days to “dispute” some copyright claim for my newest (6th) cat book and it makes no sense at all. I published both the cat books and whatever other book they are talking about, but I am in no position to make phone calls to Amazon and be on hold for hours at a time, so there’s that.

The food, as always, is good, and the ship reminds of the Celebrity Solstice that we took around Australia (this is the Celebrity Eclipse). So far, so good.