3rd August 2016

Ketchikan Overcast some rain Temp 15c

You may have noticed that I have stop giving you the” From the Navigator”. That’s because the information sometimes does not seem relevant. We made arrangement to meet Bev & Ian near the International Café at 10am this morning because we are on the same tour “Totem Bight State Park & Lumberjack Show” which we did but the captain announced that because of the current we would be later docking. This now meant that because a lot of people on this cruise must be the first off there formed a queue near where the gangway was going to be. Even though there were announcements asking people not to queue around the gangway they still did it. We had to join them as our tour met shore side 15 minutes after we were supposed to dock Thankfully the staff marshalled everyone so that tour people got off before most of the ones who did not have tours. Because we were late docking, our itinery got altered and we went to a later session of the Lumberjack Show which allowed us some time to look around town beforehand. At 12noon we went to the Show which was quite entertaining. Next we boarded our coach for the journey to the Totem Park along the way we had a quick tour of the town. Our Driver/Guide was a young lady named Sara and she was terrific giving us lots of information. The Totem Park is not a collection of totem Poles stolen from other areas but is a collection of replica pole copied by a master carver from those of the surrounding district. Sara gave us interpretations of each pole and we finished up in the biggest gift shop that we have seen so far. She did tell us that the boxes which are labelled Male & Female are the International Centers because you are Russian when you go in, European in there and Finish when you come out. Ketchikan is the rainy capital of Alaska with 15 metres of rain a year so it was not surprising that we did get some rain today but it mainly fell while we were in the Lumberjack show and we were under cover but the performers were not. By the time we got to the Totem Park it had stopped and there was even the occasional sunshine. Sara said the blue holes we see in the clouds they call sucker holes because it does not mean it’s going to be sunny. Once back at the ship we had the option of staying on the coach and she would drop us in the centre of town or we could get off at the ship. We got off at the ship but then decided to just look in the Outlet Store which was near our berth. Both of us bought jackets there as they were at such a good price, Betty also bought an iron stone necklace & ear ring set for $3US. Tonight we say goodbye to Alaska after a lovely time there and head for Vancouver Canada which is a favorite port of ours. Our entertainment tonight was “Flamenco Express” which as you would expect was two Flamenco dancers, male & female, who put on a good show with plenty of costume changes. Tomorrow they are going to teach you to do the dances but I think I will give it a miss.