(Addition:  For some interesting information on Ketchikan, you can visit Wikipedia.  For instance, Ketchikan has the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world!)

Since Telephoto Tuesday is a photo post, this works into my plan of taking you through the first week of our Alaskan cruise.  So far we have:

Sunday – Leaving Vancouver, heading north

Monday – Was a relaxing day at sea.  Which brings us to…

Tuesday — A port day in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Ketchikan, like some of the other Alaskan ports we visited, is a small town, nestled between the mountains and the sea.  You can easily stroll through the town in a couple of hours, depending upon how much time you spend in the shops.  This is a view from the upper deck of the ship:

The hills/mountains are heavily wooded all around, and the clouds hang low and heavy over the town.  Here is a shot of the marina, off to the right:

And say “hi” to SIL Lee, Niece Nadine and her DH Eric, as they wait to be picked up for an excursion:

Our fellow travelers took an excursion in almost every port, but since we were there five years ago or so and took many of the excursions at that time, we elected to be ship bums this trip.  We spent a little time shopping, then lunch back on the ship followed by a relaxing afternoon of reading/movies/puzzles/knitting/hot-tubbing.  Such a life.  Speaking of shopping:

all four of the ports had quilt shops!  Well, not Haines (at least I didn’t see one).  Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Seward all had quilt/sewing shops, and there were even a couple of yarn shops.  This scene tickled my funny bone:  horses pulling a trolley in front of the Wells Fargo stage coach sign:

Well, you know I’m easily amused.  Ketchikan is probably my favorite town of the ones we visited.  It’s very picturesque, very Alaska — even down to the float planes that frequently land  and take off, right alongside the big cruise ships:

Vicky commented yesterday that she had heard Alaska was a cruise that was worth taking.  Like I said, we took a 7-day cruise five years ago, and we still were excited about coming back and doing a 14-day cruise (two 7-days back to back).  There’s so much to see and do, and when we have the glacier days especially, the scenery is absolutely breath taking.  The only people I talked to that were disappointed in the cruise were expecting warm, sunny weather.  If you go, expect chilly temperatures, and fog/low clouds alternating with rain.  It won’t interefere with the sight-seeing one bit.  Then when you get a sunny day, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Stop back tomorrow, and I’ll take you to the state capital, Juneau! 

Sue