Day 17 - Monday - 09/09/24 - Ketchikan

 Our final port stop found us in Ketchikan.  We had a mid morning arrival at 10am, so we enjoyed a nice cruise down the channel past the Alaska Marine Highway repair yard with 3 vessels moored.  We berthed at the southern most berth facing south with the Zaandam slipping in behind us.  Behind the Zaandam was the Viking Orion and a northbound Princess ship.  We watched the docking procedure and we were in no hurry to get off of the ship as we have been to this port many times.

After disembarking, we enquired at a local ticket seller booth about a wildlife viewing trip and there was one leaving at 10:45am, so we purchased tickets for it for $75 per person.  Comparable Princess shore excursions were triple that price.  10:45 came and went and finally at 11;12 we departed with 11 in our very nice Ford Transit Van.  Jason, our driver and guide took us first to a viewing spot on Creek Street where we watched the pink salmon spawning run.  It was in full display with hundreds of salmon making their way up to spawn.

Our second stop was at a bear viewing spot south of town at the confluence of a creek and near a fish hatchery.  There was another spawning run occurring there with lots of seagulls and a few Canadian Geese, but the bears did not make an appearance.  We waited there for about 45 minutes before proceeding to a brief stop further south at Rainbow Falls.

Our last stop was at the Saxon Villiage to visit the totem pole park.  Angela visited this on a two hour tour a couple years ago, but it was my first time.  There were a number of totems on display, and Jason gave a talk on the meaning of many of them.

Back in the van, Jason dropped us off at Creek Street where we watched the seals chase salmon.  There were lots of seals and many more salmon.  It seemed that the seals were just playing with the salmon, but the seals definitely appears to be quite plump.  We shopped a bit at the merchants of Creek Street before checking out a Salvation Army Thrift store.  From there we strolled through town looking for a place to eat a late lunch.  We ended up at Annabelle's which is on the Main Street at the north end of town and across the street from the Eagle statue.  The chowder and fish & chips were good.  Afterwards we strolled back to the ship checking out a number of of shops which were generally selling the same merchandise at the same prices.  

We reboarded the ship around 3pm and found a seat on the LIDO deck 14 portside so I could update my blog and watch the passengers come back to the ship.  All aboard time was 5:30pm, but it wasn't until 5:50 that a shore excursion boat returned.  Soon afterwards Captain Lewis gave his departure speech, the mooring lines were released, and the thruster moved us parallel away from our berth,  Soon propellor power was added and we headed down the channel at a reduced speed until we passed the Saxton village after which the throttle was advanced and we made a sharp right turn heading out into the open sea.

I ate a small dinner of a minute steak before atttending the cast entertainment show of "Born to Dance."  Unfortunately I fell asleep during most of it.  Afterwards we attended an excellent comedy performance by Steve Coauette.  He's probably the funniest pure comedian we've seen in a long time.  He was so good that I went back for his 10:30pm performance which was totally different but with some of the same jokes.  He's really strong at interacting with the audience and feeding off of it.  In between I got redemption by staying awake for the 9:30 performance of "Born to Dance."  It's a really nice show and I especially like the ending which features a powerful routine involving the ABBA song "Dancing Queen."  While I was at the comedy show, Angela participated in the karaoke event.

We advanced our clocks by an hour to synchronize with Vancouver time.  Tomorrow is our last day on the ship and there are a few activities onboard, but the schedule is pretty light.