Last Saturday, we enjoyed a leisurely sea day cruising along the coastline of Canada on our way to Ketchikan, the southernmost port in the state of Alaska. We managed to catch up on our blog and website, attend a couple of lectures, have dinner with Glenn and Judy Weirich, and enjoy a very entertaining Broadway cast show in the Constellation Theater.
Fortunately, we gained an hour last night…so our 7:50 am departure on this morning’s shore excursion was not too painful. We were bussed from dockside to 30 minutes outside of Ketchikan, where a small (30 passenger) flat bottomed boat awaited our arrival. We were soon aboard the vessel (along with the Burkes, Weirichs, and Ashdowns…all members of our CSI group), and began a two-hour tour of George Inlet. Along the way, we saw a seal, eagles, and lots of mountainous scenery. About 60 minutes into our tour of this picturesque fjord, we stopped alongside two buoys that marked crab pots which the boat’s crew had lowered to the bottom of the small cove earlier this morning. They were pulled up (by hand). The first pot contained nearly a dozen crabs of varying sizes. The second yielded but one crab. They were all measured, then released back to their cold-water home to live another day.
Soon, we were turned around and returned to our starting point...the George Inlet Lodge. Along the way, we passed by the George Inlet Cannery, a closed Libby McNeil fish cannery that once thrived along this salmon-filled waterway in the 1920s.
Back onshore, we entered the Lodge’s restaurant, and sat down to what turned out to be the most enjoyable crab feast either of us had ever enjoyed. We had all the crab we could possibly devour. The four at our table managed to digest nearly ten of the tasty crustaceans…without a doubt the sweetest, and most tender, crabs we had ever eaten. Following our crab feast, we enjoyed a very delightful New York cheese cake.
After a hike up a very steep 79-step covered walkway, we returned to Ketchikan via bus. Upon arriving downtown, several of us strolled to Creek Street where we browsed the stores and watched the salmon (there were hundreds of them) swim up stream for their final hurrah. Then we walked the two blocks to Ketchikan’s “shopping district.” Jan, of course, managed to show the ladies a yarn store where they all helped out the local economy with several purchases. Jerry bought a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and all were happy. We reboarded the Mariner and departed Ketchikan at 4:00 pm.
Some interesting facts about Alaska (from Terry Breen, onboard lecturer):
14 of the 19 tallest U.S. mountains are in Alaska…50% of all world’s glaciers are in this state…Alaska has 2000 rivers and over 3 million lakes…the state has 45,000 miles of continual coastline (more than the lower 48 states)…if Alaska were a country it would be the 17th largest county in the world…in 1959 Alaska had 4 time zones…the state is 574,000 square miles with 676,000 inhabitants (1.1 person per square mile)…there are more caribou than people in Alaska…Ketchikan gets an average of 160 inches of rain every year…one third of Alaska is north of the Arctic Circle.
Fortunately, we gained an hour last night…so our 7:50 am departure on this morning’s shore excursion was not too painful. We were bussed from dockside to 30 minutes outside of Ketchikan, where a small (30 passenger) flat bottomed boat awaited our arrival. We were soon aboard the vessel (along with the Burkes, Weirichs, and Ashdowns…all members of our CSI group), and began a two-hour tour of George Inlet. Along the way, we saw a seal, eagles, and lots of mountainous scenery. About 60 minutes into our tour of this picturesque fjord, we stopped alongside two buoys that marked crab pots which the boat’s crew had lowered to the bottom of the small cove earlier this morning. They were pulled up (by hand). The first pot contained nearly a dozen crabs of varying sizes. The second yielded but one crab. They were all measured, then released back to their cold-water home to live another day.
Soon, we were turned around and returned to our starting point...the George Inlet Lodge. Along the way, we passed by the George Inlet Cannery, a closed Libby McNeil fish cannery that once thrived along this salmon-filled waterway in the 1920s.
Back onshore, we entered the Lodge’s restaurant, and sat down to what turned out to be the most enjoyable crab feast either of us had ever enjoyed. We had all the crab we could possibly devour. The four at our table managed to digest nearly ten of the tasty crustaceans…without a doubt the sweetest, and most tender, crabs we had ever eaten. Following our crab feast, we enjoyed a very delightful New York cheese cake.
After a hike up a very steep 79-step covered walkway, we returned to Ketchikan via bus. Upon arriving downtown, several of us strolled to Creek Street where we browsed the stores and watched the salmon (there were hundreds of them) swim up stream for their final hurrah. Then we walked the two blocks to Ketchikan’s “shopping district.” Jan, of course, managed to show the ladies a yarn store where they all helped out the local economy with several purchases. Jerry bought a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and all were happy. We reboarded the Mariner and departed Ketchikan at 4:00 pm.
Some interesting facts about Alaska (from Terry Breen, onboard lecturer):
14 of the 19 tallest U.S. mountains are in Alaska…50% of all world’s glaciers are in this state…Alaska has 2000 rivers and over 3 million lakes…the state has 45,000 miles of continual coastline (more than the lower 48 states)…if Alaska were a country it would be the 17th largest county in the world…in 1959 Alaska had 4 time zones…the state is 574,000 square miles with 676,000 inhabitants (1.1 person per square mile)…there are more caribou than people in Alaska…Ketchikan gets an average of 160 inches of rain every year…one third of Alaska is north of the Arctic Circle.
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