June 14 through June 18, 2016
Alaska at last!!
It is a 6 hour ferry ride from Prince Rupert, BC to
Ketchikan, AK. Since Prince Rupert is
the starting point of the Alaska Marine Highway System, the whole ferry had to
be loaded. We were instructed to be in
line at 7:30 am for a 10:30 sailing, part of which was to pass through
customs. A lot of waiting. Then, when we finally boarded, they informed
us that we were now on Alaska time – 1 hour earlier.
Disembarking was surprisingly efficient and easy. Not everyone on the ship got off at
Ketchikan, and they had us loaded according to destination.
Ketchikan is about the size of Ludington, but 32 miles long,
squished between the harbor and the mountains.
We spent our 4 days exploring the area, watching eagles, cruise ships (8
into port in 2 days, spilling 2000-3000 passengers each into Ketchikan.
A visit to Totem Bight Heritage Park was a nice enjoyable
stroll ending in a replica of a Tlingkit (pronounced Klingkit) Clan house. The totems were not for worship, but
generally tell the family history of the clan.
Most here were replicas.
MISTY FJORDS NATIONAL MONUMENT
Misty Fjords National Monument is almost 4000 square miles
of rugged untouched wilderness. The only
access if by plane or boat. We chose a
float plane ride – so glad we did. It
was so incredibly beautiful! This was my
first time in a small plane, it was so cool when we landed on a lake in the
wilderness. A hundred miles from
nowhere, over 1000 ft of 35 degree water.
--Small world Moment:
We like to try to mingle with the locals, so we stopped at the VFW for
their Burger Night. There we met a
couple traveling like us, and he grew up in Pentwater! His grandparents homestead was on Bass
Lake! Dave, do you remember the
Browers? The house was on the corner of
Lakeshore Drive and the road to the outlet.
Marcia & Ron (from the Evergreen in Ludington) live there now. They were on the ferry out of Ketchikan with
us, so we spent the hours visiting and naming families we both knew.
No comments:
Post a Comment