Marine Hardware
Most of dockside is devoted to the tourist industry. There are some pretty cool stores that you would not expect here. One of these stores happens to be the most prolifically stocked hardware store that you can imagine. Dockside the bottom floor stocks marine hardware for all sorts of boats. This is a major fishing stop for this part of Alaska and it clearly represented here. Upstairs in this hardware store is a clothing store. Major brands of weather clothing is represented here. It is not just a look what mom and dad brought me back from Alaska type clothing store. On one of our trips it was pretty rainy when we arrived at Ketchikan. Sue had made up her mind that she was not going to get off the ship because it looked too uncomfortable. I jumped off the ship and found here a first class rain jacket to wear to the excursions that we had signed up for and paid for. This port is somewhat plagued by its own success. Passengers of several ships may dock here at the same time. A 20 foot difference in tides between getting off the ship and getting on the ship may leave you scratching your head. Sometimes we got off the ship on the 4th deck and got back on the deck on the 6th deck. Ketchikan is also home to the classic tourist niches. There is a Diamonds International and Del Sol tee shirt shops, a ton of other quasi gift shops on the port main street. There are some rather touristy attractions that are really kind of cool. This is a port that you will have time to do a couple of excursions if you want to. You may sign up for them on the ship or you can save a couple of dollars and easily get hooked up for them when you get there by walking off the ship and signing up with the hawkers as they roam the street. You may just want to get off the ship and walk around.
The last time we were there, we had delayed signing up. The cruise line said they were full but I think that they were trying to spread out the attendance so that everyone would not overload the first shows. Even when signing up on the street, the hawkers will take down your name and your ship. There is a good reason for this. On our last trip, the ship decided to sail out of town 45 minutes earlier than it had scheduled. Notification was made to the vendors of the shows and we were retrieved from the middle of one of our excursions that we paid for on the street and were spirited back to the ship so that we would not miss its departure. Our excursion was refunded, even though we had not booked it through Princess. The inside passage to Juneau is can by particularly knarly if you they have to take one of these big ships through during low tide. It is a spectacular trip. The big mountains come right down to the sea's edge on both side of the ship as the ship motors through it at 24 miles an hour.
What to Do in Ketchikan?
There are Three really nice things to experience in Ketchikan. A cable car on wheels is pulled by a couple of draft horses through town as college age docents describe the features of the town. A group of really big draft horses (like clydsdales) are kept during the summer so that this tour can be made available. A husky dog accompanies the tour along with a horse driver and a narrator. At the end of the dock area these horses pull the carriage up a pretty steep hill. We were at the top of the hill when we were intercepted by the owner of the operation. He picked us up with the manual wheelchair in the biggest pickup truck I have ever seen. He explained to us the we had to get back to the ship so that it could sail right away. We saw another part of Ketchikan.
The tour allows passengers to see the classic sights of Ketchikan. The wooden dock area, the old time prostitute gulch and the salmond ladder built right in town. The various totem poles are explained and a glimpse of living in this town even in the summer are explained. We have enjoyed this tour a couple of times and it does not really get old.
The other cool show at this port is the lumberjack show. Still photography only (or so they say) It is at a little rustic outdoor theater that has a wooden roof to protect the audience and an arena that is setup for the various lumberjack events. One side cheers for the Canadian champs and the other side cheers for the American champs. A mc narrates the show and everyone has a great time. The performers are actual college aged competitors that put on the show. They climb the tall pole and run the axes and the chainsaws. A big part of the show is the rolling logs. What a sight! Access to the show is through the little gift shop that sells tons of Alaska branded rustic souvenirs.
After a couple of hours of out on our own in the little town, Sue and I begin to feel hungry. There is a domino's pizza franchise in the little mall area. Please don't compare the prices with what you would pay down in the lower 48 for the same thing. Prices are high because most of everything need to be shipped here. And here is a long way from Seatttle.
I asked the keeper of the draft horses what they did with them in the winter. They barge them down to Washington for the winter. It is too expensive to ship feed for them in Alaska.
We have also visited the TotemHeritage Center. It is a pretty low key place visitors may see some Indians working on totem poles. There is a nice museum of very old totems and some stories about battles around Ketchikan.
The Bridge to Nowhere
Before you leave Ketchikan, take a look at the landing strip on the other side of the ship from the port. This is the famed proposed bridge to no where. Very few people live on the other side of this waterway. The only place that a plan can land to get people in and out by plane is across the waterway. They have to use a barge like ferry to get to the town. To build a bridge to connect to the town would mean that it would have to be tall enough for all the the cruise ships to pass under it. There is an amazing fleet of float planes docked up beside this airport too. If you are lucky to see an Alaskan Air jet with a couple a hundred passengers taxi in or take off you can get an appreciation for the dimensions of the air strip in the middle of nowhere.
It is easy to be put off by the tourist sections of this town of 8,100 inhabitants. But look around and explore a couple of blocks away from the major wooden portside and there are some very nice made in Alaska treasures to be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment