Cruise 9 - Ketchikan, Alaska!

As we headed to Ketchikan, I really enjoyed our window suite.....

Don't tell anyone at Princess, ok!!  But really, I would do away with the desk and put a couple chairs.....I like to be close!

It was really foggy as we were coming down to Ketchikan, but then it all lifted and it was beautiful!

Homes and docks across from the town of Ketchikan

We had ordered breakfast in our rooms so we could get ready to explore Ketchikan.
We took our time because we knew there were a lot of people wanting to visit and go on excursions.

Ketchikan dock

People coming down the gangwalk to go into town.

There were some interesting scenes to paint if there was time.

As we went into town we saw lots of tourist shops but they were not at all aggressive like in Skagway.  We decided to head to Creek Street.

In the late 1800s Alaska gold towns grew in the most available places near where gold was found.  Like Juneau, Ketchikan has mountains closely parellel to to the water.  The land right next to the water was developed first and later when women started flowing into the area, the only thing available and close to the population (men) was on the edge of the mountainous area.  They had buildings built on the bottom side of the mountain and on piers in the creek that ran along the mountain.  This group of buildings was the "red-light district" of Ketchikan.  Today they are tourist shops but with better quality than the junk shops.  A lot of them have art objects created by native alaskans.

At the end of Creek Street you can see the Golden Princess at dock.   

 We shopped some more then headed back to the ship.  The ship was leaving at 12:30 pm.  Taking our time we arrived back with plenty of time.  We headed up to the Verizon Dining Room for lunch.  When we finished eating we had plenty of time watching people coming back to the ship.  We were hopping to see a few "runners" (people that have to run to catch the ship as it is leaving....check on youtube, there are some pretty funny videos.  But we had a shipfull of responsible people and all boarded without running!

Ketchikan was a really cute town and I really enjoyed it!

The Golden Princess and the Amsterdam

There were 3 ships (2 Princess Line and Holland America's Amsterdam) always following us at a discreet distance.   I have to say, from the outside, the Amsterdam does not look as well taken care of, compared to the Princess ships.  There was a lot of rust near the water line.

We are now leaving for Victoria, Canada!