Thursday,
July 7, 2016:
Ketchikan, Alaska:
It was our last
destination in Alaska—Ketchikan. A place that became familiar to me a few years
ago when a priest-friend of ours, Fr. James Valladaras, had served as Ship’s
Chaplain on a cruise liner and had sent us a postcard form this destination in
Alaska. Little did I dream that one day I would actually set foot on this spot.
I
expected Ketchikan to be little more than a touristic spot with kitschy
souvenir stores and the chain jewelry stores that we have been seeing from
Juneau onwards. We arrived there about 9.30 am (rather late in the day by cruise
ship standards). By this hour, we’d found the time to have breakfast in the
Lido. Eggs with meats for Llew, waffles with strawberry compote and whipped
cream for me washed down with hot chocolate. These breakfasts are quite
magnificent. We also made ourselves bagel sandwiches (smoked salmon for me, ham
and cheese for Llew) to take aboard as we were not sure how much there would be
to see in Ketchikan and we did not want to have to waste time in a restaurant.
We thought that a sandwich on the run would be perfect—so we packed one each.
Jewelry
Charm Collecting:
And
so it was that we raced from one jewelry store to the next to collect the free
charms that are distributed and, in the process, we ended up collecting quite a
few. I also bought a few bracelets on which we could hang the charms. I will
probably give a couple of them away as gifts.
Exploring
Creek Street and Souvenir Shopping:
That task done, we
headed towards Creek Street—the best-known tourist spot in Ketchikan. This area
was once the town’s red-light district and it has been maintained as a quaint
and very pretty part of the state of Alaska. It is also known as Alaska’s First
City because most cruise liners stop at this port first—in our case, the order
was reversed and we arrived at Ketchikan at the end of our travels. Houses on
Creek Street are built on stilts over a tumbling river to which we had, alas,
arrived just two weeks too early. Had we come at the end of July, we’d have
found thousands of salmon leaping all over the Salmon Ladder as they swim
upstream to spawn. My friend Bonnie had highly recommended this sight and I was
sorely disappointed that we missed it. Instead, we began to walk towards a
Salmon Hatchery, in the hope of finding some spawning salmon there. Sadly, the
hatchery was closed for renovation and we could see nothing.
As
fate had it, however, we found ourselves just steps away from the Totem Heritage Museum where a number of
genuine, original totem poles gathered from all over the native settlements in
Alaska have been brought here for safe-keeping. There were several totem poles
all over town and several scattered about the entrance at this museum. We did
not feel the need to enter it, so elected to walk back to town as we had
trekked on a walking tour far out of the central tourist area. And then, as
luck would have it, we found a free shuttle bus that the town operates—waiting
for us to board it and take it back to the center.
So
hop it we did—and that was when we went souvenir and gift shopping in the
stores so that we’d have a few trinkets to take back to family members. Of
course, we got our mandatory postcard and magnet and other little odds and
ends—and armed with those, we went out in search of Alaska’s famous smoked
salmon to take back as gifts. There were a few shops selling and shipping
smoked salmon anywhere in the States. They offered samples—served on crackers
with a dab of cream cheese—and I really did enjoy those nibbles (Llew does not
eat fish). With some smoked salmon packs in our bags, we left and began to look
for a spot where we could eat our lunch.
Lunch
on the Dock and More Exploration:
It
was time for lunch for both of us were feeling peckish—despite our big
breakfasts, all the walking we are doing does work up an appetite. We found a
vibrant place on the Dock to sit and eat our bagel sandwiches and do a bit of
people-watching—which was a lot of fun as another cruise ship was docked right
by and was filling with passengers. Others posed by the sculpture of
prospectors in the Klondike. When we were done, we decided to go out and find
Edmund Street (aka Street of Stairs). And when we found it, we realized why it
was so named. It is quite simply a street of stairs. You climb higher and
higher (about 7 floors) to get some interesting views of the city—a Lonely Planet recommendation—as Ketchikan
is built in tiers—the more expensive housing is found the higher you go.
Visiting
the Southeast Alaskan Discovery Center:
Lonely Planet had also stated that the
museum that would probably most appeal to short-time visitors was the Southeast Alaskan Discovery Center.
Since it was right in town and was run by the National Parks Services, Llew and
I had free entry into it as we are National Parks members (entry is normally
just $5 per person). The most interesting aspect of the museum is the Rain
Forest that has been re-created indoors with birds and animal life presented in
taxidermied form—this allowed us to finally see a brown bear! The museum also
presented very good exhibits on the Tlingit, Huna and Tshaimshin people who
first inhabited this region—much of which was very informative. We did manage
to browse around for about an hour. And then when our legs began to give way,
it was time to think of returning to the ship.
Relaxing
the Evening Away:
Ketchikan
turned out to be a delightful place. We did have some disappointments—not enough
wild life, no salmon to be seen at all, some charms not available as I did not
have a particular coupon book that would have entitled me to them. But,
overall, it was a truly sweet place—not just a touristic spot. Alaska’s few
towns revealed themselves to us in different ways and we were glad we
experienced their variations.
Back
in board, we went directly to the Manhattan
Dining Room for some tea and nibbled at a few of the open sandwiches,
scones and assorted pastries that were offered: the raspberry mousse cake and
the pecan tarts were simply divine and much against my better judgement, I
indulged as no one has a sweeter tooth that I do so. In fact, I have an entire
set of sweet teeth!!!
In
our staterooms, we caught up on email through our on-board internet connection
and switched on the TV to catch up with international news when we received the
awful reports about the shooting of a black man in Dallas that ended with the
sniper shootout that killed 5 policemen and seriously injured several others.
Like the rest of the country, we watched in horror as the events unfolded and
for the rest of the evening we felt the sobering sense of being jolted out of
our bubble of luxury and unreality to come to grips with the fact that for the
rest of the world life goes on in its usual painful way.
Dinner
at Tamarind:
Still,
because life had to go on, we had our showers and got dressed for the next item
on our agenda: Dinner at Tamarind,
the pan-Asian restaurant on board where there is a nominal surcharge ($20 per
person) for a really special meal. We had reservations for 8. 30 pm, which left
us ample time to get a cocktail in the adjoining bar called Silk Den. I had a Mango Mojito which was
excellent while Llew got a glass of red wine. As for our dinner at Tamarind, it was quite superlative to
say the least with service that was beyond outstanding. We started with the
Satay Sampler and Peking Duck in Chinese crepes for our appetizers—both were
awesome. We got lamb, pork, chicken, veal and shrimp satays served with a spicy
peanut sauce and Peking Duck served with two pancakes served with hoisin sauce,
green onions, cucumbers—all to be rolled and eaten. Llew and I shared them so
that we had a chance to taste both (and they were both good). One can get
really good sushi and sashimi in Tamarind,
but since Llew does not eat fish, we stayed far away from those offerings. For
our main course, we both chose the Asian-style Lobster Tail which was served in
a spicy sauce and outside its shell. As an accompaniment, I chose the stir-fried
veg which included cucumbers, snow peas, mushrooms and scallions while Llew got
the oyster and shitake mushrooms. The food was simply grand and we couldn’t
have been more delighted. For our dessert, we picked the Tamarind Chocolate
Basket which I had eaten on our cruise the last time and remembered to be
superb. I was not disappointed. It is a chocolate mousse tinged with the flavor
of ginger and served in a dark chocolate tart shell with berries on the side.
As was to be expected, our entire meal was outstanding.
A
Show in the Theater by ‘On Tour’:
We
were running a trifle late for the late-evening (10.00 pm) show called ‘On Tour’
that featured the singers and dancers of Nieuw
Amsterdam, but we decided to go and catch as much of it as we could. And
boy, were we glad we did! The show was simply terrific with the most thrilling
singing you could have wished for and well-choreographed numbers by obviously
well-trained ballet dancers. Truly, just when we thought we couldn’t possibly
have a better time, along comes a show like this that simply sweeps you off
your feet. It was grand. Sadly, we got just about 20 minutes of it but those
minutes were amazing.
Another
Evening at the Piano Bar with Jimmy:
Just
when we thought we ought to call it a night, we passed right by the Piano Bar
and since our man Jimmy Maddox was doing an ‘Elton John Night’, it was hard to
resist. We settled ourselves on bar stools right by his piano and, for the next
hour, gave ourselves entirely to the pleasure of listening to him and joining
in wherever we could. He has truly been one of the treasures of our cruise and
we were simply delighted to stay right up to midnight when he finally called it
a night.
We returned to our
stateroom just astonished by just how much we are packing into our days as we
settled down for the second last night in our stateroom. Because we were
instructed to put our clocks one hour forward as we left Alaska behind during
the night, it was already my birthday by the time we fell asleep. What a great
start it was to my birthday!
Until tomorrow…
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