Princess Cruise to Alaska: Ketchikan

Our Epic Vacation: Day 11

Already Day 11. After our Sea Day the day before, we looked forward to our first port of call: Ketchikan, Alaska. Since we had all the kids with us this time, we chose not to do any excursions. The last time my husband and I were in Ketchikan with my parents, we did a totem tour there. Also, since I am terrible about actually finishing the blogging of our vacations, it isn’t on this blog, though some of that Alaska trip is. Sigh.

Anyway, since we didn’t plan for a shore excursion, we mostly just hung around the touristy little shops and the harbor.

View of the Star Princess from shore.

All of the cousins in front of the touristy Alaskan shops, where they enjoyed buying things like ceramic totem pole figurines and bags of pretty rocks.

My middle princess with the Star Princess in the background.

Beautiful oldest daughter.

I thought this boat docked in the harbor was totally cool.  What a life, hey?

My youngest daughter and her cousin with a great big Alaskan bear.

My husband is all about the chocolate. He learned on our last trip that Alaskan fudge and other chocolate treats are mighty yummy!

I don’t know why I took this photo, but I like it. Which is probably why I took this photo.

Daughter #3 and a totem.

Another totem.

I love boat harbors! Love them.

Proof I was there, too.

After we did some shopping, we found a nature center where the kids could do a scavenger hunt (they won pencils and coloring books), watch a film, and learn more about the area.  I have no photos of this because if I remember right, I was trying to corral all the kids who were running all over the center, which was like a gigantic maze, trying to find the answers to the scavenger hunt.

Once we had our fill of the nature center, we found a spot on the bridge to watch the salmon run. Now that was cool!

Can you see all the fish in the photo?  I tried several times to get a good picture of what we were seeing, and that was the best one. Look closely! There are hundreds of fish.

There were lots of people fishing on the bridge. I am not really sure why, but there were also several dead salmon laying around. These two girls were fascinated.

My youngest daughter accidentally dropped her little velvet bag of pretty rocks over the bridge while she was watching the fish. Grandpa climbed down and saved the day.

While he was at it, he found even more dead fish down on the rocks.

Mamah and Grandpa and all their grandchildren (minus one who didn’t get to come this time) on the bridge where we watched the salmon run.

My two older girls were both horribly upset to see the fish being caught and killed. Especially my middle daughter. She was so upset that she sobbed into her Daddy’s shoulder for a long time while the rest of the gang went to do a bit more sight-seeing. Poor baby.

Sad sad baby.

The gang doing a bit more sight seeing—also a bit of proof that my brother was there with us.

After we’d had our fill of beautiful Ketchikan (I didn’t mention that it was awfully cold that day, too), we headed back on board our ship. The kids ate dinner that night at the Kid’s Club and the adults all dined alone and then played a fun game of Trivia.

Later that night, my husband and I took our oldest daughter and our nephew up to the top of the ship to watch The Hunger Games on the big screen under the stars.  In the fog. With the foghorn. And lots of popcorn and blankets. It was a lot of fun.

***End of Day 11***