Ferry Ride to Ketchikan

After a full day on Saturday, Diane and I drove to the ferry terminal, parked our car and boarded the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry, 'Taku,' for the slow boat ride to Ketchikan.  The ferry pulled out of the harbor at 10:45 p.m.  *In this blog, if you double click any single picture, all of the pictures will come up for a slide show.  That little bit of information is just for those of you who didn't realize that you could do that.  Those of you that did know, can skip that part.  JK

Diane took the bottom bunk and I took the top bunk.  'Holy Cow' I don't know how many more years of climbing into the top bunk are left in me.  It was a challenge getting up there, but an even more amazing feat to get back out without falling to my certain demise.  Our shower was smallish but adequate, and our WC was comparable to those found on 727s.  We immediately fell asleep and were only awake when the purser announced that we were leaving now.  He also announced that we were now in Hoonah.  That was sometime around 2:00 a.m.

The first picture is the window view from our ferry berth window.  To get up in the morning and experience that kind of beauty is a privilege for sure.  This picture on the right was taken while we were in the Sitka harbor.  This is looking back at the channel we took to arrive in Sitka and the same one we would use to go around the big Island and proceed over to Petersburg and Wrangell.  I was watching 5 humpback whales feeding back and forth for the 3-4 hours that we were docked.  We sighted them coming into the harbor and they were still there when we left.  We did see on orca breach and other than that, we only saw ducks. 

The views we would see kept me happy and taking pictures.  I would try different shutter speeds and then go in to my computer to see which ones worked the best.  The ferry doesn't even reach 20 mph which makes for the most wonderful way to see the SE part of Alaska. 


Sometimes we would be right next to the islands we were passing and at at other times we would be several miles away from the shoreline.  That happened on the final 40-50 miles as we approached Ketchikan.

Sunday morning the water was literally as calm as glass.  Sunday night the ride would get a little rocky when we would pass through narrow channels during the outgoing tide.  So much water runs between the islands during the tide movements it turns those waters into fast rolling rivers.  It doesn't feel like the ocean at all.

Here is another calm water scene we passed.  I was trying to study my Institute lessons for next week, but I just kept being drawn to the outer walkways to view scenes like this.  I did get all of Philemon and Timothy I and II read though.  Now I still have to get Titus.

This was the view we had pulling into the Sitka harbor.  We had a 3-4 hour wait before we were underway again.  It wasn't bad though because that was time I was able to spend watching the whales.  There was a tremendous amount of local boat traffic heading out for fishing and crabbing.

This was our Monday morning sunrise somewhere south of Wrangell.  I went to bed early so I would be sure to be able to wake myself up for the' golden hour' as my brother Paul calls it.  I took pictures with different lens speeds and finally ended up with this one.  I know that Paul, LaRee and Hannie could probably have made it worthy of purchase, but I was just happy to be able to capture it.

This is the same sun, just a bit later from a bit further back from the railing.

I always enjoy watching 'Old Glory' wave freely in the wind.  America is a wonderful place and Alaska is a wonderful place in America.  I just hope we as a people will not let tyrants into office, and should they get elected, I hope we as a people can stop them from becoming tyrannical.  My favorite early morning view of the flag was north of Mancos at a Willden family reunion.  I got out of Grandmother Mae's trailer door and heard dad start to sing 'God Bless America.'  I joined in with a harmony and then we did the National Anthem together.  Now both Dad and my voice are gone.

We arrived at Ketchikan right on schedule, 9:45 a.m.  The Elders here picked us up.  They took us to their apartment where we did an apartment check for the Palmers.  Elder & Sister Palmer asked if we would do those when we traveled to save them some travel.  They are much cleaner Elders than our Juneau Elders are.  They then drove us to the Cedars Inn.  It is owned by the Thomas' who are mission presidents in Ontario, Canada right now.  Their son is letting us stay here in a hotel that is not open yet, and not charging us just because he likes to help out the church.  Diane and I walked up the street aways for lunch. 

 

There are charter planes taking off and landing constantly outside our room window.  Even though it is not the tourist season, there is a lot of traffic in and out of here.