Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan, the Salmon Capital of the World, was the final Alaskan port on our cruise.  This small island-town is only accessible by boat or float plane. It is also known for being the rainiest town in southeast Alaska. And its reputation proved true for us. We finally got to use those expensive weatherproof jackets that we'd purchased from Land's End just for our cruise. We'd been fortunate enough to have unusually warm, sunny weather for the rest of our days in Alaska.

But the overcast skies didn't deter us. In fact, we were excited to finally experience true Alaska weather. Since I had heard that Alaskans never use umbrellas, we didn't take one ashore with us. And we didn't need it. Even though it was overcast and drizzly in Ketchikan, it never rained hard enough to actually get you wet. Just a sporadic, light drizzle throughout the morning.

Since we would only be in Ketchikan until 12:30pm that day, we set our alarm clocks so we'd be ready to debark at 7:30am when the gangway was lowered. There were four cruise ships docked at this small town the day we were there, so that made it even more important to debark early since the town would soon get very crowded.

As soon as we debarked, we walked a few blocks from the ship to Ketchikan's famous Creek Street. This historic street is actually a wooden pier with restored buildings built on stilts over the Ketchikan Creek.

It was notorious for being the local Red Light District up until the 1950s. Today the buildings house restaurants and shops. But there is one museum, Dolly's, which is a restored brothel. It's hard not to miss the costumed Madam standing out front waving to the tourists.

Our next stop, a few blocks down from Creek Street, was the 55 ft. tall "Chief Johnson Totem Pole".  It was carved from a single cedar log. Ketchikan has the largest collection of totem poles in the world -- over 80. Each one of these Native Alaskan totem poles tells a unique story or represents a specific part of native history. http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles.html#types

We then had some free time before our scheduled tour, so we decided to head back toward all the souvenir shops near the pier. The locally-owned Tongrass Trading Co. has three locations in Ketchikan, and some of the best bargain shopping in all of Alaska. If you plan to do some souvenir shopping while on an Alaskan cruise, make sure you get the free Alaska coupon book that is given to passengers as they arrive at the port in Seattle. And save most of your shopping for Ketchikan -- this town is bargain-shopping paradise.

Thanks to that free coupon book, I was able to take home a free Ulu. My son was thrilled! An ulu is type of knife with a curved blade that has been used by native Alaskans for centuries.  In other ports, we had been warned that security might not let us on the ship with the knife, so we hadn't bought one. But who can refuse a free gift? And we had absolutely no problems bringing the souvenir knife back home with us. We just kept it in its original package as we boarded the ship and then we packed it in our checked luggage for the flight home.

After we finished shopping, it was time to board the Duck for our tour of Ketchikan. We had never taken a Duck tour before, even though they are offered at home in Austin. So we were all excited to climb aboard the amphibious vehicle for our 90-minute tour by land and sea.

The duck tour drove us by the famous Salmon Ladder where the salmon come each summer to spawn. Supposedly so many of them come to this one spot that you can walk across the stream on their backs without ever getting your feet wet. But we were a month too early to see that. Eventually our duck made its way to the harbor and we drove right into the water and sailed by the local fishing fleet and the seaplane dock.

But seaplanes weren't the only things flying around that day. We saw lots of bald eagles in Ketchikan. After the duck tour, it was time to head back to the ship and begin our 30-hr journey through the rough north Pacific seas to Victoria, British Columbia.