Inspirational Thoughts: Alaska Cruises in the Summer

Day 6 (June 1, 2023) we arrived in Ketchikan at 11 am and stayed there until 6:30 pm. Ketchikan is known as “The Salmon Capital of the World”! Probably because it is located further south of Alaska compared to Skagway, the population there in 2020 census was 8192 (remember Skagway was 1240 only).

Good morning! After I slept with my baby elephant last night, the only part that was flawless … the butt! (小象過了一晚後巳不似象形, 冇眼睇🙈)

Every evening, the room attendant put next day’s schedule on one of the beds. It was always full of activities! Ladies’ Night in the Thermal Suite looks good. The Orange Party sounds fun! Guess which one I attended?

I went to Lido Market for my breakfast before 7:30 am. Here are the varieties of breakfast items – yogurt, dried fruit, hash brown, toast, potatoes, sausages, bacons, scramble eggs, bagels, buns, ham, fruit 🍞🥓🥚🥯🍎🍏

Did you see bananas 🍌🍌🍌 in the photo? There were plenty of them! My friend could take as many as she wanted and put them in the safety box … just joking😁

For those who love omelet a lot, there was a station making fresh omelet with the choice of your ingredients😉

I really like the way they organized the tea and brown sugar that was offered.

Time to start my morning activity… remember I asked which event I attended from the schedule? I chose Tai Chi beginning at 8 am! It was taught by a Caucasian guy in the indoor pool area, and in a very basic level. Although it might not be authentic, I didn’t mind as I enjoyed to do some light body movement with a group of people to start my morning with fresh breathe. 船上有西人教太極班, 都幾得意吖! 不過早上空氣很清新, 令人好醒神😃

At the same time, some passengers were doing other exercises – playing table tennis, stretching …

On the way back to my stateroom, I met a very friendly and polite crew member. One thing I like about travelling by cruise is the chance of meeting people from different countries and backgrounds. This staff member is called Sichan from India. His position was housekeeping supervisor and he had to work 8 months before his return to India. Probably that’s the life for most cruise employees.

We joined Saxman Native Village and Ketchikan City Tour through Expedia Cruises Shore Excursions which would start at 1:30 pm.

11 am was a bit early to get off the ship. Let’s have a light meal (a piece of pizza) at our favourite spot on deck 10 while enjoying the view of Downtown Ketchikan. My friend told me she saw an eagle flying very fast🦅it was gone in a second. Oh! I missed that.

When we got off, we saw Grand Princess again. Remember we were looking at its rear-facing cabins in Skagway?

Now we look at its front and side. Which cabin would you like to stay if you are on Grand Princess?

So much rain in Alaska. There was rain shower in Juneau and also in Ketchikan.

The tour company we joined was SourDough Tours. This time we were the first few to get on the bus and able to find a good seat.

But it was an old bus (like a school bus in the 90s) and it was only 70% full.

When it passed by Safeway, I had a special feeling. There were many Safeway stores in Richmond when I came to Canada in 1990 – one on No. 1 Road (Seafair Shopping Centre), one on No. 2 Road (Blundell Shopping Centre), two on No. 3 Road (Lansdowne Mall and Broadmoor Village), one on No. 4 Road (Shellmont Plaza which no longer exist). Now all of them closed already except the one on No. 1 Road.

I remember the first Safeway I have been to was on No. 4 Road since it was very close to my auntie’s house where I stayed for a month when we first arrived in Canada 🍁

All of a sudden, I would like to search for more information about this Safeway branch and Shellmont Plaza. I found a copy of April 1989 Richmond Review online. This was a very typical shopping mall in a neighbourhood in Richmond 30 years ago with all kinds of services such as barber shop, doctor clinic, liquor store, small café, pharmacy store, bank, supermarket, insurance, TV repair and bakery. Now probably I have to find this type of shopping mall (not too modern look) in other cities or small towns.

Another photo of Safeway in Shellmont Plaza from City of Richmond Archives. Now I’m dreaming of listening to the song Take My Breathe Away in one of the cars.

Watching every motion in my foolish lover's game

On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame

Turning and returning to some secret place inside

Watching in slow motion as you turn around and say

Take my breath away

Can you feel the atmosphere in the 80s? 八十年代的情懷

In those days, no MP3 no CD but cassette tape. Many great songs though 𝅘𝅥𝅮🎵𝅘𝅥𝅯

The driver (and the tour guide at the same time) told us we might be able to see eagles at Eagle Point. No luck in seeing it though.

The tour guide drove us to Taxidermy store (in Chinese it means 動物標本剝製術). This is a family owned business run by Richard Harney who was raised in Ketchikan. I looked up Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries for the meaning of taxidermy: the art of stuffing dead animals, birds, and fish with a special material so that they look like living ones and can be displayed. According to 維基百科 - 剝製（Taxidermy；源於古希臘語，意思是「皮膚的排列」）是一種將已死亡的動物（特別是脊椎動物）透過泡製、剝皮、填充及上架等步驟來保存並展覽的標本製作技術。剝製一般是为了造出栩栩如生的形象。

We saw Canada goose which made me think of bird droppings (we always see them in our city, I am fine with Canada geese as long as they don’t poo near me). At the same time I am thinking if there is an alternative to Canada goose jackets to minimize the killing of these birds.

I don’t want them to suffer but at the same time I hope their population can be controlled, quite contradictory now.

Do you know what this animal is? I didn’t pay attention to it at first but my friend was attracted by a postcard with this animal on it when we shopped on our cruise.

This is called porcupine (豪豬). Face looks cute right! But what I found is porcupine’s back is full of sharp quills! 身上有鋒利的刺! This is to protector them against predators and also protect their babies from predators too.

For me I love squirrels better, porcupines are a bit of scary after I learned that their body have sharp quills 刺親唔會死但會痛死😣

The next area we visited was Creek Street District which was a Red Light District in the past according to our tour guide. These days the attraction is salmon spawning stream.

I love the stream with clear water running, very refreshing!

My friend found it boring though. Something was missing. No salmon at all.

Are you expecting to see the stream full of salmons? Fortunately I revisited Creek Street District in July. More exiting photos and videos will be posted for my July cruise 😊

Next stop was Saxman Native Village where we could see the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world.

Saxman is a small town near Ketchikan with 400 people and most of them are Natives. In the late 1800s, Tlingits from the old villages of Cape Fox and Tongass build a school and a church in Saxman.

Here was our tour guide a short Native woman telling story of a totem pole.

There was an old craftsman in the huge workshop.

Ketchikan is not only the Salmon Capital of the World, but also “the Totem Capital of the World”.

There are 25 totem poles in Saxman which are authentic replicas of original poles that were left in abandoned villages when Natives moved to other cities.

Some of the totems are quite tall!

On the way back, our bus passed by a place with colourful houses near a creek. My friend and I were too tired to get off so we didn’t have a chance to walk around the place. Luckily I took a photo of the scene which I showed to the visitor center staff in July for the direction inquiry.

Finally we went back to the dock. I gave $5 to our tour guide although my friend found her service was just so-so. Probably because I always had sympathy for the Natives regarding their history in the past. I always hope there is an improvement in their lives and they are able to keep their cultures, languages, etc.

Once I entered into my stateroom “My elephant🐘is reborn!” Thanks to my room attendant😉

We rested a little bit and got off the ship again to walk around Downtown Ketchikan. Here’s the map with points of interest such as Creek Street (just been to) and The Rock, etc.

That’s The Rock! I found it myself while my friend was in a souvenir shop. I was holding my cellphone in the rain to take a picture. A friendly man saw me and offered to help take a picture for me.

Back to the ship to for Billboard Onboard and Holland America Orange Party.

Billboard Onboard usually has two singers (a male and a female) playing pianos across each other and singing songs together.

You don’t find Orange Party on other cruise lines. Why? Because …

In Netherlands, Dutch Orange Party is a national holiday that celebrates the current monarch’s birthday with lots of music and dance. Netherlanders dressed in orange on this celebration day.

With the cruise company name “Holland America”, should be able to tell it is related to Dutch. Holland is a province in Netherlands. That’s why they like to name their vessels ending with “dam “.

The capital in Netherlands is Amsterdam.

Holland America has Volendam, Zaandam, Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, Noordam, Eurodam, Koningsdam, Statendam, Rotterdam …

Anyway the fun parts of the party were cocktail and dance. Let’s look at dinner first before we watch the dance!

This night we requested not to have buns provided, otherwise no room for dessert.

I ordered assorted herrings as starter, roasted chicken as main course (the portion was very big, glad I didn’t have bread this time) and passion fruit mousse torte as dessert.

When we finished dinner, the Main Dining Room was very empty. We took the chance to take photos around. Picked another seat by the window – the night ocean is very charming.

The restaurant staff let us to take photos of the stairwell to deck 2 dining area. Now you can see it has two decks – deck 2 and deck 3 at the back of the ship.

A few times we were assigned to a table close to the window. I wished I could get a table where I was able to view lower level dining room from the upper level.