Alaska 2025: Part 2 Ketchikan and Juneau (aka the rainy days)

Day 4 5/27 Ketchikan

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing like sailing into Ketchikan after a day and a half at sea.
The green hillside, the mist, the colorful homes.

It's pretty much Justin's favorite too.

After a quick room-service breakfast we got off the ship. We didn't have an excursion booked but we did know we wanted to take a bus a ways out of town.

But first, doughnuts. This is Jellyfish doughnuts which was way overpriced but fun and delicious.





And then we headed over to the bus stop.
 

While Justin and I studied the bus schedule Corey got talked into a tour by a lady in a bus. Let me tell you, a warm bus idling offering to take you to see stuff for half the price of other excursions is too hard to pass up. Yes, Bianca, show us the sights.

Bianca was not deterred by the rain one bit, as any good Alaska tour guide. She took us to Buggy Beach.

Purple starfish and mussels. I'm pretty sure I had never seen a living starfish before.

There were so many cool things on this beach that I don't think we would have noticed without Bianca pointing them out or turning over rocks to show us.

Highlight of James and Erica's day was holding little crabs.

 

 

Then she took us to a little grove of trees that is a common place to spot a bald eagle.

Ketchikan is a rock of an island and there's not much soil. The tree roots stay near the surface and tangle among one another creating a springy forest floor. It's awesome.

Then Bianca took us to a waterfall. She handed out ponchos and told us to leave our umbrellas behind.

The hike was my favorite kind of hike. Steep some parts, flat in others. Climbing rocks and stepping over logs. Unfortunately the ponchos did not work great for my kids and they got drenched. Plus their shoes were no match for Alaska rain and they quickly got wet, cold, and discouraged. The waterfall was more like a loud steep river than a waterfall but still beautiful but a little anticlimactic if you're miserable.

Bianca coaxed a smile out of James but you can see he's pretty upset on our way down. I felt so bad but there was nothing to do except get back to the van.

Bianca dropped us off at the end of Creek Street which we wanted to see but was a bit of a walk and feels super long dragging soaked shoes so I can't say we really appreciated it. A few quick stops in a couple of stores and we headed back to the ship.

It felt so good to get out of our wet clothes (although we spent all evening, night and morning trying to dry out our clothes for the next day) and relax. For some of my kids they changed into their swimming suits and got into the hot tubs. Go figure.

Bye Ketchikan, you soggy, beautiful city.

Here's my favorite part about cruising: You are out all day exploring and in the elements but then you  go to a dining room, are handed a menu and you get to choose whatever and how much of whatever you'd like. Sitting around with my favorite peeps discussing the ups and downs of the day.

Quick word about the food: It was really good. I didn't LOVE any of the offerings at the buffet because I don't really like that kind of food. I ate cheese, deli meats, and fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, and tried most of the desserts from there. The dining room food was delicious and unique. I would almost always order a light appetizer, a meaty main, and then two desserts.

Day 5 5/28 Endicott Arm

Not too bad of a sight to wake up to. Justin and I got a balcony room just for this kind of thing. The kids were all together across the hall and his parents next door to us.

Alaska is so Alaska sometimes.

Someone on the interwebs posted this of our ship that day and my sister saw it and showed me so I'm posting it here.

We had a slow morning since we didn't arrive to Juneau until noon. After breakfast in the dining room, we got all suited up in our mostly dry raingear and disembarked.

We had a little time before our excursion so we visited some shops.

No one wanted this as their souvenir. My question is: was this a real 3-headed chick that was preserved? Or was it taxidermied this way? The second possibility disturbs me more.

Justin read about a tacos shop so we made our way there.

Eating fish tacos in the rain. 

They were really good!

Then we walked back to the port and met with our tour group and headed to a marina far, far away. Shuttle, plane, ship, van, bus, pontoon boat. We were riding them all this trip.

Were we going to see some whales?

You bet we did. For like 30 minutes this mama whale and her baby put on quite a show. We followed them all along watching all sorts of tale flaps and flips. It was so fun.

One of our guides, who they call Nine-Mile Molly because she can spot a whale 9 miles away told us these are days they hope for as a guide company.

 

I don't have a lot of videos or pictures because sometimes you just have to watch and only watch.

After I was completely pelted with rain on the right side of my body, the rain eased up and then stopped. This is the first break from rain in  more than 2 days.

Then our guides took us to a buoy that is a known hang-out spot for sea lions.

Erica was not disappointed.

 

If you're wondering why I have more pictures of Erica than any of my other children it's because she likes to be by my side more than anywhere else and more than my other kids. 

After we got back to the touristy port side of town, we did a little shopping and then 3 of my kids went back to the ship. They were going to hit up the buffet and then go swimming. The rest of us (adults plus Erica) went to a crab shack in sight of the ship.

The size of the king crab legs was impressive. Erica and I split a pasta dish. She ate all the shrimp.

 

You may not know this about Erica but she's kind of got a weird sense of humor. Maybe it's not even a sense of humor because she's not trying to be funny. She just finds amusement in things others would consider gross. Like putting crab leg tips on the ends of your fingers to make claws. 

Then we headed back to the ship with full bellies and a few souvenirs.

 

Erica's "Singin' in the Rain" impression.

We found the rest of the kids and made them get dressed so we could get ice cream together at the little gelato shop. The soft serve up by the pool is free but this was like $4 each. It was okay ice cream. I'm glad we tried it but we never went back.

Sad fact: I left my water bottle in the buffet at breakfast and it never turned up at the lost and found.

Up next: Skagway, more time at sea, and Victoria (kind of)