Not sure if I actually believe the title of this entry. It rained the whole time we were there, which made it a little challenging to look around. I think the things one should do in ketchikan is go on one of the Duck amphibious vehicle tours and go whale watching.
We collected the last of our free charms for the kids charm bracelets, found ourselves in a funny little outdoor market where there was a stand for a local wildlife and there was a live owl and an amazing live bald eagle. They were only a few feet away and were just incredible. The bald eagles eyes are yellow and they just seem to take in everything. His name was Thor and the little owl was called Pina. Madi really enjoyed the owl in particular, I think the bald eagle may have been a little too intimidating.
At the stand next door a local artist was painting an owl (probably inspired by Pina) so Madi spent the good part of 15 minutes chattering away to him as he kept on painting. All of this while standing in a light shower of rain.
The old's were trying hard to get Australian dollars exchanged and spent almost an hour at the local bank. Not sure if they succeeded or not? We went off exploring Creek Street, which seems to be Ketchikan's most infamous street. We took the cable car straight up to the lodge on top. Well, the kids and I did as Le is not fond of heights. Then as we waited for the car to come back up for our trip down, guess who was in it. Le had decided that better being up the top of the mountain with her family than waiting with her phobia down the bottom! Touche!
So then we took the “married man's trail” back down the side of the mountain. This was a gold rush town, so it had its share of “conveniences”. And Creek Street, Ketchikan was at the heart of it.
At the bottom of the married mans trail was the creek and the salmon ladder. We haven't ever see n the “salmon running” yet, and it seems we weren't in luck today either. We found the local library and as it was warm and out of the rain, we happily all wiled an hour or more away in here. They had a craft table so the kids drew their own postcards. Then Madi once again prooved she is well on her way reading by herself as she read through 3 early readers with hardly a prompt. In the back corner there was a well stocked toy area with dinosaurs, and toy castles. It was difficult to get the kids to leave, but we had an appointment at 4 back on the ship – with the ships captain!
Things to Do in Ketchikan, AK
Yes, we were going to get a bridge tour and meet the ships captain. Well, not so much us as the kids. As part of the HAL kids club the kids got to do the bridge tour. Le had enquired days earlier and we were told that bridge tours were not available any more so we were excited that the kids had a chance to see it. Madison in particular was very interested. We had stumbled on a window into the bridge as we had been exploring the stair cases outside on the decks the yesterday and Madi had been very interested in the computers and instruments we could see through the window.
Of course, there was a catch. No adults on the bridge. Just the kids club. We coached madi and denny the whole trip from the kids club room on deck nine at the back of the ship to the bridge on deck 7 at the front of the ship that they would be going in with the kids club co-ordinators. So as the double security doors open, and the 30 kids aged from 5 – 16 go in – Madi and Denny pull back and refuse to go by themselves (which in a way we are happy with). But at the same time, Madi starts crying that she wants to see the bridge. Le and I quickly go down a deck across to the other side of the boat so we can look through the same window we found yesterday.
All the kids happened to be in that end of the bridge and so we were quickly spotted by the kids club co-ordinator. Some unclear hand signals through the bullet proof, sound proof glass later – Le, I and the kids were headed back for the security entry. We were met by 2 other dads who had been left waiting outside as well, except they seemed very happy now, and expressed their gratitude. Apparently the sad puppy eyed mums and kids outside the bridge had got all the parents onto the bridge tour.
We had our tour, the kids got to sit in the captains seat, and turn the (rather small) ships wheel, we saw radar and we asked about the extra certifications the ship needed to travel through the panama canal. And best of all we had a family picture with the ships captain, Peter Bos of the MS Volendam.
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