Sep 15 - Ketchikan

Sep 15 - Ketchikan 

Our first port of call is Ketchikan.  We woke up to light showers, but that didn’t dampen our spirits for todays’s excursion, Wilderness Exploration and Crab Feast!

A bus took us to George Inlet Lodge where we boarded a boat that took us past an old cannery, to an estuary where they had crab pots set.  Our guide, Chase, hauled up a pot that contained about a dozen Dungeness crabs.  He was a wealth of information about these creatures.  We learned how to hold them without getting hurt; we listened to them ‘breathing’, and several people got to throw one back into the water.

On the  return trip  hase pointed out a 25 year old bald eagle’s nest that has be tended by the same eagle pair, Harvey and Agnes, for the past 15 years.  We didn’t see that pair, but farther along we saw more eagles and one came close to the boat to retrieve a fish!

Back at the lodge we were taken inside for the feast!  Tables were set in groups of four or more - we sat with Teresa and Sarah, (mother & daughter) from Mt Hope, Ontario!  What are the chances?

Each place had a tossed salad with mandarin oranges, and the server came along to take our drink orders! - wine for us, of course!  After all, it was past noon!!  One of the staff gave a demonstration of how to tackle a crab and then out came the freshly steamed Dungeness beauties!  We all set about getting the sweet crabmeat out of the shells.  They just kept coming around with these huge stainless bowls of crab, a true feast!!

Each table had a task - to see who could build the highest ‘tower’ of crab shells!!!  Some  tables were very ingenious!  Ours was 28”!  The winner was 37”!!!  I wish I could post the photos!!!  If you look at Mary’s Facebook page she will probably put up some photos later today.  It was a lot of fun.  

We had to leave to get back to the ship.  Our next adventure happened on the way back when the bus ‘died’.  Our guide was in the middle of one of his terrible jokes, when he pulled over to the side of the road and exclaimed, ‘Oh no!  I’ve lost power!’ 

He tried ro get it started but no luck! So he set out his emergency markers and made a call to his dispatcher.  Soon another bus was on the way to get us.  Along came Matt in a ‘trolley bus’.  Another fun experience!

After dinner we decided not to go to the show ( a magician) and came back to our cabin for an early night.  Tomorrow we need to be up at 5:00 AM to enter Endicott Arm for what  we are told will be a spectacular glacier viewing!  It will be pitch dark as the sun doesn’t rise until almost 7:00 AM!  

This was a great day!  We seem to be having a lot of them!

The Happy Wanderers

😴😴