First day at sea, not much to see. Rainy, overcast day, hoping this weather doesn’t continue. But, we’ve got our Tillamook coats – so we can handle any weather! LOL. Next day, we arrive in Ketchikan early (that will prove to be the schedule for the whole cruise- as opposed to Princess where we couldn’t seem to get anywhere on time or find out any information) and wait for our excursion on the dock.
It’s a sunny day – windy – but sunny – so nice! We’ve booked a package of excursions from the ship – which we never normally do – but Oceania had a deal where we could choose as many “included” excursions as we wanted for $250 each. A bargain – no way we could have done any of this on our own for that price. So – we’re on ship’s tours!
As it turns out, since we’ve picked all the active tours, they are really really great! In Ketchikan we take a boat trip out to an island then hike up into the rainforest. We don rain gear for the boat ride (not that we need it, but just in case we get wet) and then are whipped across the sound watching the stunning vistas of snow capped mountains whiz by. Beautiful.
On the island, we hike up into the forest and get explanations on the flora and fauna from Hanna, a poly-sci major at PSU who is here for the summer because her brother lives here. She’s cute and knowledgeable (poly-sci? go figure!) and shows us all sorts of things.
Back at the “camp site”, we warm ourselves around the camp fire and snack on smoked salmon, cheese and crackers, washed down with hot chocolate and coffee. Fun.
On our way back in the boat, we stop along the route looking at the scenery, and find a bald eagle up on a tree.
Then it’s back to town. We wander around a little bit – checking out the popcorn stores – OMG $13 for a bag of popcorn? Are you kidding me? – and then to the liquor store for beer and back aboard.
No comments:
Post a Comment