The south east coast of Alaska is series of bays, islands, straits and channels all surrounded by high mountains. Its a beautiful area to cruise around no matter what the weather is. The last stop for our cruise was in the town of Ketchikan. This is one of the wettest places on earth and gets over 150 inches a rain a year on average. We had been really luck with the weather for our trip. Although we had some clouds in Skagway and Hoonah with a brief light shower we really had not seen any rain for the entire trip which is very unusual for this part of Alaska since it is a temperate rain forest. In Ketchikan we finally got some real rain for most of the day which seemed appropriate. They call it liquid sunshine here as a way to rationalize the fact that it rains 80% of the time.
The rain really didn't stop us from exploring the town as we had brought rain gear with us for just this occasion. We spend some time checking out the stores here as we had done in some of the other ports. Since it was the end of the season everything was half off or more so I picked up some nice T-shirts and sweatshirts.
Since we had been to Ketchikan before we had done most of the activities we wanted to do last time and didn't have any concrete plans for the day. We ended up checking out the lumber jack show in town as a fun way to waste a hour.
It was actually very entertaining as the people in the show were professional lumberjacks and showed us why this is an actual sport. It was really pouring rain during the show but it didn't seem to matter to lumberjacks. Luckily we were in the stands under a roof.
The last day of the cruise was spent coming down the inside passage. This is a channel along the Canadian coast that gets you into Vancouver. Its is very scenic and was a good way to finally relax and wind down after 2 weeks of active vacationing. It felt strange to have a day with almost nothing to do. I did actually walked around the ship and tryed out the rock wall. I always wanted to climb one and it ended up being easier than I thought.
Besides packing for the trip home we mostly sat on our balcony and watched the world go by. The scenery was as good as it had been for most of our trip. We even had some sun glinting off the water at strange angles that made it seem like there were thousands of flashbulbs going off under the waves. I took a video of it but really didn't capture what it really felt like.
It was a quiet day just watching the mountains and other ships go by. After 2 weeks with out any real internet or phone access it was easy to relax and not get distracted by anything. The day cruising gave me time to process all we had done and seen. I don't think I have even see and experience so many amazing things in such short a period of time. When we started planing this vacation 10 months ago we hoped it would be as good as our last vacation in Alaska. Now that the vacation is over I can say this vacation exceeded our expectations and confirmed our belief that Alaska is one of the most beautiful and unique places you can visit. I can't quite explain to people why it is so special. Yes it has some amazing scenery and wildlife and yes it has a certain appeal because it is a somewhat untamed and uncivilized place but there is something more to it than that. There is a certain energy and openness to this land that seems to pull you in makes you want to explore it all.
I don't know if or when we will be back to Alaska but there are 4 or 5 more things we want to see and do, so I expect another trip here is in our distance future. Alaska is not the easiest place to vacation and it lacks some of the basic luxuries of normal society but if you have an adventurous spirit and enjoy the great outdoors this is one place you have to visit at least once in your life.
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