Today was supposed to be another sea day with spectacular views of the Inside Passage, but sadly the fog got us again and our views were minimal – though we did see an amazing “fog bow” at one point!
As you see in the last photo, we had to pack because it’s the final day and we will be off the ship soon!
To end, here’s a collection of the souvenirs from our trip:
Approaching Ketchikan today had us looking at the busy port areas but also at the low fog on the hills surrounding …
We had a planned sea-plane excursion today, flying us out to watch bears catching salmon – but the low fog canceled that flight! Luckily we found an alternative way to hopefully see bears, in a wildlife preserve walk about a half hour coach ride from the docks.
About 20 minutes in to the walk someone spotted a bear – exciting! But we could not imagine what happened next, which was spotting a mother bear and two cubs coming out of the forest to feed at the river (there were many [mostly dead!] salmon in the water, offering easy pickings for the bears). While we watched these bears, a big male appeared, then another mother bear with cubs, and yet more … at least 10 in total! Our walk turned into a “stand” as we spent an hour or more just watching and photographing all the bears …
I also took a lot of video of the bears, and I’ve compiled it here:
Today we had no excursions booked, planning to wander the town and rest a bit, even having in-room breakfast while the ship approached the dock; once again we joined a number of other cruise ships but the town wasn’t too busy (presumably because other people had gone off on their excursions!)
Our town exploration showed us a number of totems, and we also visited the Alaska State Capitol, and got views over the town …
By the afternoon we were back on the ship enjoying our Pinnacle Suite, watching the sail-away, and eventually watching another nice sunset …
M&I / GBMINI 