Ok, this is the final installment of our Alaska cruise adventure, which you might all be very bored of by now...
Our next stop was Ketchikan. This was probably my favorite of the towns we visited. We decided to go on one of the 2 hour tours that was offered. The guy giving the tour was pretty entertaining and told us all about various things in the town. The main stop was Saxman Native Village. We saw the clan house, the carving shed with several totem poles in progress, and all the totems around the village. Our tour guide also took us on a short walk through the woods and pointed out evidence of bears like where they rubbed their backs against trees to scratch themselves. Then we saw an eagle's nest in one of the nearby trees with the parents and two "babies" (they were big already) who were practicing flying around the nest. I wasn't able to get a picture of the eagle's nest because my batteries had died and the Village store didn't sell any.
Next we went to the Creek Street Historic District, which was formerly Alaska's notorious red light district. Creek Street itself was very cool, because most of the street is over the creek and built like a pier on pilings. There were some cute shops along the street, along with Dolly's house which is now a museum about a famous Madam who operated her house their in the red light district. We walked along the creek until we got to the Fish Ladder, which is where you can see salmon fighting their way upstream during the hatching season.
After that, we just walked around some more and explored more of the town. We walked to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center, where salmon are hatched and eagles are rehabilitated. We saw St. John's Church, which is the town's oldest church, and then I dragged David into various shops where I found more Matryoshka (Russian nesting) dolls for my little collection. When we got back to the ship, there was a Great Alaskan Cookout on the lido deck, with lots of salmon and other seafood.
Link to pictures of Ketchikan: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Ketchikan
Our next and last stop before arriving back in Seattle was Victoria, B.C. We had wanted to visit Craigdarroch castle and Butchart Gardens, but since we were docking there at 6pm and they were both a ways out of town, it was too late to go unless we had been part of the pre-planned excursion. So, we walked from the dock to Beacon Hill Park and then on to the main part of town. We stopped in Chinatown and took a picture at the Gates of Harmonious Interest and looked around in some of the shops there. I bought some sesame seed candy in one.
After Chinatown, we encountered a guy dressed as Darth Vader playing the violin on an island in the middle of the street. He was quite entertaining-I should have tried to do video with my camera, but I didn't think about it at the time. We walked by the Empress Hotel and I took pictures of the Parliament buildings. Next to the harbor, there was a street performer who was very entertaining. He juggled lit torches and also escaped from a straight jacket and chains. Our last stop before a lot of things closed was Miniature World. It had all sorts of miniature displays of towns and different scenes in history. I liked the miniature circus that had moving rides and there was also a miniature sawmill that made wooden boards out of small logs. Apparently, it had been deemed a little too dangerous to keep running (even though it was behind glass), but they had a video of it operating and it was pretty cool.
It was pretty late after all that and we were tired and getting cold, so instead of walking all the way back to the ship, we got a pedicab. The guy operating the pedicab was informative too and told us some interesting facts about the area and buildings that we passed.
Link to pictures of Victoria: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/VictoriaBC
When we got back to Seattle, I was sad the cruise was over, but we got to visit with my parents and my older sister and her family for a few days, so that was nice. My parents took us to a cool place that had a bunch of bonsai trees, we saw a family of deer by my sister's house, and David and I went to the Space needle before we left. It was a great vacation and I was quite sad to be heading back to the desert when it was all over.
Link to pictures of bonsai trees: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/BonsaiGarden
Link to pictures of deer: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/Deer
Link to pictures of Space Needle: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/SpaceNeedle
And for fun, here are some pictures of David playing with my parents' dogs: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/DavidWithDogs?authkey=PiqHCDMJQmI
P.S. You can also make comments on individual pictures in the web albums-just click on the "add a comment" link to the right of the picture. I always enjoy comments!
Ok, so I was apparently a little premature with the snow pictures a few days ago. It snowed pretty much all day today, which was crazy. According to the Weather Channel, it hasn't snowed this much since 1979. I just got a couple of pictures-I know for those of you in Utah right now it's not very exciting, but it's unusual for Las Vegas.
