They said……..It rains a lot in Ketchikan take an umbrella. Well I had my jacket , my umbrella and didn’t need either one.

Our clocks went back an hour while we slept. And we woke to the noises of a port.

Clear blue skies, snow capped mountains, colourful houses, lots of timber and flowering trees.

We left the ship in our own time. We didn’t join any tours. Everything is close by so we planned our own activities with suggestions from Chat GPT.

The town is quite accessible with lovely walks along the board walk towards the park and creek.

The historic Creek St used to be the red light area. Apparently it was very popular in its day with the loggers and salmon fishermen. Now it is lovely to wander ……..but full of tourist shops. Selling salmon, caviar, beanies, trinkets, stickers. All types of tourist memorabilia. I resisted.

Totems are a big part of the indigenous culture here. The Totem Heritage Centre is up the hill behind the town – through the park area an easy walk up via the creek is best. It leads to the Salmon Hatchery, then on to the Totem centre.

The Centre is small but has some good displays and excellent explanations about the totems , their history and how they tell a story.

Walking along the creek we could hear cheering. Turns out the Lumberjack show is a hit. We booked our own tickets and went to the 11.30 show.

Our MC was a lady called Barney Birch: Queen of the timber carnival. She was chatty, engaging and ran a great show.

There were two teams. Team US v Team Canada – with 2 axe men each.

It was fast moving, funny and lot is involved.

There were lots of different ‘competitions’. Axe work, log rolling, chain saw, high ropes. Etc. there was cheering and sawing and in the end team Canada won. I’d like to see how one of our Australian axe men would go!

It was an open air seated area. But the seats were heated. And there were heaters overhead. We were fine – it wasn’t too cold at all. But in winter ……..

Lunch was calling. We could have reboarded and eaten on the deck. But we saw Annabel’s and decided on a bowl of seafood chowder. The restaurant was very old and had lots to look at.

Back on board we read, chatted and went to a session for people doing the land package after the cruise. There were a lot of us!

At 6.30 it was trivia night at the piano bar. A great place to meet new friends. Tonight it was Anne and her group – all from Zimbabwe but now scattered around the world. Lots of fun which was good because we were hopeless at 70 and 80’s hits. I must have busy with babies and missed these hits!

Dinner in the main restaurant was great. We had a lovely waiter from Indonesia. All the staff are from the Philippines or Indonesia. They are good at their jobs and so friendly.

The salmon was good too!

And so was the sunset.

Now we’re sitting in a karaoke bar. Oh dear. I’m tempted to sing one of my choir songs. There are some brave souls ! Not able to hold a note. Singing songs we don’t know!

What song would you sing?