Dave at Family Air Tours got our distress call last night and we woke up with a voice mail waiting. Thankfully he had a slot open earlier and since we didn't make any other plans it was easy to reschedule. Do you know what I saw outside our cabin? None other than a restaurant called “Burger Queen.” It was a sign: right then and there I knew where we would be having lunch; it was just a matter of convincing Angela.
This morning, we had enough time to have a “civilized” breakfast in the main dining room. I had a bagel with lox and cream cheese that was very tasty while Angela had some pancakes that looked markedly better in the main dining room than in the buffet.
We had some time before meeting Dave, so we walked around downtown Ketchikan. Since Ketchikan is much larger than Skagway and has legitimate function besides being a destination for cruise ships, it doesn't feel nearly as artificial. The “fake” jewelry stores don't seem nearly as obvious here as in Skagway.
Dave's airplane wasn't tied up far from the boat and when we met him, he reminded me of Kelsey Grammer. His plane was a Cessna 185 that had enough seats for me, Angela, and Dave. When we got in, since I was going to be up front, he was very quick to remind me that the rudder pedals were for him and him alone.
Our flight to the Misty Fjords took about 20 minutes. The takeoff run was much shorter than I thought it would be since we had all that extra drag from the water on the floats. The fjords were stunning. Once you get past the actual “fjord'y” part into the interior of the forest, the beauty really comes out with all these suspended freshwater lakes that empty into each other and ultimately into the sea. We landed on a lake where he goes fishing and got out for some pictures. Half-jokingly I remarked that the Misty Fjords didn't seem that misty and he said that the weather today was about as good as it gets there. We've definitely lucked out on the weather; since besides a little drizzle in Whittier, we've had amazing weather all week. Apparently the forest service has some cabins sprinkled in the park for folks to stay in while they're fishing and hunting. The only way in or out is by floatplane.
On our way back to Ketchikan, Dave noticed a latch not closed and decided to make an unscheduled landing to secure it. As we were “taxiing” to a stop, he said very nonchalantly “there's a bear over there” pointing to the shore on the left side of the plane. A what? Our last day “in country” and we finally see a bear in the wild? And on an unscheduled landing, no less. Of course, I had my very wide angle lens fitted; completely inadequate for getting a shot of it from the plane. Angela heaved my camera bag over the seat and I did a quick change to my 300mm telephoto and got out onto the float to try to get a good stable platform for getting a shot. Even at 300mm, I couldn't fill the frame with the bear, but it is very recognizable as one and I think I can crop in tighter on a few of the pics. I wish Dave had let the plane coast a little closer to shore, but there was a good chance we would have spooked it and lost our chance.
Remember “Burger Queen?” Turns out I didn't have to do any convincing since both Dave and his assistant both recommended it for their food and their milkshakes and their recommendations were spot on. Lunch was amazing.
Ketchikan being the totem pole capital of the world, we wanted to go to either Totem Bight State Park or Saxman Village. Unfortunately, by the time we were done with lunch there just wouldn't have been enough time to get there and back so we settled for the Totem Heritage Center above Creek Street. There were several totem poles that had been recovered from various sites around the area and some panels discussing the history, meaning, and significance of the various icons carved into the poles. I think it was a pretty good substitute for either of the two parks.
We even had time for some shopping, yay! We wanted to get a miniature totem pole, but wound up finding a gorgeous whale bone carving with walrus ivory and baleen accents from an Inupiaq artist in a town called Shishmaref way up on the Bering Sea.
We ate dinner in the dining room again and had a nice, if unmemorable meal. We were seated with a couple whom we met at breakfast, so it was nice to talk about the how the day went compared to how we planned it. We were surprised, however, when the lights were turned down and the music turned up and a member of the cruise director's staff got on the PA to kick off the “chefs' parade” where they parade out the kitchen staff and waitstaff for a lap around the dining room while the diners wave their napkins in appreciation. This went on for 5+ minutes and was a little disruptive during our dinner.
After 5 nights on the boat, we finally decided to avail ourselves of the “show” in the theater. The performer is an illusionist from Las Vegas who calls himself “Gaetano” and apparently he is a fairly frequent performer on Princess ships. The show was OK, but his “showcraft” doesn't even come close to that of Copperfield or David Blaine or Chris Angel.
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