Today was our first port day, sailing in to Ketchikan, AK early in the morning. We sailed past quite a bit of coastline and got to see some bald eagles from our balconies. After grabbing a quick breakfast at the buffet, Reese and I got off the ship and found our group for the zipline excursion.
We took a 20 or so minute bus ride out to Alaska Canopy Adventures, getting some info on the local area from the driver along the way. Once there, we went through the safety briefing and got our harnesses on. I kicked myself for not bringing the GoPro with me as they had helmets with mounts for them, but what’s done is done. We had a short test line to go down to make sure we understood all of the instructions and techniques before we got in to the main course. Reese went first, and did really well, so I had to follow. The rest of the course was amazing. We had two really long lines, both over 600 feet long, a number of shorter ones, as well as some suspension bridges to walk over. The views were amazing, being 75 or more feet above the ground gives you a much different perspective. After we finished the course, we nosed around the gift shop, picked up some swag, and then headed back in to town. On the way back in we lucked out and saw a decent sized pod of orcas. After we were all back on the ship we found out that all of us were in about the same area at that time and all got to see the same pod.
We met up with Heather and went over to Sweet Mermaids for lunch. It’s a small, locally owned cafe that has some seriously good food at reasonable prices. I had a meatball sub, Reese had a quesadilla, and Heather had a sandwich. All of it was delicious, appropriately sized, and reasonably priced. We shared a table with a local and got to talk to him for a while, getting more of the local flavor in the process.
After lunch we walked around town, doing a little shopping and a little sightseeing, making sure to track down locally owned businesses. I picked up some gold nugget earrings for Heather, Reese got some toys and hats, and I snagged some locally roasted coffee. We just about used up all of our time in port, so we made our way back to the ship, getting back with plenty of time to spare.