Diary 4

May 18th, 2014, 9.14am Alaskan time

We just took off from our first stop, the port of Ketchikan. We had 1.45 hours there and of courses couldn't refuse ourselves in the pleasure of going outside and step on the ground of Alaska for our first time. WE didn't plan the time very smartly though and were almost late for boarding back. Firstly we didn't count that the downtown would be so far away from Ferry Terminal and it turned out that it was about 30 minutes by foot one way, and on the way there we didn't hurry, we were looking around, making pictures and so on. So when we came there we realized very soon that we have to start our walk back. At some point it was obvious that we were not able to make it in time, so we just came up to the closest car staying at the intersection and asked if the guy could have take us to the Ferry Terminal. Luckily he didn't mind to do it and we were right in time. 

That's why we actually didn't see a lot of Ketchikan. What we saw was one big street along the oceanside, a little bit further mountains and between the ocean and the mountains a system of the wooden bridge-like streets, partly ladders, that connect houses with each other. Downtown is located near by the Cruise ships Terminal (or more likely vise versa) and there were 3 huge cruise ships right at the time. But it wasn't that crowded as we were expecting to see. Maybe it is too early for the tourist season yet, or maybe only the very small part of the passengers stepped off to the shore.

There was even some cell phone reception, but no T-mobile. IT's funny how we found the worst network to have here in USA:) 

Also we noticed today that actually most of the people we met here on the ferry are americans. Actually we haven't meet a single tourist from elsewhere so far. That's why we are so interesting for them:) 

Lots of these people are on vacation, like we are, but some are going there for work or even moving to live there.  For them it's the better way to move - you don't have to pay for the transportation of your households, you just load your car with them and take the car to the vessel with you.

We have some new fellow-passengers boarded in Ketchikan, so now it's more crowded in the Solarium, but still very nice.

We're going to have two more stops today, not so long, less than an hour each. Most likely we're going to go to the shore then as well, but maybe not trying to make such a challenging walk:) Let's see.