Alaskan Cruise: Day 6

Date:  Thursday, May 15th

Itinerary:  Ketchikan, AK in the morning

Highlight:  Sunbathing on our ALASKAN cruise!

Favorite eats:  Salmon chowder and lobster

Drink of the day:  Pina Colada

Weather:  Super sunny and super warm

We arrived in Ketchikan at about 6 a.m. We had coffee sent to our room so we could get a jump start on our day. We didn’t book any excursions for Ketchikan, which was nice. I didn’t want to be on a time-table, for once!

Our ship was docked in Ketchikan for the morning, from about 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. We hit up the buffet for a breakfast of  the usual fruit, pastries, cereal, etc. Our ship docked right next to town.

See?

We disembarked and spent the morning wandering through the town and stopping at some local gems. Like most places we visited in Alaska, Ketchikan was easy to walk through.

This was the first shop we went into… I just couldn’t resist! We ended up getting the cutest little Alaskan themed nativity!

We meandered towards Creek Street, stopping in a few shops here and there. Creek Street is so cool! It’s basically a historic boardwalk along Ketchikan Creek. There are lots of shops and old buildings along the boardwalk, and it’s a pretty awesome photo-op. Especially with the gorgeous weather we had while we were there!

After exploring Creek Street, we ended up walking a little further and finding Ketchicandies, which sold Alaskan handcrafted chocolates! We picked up some treats to snack on and they were delicious.

Yes, that’s a chocolate covered Oreo… My sweet tooth was definitely satisfied after these treats! We continued walking downtown, checking out the sights. We saw a few totem poles, which is another thing Ketchikan is known for. We didn’t book any excursions, so we didn’t go to any of the totem pole parks, but we did get to see a few in town!

We made our way back towards the water and caught some amazing views of the marina.

And, we just happened to be right next to a place I knew I wanted to stop for a quick bite- Alaska Fish House! I snagged us a picnic table outside while Marty went up to order. We got a cup of smoked salmon chowder with cornbread to share, for $6.99. This was really really tasty! I’m not much for chowder, but I like salmon and- hey, I was in Alaska! And I’m really glad we ended up giving it a try, the chowder was delicious, hot, and flavorful. (Next time, though, we both agree we wouldn’t get the cornbread. We didn’t need it, just the chowder was perfect enough for our early afternoon snack.)

With warm chowder in our bellies, we headed back towards the ship. We stopped to get a picture of the “liquid sunshine” gauge, which certainly made us feel lucky about the sunshine we had for our visit.

When we got back on the ship we headed to our room for a little downtime. The early afternoon had greeted us with unbelievably warm temps that I just couldn’t get enough of! While we were still docked, we relaxed on the deck in the sun. With some Jones of WA pink wine, of course.

We also took the beautiful weather as an opportunity to take some cheesy couple-y photos. A vacation must, right?

Eventually, we made our way to the lunch buffet where they were doing a special seafood lunch. We each got a “sampler platter” trying a teeny bit of what looked most appealing. This is the way to go- a bite here and there so it’s not a big deal if you don’t like something. We also grabbed ice cold Texas Teas, which were so delicious!

After lunch we roamed the ship in the sunshine, amazed that just yesterday we were freezing our tails off in Glacier Bay! There were people sunbathing by the pool in swimsuits! On our Alaskan cruise! I didn’t put on my swimsuit, but I did eventually take my sweater off to roam the ship in a tank top, and I loved it! It was just so beautiful out!

It didn’t take long for the warm weather and beautiful sunshine to inspire us… to order two Pina Coladas! Yum, these were perfect. Sunshine & Pina Coladas… nothing else says “vacation” quite like that combo!

Ahhh, what a perfect afternoon on the ship! After we soaked up the sun, we got ready for dinner. It was the second formal night, so we got dressed to the nines.

At dinner, we were seated with a couple from Washington and a woman from New York. And, drum roll please… it was lobster night! I, of course, ordered the lobster and it was so good! That’s definitely one thing I don’t eat very often. I think I could say less than five times in my whole life… but it was really good. Oh, and I had a Caesar salad again to start the meal because it was too good not to order again. For dessert I had the apple pie which came with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

After dinner, we settled in for the night. I’m sure we were super exhausted from such a great day and all the sun:)

There’s only one day left to recap of our Alaskan cruise! Be sure to visit again soon to read all about it!

xoxo,
Kayla