Ketchikan to Portland ** It's a Wrap

The airport in Ketchikan is small.  The taxi will take you from your hotel to the airport ferry ramp.  It’s a quick ride across the water but still costs $6 per person.  

Since our hotel had advertised a continental breakfast, we didn’t expect to have to deal with finding a place to eat breakfast.  Then, we discovered that advertising it as an amenity of the hotel didn’t really mean that they still provided it.    Thus, we hoped we could get something to eat at the airport.  The terminal was very small without a lot of choices. A hot dog for breakfast was about the best choice. 

The weather was definitely turning and the blue skies were beautiful but it still wasn’t warm.  It was windy and cool.  We hadn’t seen many blue skies since our arrival a week earlier so even this was good.

Finally we were leaving Alaska and had great views of Ketchikan and the snow capped mountains in the distance.

Upon  arriving in Washington we saw more  snow capped mountains of the Olympic Mountain Range in the distance.   We had a two hour layover in Seattle but happy our connecting flight was one gate from the arriving flight.  On our way to Alaska we had to run from one end of the airport to the other end in 35 minutes!

It was nice to see more blue skies.   We checked out the snow levels of our own mountains as we flew by.  The snow had pretty much melted off the top of Mt. St. Helens but Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood had plenty snow left.  The temperature was in the mid-80’s when we arrived in Portland and it sure felt good.




That was the end of our vacation from our vacation.  Here’s the wrap up of the week we spent in Alaska along with the cruise ship crowds.

To begin with our timing was off.  Bad timing was definitely my fault but I hate to plan to do something and then have to wait to do it.  It’s called impatience.  We hit the ports when everyone else from the cruise ships were also hitting the ports making the towns of Skagway and Ketchikan packed.  Those towns were very touristy and because of that they were our least favorite.   The cruise ships weren’t so noticeable in Juneau and Haines.

I think the hardest thing was finding decent places to eat.  They were also pretty expensive for what you got but we did expect that.  Fresh fish was not as plentiful as I had expected.  I wanted it to be on every menu but we discovered it wasn’t even in the local markets we checked out.  Fish’n chips were offered everywhere but that’s not exactly what I was looking for.  

We also discovered it would have been cheaper for us to take a cruise than do it independently.   However, I think we liked this way best of all.   

The vegetation in this area of Alaska is similar to what we have in western Washington.      We loved the ferry system.  That was so much fun and if we ever do decide to return to Alaska it just might be to catch the ferries in the Aleutian Islands where fewer people visit and the ferries still run.  Who knows what we’ll do next but that’s my wrap-up.

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So, back at the cabin we saw two new baby deer.  I tried to follow them and never did get a good picture because they kept moving. 

Staying put wasn’t in the future for Terry.  A couple days after he had unpacked, he was packing again.  This time it was to head to Texas with SIL, Robert.   Robert is staying for a while but Terry will catch the first flight back Monday morning.  In the meantime, I had plans to head to Portland on Tri-met and watch the Portland Rose Festival Parade.   That’s what I did.   I hadn’t done that in many, many years …

 Previous blog - Ketchikan and the Alaska Marine Highway

‘Tis life on the road.