Day 5 Ketchikan

Our first shore excursion!

 I did some research before we left Colorado, and we decided to do this trip "on the cheap"--meaning not paying for any of the sponsored excursions.  We left it open, that we if found something interesting, we wouldn't rule it out, but we'd start with free.

We started our morning with a walk from the boat to Creek Street, known through the 1950's as a questionable section of town (Mr. IM refers to this portion of the day as the brothel and speakeasy tour).

As we walked along the boardwalk, we watched some seals frolic in the channel and had a funny conversation with some other tourists who didn't want to trespass by going "up the stairs up the hill".  The seals were a little shy...

A short (but steep staircase) later, we found ourselves at the Cape Fox Lodge.  They have some lovely displays of Native American art and artifacts and lovely grounds.

 Beautiful view--oh, look, our ship...

 Another interesting part of the trip...the giant slugs.  Um, ew?

We took a slightly different route back to town and found ourselves along the creek, where we could see salmon trying to swim upstream (we decided these guys might not be the healthiest of the bunch...)

We did a little shopping--finding several ties to Colorado in the shops!

While exploring the grounds of the Totem Heritage Center, we ran into my brother and his family.

We took a (very steep) hike with them along the Deer Mountain Trail, even discovering a GeoCache along the way!

The Girl wasn't dressed for the very wet and steep hike, so Mr IM and I walked back into town with her, where we were able to see some of her friends at the Creek and enjoy a nice walk.
When The Boy and the rest of the wanderers returned, we walked through a tunnel to the other part of Ketchikan to eat the best halibut ever at the Dairy King! Correction:  The Boy pointed out to me after this was published that it was actually the Burger Queen, because the shirts the employees wore said, "We wanted to name it Burger B***ch, but didn't"....My bad...

Then it was back to the boat for us and some more water watching and relaxing!

If we did this again, I'd want to find the totem pole park (apparently it is famous and we missed it completely) and would like to do some more light hiking (in appropriate apparel).  And maybe take one of the official brothel and speakeasy tours...  Another great day!