After finishing up the flightseeing tour, we were dropped off at the Cape Fox Lodge.  There, we visited with some of the people from Week 1 who were preparing to go home.  We didn’t need to check in, but were able to use the meeting room to catch up on internet activities (like bill paying).  We took the cute funicular down from the Cape Fox Lodge into the Creek Street Area:

Creek Street is a very “cute” part of Ketchikan.  It is lined with souvenir shops, but there are also galleries, restaurants and a few drinking establishments.  It reminded us of Frontierland at Disneyworld.   Fortunately, today was not a crowded day since there was only one large ship in town.  We enjoyed meandering around, although we didn’t buy anything other than a sweatshirt. Here are some scenes from our walk.

It was time for lunch and we had vouchers for the restaurant at Cape Fox Lodge – these were given to all passengers who were continuing on the next leg of the journey, and we each had $25 to spend for lunch!  Sounds like a lot, but it wasn’t difficult to spend that in the nicer restaurants.

We chose the lightly battered halibut and a cheeseburger for lunch – I love halibut and ordered it every chance I could.  We were also craving something spicy, so an order of buffalo wings with a zesty sauce fit the bill.  This lunch would satisfy our need for fried foods for a week.  One good thing about the Wilderness Discoverer –  there was very little fried food served.  That made it okay to have cookies for lunch.

We didn’t explore the more commercial part of town; the large cruise ships have brought an influx of jewelry shops and such that don’t appeal to us.  Make sure you check the shop you’re buying from if you want authentic Alaskan souvenirs. We went back near the dock to wait … even the benches are cute.

Boarding wasn’t until 5pm, but rumor was returnees might be allowed back onboard early.  We hung out for half an hour or so, and once enough of us were there, we stormed the gangplank and took over the ship.  OK, we were invited to come aboard. I took the opportunity to take a few pics of the cabins as we walked through to our cabin. We had the same stateroom as we had for Week 1 – one of the four larger ones on Deck 3. I kept saying I was going to get better pictures but it didn’t happen. We had a queen sized bed with access from both sides, a small closet, and our own bathroom facilities. We also had a daybed, which ended up being the home for our camera gear. We also had two nice windows – one out the port side, and another towards the bridge.

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We saw some shocking hanky pinky going on – Turns out – it was just some errant boots from the pile kept onboard for guests.

Everyone gathered on Deck 3 as we cruised away from Ketchikan, and we prepared for the Emergency Muster Drill.

We passed the Guardian Lighthouse as we left Ketchikan/

After a nightcap, catching up with friends from the first week, and meeting new passengers, we went to bed eager to see what the week would bring.  One of us was hoping for more wildlife, still obsessed with seeing more whales.