Travel Musings by Jan

Instead of waking up in a leisurely fashion, we rose early on the morning of June 11th to set our pre-packed bags outside the door for transfer to the processing area. Then we ate a large breakfast to fuel us for the day ahead. When we returned to our room, we took in the scenes of the shoreline as we approached the port of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The scenery was gorgeous. As we sailed nearer to the port of Vancouver, we were struck by the impressive skyline with its tall skyscrapers, many of them with faces of shimmering green glass. We also saw parks along the harbor with walking trails close to the edge. We were curious about an unusual building at the water's edge with large white structures decorating its roof. Later we learned that this building is Canada Place, an iconic Vancouver marker that serves as the port terminal and as a center for cultural events and celebrations. Its white structures are 90 foot tall sails made of fiberglass, which are lit

Ketchikan was a great town to visit for our last onshore experience. This quirky town had so much to offer that we agreed we would enjoy returning someday to explore it further. After leaving this fascinating port city, we sailed through Alaska's Inside Passage throughout the night and the next day. Majestic scenery surrounded us, featuring mountains, forests, islands, and rocky outcroppings. As inhabitants of the flat lands of the Great Plains, the views left us in awe. The seas were less gray and murky than they had been a few days earlier near the glaciers, where the silt from the glacial melt had colored the water. Here the water was colored in some spots with a bright blue. Because of the topography of the area, with so many mountains and islands, road building is almost impossible, so the shores of the Inside Passage are very sparsely populated once past Ketchikan. Occasionally,  lonely houses perched on the shore or clung to the cliffs. We also saw small cluste

Our last port of call before the conclusion of our cruise was Ketchikan, Alaska, the fourth largest city in the state with about 14,000 residents. It is located on the southwestern end of Revillegigedo Island in the Tongass Rainforest. Its picturesque landscape was vintage Alaska. The climate is oceanic, classified as similar to Scotland or Northern Ireland with temperatures averaging between 40 to 50 degrees F for the year. The record low is - 1 degrees F and the record high is 89 degrees F, which is more temperate than the climate in my state of Nebraska! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan,_Alaska . It is also a very wet climate with a large amount of precipitation recorded each year. The town's economy is centered on tourism, but historically it was supported by the industries of fishing, canning, and lumber. It is sometimes called the "Salmon Capital of Alaska" for its many canneries once located there. Because of its geographic location Ketchika