The day's plans.
The only people up and out on the deck this early are the people cleaning it.
And Monica.
And us.
It's a bit windy.
The pool deck from above.
In the observation deck.
Looking out.
They have a little food there.
Coming up on some houses.
Looks like the water is quite low right now.
The ship had to swing around these islands.
This one has a little house on it.
A cross to welcome you to the bay.
Lined up to leave.
We got up early to be at the front of the line because we had a private excursion and didn't want to miss it, especially as we had so little time at this port.
First ones off the boat.
What is this?
Oh, a bunch of merchants you have to walk through.
I hope our shuttle isn't a logging truck.
The sign says the last shuttle departing downtown is 11am.
However, the woman driving our bus said that isn't true. She said as long as your at the bus stop there in line by around 11, they'll wait for you, and they often don't have people leaving until 12pm or so.
Two ships.
Multi-storied houses.
A long staircase.
Monica pointing at a bald eagle.
More of them on this lightpost.
Two older ones and one younger one.
A bunch more on this dock.
A map of downtown.
Beautiful stained glass.
More long staircases.
The wharf.
Ogii and Monica with a bear.
And another one.
Eagle statue.
Shops.
A totem pole.
Welcome to Ketchikan.
Miners.
We were supposed to meet at the liquid sunshine guage.
There's our guide.
He saved time by explaining how to get into and out of the wetsuits on the drive there.
They used to work as official excursions and won multiple excursions of the season. Now they're private, so they make more money per person (as they don't have to split it with the cruise company), so they can have smaller groups, which is nice. Although that also means its harder for them to get customers. When they were an official excursion, they would take out 20 people. Now they aim for 10, but today there was only 5.
Lots of wetsuits. They also had goggles with prescriptions and ones designed to work around beards.
A little snack.
Multiple overlapping layers to keep the cold water out.
All suited up.
Seeing starfish before we even get in the water.
Ogii and me getting our cameras ready.
Our guides would dive down...
... and get starfish for us to hold.
Ogii with one.
A jellyfish. The orange ones will sting, but our wetsuits are too thick (7mm) for them to get through.
The blues ones are pretty, too.
Anemones and starfish.
Monica with a sea cucumber.
And a starfish.
There was a ton of pollen in the water.
Ogii swimming.
A bunch of starfish.
With Monica.
Another jellyfish.
Some of the starfish were really big.
Me.
With a starfish.
More.
They guides were great about letting us go exploring on our own.
Anemones.
Sea cucumber.
A big crab.
Starfish.
A huge starfish.
So pretty.
A fat guy.
A little crab.
Ogii.
Lots of fish in some places.
Long starfish.
There was lots of grass in some places, too.
Me again.
A video of us snorkeling.
It was a wonderful time. I wasn't cold even for a second and we saw way more animals than I was expecting. Our guides were really respectful of nature as well. They made sure to put the animals back in the same depth and location as they came from, and they wouldn't let us touch the one really big starfish because it was too delicate.
A duckboat back in town.
Back to the ship.
We needed glowsticks for the Glow Party tonight. We had checked different stores at the last few ports, but nobody had them. There happened to be a Walmart between our dock and the town, but we were spending the entire time snorkeling, so we had no time to go there and buy glowsticks.
Mom and Dad to the rescue; they went to Walmart while we were snorkeling and bought a giant box.
Custom pasta.
Lunch.
Our snorkel shirts.
We hung out a bit, and then dressed up and headed to Cagney's Steakhouse for dinner.
Everyone with their steaks.
I had the tomahawk.
Ogii had the porterhouse.
Dad had the New York strip.
Mom had the ribeye.
Monica had the filet mignon.
Everyone cleaned their plates.
Time for dessert.
One more picture.
And then time to plan tomorrow.
So many fun events.
Watching Battle of the sexes.
Some singers in the BBQ place.
Perfect Couple game show.
The gals on the steps.
The time to prepare for the glow party.
Thanks to Mom and Dad getting the glowsticks.
Monica accidently broke one of the glowsticks open, realized it looked neat, so we opened more of them and splattered them on our shirts. Ogii made a peace sign.
Monica put dots all over her shirt.
Dancing the night away.