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A Wilderness Adventure — Page 8

Crabby in Ketchikan Our final Alaskan port is Ketchikan, known for its totem poles and scenic harbor village. We enjoyed breakfast on our stateroom balcony as we sailed along the Inner Passage toward Ketchikan.

Ketchikan Day Trip
		Creek Street, above, formerly the home of bordellos and bars, is picturesquely built upon stilts lining the river. It houses shops and galleries. Totem Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving old totem poles from the area. These weathered poles, at sides and below, still tell stories of mythical forebears and celebrate life's passages.

A Tlingit Mortuary Pole, left, stores a high-caste person's ashes in a hole in the back of the pole. This pole shows a figure of a man holding a large club and a sculpin (fish).

An Haida Heraldic Pole, near left, stood before a large community house where many related families lived. The top figure, Eagle, clutches a salmon. Beneath, Frog holds a bentwood box. The beaver below grasps a stick. Above its cross-hatched tail is a baby beaver. A Jurassic T-Rex Pole ... just kidding ... an Haida Memorial Pole, below, was used to pass down Native culture and tradition since there was no written language. The human figure on this pole represents legendary Haida strongman, Stone Ribs, who could change into other beings. This pole speaks to the time he returned to his people as a sea lion, which tops the pole

A Crabbing We Go Fresh Alaskan crabs drew us from Ketchikan harbor, below, to George Inlet, where we boarded a boat to retrieve traps filled with crabs from the deep
We took the boat, above right, into the inlet to the crab beds. Okay, so the trap only had one crab in it, right, and the bait, a salmon head, was bigger (and uglier) than the crab, but it was still fun to hold the squirming snapper and dream of a steaming crab dinner ... just ask Cherie and Mark, below.

Cherie gleely grabs the squirming crab, while he, in turn, grabs her ring fingers. Mark appears ready to stuff the crustacean into his mouth uncooked ... or is he modeling a new beard for the northern climes?

But the real payoff of crabbing comes when we return to the lodge, left, and sit down to a freshly steamed, all-you-can-eat crab dinner, where Mark shows off his "shelling" acumen with a shell of Alaskan beer and a heaping stack of crab shells left over from his meal. Fittingly, his astrological sign is the crab.

In their very best imitation of the Bush twins, Cherie and Cyndi stick out their tongues to a gathering of reporters eager to cover their return to Ketchikan after the duo's historic crab cracking, dipping, and gorging fest

One last visit to scenic and historic Creek Street before heading back to the ship. Further upstream, the river turns into a whitewater torrent, challenging the salmon who are poised to swim upstream. Not in this photo, but not far from sight, perched an eagle in one of the tree tops, waiting for his lunch to swim by

Where's Waldo? Returning to the ship, I look up to find that the gang has already embarked and are draining the last of the wine on the balconies of our staterooms. Perfect — and me with a thirst the size of Alaska. To see which of the cabins is ours, run your mouse over the photo at left.

I turned to the shops to find that last souvenir from Alaska that would say it all—the adventure of this great frontier, the wildlife inhabitants, the need for shelter from the cold ... and I found it in this shop window. Unfortunately, they didn't carry my size — extra large

Similarly, Cyndi had been looking for clothing that would express the glory of Alaska's beautiful mountains. Y'know, Alaska has 17 of the continent's 20 highest peaks — well, 19 when Cyndi comes to visit. Appropriately, Mark now has names for the twin peaks: Ala and Ska.

Mark, ever the debonnaire man about town, takes Agent 008 out to a lobster dinner that night on the ship. "You only live twice" would seem to be our Mr. Bond's motto, as he dug into his second shell fish feast of the day.

Bon Voyage! And before we knew it, the cruise was over, with the ship docking in Vancouver, British Columbia. Yes, it was a bon voyage ... a good time was had by all. Though as we disembarked, Mark, Cyndi, and I were feeling scratchy throated and a little under the weather. The full-blown flu didn't really hit until Cherie and I strolled the streets of Vancouver that weekend. After a few hours of sight-seeing, photos below, I spent the rest of the weekend in the hotel's bed, sicker than a sea dog.

Vancouver

Downtown

Gastown
	Gastown, a warehouse district near the piers, has been converted into upscale shops, restaurants, and apartments. The leafy streets were a nice excape from the record heat they were having, and Gastown was hosting a jazz street festival and its share of weddings that day

Chinatown
	Vancouver has a large Asian population, and the second-largest Chinatown in North America. Cherie and I strolled through the Chinese neighborhoods, spent some time in a quiet classical Chinese garden, below, and took in the colorful sights and smells of the marketplace

That's it! The cruise is over Return to Juneau

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