Third and Fourth Days

Ketchican and rain seem to be strongly connected evidenced by the fact
that no one was surprised that it was raining when we arrived there.  Harry
and I grabbed our rain gear and two umbrellas, headed out for a walking
tour of the part of town that is nearest the pier, and eventually reached the
Totem Cultural Center.

We looked in a few of the stores, mostly t-shirt and jewelry stores designed 

to capture the quick tourist dollar. One of the best of a struggling batch of 

retailers might be KetchiCandies where the pervasive smell of warm 

chocolate is enough to recommend it.

While we were exploring Ketchican, Mum stayed in our stateroom where 

she was warm, dry and comfortable.

We attended an afternoon lecture about some of the communities we'll 

visit in the Inside Passage, Hoonah, Sitka and Juneau. Hoonah, a small 

native village is the stop on the fourth day out.

In the evening, after our delectable meal in the Toscana, we enjoyed the 

Boogie Nights show that included a very funny comedian named Tom 

Drake. Our theory that we will sleep better if we stay up for at least two 

hours after a big meal has yet to be proven.  We'll test that theory again 

in the next few nights.

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Today is Wednesday, August 17th and we are bound for Hoonah. If we 

want to go to shore we'll need to take a tender to get there. None of us 

is enthused even though the sun is shining.

At breakfast today we sat with Terry and Barbara, a retired school 

administrator and a teacher who have traveled on thirty cruise tours. We 

learned a lot. Harry said that he missed conversing with other passengers 

on this cruise. We think that fewer long conversations with other passengers 

happen when you travel as a trio rather than as a couple, probably because 

many tables accommodate just four people. We happened to be at a table for 

six today.

Harry has gone for another walk around the ship's outer spaces 

and Mum and I have migrated to the Horizon Room that is full of people 

with their cameras and binoculars. Here's the rule…if you see people 

jumping up and going closer to the windows, you do the same. I saw the 

whale that way but didn't get Mum's chair to the window quickly enough 

for her to see them this time.

Right now we appear to be playing "chicken" with two fishing boats in the 

strait. The bridge has sounded the horns twice. Too close. Our ship tried to 

manoeuver around the two fishing boats and ending up heading close to 

shore. Now they have dropped anchor about a hundred yards from an 

unoccupied shore. Harry tells us that they are dropping the tenders so as

to transport those who want to go ashore at Hoonah, around the corner.

Just heard this .."Code Mike" "Code Mike on Deck 9" .. I'm going to ask
what it means when they announce that on the speaker system. Within half
a minute, everything is seemingly back to normal. Just asked  about "Code Mike"
It's a call for medical help.  When Harry rejoined us, I told him that he should
come right back to us if that alarm is called because we don't want to worry
about him.