An engraved wall at the base of the hill seemed providential: "No such thing as can't". Honestly, it was the steepest city street I'd ever walked up. And given where we live, that's saying something. And what's shocking is that it is in a location that gets snow. There were gates at the top and bottom to close it when required.
The interesting thing about Ketchikan is that it's about 10 miles long and 100 yards wide. It's tucked in the little space between the water and the first row of mountains. Every so often a road crosses the mountains to the other side, and this is one of those roads.
Also interesting: the airport (it's an international airport, as it once received a flight from Canada) is on an island across from the town. A ferry is required to get there. This is where the infamous Bridge to Nowhere was supposed to be built. Oh, and they don't much like Sarah Palin around here. I like this town!
So, anyway, back to me, standing at the top of that hill catching my breath...we started back down, which is always tougher than walking up. All that hardware in my foot makes itself known when I'm stepping down hard on my forefoot with each step. Still, the view, which was the incentive for making the climb, was well worth it.
We arrived back at the ship at about 1:25pm...and so did everyone else. With such beautiful weather, everyone waited until the last minute to re-board. We had a seat on a log nearby...this was going to take awhile.
It was 1:50pm before we actually boarded, and we weren't the very last. We immediately headed up to our cabin to watch sailaway from our balcony. It was so fun to watch floatplane after floatplane take off and land right next to our ship. Since we are on Deck 12, we were at eye level with the planes, and they were so close that we could see the pilots in the cockpits.
We watched the scenery for quite while. The on board naturalist was narrating from the bridge, and we could hear him on our cabin TV. The land was close on both sides.
Eventually, it opened up a bit, and we went up to the Lido Deck to enjoy the fish BBQ that was taking place on the open deck. Delicious, and the views were amazing. What fun!
