Ketchikan – Our First Stop in Alaska

 We sailed into Ketchikan under drizzly skies.  Later we found out why.  This is one of the rainiest cities in Alaska.  The legend tells of a man who married a bear, had 3 bear cubs with her and later saw and talked to his former (human) wife after promising his bear wife that he would never see or talk to the human wife again.  The bear wife was a bit upset and the two of them, bear wife and man husband got into an argument and started arguing.  It came to blows.  The 3 bear cubs, now fully grown came upon the scene and killed their man father.  The female bear wife was so distraught that she climbed to the top of the mountain over Ketchikan and, staying there, cries a lot.  This is the rain that falls on Ketchikan.  Today she was not so sad.  We had some blue skies.

Our 2 tours today both had to do with “Totem Poles,” or just “totems” as the Tlinget people prefer.  The first took us to a park with dozens of totems, both large and small.  Unfortunately, I am still unable to transfer pictures from either my phone or my camera.  I am going to see the resident ´specialist” tomorrow for some help.

The second tour took us to the Saxman Totem Park where we heard the stories behind some of the more famous totems.

There are several types of totems.  Some are identity totems.  They are used to identify the tribe living in a village.  For instance, if the tribe is the Eagle Beaver Clan, the top of the pole would have a representation of an eagle.  The bottom of the pole would have a representation of a beaver.  In between would be representations of important events or people in the village.  These totems would be place where they could be seen from the river or other body of water.

Other totems were to honor a person or event.  Still others were to shame a person.  More about these later.

One of the major social events in their lives was a “potlach.”  If two tribes were not getting along, or if relations were uncertain, then a tribe would send a message inviting the other tribe to a potlach.  The other tribe would then come to visit for a few days.  This is why the river-side totems were so important.  The visitors would see the totem and know that they were at the right place.  The visitors were greeted with dancing to the beat of a drum, given food and lodging for 2 or 3 days and given gifts of all sorts.  At the end of the potlach, they would be sent home with more food and gifts.  In return, they were required to invite the original tribe to their village within 2 to 3 months for a similar party or Potlach.  If they did, there was peace between the tribes.  If not, there might be war.

One “Potlach” story involves the purchase of Alaska from Russia.  Seward came to Alaska and was welcomed by at least 4 different tribes to be entertained and honored at potlaches.  He was fed, boarded and given extensive gifts.  Therefore, he should have invited those tribe to his home and treated them as he had been treated.  He did no such thing.  He simply packed up and went home.  This was a major insult, so the Tlinget village carved a “Shame” totem.  The top has an image of Seward sitting on a large box representing all the gifts he accepted.  The rest of the pole is blank.  Seward is wearing a potlach hat which looks like a large upside-down funnel.  It has 4 stripes, indicating that he had attended 4 potlaches.  Some of Sewards descendants visited the Saxman village and asked what they could do the “redeem” their ancestor.  They were told that they would have to pay the villages for the value of gifts given to Seward, which would amount to at least a couple million dollars.  The relatives decided to leave Sewward on top of the Shame totem.

North to Alaska!

We have started our next adventure, a Viking cruise from Vancouver to Hong Kong, by way of Alaska, Japan, and, hopefully, Taiwan.

It was not the best of starts.  Darrell set an alarm for 4:28 since we were being picked up at 5:15.  He woke up at 4:40.  The alarm was set for PM, not AM.  We had to scurry, but I had the bags (3 suitcases, 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and my purse) downstairs in the garage by 5:08, to find our ride already waiting for us.

The flights to Houston and Vancouver were uneventful, except that the “gangway” from the plane to the terminal in Houston was at least 3 blocks long, all at a 45-degree angle uphill (or at least that is how it seemed to me.)

We boarded a bus in Vancouver for a long ride to the dock area.  Vancouver has certainly changed since we were last there.  The first part of the ride was through residential areas.  At least I think there were houses behind all those hedges.  Many of the hedges were some kinds of evergreens, planted about 2 feet apart so they made a continuous solid “fence” about 10 feet tall.  Others had various kinds of shrubs, planted closely and trimmed with a flat side facing the street, also about 10 feet tall.  It was a six-lane highway through a green valley.

When we approached the commercial area, the buildings started getting taller.  For the last 20-30 minutes of the drive, we were surrounded by buildings of 20 to 40 stories.  Many looked like residential buildings with odd shapes and balconies on all the units.  None were straight rectangular buildings.  It was an architect’s dream-land.

Check in went smoothly.  Then began the long wait.  Vancouver is a very busy tourist port, but it only has 3 piers for cruise ships.  Use of these piers is based on seniority.  The cruise lines which have been sailing from Vancouver the longest get first priority for docking.  Some of these lines have been around for many years.  Viking Ocean Cruises began in 2015, and did not immediately sail out of Vancouver, so we had to wait for 3 very large cruise ships to load their thousands of passengers and all that was needed before our ship, the Viking Orion could dock.  It had been waiting, probably not patiently, out in the bay.  We had a holding room in a hotel across from the pier where we had access to a “snack.”  They had 2 lines of food and round tables for us to sit while we waited for over 4 hours.  The food was good but a bit unusual.  They served pickled zucchini, pickled eggplant, pickled cauliflower, the usual crudities, fruit plates, wedges of naan, cookies and 2 kinds of muffins.  At the end, after the cookies, were some kind of sandwiches, about 3 inches thick.  Coffee was at separate tables.  The room held round tables seating about 500 people.  Since there were over 600 passengers, some of the people sat in chairs out in the lobby.

At check-in, we were given a number (11) which told us our group boarding number.  I do not know how many groups there were.  When they finally started calling group 1, a cheer went up.

Now we could get onto the ship! (or at least after the first 10 groups.)  Finally, they called number 11. We walked across the street only to be led down the pier. Now it was time for another line snaking back and forth to get to the “customs” machine.  Did I mention that we had gone through the machines before?  You enter your passport and press down on it in the machine.  It did not work.  Try again.  Still no luck.  The official came over and tried.  No go.  She tried again, this time leaning down on the passport.  It worked!  A few more questions from the machine and it spit out a paper.  Now it was Darrell’s turn, with the same results (also after a few tries.) We walked across the room and gave the papers to an official. 

Next, we came to a room with row after row of chairs.  This was our home for another half hour.   We were dismissed, one row at a time to walk down toward the waiting ship. Our guide led us down the long pier to an escalator.  Our guide saw that the escalator might be difficult with backpacks, carry-ons and, in Darrell’s case, a cane, so she offered to have us use an elevator.  OK, we now walked halfway back the pier to the elevator, went down 1 level and walked halfway back the pier to the structure that had been erected to bridge the space between the pier and the ship.

Boarding the ship went smoothly.  Scan your room card, be greeted with a glass of champaign or punch, and look for your room.  One of our 3 suitcases was there.  By now, we were well past our 6:00 reservation for the Chef’s Table.  We went down anyway and had a delicious California Cuisine meal. 

Our last bag arrived in our room after we got back from dinner.  We were both a bit tired and went to bed!