Alaskan cruise - day 4 — Captain Father John

Icy Straight Point is the creation of the cruise line. They needed a place for a stop over between Ketchikan and Juneau. We found out that the locals affectionately refer to Ketchikan as “catch a chicken.” Icy Straight Point boasts the longest Zip Line in the world. It is a 45 minute drive to the top and a 90 second ride down. We are anchored out and must take the life boats into the dock. We are about one boat length (980′) from the dock. Two whales were sighted off the starboard side of the ship this morning.

Kayaking is available in the harbor. We watched two groups of 10 kayaks head out for a three hour tour. 30 minutes later we saw one hapless kayaker being towed back in by a RIB. Alison and I will go for the kayak tour today at 1:30 pm.

A highlight of the visit to Icy Straight Point was the crabby Bloody Mary. JP treated me to one. It is a Bloody Mary made with a snow crab leg, snow crab meat, jumbo shrimp, olive, lime wedge, celery stalk and sea asparagus. It is a delicious meal in a cup.

This area used to be a salmon cannery. The museum features many of the machines used in the canning process. It is amazing to see the early 20th century machinery that could prices 1,000’s of salmon each day. The cruise line leases the land from the local Indian tribe to create a cruise ship tourist Mecca.

The Samba restaurant (Brazilian style) called me and asked if we could come earlier than our 9:00 pm reservation. We had planned to see the Piano Man (Billy Joel tribute) broadway type show at 7:00 pm and then punish our unlimited drink package cards in the Schooner bar, so we said no, we will be there at 9:00 pm. We had very attentive service as the only other table with patrons.

The 1:30 pm Kayaking tour is the advanced kayaking tour and is four hours long. We had a group of six millennials and me. I was 30 years older than the next youngest kayaker. Yes, I was grateful for the shore stop after two hours. I suspect I will feel it tomorrow morning. It was a wonderful way to get close to nature. We saw a bald eagle only few feet away, a porpoise and lots of salmon jumping all around us.

We are headed to Juneau where we have a whale watch cruise and a helicopter ride to the Juneau glacier scheduled.

A Crabby Bloody Mary

A four hour kayak tour. Really?

Welcome to “catch a chicken.”