The Ocean Blue

A lot of the travels I did with my mother was on board cruise ships. In 1994, I think my mom tried to get my sister and I to start communicating by taking us on a cruise. It was the three of us, on a ship from Vancouver through to Anchorage and then a train thru Alaska to Fairbanks.
(This was one of the larger cruise lines, not the 3-day jobbies. Fifteen hundred passengers.)

Now, I am not a gambler, cannot stand Broadway styled shows, not one for movies, and after the novelty wore off, was not inclined toward eating 24/7. As one can imagine, I got bored pretty quickly at night. I ended up finding a place where I could watch the water as the ship plowed through it but stay warm ( a vent that was attached to something inside the ship, putting off warm air.) I would put on my music in the headphones and sing or write. I got told I was actually overheard many times, a voice drifting through the wind as we charged up the Inner Passage. I kept my voice down after that.....

Alaska wasn't my first choice of places to go to. We had talked of Ireland, and as I am very attached the British Isles, it was my preferred choice. We ended up in Alaska though, something I grew to appreciate more each day. The first time I was on deck and saw a whale surface to breathe out in the open water, I was hooked. I have always loved the ocean, but this was a new perspective. Stopping in a lot of places I have been to , especially aboard ships has proven boring to me. I really don't shop, and one can only see so many churches before it gets really old. NO ONE is that devout. Luckily, in Alaska, there aren't a whole lot of those sort of things to see. We did end up in one small wooden Russian Orthodox church, at my sister's request. I think she was a little disappointed at its distinct lack of grandeur. That is Alaska for you. That show "Northern Exposure" was actually pretty close to the truth about the smaller towns.

I have a little attachment to Ketchikan actually. My mom's grandmother, her second husband, and two of my grandmother's sisters lived in Ketchikan in the late 1930's. I have pictures of the town then, from the docks looking up to their house, and at the house looking into the town. It wasn't nearly the semi-bustling minitropolis it is now. And don't visit if you have trouble climbing stairs; half the "streets" are in fact long stairways leading up the steep sides of the hills that make up much of Ketchikan.

Two little stories about the town and then I will let you go for this time:

First, the name is Tlingit (pronounced cling-et) and means "the screaming wings of an eagle."

Second, this place should offer some solace to Bill Clinton. My step-granddad was a captain for the US Geodedic Survey, commanding one of the ships in the area. He brought the then president of the U.S. into the town of Ketchikan, Mrs. President also along for the ride. The President of the United States, despite having his wife in the same town, on the same SHIP with him, got off board, and went straight to the reknowned whore house district. This is a point of extreme pride on the part of Ketchikaians (?!). They will regale any who ask with that tale as often as they can. I know who brought the ((@!?<>&@!! into port and even have a photo of the ship. You see? Clinton wasn't a bad guy, just a normal president!
Incidently, you can even see the exact house this slob went to. The whole red light district is now a well-known tourist attraction. And tourist trap too!