When we woke up it was still raining here in Prince Rupert, so we decided to have a drive around the town, as opposed to a walk down the main street, which was only one block away from the hotel.
The view of Prince Rupert from our hotel window.
Prince Rupert main street.
We had a couple of hours after breakfast to spare before we needed to check-in at Alaska Ferries, so we drove first to see the railway museum which turned out to be a tiny converted railway station, not what Bob, the railway expert, was hoping for. We then drove to the civic centre and saw these three magnificent totem poles.
We were quite surprised at the size of the town, which has a population of about 15,000. It was quite a contrast to Port Hardy, both in size and economic prosperity.
The attractive side of Prince Rupert.
Next we went to the court house
Behind it were these very pretty sunken gardens with very colourful flower beds.
We then drove down to the dock where we saw the seaplanes.
Finally we went to see some rapids on a nearby river., which were very shallow and unspectacular.
We drove back to the hotel and on the way passed the City hall a rather interesting bulding with Native American decorations.
We returned to the hotel and checked out and drove down to the terminal. We had to check in three hours before the ferry sailed. We waited in the car in the pouring rain and then about 30 minutes before sailing time, the border opened and we entered the USA. It was all very easy and we had no problems clearing US immigration, although they were interested in our travels and asked us if we did this for a job!
We loaded on to the ferry and then at 3.15pm we pulled away from the dock. We now have a journey of nearly two days to get to Skagway. We are going via several small towns: Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Kake and Sitka before we get to Juneau on Tuesday morning. At each stop we have a chance to go ashore.
Shortly after leaving Prince Rupert we passed this lighthouse with the mountains behind it.
We approached Ketchikan in the early evening and prepared to go ashore to see the town. Unfortunately as we disembarked the heavens opened and we ran for shelter in the terminal. It was our first time on Alaskan soil. The weather did not let up at all, so we decided to abandon our tour of the town and headed back for the ship. Let’s hope the next time we are ashore we see a bit more of Alaska than a ferry terminal!
The adventure continues and as I type this there are shouts from some of the passengers that more whales have been sighted!
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