KETCHIKAN ALASKA AND HOMEWARD BOUND

We had a relaxing day in Ketchikan.  Our game plan was to go with Gretchen and Joe in search of FEDX to send all our purchases home via mail instead of paying for the extra weight.  We were packed and ready to disembark for 9:30.  Terri and Charlie came along to help carry everything. 

Carlos and I put our stuff in a suitcase and he was rolling it off.  I had one of Gretchen's bags and the rest of theirs was spread out between Joe (with suitcase), Gretchen, Terri and Charlie.  I exited the ship first.  No one said boo to me; security let me go.  Then I waited and waited dockside and no one showed.  Finally Terri came to the gangway to say I had to come back on board "they were not letting me disembark with packages".  Funny, no one told security that!!!  So back up the gangway I went to find Carlos and Joe in a heated "discussion" at the passenger services desk - since we did not get clearance from U.S. customs, we could not take our packages off to mail!!  Of course, Carlos argued the point, but he would not win this one.  So we took everything back to our cabins - now we were in search of a luggage store!!  Our first stop we both found suitcases that worked for us.  Now to take the new suitcase back to the ship; afterall, we did not want to lug them all over town.  By now we all were hungry and very thirsty - thirsty for something stronger than water.  We came to find out, most places are smoking.  We finally found a little pub (O'Brian's) that was non-smoking.  We had a nice lunch of fish and chips and regrouped for.....more shopping in the afternoon.  Now that we had suitcases, we had more room, right?

Unfortunately for me, my memory card was erased.  I have no idea how this happened.  But I am grateful it was not one of the days when I shot over 500 photos.  But I did lose my last 2 days on board and a lot of group shots that we tried to get.  Hopefully they can be recreated along the way.

Our last sea day, we had a farewell luncheon with a group from cruise critic.  Joyce, Tom, Rita, Gary, Terri, Charlie, Brian, Heather, Meredith, Tom, Carlos and I and of course, Joe and Gretchen.  We really need to get them in the loop - they found it is a good group of friends who travel over and over again. 

Carlos did get a few shots of this with his camera. 

the group



Heather and Brian, the sane ones!!

 Disembarkation in Vancouver was easy.  We were on one of the 2 buses going to Seattle for flights.  The buses were "sealed" at the dock and we did not have to do an intense border crossing into the U.S.  After a short wait (about 30 mins) an officer came on board, looked at the passports and cleared the bus to continue to SEATAC.  We got to Seattle in the early afternoon.  I had a high fever, so we changed our reservations from a downtown hotel to an airport one.  That way the bus driver would drive us right to the hotel and it would not be that tiring for me.  I have spent the last 48 hours coughing.  Apparently a lot of this was going around;  at least that is what the on board doc told me.  Hopefully I will be back to normal by the flight on Monday.