Ketchikan Blueberry Festival, etc.

This weekend is the Blueberry Arts Festival here in Ketchikan. After taking the shuttle downtown and spending some time at the Visitors’ Center getting information, we walked up to Main Street to check out the festival. There were lots of food booths and vendors of handcrafted items, mostly jewelry. The lineup was too long for the blueberry crepes, but we did try the beef teriyaki shish-kabob and the fry-bread.

The crowds were a little much so we followed the walking tour map to explore the neighbourhood and find our way down to the Ketchikan creek. The streets are literally carved out of the mountain and the house construction must have been really challenging.

We watched the salmon swimming up the creek, then took the “Married Man’s Trail” to historic Creek Street.

Creek Street was the red light district with the path being the discreet way to access the area. Despite its colourful history, the path was really pretty through trees and along the creek which had significant falls in sections and a fish ladder to help the salmon travel upstream. We were able to see the salmon in the water.

At Creek Street, where the path ended, the old houses have been turned into shops and restaurants and museums.

There is a funicular going up from this level to the Cape Fox Lodge, up the mountain. We took it up and enjoyed a delicious lunch in their dining room overlooking the town. We both had crab and shrimp melts.

Finding out that the funicular was out of order and that we would have to walk down was an unpleasant surprise when we were done eating, though. But, walk we did and finished strolling the length of Creek St. once we got to the bottom.

We weren’t far from the new Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, so popped in there for a look around. This federal interpretive center spotlights the 17 million acre Tongass National Forest.

We had one more unpleasant surprise waiting for the shuttle back to the Walmart which didn’t come. After waiting about 40 minutes, we walked a few blocks over and took the city bus. Should have done that sooner. They seem to have quite running the shuttle early today because the town was pretty quiet. There were only two smaller cruise ships in port today with a little over 1,000 people. Tomorrow will be a much bigger day with five ships and over 10,000 people!

We plan to do some more sightseeing downtown tomorrow so will bus back in again in the morning.