Juneau to Ketchikan, July 23- July 28: The Express Route

Just Before Entering Petersburg

It took us 56 days to travel from Ketchikan to Juneau and now we are racing back to Ketchikan in six days along now familiar routes.  This time, the weather is beautiful and sunny – of course I warned Chris of the cold, rainy weather and made them all buy rain gear and boots – none of which they have yet worn.  The girls are in the capris I told them not to pack.

The adventures just keep piling up.  In Petersburg we took a halibut fishing charter with Captain Danny in Frederick Sound.  Captain Danny knows the fishing business and no sooner had we anchored than Matthew caught a 20 pound halibut.  And then another halibut, and then a third halibut.  I caught the second fish of the day and, ok, the largest – a fifty pounder - and Brian caught a 40 pounder.  Emily, no slouch herself, brought in a big codfish that she reeled in by herself, in fact all of us reeled in our own  fish -  from over 300 feet of water.  Yeah!

This would have made for a perfect day without the added bonus of whale sightings.  We stopped right next to a mama humpback whale teaching her baby the intricacies of breaching.  First, leap all the way up and out of the water, pirouette, and then aim straight down with your tail doing a beautiful wave before diving completely under.  Now you try it.  And the baby did, first breaching a little but after repeated examples from mama, oh, say about 20 breaching demonstrations right in front of us, baby got the hang of it.  We stayed about 45 minutes watching this unbelievable, moving wildlife show.  All of us were in complete awe.  Right at the end, mama surfaced just behind our cockpit where we were standing, scaring all of us.  And for the end of the day, we saw the fin of a shark swim by – right after I told the kids there are no sharks in Alaska.  Danny said a sighting like this is highly unusual.    I should say.

In Wrangell, the kids got picked up on a fast boat by Mark who took them to Anan Bear Preserve, the must do activity in SE Alaska.  It is on state land, an island, and you are led by armed guides to a viewing spot where the bears amble all around you.  There is a stream and in July the salmon run and the bears congregate there to catch and eat the fish.  Grizzlies are mainly interested in the brains and row, black bears like to dine on the entire fish.  Eagles like the leftovers.  Jim and I could not get passes but were happy the kids got to witness another part of Alaska’s great nature. They reported that the  bears are smelly.

In Meyers Chuck – population 20, we finally met up with the fabled post mistress of cinnamon bun fame – call her and she makes them fresh.  We ordered our six buns and she delivered the next morning at 7 AM, warm and aromatic.  What service.  If all postal employees delivered fresh cinnamon rolls to their customers, I think we could bring an end to their cash bleed and it would surely enhance customer appreciation.  Since Jim told her about my quest for the perfect cinnamon roll, she decided to put in a secret ingredient that she only disclosed to Jim and Matthew  to see if we could guess it.  She uses this ingredient when she wants to ramp up the experience.  Her secret is safe with me, Brian and I both guessed it and loved it.  Perfect rolls, with or without that extra zip.

In Ketchikan, the rain caught up with us and everyone got to wear their rain gear – I was secretly gratified by this turn.  Chris told me she thought a few of our days had been gloomy yet I believed them to be sunny.  As the week wore on, we had one day that was cloudy, kind of, but I considered it sunny because it wasn’t low clouds, dark and rainy.  Chris said that by the end of the week she got that.  And I got the words of wisdom given to us at the start of our trip – “a sunny day is a light drizzle.”  Yes, yes it is.  But when we put the kids back on the plane it wasn’t a sunny day – just another rainy Ketchikan day.  Perfect to go with our sad mood at seeing the kids leave.