We were tourists to the max while Chris and Virginia were here. Here are some of the things we did: (All photos credit Virginia)
Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. Guys throwing axes, chopping wood, sawing logs, climbing poles and log walking - what else could you want? Actually, it was pretty fun and they did a good job entertaining us.
SEAMAX Alaska 4DX Theater. This would have been OK at ¼ the price. The gig is that the seats move around, squirt you in the face, blow bubbles (snow), etc. while showing a lame movie about sites in Alaska. Dave found the lack of synchronization between the seats moving and the movie to be disturbing. There was only one other small group in the theater with us. I wish the theater luck but doubt they will make it.
Hump Island Oyster Company. This will be repeated. They picked us up “downtown” and took us to their dock. Then a boat took us out to the island where there is a floating oyster farm. They have a nice bar to sit down, have a glass of wine and eat your oysters. The water is too cold here for the oysters to reproduce so they buy tiny baby oysters from Hawaii and encourage them to grow. After about 4 years, they are ready for harvest. They are super good - nice size, mellow taste, good texture. Yum.
Fourth of July Parade. Cute, small town parade. Afterwards was the duck race. They dump hundreds (thousands?) of rubber duckies into the river with numbers/names on the bottom. The winners got something (don’t remember). There were still some stragglers stranded on the rocks days later. We bought ten ducks but they turned out to be lame.
Alaska Crab Tour. A three hour tour on a real Bering Sea crab boat. The boat, nicked named the boat that refused to sink, has quite a history. The ultimate story was caught on "Deadliest Catch" where she was slammed by a rouge wave and knocked over on her side. They did a great job converting the boat into a comfortable tour boat. They take you out and show you how they crabbed, fished, etc. Along the way we got to see various sea creatures and lots of eagles. It was a lot of fun.
Creek Street Cabaret. Turns out that Sunday is open-mic night. A couple of the people were really good. A couple were not. All in all, it was totally worth the 5-dollar cover charge.
Chris and Virginia departed Monday. We decided to stay a few more days because it is pouring down rain (2.6 inches since we got here) and windy out there. So, Dave extended the moorage until Friday. The plan is to head out for a couple of days in Misty Fjord before Kelly comes up from California. Maybe he will bring some sunshine.