From Vancouver to Ketchikan:

Our flight left Dulles on Friday, May 12th at 7:25 AM EDT for San Francisco. We boarded the plane in San Francisco at 1:22 PM PDT and landed in Vancouver about 2.5 hours later. Cindi smartly booked us to arrive a day early and we stayed that night at the Fairmont Hotel which is conveniently part of the Vancouver Airport terminal. Saturday, May 13th, we got into a seemingly endless and meandering line with the other 3,300 passengers and proceeded through Customs again. We joined the last queue for a coach before finally boarding the ship and dumping our back packs on the bed of the Marina 243 Stateroom, Deck 15, Starboard side with a balcony. The temperatures were in the 70’s with clear blue skies as the Majestic left port at around 4:30 PM. Afterwards, we acquainted ourselves with the ship, grabbed our personalized Princess Neck Medalions and proceeded to the nearest bar for a refreshing beverage. Sunday, May 14th, was a day at sea and we caught our first glimpses of humpback whales surfacing and blowing. We also spotted a pod of Orcas and rafts of Steller Seals sunning themselves on bouys as we headed North to Ketchikan. The ship arrived in Ketchikan at 6:30 AM on Monday. We walked the streets of “Alaska’s first City”, visited a Ketchikan Museum and attended the highly proclaimed Lumberjack Show. What can I say – It was really corny but still a must see. The Majestic left port at 3:00 PM for our next stop in Juneau.

Photographic Note: All photos were taken using an iPhone SE 1st Generation, iPhone SE 2nd Generation and a compact Canon PowerShot G9, 12MP, f/2.8 (W) – f/4.8 (T) with an effective focal length of 35mm – 210mm. Yearnings for a current DSLR fitted with faster chips, a wide to 400mm+ lens, image stabilization and UV filters entered my thoughts as captured frames along the way. I struggled for a scant space along ship deck rails, shooting through glass windows and between the heads of the crowds in front of me. I hope you find the pics pleasing or informative at the very least.