Ketchikan, Alaska

The Celebrity Century has landed in Ketchikan, Alaska and I am sitting in Fat Stan’s, a local watering hole.

Best story of the trip so far; a guy on our cruise ship figured out that arriving via ship you are “marked” as a big spender and all the shore excursions are significantly more expensive when booked from the ship.

This guy I’ve been hanging out with on the ship figures out that if he called ahead from Juneau to Ketchikan he could book a fishing trip and cut the cruise ship out of the money.

So he gets a phone number for a fishing charter, Baranof Fishing Charters,

in Ketchikan. Before we leave Juneau my buddy dials up the folks at Baranofs to book his fishing tour. The guy who answers the phone asks what day are you coming into town.

My buddy says, “Friday, August 31st.”

Baranofs gets a bit suspicious and asks “How are you arriving?”

Buddy says, “I’m going to be driving into town.”

Baranofs, “Do you mind if a reporter from our local paper meets you when you get here?”

Buddy, “Why’s that?”

Baranofs, “Well, we’re on an island here in Ketchikan and we are pretty keen on learning about how you drove into Ketchikan.”