The day begins with somewhat less cloud, no rain, and almost…warm. This was one cruise day we had nothing planned (the other will be Victoria). It was also our shortest in-port day so a walk-about town seemed the most feasible.
With no real push to get off the boat, we got up late(er) and went up with mother to the buffet for breakfast. Nourishment taken care of, once more she decided not to join us for the daily excursion, so off we went.
As towns go, out of two we had just visited, this was the nicest. Walking around the middle of town revealed many of the same cruise-line controlled jewelry/trinket stores as any other port o’ call. However, just slightly off the ‘main drag’, the real selection of stores came into view.
Easily the most impressive was one that specialized in marble carvings. Do I remember the name? Nope…didn’t get a business card and weren’t allowed to take pictures. The reality was there was nothing that met more than two out of three of our requirements. The piece had to be 1) appealing to our eyes and tastes, 2) affordable and 3) easily transported by one person (other than Clark Kent).
What set this store apart from almost all other similar establishments, was the displays. There wasn’t one piece that had fifteen duplicates sitting right beside it on shelves all over the store. All of the pieces were carved from singular chunks of marble (and they had about twelve different types). Some were partial carvings (looked like the animal, bird, sea life was just coming right out of the marble). Others were complete with just a base still attached. Most expensive was $24,000 and probably needed a crane for final delivery. To say nothing of a complete front door remodel.
Not that I have a burnin’ yearnin’ to move to and live in Alaska, but it seemed a good idea just to take a look a real estate prices. Yeah…looking is more than sufficient.
A few more photos and back to the ship – we depart at noon. We dock in Victoria tomorrow at 7 PM.