PORT ANGELES — If you stood in the right place and squinted just a bit Wednesday, you could have pretended Port Angeles Harbor was the mighty Mississippi.
The twin-stacked sternwheeler Empress of the North made its semi-annual visit to the port, disembarking passengers to shop in downtown Port Angeles before continuing its 12-night voyage from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska.
On its current trip, the ship left Seattle on Monday, called at Anacortes on Tuesday, and departed Port Angeles on Wednesday evening.
The ship will cruise rivers and the Inside Passage until it calls at Misty Fjord at Ketchikan, Alaska, on Saturday.
The 360-foot-long cruise ship will sail on seven-night trips out of Juneau beginning May 10.
The ship will return to Port Angeles in September on its way back to Seattle.
Then it will winter in Portland, from which it will cruise the Columbia and Willamette rivers.
Russ Veenema, executive director of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, said that cruise ships stop into Port Angeles once or twice a year.
He had not heard about the Empress of the North‘s visit, but said, “In the past, we have seen that people are very well received, and have a good time in town.”
