Ride the Big White Bus-Ferry

The ferries in Alaska are like buses -stopping at each coastal port. Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the US combined, and more than 50% of its coastal cities are "water bound"-only reachable by boats. As a result, everyone rides them; you can see an entire soccor or baseball team on board-riding to the next town for a game.
The have a cafeteria, a lounge, and a bar. The barmaid's name was Shirley and I knew she would be fun as soon as I read her name tag- "Shirley You Jest". I called her "Miss Jest"!
As for sleeping you have a few choices: you could rent a small stateroom (cabin), or sleep anywhere-top deck, lounge floor, etc. It looked like refugees going to Ellis Island. It was summer camp all over again. (Guess where we slept)