Our Trip and Reunion - Part 2 (Ketchikan)

After working all day on Thursday, packing, doing laundry, getting on the ferry at 12:30am on Friday, sleeping for a few hours on the floor of the ferry, travelling in sunshine then clouds then high winds and white caps and arriving in Ketchikan two hours late, and after getting settled into the hostel I slept VERY well.  It had been a tiring time and I was wiped out.

I woke up around 8am on Saturday, looked out of the window and it was a grey day with very heavy rain.  I did not care.  My Mountain Boy was well on the way now and would be arriving in Ketchikan in less than 24 hours.  And I was in a new town in Alaska, eager and excited to check the whole place out.

After trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with LC, I left the hostel at 9am and walked out into the rain, with only minimal ideas as to how I was going to spend my day.  The plan - if you want to call it that - was to just wander. 

I walked out into the rain and knew that I was going to get very cold and very wet.  Again, it was OK.  I didn't care.  I walked down towards the water and after ducking under an overhang (there are many of them in this very wet town) I snapped the Welcome to Ketchikan sign above.

I crossed the road, ducked under another overhange and took a few more pictures close to the channel.  It was raining so hard that I wondered how many pictures I was actually going to be able to take that day before getting water inside my camera and totally messing it up.

My first impressions of Ketchikan - wet, windy, nice fishing and tourist town, and little more run down that Juneau......I liked it. 

After walking in the rain for about an hour I was very wet and saw the Discovery Museum across the road from where I was standing.  On the spur of the moment I decided that visiting a museum, and drying out a bit were both good ways to spend the next while.

I walked into the museum and since the impending cruise ship was not scheduled to arrive until later that morning, I literally and surprisinigly had the entire museum to myself.  Cool.

I took my time, enjoyed the museum, learned a lot, and dried out.  All in all, a pretty decent way to spend about 90 minutes.

I took a bunch of pictures.  And even though I was the only person, they played a 10 minute movie on Alaskan wild-life for me.  I was the only person in a movie theater that probably held about 100 people.  Again cool :-)

The outside of the museum....

I smiled when I walked out of the museum, because even though it was still very overcast, the rain had stopped.  Even though I had no idea how long it would stay dry, I took the break in the weather as the unexpected gift that it was.

While standing outside the museum I called a lady I had spoken to a couple of times on a message board, who lives in Ketchikan, and we agreed to meet and have coffee.

She is an inspiring woman - serious health issues in the past and continuing challenges today.  And yet she faces those things head-on, for which I have so much respect.  She has worked in the past as a cook in mining camps and logging camps and aboard commercial fishing vessels - at times being the only woman among a sea of rough-house men.  I liked her very very much, and was so pleased to have had a chance to meet this unassuming and remarkable lady.

Pictures taken of the boat harbor - I am inevitably drawn to boat harbors regardless of where I travel. 

My walk along the boardwalk eventually and inevitably took me to the cruiseship district. 

As with Juneau, there are swarms of cruiseship owned stores selling Ketchikan-labelled t-shirts and coffee mugs in this same area, as well as hawkers of trips to points of interest around the city.

Buses decked out for the cruiseship tourists....

And one of those typical fun touristy characters that are designed to draw tourists into specific shops.  Here was a miner - over there was a giant stuffed bear - over there was a giant stuffed moose..........all tacky and over-the-top and fun.

And as with Juneau, these cruiseships dominate the landscape when they are in.  This ship was a city block or more in length.  But it was also the only ship scheduled to be in port on Saturday. Later in the week there were three ships scheduled, meaning 7000 or more tourists decending on this small town at one time.

A very beautiful small park in the center of town.....

And one of many many totem poles found throughout town......

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is.  BLUE SKY!  Completely unexpected, and even though it only lasted for a couple of hours, it was completely welcome.  Again and again, cool!

A totem pole in someone's front yard.

From the tourist map I had with me, I found a totem pole museum.  But after walking up the hill, turning left and walking up another hill to get to it, I decided that I was not really that interested (after having spent so long in a museum already that morning) in walking into another one.  So I blew it off.....and instead walked to a city park adjacent to the museum.

It was, after all, sunny at that point and I did not want to be inside at that moment.  City park easily won that battle.....

The outside of the totem pole museum

Walking in a beautiful, sunny park was exactly what I needed at that moment.  It contained an eagle sanctuary, a fast flowing river and fish hatchery, a beautiful creek and water fountain, a Vietnam Veterans memorial and lots of beautiful flowers.......

Eventually heading back towards town I stopped at a Salvation Army store just 'cause.  Then took a picture of this interesting place - a red light district back in the mining era turned interesting and unique shopping district present day.......

Sunshine still holding on precariously....

I walked into the city library slash museum, spent a few minutes reading both the local paper and the Juneau Empire, then walked into the museum.

It was a small, but very interesting place, filled with artifacts and information specific to the history of Ketchikan.

 

 

 

Still wandering, having a great day, but starting to get a bit tired.

 

I love this carving.  One of my favorite things that I saw in town, in a town of seeing lots of really really terrific things.....and other sights close again to the water.

 

After eating a footlong sub from Subway (yes, the whole thing....), I tiredly and contentedly walked back to the hostel at about 5pm.  I had a great day playing tourist.  And although Ketchikan is understandably notorious for rain, I thought it was a wonderful town with enough special things about it to hold a girls' interest for an entire day.

At the hostel I watched a movie with a girl from Austria who was also staying for the night (we were the only two residents that night), and crashed exhausted around 11pm. 

I set the alarm for 6am on Sunday, knowing that LC's ferry, the Columbia was scheduled to arrive in Ketchikan at 7am.......