The Joneses Go Cruising, Part 2: Ketchikan

Our room on the ship was very nice. When we went to the Bahamas last year, our room was so small we had to crawl over the bed to get to the other side of the room.  This space was big enough we could both walk around the bed at the same time.

Our first port of call was in Ketchikan. Many of the towns are old mining/fishing/logging villages that are now tourist traps attractions.  Ketchikan is a perfect example.

Stan posing by the statue representing all of the reasons Ketchikan exists.

All of the towns on our cruise were  full of little shops that sell key chains, fridge magnets, t-shirts, and stuffed animals that you just can't live without. After visiting 2 or 3 of them, Stan and I decided we had our fill of souvenir shopping. We decided to explore the real Alaska.

I've always pictured Alaska to be a more extreme version of Billings: barren, brown,

inhabited by natives,

and accessable only by dog sled.

I was totally surprised to round the corner and see the spectacular scenery.

There were totem poles everywhere in town. They were only $1000 and up to purchase. This is the one I wanted, but it wouldn't quite fit in my suitcase.

We spotted Yeti living right out in the open in downtown Ketchikan.

This scenic row of buildings was the red light district of the late 1800s. There were places like this in every village we visited. We took a tour of one of the houses of ill repute on this street. 

I probably should have expected some beautiful scenery in the area since Stan and I had an excursion to a rainforest planned for the day. We learned that Ketchikan gets 160 inches of rainfall on average, a few raindrops more than the 14 inches that fall in Billings.

They probably just put this sign up to excite tourists, don't cha think?

The forest was absolutely beautiful.  An old logging road ran through the area. On one side was government land, on the other side was private land. We were walking through private land that is being preserved for tourists to visit. We discovered that many of the guides and group leaders we had were college kids, there for the summer to earn money. Our 20 year old guide gave us a great running commentary as we walked along.

Our guide told us that tree roots are very shallow in coastal Alaska because of the enormous amounts of rainfall. This causes trees to topple easily in a wind storm or avalanche. New trees love to take root on those fallen trees, which provide nutrients as they decay.

The trees were enormous. There were also plentiful amounts of underbrush and lots of salmon berries just a week short of ripening.

Many trees had a fungus called "bear bread" growing out of them. It's those little shelf things growing on the trunk. The black bears like to climb trees and pull them off and eat them. We saw a few on the ground, and they really did look like a loaf of bread.

Our guide pointed out several trees with claw marks.

As we exited the rainforest, we surprised a black bear fishing for salmon which were swimming in droves in the stream.

After looking us over, he decided to eat less sweaty food and meandered off.

This open meadow had dozens of bald eagles flying, in trees, and on the ground. We saw 30-35 eagles here. I wish I had had my nicer camera with me. It was difficult to take a good picture of the eagles with my cheap pocket camera, but you can see an eagle in flight near the center of this picture.

and a parent and eaglet in a tree.

This is what the eaglets look like.  They don't grow white head feathers until they are 2 1/2 to 3 years old.

We also found out during our travels through the rainforest where Santa stores the reindeer in the off season.

This is the old sawmill in use from 1959 through the early 70s when the rainforest was being logged.
I'm pretty sure OSHA would have something to say about this machinery now. You can almost see all of the blood from unprotected body parts hitting unprotected blades.

The rainforest has a sanctuary for injured eagles and owls. This is a female who has a wing that will never be usable.  Eagles mate for life and at certain times of the year, 5 or 6 eagles will sit on her enclosure and woo her. She's never been smitten. It probably helps that there is wire mesh between her and her suitors.

Our final stop in the rainforest was a visit to an artist's studio.  This is a master carver working on a totem pole.

He has been making totem poles for thirty years and it takes around 3 months to complete one. 

Just between you and me, it looked like boring work.

One more notable thing happen this day. The timing was off for Stan and I to eat on board
the ship and we ate in Ketchikan.  Stan had enormous shrimp. I had clam chowder that had been sitting on a burner at a roadside stand since 1967. It made me violently ill that evening, but it passed quickly, so to speak.  Fortunately it was the only time I was sick during the trip.