Ketchikan

I woke up Thursday morning and knew

by the noises that we were docking.

I slid open our glass door to see what

Ketchikan looked like and heard a loud splash.

My first thought was that someone had thrown

something overboard - a big NO-NO!

But when I stepped out on the deck

I heard more splashes.

It took me a few minutes to wake up and

realize that the salmon were jumping -

but it's hard to get a good picture of them.

When I saw this:

I thought that Ketchikan must be really small -

but the town was on the other side of the ship.

However, I enjoyed watching the fishing and tour

boats come and go.

And it was neat to watch the water planes

(or whatever they're called)

landing and taking off.

We wandered over to the town side of the boat

and Ketchikan is a small fishing/tourist town

but kinda quaint.

We were only going to be docked for the morning

so we headed out to see the town.

We took a tour on one of these horse drawn trolleys.

One of those 'quaint' things about the town were

these 'street' stairs. These are considered actual

streets and if you live on one you have

to park and walk the rest of the way -

just think about moving furniture or carting

toddlers and groceries - especially

in this town that has record rainfalls.

Ketchikan is also known for it's numerous

totem poles. I had always thought totem poles

were a religious symbol but they are really stories.

People also give totem poles as special birthday

or anniversary presents, for special honors, and

they even have some if you've been dishonorable.

This creek is one of the main salmon ladders.

They said that when they are at the top of the season

a small person can walk across this creek

without getting their feet wet.

Another totem pole.

Ready to get back on board.

Later in the day as we were headed towards Victoria.