After a loooooong night of card playing that kept us awake until almost midnight, i woke up at 5:58. That would be almost 6 a.m. Back home it would be almost 9: a.m. My body is so confused.
So ... Ketchikan. Raining. Apparently the two things are virtually synonymous. They have already hand over 168 inches of rain this year. Kind of behind schedule for them, but then the rainy season hasn’t started yet. We started the day right off with a tour of the city. Our tour guide told us that Ketchikan means something like “Towering Eagle.” She took us to see her friend the amateur totem pole carver. Just a hobby for her/. I think I may try it. All i need is a dead cedar tree...
Here’s a joke she tried on us: “What do you call a bald eagle sitting on a church steeple? A bird of pray.”
The tour was pretty bad. A storm was blowing in that was bringing different a level of rain to the rain. We heard everything we didn’t care to know about salmon hatcheries. Oh, and here’s an example of the recitation technique: “I’m going to go over this bridge (by this time we were already over the bridge) very slowly, because this is the place where you might see some black bears.” Ah. Would have been nice to know before we got to the bridge. We finally made it to the totem pole village, once of the places Chris was really looking forward to. There was some fascinating stuff, but it was raining hard and blustery, so everything was cut way short. If it was for the native guy telling about the clan house, the visit would have been a total bust. Oh, and we didn’t even go to the gift shop. Can you imagine such nonsense? No gift shop stop? I was horrified.
After this forgettable portion of our trip (The only one, thank goodness), we headed back into town to walk around in the rain. First stop was the office of the National Forest Service. Yep. They had a stamp for the National Parks book. Check. Next we went to Creek Street, the local red light district. Well, it used to be back when what you did in your own home was perfectly legal as long as you owned the property. Finally the city government bought out all the madams and ran them out of town. The buildings are now tourist shops. So, we went to Creek Street all right, but we got distracted by five seals playing in the actual creek. W also saw some salmon swimming around, trying to avoid the seals. Gotta love that marine life.
Sasquatch Seal joined our ranks. He has high career aspirations. He really wants to be world renowned for something. Hence the stage name, Sasquatch. You can’t tell anyone, but his real name is Marion. He’s embarrassed by it. I just think it’s kind of boring.
Finally (after wading through a few souvenir shops, of course), we made it back on board the boat. My new knee set off the metal detector again. WooHoo. But that didn’t set us back long. We were wet to the gills, so we went right up to change clothes and get some lunch. Then we sat in the atrium drinking coffee (Even Chris. She discovered caramel latte) and listening to the string duet.
Next on the agenda was watching the boat pull away, but by 5:15 (check-in time) the gangplank was still hooked up. Uh oh. More stragglers. They finally made it on board though, and we were off.
Now the appetizer for dinner was the “interesting” delectable of the evening. I ordered something with the words “quail” and “venison” in it. Didn’t understand the other words. What did they bring me? Spam. Well, not exact;y seem. See, spam tastes really good. This stuff? Not so much. Apparently they ground up a quail and some deer meat and pressed it in to the shape of a loaf of bread, then sliced it. Isn’t that basically what spam is? It tasted really nasty. Maybe Freddy would have enjoyed it. It did have that dog food taste to it. But the main course was seafood stuffed trout. Very good. After the meal the waiter entertained us with magic challenges and napkin folding. He’s pretty good at both.
The Hand and Foot tournament continued with the guys still in the overall lead. Two games to two last night. The girls are trying really hard ...
Deuteronomy 28:2 says, “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
Father, please continue riding with us as we journey south. Amen.
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