July 20, 2011

A rainy day here in Ketchikan.  Too bad for Mom’s last full day here we have a lot of rain.  She doesn’t seem to mind and said she has seen plenty of totems and won’t miss the trip to Saxman or Totem Bight.  John and I walked to the post office this morning as I had a letter to mail to Canada and didn’t have the right postage.  We have an acquaintance on the Suez Canal cruise that is arranging some tours in Jordan and we wanted to send her our 10% down on that to hold our spots.  We also walked up to the IGA and got a few more cans of garlic/pepper smoked salmon to be certain we have enough! Meanwhile, while we were gone Mom had her suitcase out and began to pack… BTW, one very good thing to remember is you cannot take canned salmon (unless it is only 3 oz.) on the plane.  Be sure to pack it in your checked luggage if you make a trip up here. 

For lunch I prepared white salmon.  I forgot to mention that Nic brought us a couple of lovely fillets (frozen), one regular King salmon and one white King salmon, and had left them hanging on our door knob the other day.   

I also wanted to mention the community college right around the corner from our apt.  Isn’t this a lovely setting to attend community college.  A tree studded mountain behind you and the inside passage in front of you!  Actually, further up there is still a mountain with snow on it as well.  If not college, we have seen and talked to a number of young people, probably college students who are working here for the summer.  I am sure some experience is needed since the ones we spoke to were working at one of the zip line sites. 

Our landlord for this month was inspecting the other units that he is upgrading and installing in this same building, just in back of ours.  In addition to our 2bd/1b apt. he will have another 2bd/1ba apt. and a 1bd/1ba apt.  Neither will have the same view we have of the cruise ships but looks like everything will be upgraded and the other 2bd will even have a tub.  They will have a shared laundry between the two units and you will enter the larger unit from an outside stair case.  He told John he may not be renting out by the month anymore as the units are empty all winter long and he can get more income by renting just a few nights at a time.  I guess it’s a good deal for him to do that.  I’m glad we did this now!

Since we were pretty housebound with the rain today we played a lot of Rummikub and read. There was just one ship in port today, the Radiance of the Seas, a sister ship to the one we will cruise on through the Suez Canal.  They are scheduled to depart at 6pm.  Since the rain let up we walked out to the jetty across from the pier and watched it depart.  Good thing we went a little early as they left about 10 minutes before scheduled. It was nice to get out for a short walk anyway.  Back for out last dinner with Mom, penne pasta with shrimp, asparagus, and red pepper, and French rolls.  We have enjoyed her visit so much and we hope she had fun too.  She says she did!