July 30, 2011

A long but successful day, we are home.  We did most all of our packing and laundry yesterday so it was just putting in the last minute things this morning, plus a trip to the library this morning. After that we came back and emptied the fridge out the rest of the way, ate our lunch, and called a taxi and we were on the way to the airport.  There was a break in the almost nonstop rain so we had a lovely little trip across the passage and to the airport.  We soaked in the last of the cool weather.  Anyway, we barely got through security and they were beginning to board a little early so no real wait for us.  We traveled in a very colorful Disney painted airplane with Tinkerbell painted on it! Our trip to Seattle was uneventful.  We had great views of both Mt. Rainer and Mt. Adams.  When we arrived to Seattle we at dinner at Wolfgang Pucks and it was really tasty.  I had roasted chicken and Caesar salad.  Our flight for Fresno boarded on time but we sat for a while since the lavatory did not work and we needed it fixed before takeoff.  Anyway it didn’t take long and we were on our way.  Lovely skies on the way home and our luggage arrived with us.  Thankful to Cheryl and Taylor for picking us up at the airport and depositing us at Home Sweet Home.    

I guess this is probably “smog” but it does look pretty as the sun goes down.

July 29, 2011

Our last full day in Ketchikan and the rain seems to want to show us it’s in charge!  It is raining particularly hard today.  We packed up all our unused food and took it across the street to the Salvation Army, saving out just what we plan to eat tonight and in the morning.  They seemed very grateful.  I have a few items of clothing to drop at their Thrift Shop tomorrow on the way to our last visit at the local library.  Here is an interesting hat worn by local visiting the library.  I can sort of understand the sentiments as so many of the visitors are rude, hog the sidewalks, push others out of their way, etc.  However, the tourists partly keep this community alive as well and offer many summer jobs.  After today’s library visit we watched movies and did our laundry.  I don’t think I have ever come home with a suitcase full of clean clothing before!  We also went through a variety of brochures we have picked up along the way, deciding what to scan  for digital scrapbooking. We hope our checked suitcase won’t be too heavy and we won’t have to adjust too many things after we get to the airport tomorrow.

Off to bed.  We will miss the sound of rain on our roof each night and sleeping in a chilly room with the window open, snuggled under the covers, ahhh – great sleeping weather!!!  :-) I don’t want to think about it being 103 tomorrow in Clovis, but we do miss our family and friends!

July 28, 2011

The rain continues today.  Breakfast and the library are the two morning routines.  Despite the rain and four cruise ships we decided to walk downtown.  We have been wanting to try the giant shrimp at a stand down by the ships and our time is running out.  It stopped raining while we ate, good thing because the only area there is to eat is outside. John’s looking pretty scruffy, eh?  Anyway, the giant shrimp were pretty good but not near as good as we anticipated.  Alaska cuisine is not developed in my opinio0n.  Perhaps I have not gone to the right places.  The Fox Cape was good though.  From there we went to the Tongass Merchant Co. I wanted to see if they had some particular socks and check their prices.  They had them but much more expensive than I can order them for on the Internet.  They certainly had a good selection though.  I also took a photo of these boots.  This is undoubtedly the official footwear for the state since most locals wear these; men, women, and children alike. From there we walked north and saw a few different things and decided to stop at a pastry shop we had read about called, Sweet Mermaids.  It was a hard decision but we each chose something to try and share; blackberry pie for me, cream puff cake for John.  They also had some giant cake pops, everything is big in Alaska I guess! It’s a quaint little place but we weren’t terribly impressed. One would think cruisers would not be eating in local restaurants with all the food cruise ships are well known for, but it seems a lot do eat here in Ketchikan.  Maybe they all want to try the local salmon dishes?  Speaking of which, I have seen the same cookbook a number of times in the shops, “Salmon Desserts and more” – Really?  As much as I like Salmon, in dessert just doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. 

Mid afternoon brought us back to the apt. and somewhat of a Star Trek marathon with movies that are here for tenants use. We ate our leftovers for dinner and did more reading.  Tomorrow will be our last full day here.  ’

July 27, 2011

From what we can surmise it rained all night long.  It seems a bit colder today as well.  We are trying to soak this all in as it seems to be a scorcher in Clovis and according to friends another big heat wave is headed in! 

We heard from our tenants today that the A/C is making a strange noise.  It is still putting out cool air so hopefully it isn’t too big of an issue.  I called Jeff and got the name of the guy who put in his new A/C unit, called him, and he said he would contact the tenants and that he could be there around 1pm. We heard from the guy later in the evening.  Long story but it will be fixed tomorrow morning at 9am.  I hope it is resolved. Our RE agent is checking into why the home insurance seems to omit this A/C. 

Today was a perfect day to curl up with a good book.  I finished The Choice by Nicolas Sparks.  John is working on his latest by Clive Cussler. 

July 26, 2011

Another typical morning here in Ketchikan, since I am writing that, I am thinking it must be time to head home!  One highlight I discovered yesterday is GMA (Good Morning America) is actually on one of the few TV stations we get.  I was eager to turn it on again today and much to my surprise it was actually a rerun from yesterday!!!  We do get a Seattle station intermittently, which I think is current.  Most stations on the basic cable revolve around local news, of course, along with fishing, hunting, etc.  Anyway, we were off to the library for our Internet fix for the day. It was a slow day at the library today with only two ships in port.  When we left there we were going to go finally have those jumbo prawns at one of the stands downtown but it began to rain and we didn’t bring our ponchos so we just headed back to the apt.  Lunch, laundry, and playing cards. 

We decided today would be a good day to go down to Saxman so we headed out to get the bus. It didn’t take long to get there and it wasn’t raining when we arrived.  However, the place was closed!  We made the assumption since ships were in port it would be open, next time we’ll call first.  According to the gift shop staff they had just one tour this morning at 9:30am and closed after that.  We did enjoy a walk around the place but we couldn’t get in the main building of course.  Perhaps we will try another day.  There are many totems here, I lost count actually.  They have a separate building nearby where it looks like they are either making more totems or repairing some.  I know at Totem Bight they have a carving house and more to look at.  I guess if you have just one day to look, Totem Bight might be the best choice.  I might add that the views going southbound on the Red Bus were very nice.  At one point the bus goes up to an elementary school and when they do the turn around one has a great view of the inside passage.  There are some lovely, new, modern looking homes overlooking the passage as well.

After walking around the area and on a few forest trails we headed back walking along the S. Tongass Highway.  There was just a small area with no path, most of the way there is a paved walking/bike path. The views are great and along they way every so often they have wooden steps that go down to the shore.  John did find us this little “fixer upper” close to the road, so we wouldn’t need to worry about building a driveway.  There was even some furniture inside! Lots of raspberries around the place too so we wouldn’t go hungry! We didn’t take any side trips today but when the bus came along we hoped on and rode it home. 

The remainder of our day was very quiet.  I hope I finish my latest Nicolas Sparks book before I need to turn it back into the library!  We got pretty excited about 9pm when we saw the sun peeking out of the clouds tonight with patches of blue sky there and there.  Maybe we’ll have a good camera day tomorrow! Additional ‘wildlife” we saw today.  These slugs are rather disgusting creatures, three to five inches long.  This I why the plants need to grow so large to feed these natural predators! Scratch those spots of sun and blue skies…it is pouring rain!

July 25, 2011

It was a great morning with a heavy fragrance of sea in the air today.  We really enjoy the weather here. Today we took inventory and decided to purchase what else we will need for the remainder of our time here, which isn’t much.  After breakfast, laundry, TV, and dishes we headed to the library for our daily dose of Wi-Fi.  We surely appreciate that option.  We can use our phones at no charge for almost everything but it is not convenient and replying to emails in length is difficult and as I said before I cannot post the blog from my netbook.  It was a busy day on the sea front today with four ships in port.  Creek Street was going strong and we saw Nic departing with a group for fishing on our way home. Anyway it was a nice walk to and from the library, not far at all and it was not raining. 

We had lunch, played cards, and headed to Wal-Mart. We had a couple of unopened items we wanted to return but they would not take things back, unopened food items cannot be returned in Alaska, a state law.  No worries, we will give what we have left to the Salvation Army across the street.  We saw a couple of ships departing on our way back from Wal-Mart.  It still seems a thrill to see the big cruise liners coming and going.  For whatever reason the Red Line bus is running late. It is terribly congested on the single street through downtown when ships are in.  Anyway, our Wal-Mart trip took a lot of waiting at both ends and we sort of ran out of enthusiasm by the time we got back. So we’ll save Saxman for tomorrow, maybe it won’t be raining then. We really don’t mind the rain but it is not conducive for taking photos! We watched another old movie and meals rounded out the rest of our day. 

July 24, 2011

Sunday, and not a sun day in Alaska.  We have the liquid sunshine again today.  However, I might add that we don’t mind this at all!  We spent a good part of the day sipping our coffee, reading the paper, playing cards, and catching up on what things can be accomplished on a computer without Internet. 

It is a different way of life here.  Total sections of the newspaper are devoted to hunting and fishing, which is pretty much expected. But the greased log walk and ear pull competitions are pretty outstanding events here as well!  I am beginning to feel the cultural differences more acutely. 

After a movie and our lunch we went on a leisurely two mile walk to the south and up the hill.  It was sprinkling when we left on our walk but midway through we were able to take off our ponchos and it was actually pretty warm.  Our walk took us past the Totem Heritage Center.  We did not go in since we were there in the past when cruising. It is certainly worth the stop as they have unrestored totem poles from both the Tlingit and Haida villages. Across the river was the first of fish ladders we would see today, locate at the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center.  We had some wonderful views of the fish ladder and a barrier on the river.  There were cute little gray birds fighting over tiny baby fish they caught.  There is a lovely city park between the two places along the river, a great place for a picnic in nice weather. After my mediocre attempts to take photos of the fish we continued on our walk taking us back down the hill, along beautiful Ketchikan Creek and views of a large fish ladder on a very rough part of the creek.  We walked past a couple of various sites including a feat of engineering where houses are built on the Grant Street trestle structure.  This is how they conquer the challenges of the terrain here in Ketchikan.  We ended up just north of the library.  Most of the ships are gone for the day and we rambled along Creek Street and saw a couple of seals “fishing.” One caught a live fish and headed back toward the bay nonstop.  The other pictured here found a fish head and nibbled away at it as we watched.  We went back down Stedman Street to our apt. buying a cinnamon roll at the Ketchikan Coffee House on our way back home.  That will be a special dessert for us tonight.   

I used the “My Tracks” program on my phone and it indicated several statistics about our walk but I was unable to post it to my Facebook like some of my friends do.  Anyway, it is a fun feature on my phone. 

After a simple dinner of cubed steak, a shared baked potato, and salad we enjoyed that cinnamon roll.  We watched another movie and watched the clouds and fog roll in.  We are really enjoying the cool weather.