Finishing Out Our First Week

Saturday, 21 May

On Dan's second day off, after sleeping in to 8 o'clock (ahhh), we decided to explore the other end of the island (this time it was 18 miles of road). The sky was partly sunny and the temperature was nice enough to wear only a vest over a long sleeve shirt when the sun was behind clouds. I only mention this because in my past experience it has rained more than it has not. This time, there has been so many nice days without rain that even the locals are talking about it.

Before we left town, we decided to drive around the residential streets up the mountain. Let me tell you that they are really really steep, narrow and winding. But the views are spectacular. Here is a smaller ship just coming in to KTN.

There was little to no wind and the channel, the Behm Canal, was like glass. We also passed by a couple more waterfalls. I'm always amazed at how fast the water runs down the mountain. We stopped by one for more pictures. When I was standing by the waterfall I could feel the mist and the cold wet air coming off of it.

Cute blue rubber boots

After a nice drive and more waterfall pictures, we decided to head back to town.

Tomorrow, the 22nd, is our 40th wedding anniversary. Dan decided he was going to take me out to dinner at Cape Fox. Cape Fox is an upscale hotel and restaurant on the side of the mountain right behind Creek Street and our apt. You have to take a tram up and from that vantage point you can see downtown Ketchikan.

                                    Here is a picture of Cape Fox. Notice the change in weather. The clouds are rolling in, but not raining yet.

This is the view from the tram looking up at Cape Fox.

                                    Now we are looking down from the tram.

This is the view out the windows in the restaurant. The food at Cape Fox is very good. I finally got my salmon (with hollandase sauce, rice pilaf and steamed vegetables). Dan got the Chicken Marsala - very good. The bad thing is that the drinks are very expensive, so we decided to walk to Annabelle's for our after dinner drinks.

I'm also going to share with you a couple more pictures. One of that smaller ship that was coming in at the beginning of this posting and one of a barge with containers on it. This is the main way that shops here in Ketchikan get their wares. And people use this mode of transportation for some of their larger items that they need shipped here. You see these barges coming up the inside passage being pulled by tug boats. It is amazing how high they stack those containers and then, on top of all of that, you see these full sized motor homes, 5th wheelers, school buses and 18-wheelers! Some even have pretty good sized boats on them. Sometimes at the grocery stores they may be out of things, like, oh say, milk. The explanation is that the container that those grocery items were in, probably fell off of the barge. Well you could see why when you see how high they stack those puppies!

This is a small barge. I have seen these containers stacked much higher on other barges.