Tuesday.

One of the many salmon stores.

The amphibian-type vehicle we were in.

Showing how many of the homes near the water are on stilts. Not looking so sturdy eh?

Woke up to another gloomy morning. But, you know, when I flung my curtains open and looked outside to see our giant ship docked snuggly beside the mountain, and the little town of Ketchikan looking like it was tumbling down the mountainside, the weather didn't really matter. It reminded me of the poor cousin of Portofino or Cinque Terre.

Today was our first shore excursion, we had decided to to a city tour, called The Duck Tour (which was certainly appropriate considering the weather!) I like to take city tours when I am somewhere new, it gives me a feeling of knowing where I am and what the place is all about, especially if you are only somewhere for a day, I'd rather learn a little history than see the same souviner stores over and over.

Anyhow, we met our tour "bus" and hopped on. It was an amphibious vehicle that took us through the town and then drove right into the water and took us through the harbour area. Sort of a unique method of transportation.

The town of Ketchikan is "The Salmon Capital of the World" and most of the stores sold salmon in every shape and form. Candied salmon, smoked salmon, salmon jerky, salmon steaks, salmon fillets, canned, frozen, cryo-vacced, and even pet food. We didn't buy any as, somewhat ironically, our freezer at home is full of all of the above, as Steven's hunting buddy is a fish broker and send us cases and cases of it.

The Duck Tour was very entertaining, the young college student who was our guide has been born and grown up there, and was really informative. It was $38 each and lasted about 2 hours and wqe thought it was well worth it. Saw lots of eagles (people went strangely insane over eagles and almost knocked each other over to get pictures. An American thing maybe? I know the eagle is like a sign of freedom to many Americans.)

A lot of the houses in Ketchikan are built on stilts as they are close to the water and the tides are quite high. That is the older part of town, and it's been fixed up to appeal to tourists. The "regular" part of town was actually quite shabby, a lot of garbage strewn about and not overly appealing at all. One of those "nice place to visit, but wouldn't want to live there." I'd give Ketchikan a 6 out of 10 for attractiveness. (is that a real word?)