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Oh, I got it again. All righty, guys. So, we are off the ship. We just disembarked here in Ketchikan. First of all, check out the size of the Norwegian sun. This thing is massive. And yeah, we have just docked. It was so foggy this morning. We could not see a thing. We just We weren't sure what to expect. What are we going to find when we disembark? Are we going to be able to enjoy the views, see anything, but it looks like the sun is starting to come out. We've got some partially clear skies. So, yes, we are heading into town right now. We are docked at Ward Cove.
So, we've got about a 20-minute ride into town. Transportation is provided by Norwegian Cruise Lines. So, we need to go find our bus and make our way into town. And you know what? Because we are up so early, like I think most people are still sleeping or having breakfast, there isn't a lot of action. So, yeah, I think we're going to have no problem just getting on a bus and going right away without a long wait cuz check out the deck. It's just us and a couple of other passengers who've gotten off. All righty. So, we just rode the bus into town, 20 minute ride, and we learned some fun
facts about We learned some amazing facts. Our bus driver was just uh totally awesome. He was just spewing knowledge the whole time. First really cool fact. There are more bears here than people. 10,000 black bears compared to 8,000 residents. And the wildlife here is very similar to Vancouver Island. There's certain animals that you might expect to be here that are not. For instance, the brown or grizzly bear does not exist here. Also, no moose as well, but you do have the black bears. The town is really cool. It has like kind of a port/frontier vibe. And uh it was just
fascinating to drive through the wilderness and to arrive here in the main part of town. Now, we're going to hit the ground on foot for a bit. Another thing I'll mention, Ketchikan Alaska, we're on an island right now. I thought we were on the mainland. That is not the case. And we learned that Ketchikan "Alaska's First City" has several titles. So, lots of capitals. It is the salmon capital, the bear capital, and also the totem capital with 80 totems. And it is the first port of Alaska as well. So, we're catching up on facts and history. Yes. And I'm looking forward
to seeing some totems. Apparently, they're made from red cedar. And they mentioned that there's 80 of them scattered across town. So, we're going to go in search of those. All righty. Here we are surrounded by a whole bunch of different ships. These are the ones that dock right downtown. Yeah, beautiful little town. It has that feel about the uh New England fishing towns kind of thing. Mhm. Very cloudy and a bit foggy today, but uh we are hoping the sun is going to come out. And another thing I was thinking about is that it's amazing how these small towns, these communities
uh how important tourism is for them. Yes, because here we have one, two, three huge cruise ships plus the one we came in that's four and there is another one coming in today. So that would be five cruise ships all together. The city has 8,500 uh inhabitants. Yeah. And each one of these ones, if you calculate, let's say an average 3,000 people each, that's 15,000 people that just arrived altogether in a town that has 8,500 residents. So it more than double the population of the town. Mhm. Can you imagine the influx of kind of cash that makes this communities survive?
Yeah, that's so important. You know that's important of the tourism in some places that uh a lot of time people don't realize but uh hey lifesaver here. Yeah. It keeps the town alive. Keeps it afloat. Now we're going to see if we walk around town a little bit. Yes. You know it's it's kind of it's very humid here. I think humidity right now is like 90%. And we thought they were advertising like a heat wave today. They were 27 30 Celsius and we're kind of uh waiting for the heat. Maybe if the sun comes out we'll experience it. Yeah, because right now
I'm I'm you know all I have is this uh hoodie and uh it's kind of a borderline. Okay. So if you come down this way, don't assume that it's going to be hot and you're going to be able to enjoy it with a short sleeve. Always carry like something in your backpack. Yes, to be sure. Okay, good advice. Yeah, good advice. Okay, let's go walk. So, we are doing a little bit of shopping. We were a little bit cold, you know, and we thought maybe get a toque, I don't know, get a little souvenir. So, yeah, they have really good deals. Like this store has a three baseball caps for 20 bucks special.
So, we're just looking around also picking up some souvenirs for the grandchildren. And yeah, just doing a little shopping before we head off on our first tour of the day. This is how much is raining up to date. 170 in. See where the fish is? Yeah, that's insane. A lot of rain can. The highest was in 1949. They had 202 in. I mean, it just feels like there's like five of me stacked on top of each It feels like it would be a flood. Absolute flood. So, I'm not surprised about this at all because I grew up in a geography very similar to here on Vancouver Island and we got an
insane amount of rain and so yeah, you would not want to be here, especially in the winter months or also in the late fall, early spring. Summer is probably a bit better right now. But um my gosh, that really puts it into perspective when you have this giant display. Also has some really interesting information, too. This is Alaska's fourth biggest city. Shows where we are at the very tip, southern tip of Alaska. Yeah. And uh it's a big state. There's so much to explore. We're only going to get to see a small fraction of the southern part.
So, we just got out of the show, the great Alaskan lumberjack. Yeah. Lumberjack uh show logging show. It was very, very interesting. Sadly, they wouldn't allow to make videos, only pictures. So, I guess you guys took a few good pictures. Yes, we're going to show you what it was all about. Yeah. One thing that really amazed me was the sharpness of the axes. Every time they swung the axe and they hit the wood like they were removing pieces like chips of a size that you say, "Wow, if this guy hits the leg, uh he cut it in slice it in half, you know. Those things were sharp as
a razor blades." And uh yeah, it was very nice. It was actually super uh interesting to watch and uh supposed to be like two teams, one uh from the United States, one from Canada, and they were kind of competing against each other and they made it fun, you know, like a lot of screaming and uh you know, Aurelia was in her uh you know, in a good spot because she was also screaming and clapping and she was but it's so small and she was having such a good time. But anyways, it's h it's worth uh coming here. If you pass by and you have a chance to see one of these shows,
I would highly recommend it. Eh, it's uh it's very nice. We had a good time. We did. So, now we'll uh we keep going, keep exploring the town. Let's keep visiting the town and then we go back to the uh to the boat and we're going to eat something. I'm getting hungry, huh? You're hungry already? Oh my. It would be so nice to see you out in India. Hi, baby. Oh, what a happy baby. It's time for a crab feast. I'm so hungry.
I've worked up a big appetite. This little one, though, is sleeping blissfully. Look at her. So, we couldn't come to Ketchikan and not try the crab. Yes, this may be the salmon capital of the world, but the dungeonous crab is another local specialty. This is a type of crab found on the west coast of North America, extending from Alaska's Illutian Islands all the way down to California. Also, we saw whales on the drive over. The timing was impeccable. Oh, I got it again. Oh, look. We went whale watching. All righty, guys. So, today we came to
George Inlet Lodge for a crab feast. The plan to eat as much crab as possible. We started off with a salad and then it was time for our all you can eat crab feast. The meat was sweet and delicate and it tasted delicious dunked in butter. Our host even got a bit of a competition going. Who can build the highest tower using crab shells and whatever else we could find at the table. So, you don't just come here for the crab. You come here for the views. Yeah, baby's loving it. Beautiful. Absolutely stunning property right out here on the water. I could spend the whole afternoon here,
but unfortunately we do have to go soon. This was a super fun food tour during our port of calling Ketchikan. And we made it back to the cruise ship with time to spare. We're back at Ward Cove after an absolutely amazing crab feast. Honestly, a feast for the ages. It was all you could eat. And we took it seriously because the remnants of the crab feast were stacked on a plate and there was a competition to see who could have the highest in inches. So the highest tower of like shell. Yeah. Seriously. And we I think we were pretty close to winning if we didn't win. Yeah. It was just a
great experience. Beautiful location down there. It's kind of place that makes you want to go not just eat, but you'd want to linger and stay too if that was an option. Fantastic food, great service, really good young people working in the tourism field. Yeah, it was Wyatt and Sydney, I believe, took care of us. Shout out to both of them. They were excellent. Uh that was our shuttle driver and our server. They were married, young married couple, and they were just uh fantastic at their jobs. Yeah. working in Alaska for the summer. How adventurous. I love it. How adventurous.
You got to love it. So, overall, just really good food, really good experience, and would highly recommend that. And we also got some hats. Three for 15 bucks so that your parents can enjoy being a moose, a bear, and an eagle. So, why not, right? Nice. I'll also mention that visit kind of turned into a bit of a wildlife safari. It wasn't meant to be, but on the drive down to the lodge, we ended up seeing killer whales, like orcas, loads of them, coming up on the surface of the water. We saw deer, we saw bears. What else did we see? A bald eagle. Like, it was just insane. So,
yeah, super fun, super exciting, and would highly recommend. Okay. So, we are pulling out of Ketchikan. We spent the day here. What did you think? thoughts, impressions. I found it to be really uh interesting. Uh not only the uh scenic part, but also the history of this uh little town. But apparently they had a um a paper mill, a paper mill here for many years. Apparently was one of the biggest in the world. And uh due to environmental issues and foreign competition, that thing was uh forced to shut down and 500 people got uh they lost their jobs and that
was the main industry of this little town. To me, this is a 100% example of how when things go bad, there is always an opportunity to turn around and to get something maybe even better than what you had before. Instead of uh chess despairing and saying, "Wow, we're done. We're doomed. We're finished as a town or as a city." these people they got uh you know uh the idea of uh starting with this um cruise ship uh tourism and right now the amount of people that land in this town is just staggering and I think that right now it's also much better because there is
uh much more people involved in the tourism industry and making a living out of the tourism industry than before that there was only 500 people living out of the you paper uh meal, you know, that's the part that it really got to me and I say, "Wow." You know, like I'm in a terrible situation when an industry disappears from a town or from a city. Uh you can always find something else. You know, there are always possibilities and options. And I really all I can say is congratulations to these people. You know, they I think they came up ahead up on top.
So that's uh that's my impression. The place itself is said well typical Alaska magnificent you know like I mean the nature here is uh all around you. You can see it everywhere and uh yeah I think highly recommend it for sure. Come and visit. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay.
