Finally! We get to see Alaska. Our first stop was Ketchikan, the Salmon capital of the world, and what a cool city it is. The first thing you have to know if you ever go to visit Southeast Alaska is that it is a rainforest and chances are good that it will rain while you are there. It did rain on us and it was very cold, but when it didn’t rain it was actually really nice.
Some fun facts about Ketchikan:
1) About 70% of their named roads are actually boardwalks that are not accessible to vehicles because of their mountainous terrain.
2) Their main road is actually built above the water on pilings, so before the roadway was constructed each named road actually ended as a dock out into the water with docks for the boats of residents or guests to town.
3) You can not drive from Ketchikan to anywhere because it is an island. Despite this fact the most popular crime (according to our tour bus driver) is auto theft. Which could lead to an uncomfortable situation with some of your 8,000 neighbors when your car is seen going down the road with a neighbor’s kid driving along the 4.1 total square miles of town.
4)There are 4 radio stations based in Ketchikan, which is the 5th largest city in Alaska.
Before we get into the really cool adventure that we had in Ketchikan, you have to check out the scenery. This was the view from our balcony when we were pulling into Ketchikan, what an incredible sunrise!
The next series of images is what we could see from our balcony before we went out to explore.
The Float Plane, it should probably be the State Bird of Alaska.
Our overall view just before sunrise
Once the sun was up all of the colors really came out of the trees. I also spotted a seal near the buoy in this photo but as soon as I spotted him he was gone again, so sorry, no photo of a seal… yet.
Alaska is just an amazing place and you must see it in your lifetime, so add it to your list. We will definitely go back to see more as soon as we can, probably in May when we can see some snow on the ground.
Oh, we had our first whale sighting in Ketchikan, but you have to wait to hear about our trip to get the details!
