Ketchikan

Can I believe it’s Thursday already? No! Absolutely not! I’m starting to get anxious about coming home – as in I don’t wanna. You can’t make me. I’m already planning my tantrum. I’m wondering if it counts as a tantrum if you plan it in advance…..the kicking, screaming, yelling, clinging to something stable on the ship….do you think they’d let me stay if I offered to wash dishes? Seriously – there have to be like 10 million plates on this ship that need to be washed….if I’m willing maybe they’ll take me.

As a side note – we hit Ketchikan today! Turns out it’s the first city in Alaska, and it was beautiful, and interesting. Nothing like I expected.

Juenau is touristy, and like a city. It even has a Walmart and Home Depot. The glacier has…OK it’s just a big hunk of ice floating in the sea. Sitka was old and all about the Russians and the religions. Churches and cemeteries everywhere. In fact, there are probably more dead people there than living. There was a ton of history, and everything was OLLLLD and all about Russia.

Ketchikan is old in a different way. We went to a lumberjack show, and a tour of “Dolly’s House”. I guess this town used to be a big lumberjack area, and it was full of rough tough men. They had man competitions (like with chainsaws, and axes and stuff) on weekends, and hung out in bars, and eventually someone figured out that it would be a good business to bring in some…..well…..women. For sale. So there is this section in the back of town called “Creek Street”. It was the red light district. Now it is a bunch of shops and stores and it’s great for tourists. The only evidence of such a scandalous lifestyle is Dolly’s House.

We walked by, and the woman standing outside talked us in to taking a tour. It’s full of history and we justified going in because it has so much authentic old stuff that actually belonged to Dolly.

Honestly, it was a little scandalous – they weren’t really shy about telling us all about Dolly’s life. BUT we plugged our ears at all the right times. The biggest shock was walking into her dining room, and what do you imagine I saw there? My grandmother’s china. In real life. The china I ate every single Sunday dinner on for like 6 years. Turns out Dolly had the same taste in dinnerware as my Grandma….who wouldda thought! I laughed and took a picture (stay tuned for the whole album when I have a real connection).

Next we headed to the lumberjack show which was AWESOME. Ridiculously expensive, but so much fun!

Now it’s only 1:00, but we have to head out to make sure we hit Victoria by 6:00 tomorrow evening. And that will conclude our trip…..and the tantrums will begin.