Lazy Monday

The past few days have been a hectic whirlwind of labor for Matt, Kevin and I that we didn't have much of a chance to do anything else. The highlight of our Friday night was spent on Captain Steve's houseboat. Kevin came up to Alaska without a pillow, only to find that his living quarters were less of a "furnished apartment" and more "a room with a mattress and a chair." Kev's boss at work, Captain Steve (Note: from this point on, assume that every man we meet in Ketchikan over the age of forty is the captain of a boat, ship, or fleet of commercial fishing vessels) heard through the grapevine that Kevin didn't have the pillow. He called Kev and told him to come pick it up on the dock. Although their phone exchange sounded like the initiation of a drug deal that would go horribly awry, Kev was pumped to go retrieve his pillow from Captain Steve's home and convinced Matt and I to take the stroll down to the harbor with him. It was a beautiful night so we happily obliged. The only thing that prevented Captain Steve from perfectly fulfilling the stereotype of the salty dog sea captain was his lack of a pipe. He invited us aboard and we ended up sitting down with him for an hour on his boat and chatted about Ketchikan and life.

Actual picture of Captain Steve

Our crazy night at sea was basically the only thing of note that we did this weekend other than work. However, Matt and I found out that we both had off on Monday-woohoo! - and Kev found out that he didn't have to work until noon on Monday so naturally we had a wild Sunday night. By "wild Sunday night" I mean we each had three beers and stayed up until 11:30 watching Me Myself and Irene. This morning, Matt and I decided to play the tourist and went to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center to learn a bit about Ketchikan's history. Today's weather featured the typical heavy clouds/rain shower mix that seems to be the norm for Ketchikan, so it was a perfect museum day.

Matt in front of the Alaskan forest wildlife exhibit, right before getting a migraine from all of the flash photography I insisted on taking at the museum

We learned a lot of good stuff at the museum about the ecology, fishing industry and transformation of Ketchikan from a timber town to a tourist town, most of which I will fill you all in on with special addition "History of Ketchikan" posts- these will come at a later date when we have become wizened locals. One interesting thing at the museum:

Holy crap! Look how big Alaska is!

I'm actually embarrassed to admit what size I actually thought Alaska was before Matt and I began to plan our trip here. One way you know Alaska is enormous is that all the tour guide brochures say things like "Ketchikan is so accessible, being just 300 miles away from Alaska's capital city, Juneau!" Never before have I been to a place where being 300 miles away from something was considered convenient. Seeing this map today reminded me of all the misconceptions we'd had about Alaska and particularly Ketchikan: it's 3 miles long! daylight lasts for 23 hours! groceries are $500,000 (note: groceries are more expensive here but not exorbitantly so)! Being so far south as we are (Ketchikan is the most southeast part of Alaska) we don't experience all of the oddities that inland Alaskans do, although the sun doesn't set until 11, and we like it that way.

We are enjoying our luxurious day off but will be back at work for another six days or so until our next vacation day. Since our jobs are fun, neither of us really mind. Until next time, enjoy the weather down south for us!


-Bridget