Hi there, I see you've noticed my Mustang.

      It's about 9:00 AM my time and I just got in from my favorite thing to do on my day off- sitting outside on my steps people-watching with a cup of hot coffee. It's really fun because the tourists point and wave at you as if you're a feature in the Ketchikan landscape. Sometimes people walk up the stairs and ask me questions, too, which always makes me feel very useful and important. I am really enjoying interacting with tourists much more than I thought I would because they are people in vacation mode, meaning that most of them are feeling very pleasant and relaxed. It's also pretty cool to meet people from all over- mostly from the States but also a lot from Europe as well. Crew members from the ships also come in to the show a lot and it's really interesting hearing about their lives- they have very regimented schedules but get to see all sorts of cool places so most of them seem to like their jobs.
      I haven't written in a while because I haven't had a day off in a while and that makes a huge difference in my willingness and ability to write creatively. However, I DO have a day off today, and Friday as a matter of fact! Hoorah! The only downside is that Matt and I haven't had a day off together in a few weeks which makes me very sad. I will most likely request one soon so that we can go do something fun together- we each feel too guilty to go on any excursions or do something new without the other when we have our separate days off. This isn't to say that we haven't been having fun this week- we've had some very pleasant days. This week, we finally got our library cards- yay- so we can start checking out DVDs instead of streaming crap-quality ones from the internet. Also, Matt had a very exciting day when the owner of his company put him in charge of transporting one of his classic cars, a 19something Mustang Coupe, for the day - Matt got to drive it around and keep it overnight, hence the photo shoot that follows.

Cruisin' in the Mustang

It only took us about five minutes to discover that the gas tank is on the back of this car!

     The owner rents out these cars to people on cruise ships who want to look really cool as they explore their port- you can rent this baby for a very nominal fee of $150 per hour (!). For people with a lot of money to blow, it's actually a good idea to rent a car because the best parts of Ketchikan are out of reach from walking or taking the public bus. When we had the car, it was a very rainy night so we didn't take the car anywhere special except the gas station. I'm hoping that the opportunity will come up again for this so we can cruise around on a nice day and make everyone jealous.

    Last night, Matt and I used the excuse of our one-and-a-half-year anniversary (which, yes, I know, is not in fact a real anniversary) to go out to dinner. We tried this place called Oceanview which specializes in Italian, Mexican and Greek food. It is very common here to specialize in at least three things, and you're not considered a real restaurant if you only serve one nationality's cuisine. It was a gorgeous night and the food was delicious.

Us at the aptly-named Oceanview Restaurant

Cool floatplane docked right outside

      Other than that not much else is going on right now but we have a lot of exciting things on the horizon. We are so excited to be having my mom up to visit in just nine days and will be doing a lot of fun stuff with her while she's up, which includes experiencing Ketchikan's annual Blueberry Festival which is supposed to be pretty fun. We have come to the sad realization that we are already past the halfway point of our time in Ketchikan, so we are reluctantly drawing up our bucket list and considering our next adventure. Suggestions for this next adventure will be gratefully accepted via e-mail or facebook :)

  Thanks for reading!!

-Bridget

The Meanest Fish in the Ocean

After weeks of overcast skies and a buttload of rain, we had forgotten what a real summer could be like. Then, last week, we awoke to a beautiful cloudless blue sky and it seems to have stuck- this week we have had AMAZING weather. Luckily for both of us, Matt and I have had a few more days off recently so we have had the chance to capitalize on it- and by capitalize I mean spending every day out on the breakwater or the docks fishing and drinking beer. We've done a lot of fishing on the breakwater, which is the jetty that protects the harbor.

Matt casting out at the breakwater

View of the city from our fishing spot. The green roof next to the pink building is the Lumberjack Show!

A very happy pup going out to sea

          We've met a few hilarious locals down at the breakwater, particularly Billy and AJ. Billy claims to be a boat salesman but we're pretty sure he's homeless. AJ is a proud Tlingit Native. He slurred a few words at us and when we stared at him blankly, he said "Oh sorry, I forgot you guys couldn't understand me, because I was speaking Tlingit- fluently." Pictures of these characters will hopefully be coming soon. We also met a super nice guy our age who makes a a hundred thousand dollars each year working on a fishing seiner in the Bering Sea in the winter- not exactly a glamorous gig, but he gets to do whatever he wants in the summer. I've already looked into applying but they're not looking for chicks for some reason.

           Kevin and one of his crewmates, Casey also discovered a new fishing spot on a low dock beneath the cruise ship berths. We went there one night when the weather was fabulous and watched the sunset while fishing. We didn't catch anything for keeps but observed and pulled up a lot of weird looking critters.

A jelly!

A sea cucumber! Check out the tubercles on that one!

A sunflower sea star, as identified by our resident naturalist Casey

         Our most exciting fishing excursion to date was Herring Cove. Over the past few months we've heard a lot about this mythical Herring Cove- the salmon jump like crazy and you can watch the bears fish. The only problem- it's about ten miles south of town and none of us had a car. Luckily for us, on a day we all had off, Captain Steve offered us a ride. His words: "Sure, I'll give you a ride there, but don't call me for the ride back." So off we were dropped, and sure enough it was awesome!

Fishing at Herring Cove

         When it came to finding a ride home, we were a little skeptical that hitch-hiking would get us far when there was four of us loaded up with fishing gear sticking our thumbs out on the side of the road, but within five minutes we had a ride from a nice older woman who was visiting from Anchorage.

To fit in her car, Casey had to wear the net over his head

        I bet a question you're all wondering is: how many fish have you caught, if you've been doing all that fishing? Unfortunately, none. We almost caught one - the one that flopped away, as Matt and I wistfully call it. It was one of the first few days we had gone fishing and Matt excitedly reeled in this huge silver salmon that looked like it had been through a few battles. Unfortunately, we had not gotten a net at this point so we had a bit of a challenge trying to pull it up on the rocks. Matt thought that it was wedged pretty securely among the rocks and was figuring out a method to kill it when it snapped the line and flopped into the water with his hook and six dollar lure in its belly. Definitely the baddest, meanest fish in the ocean- and judging from his scars we weren't the first ones to catch and lose him. Matt was a little frustrated that his first big catch didn't quite land.

      Although we haven't caught anything yet, we've been having a fabulous time- probably our best week in Ketchikan so far. We're going to keep enjoying our beautiful days and gorgeous nights- more soon :)


Love,

Bridget and Matt

July 4th in the 49th State

         As Matt and I found out this week, Fourth of July in Alaska is a heartwarming event to witness- they take their American pride pretty seriously. On the 3rd, we were the lucky "plus one" guests of Kevin and one of his crewmates Casey for the Allen Marine holiday party, which meant:

1. Delicious free food! 
2. Free drinks! 
3. Singalong guitar music and an annoying company staff member who kept interrupting the guitar music to force everyone to participate in Ketchikan trivia!

         These are all important ingredients in any company party so obviously it was great. We had a lot of fun on the actual fourth this year because the Lumberjack Show put on the Ironjack Competition, the annual timber athlete state championship. It is free admission for members of the community, AND they served beer so obviously every seat in the stadium was full. Matt and Kevin had a great time watching it and I had a great time basking in the honor and glory of timing the events. You're officially important when you get to know who won each event before anyone else does- I got to find out even before the athletes did!

Two of the lumberjacks competing in the single-buck saw event

       Another fun part of the 4th was getting to see my cousins, the Lotts! They just so happened to be coming into town on a cruise and it was very fun getting to catch up with them over some good eats.

Chris, Allison and me at Annabelle's

          Ketchikan hasn't had fireworks in three years on our national holiday because of the torrential downpour of rain they always get on the fourth. Luckily for us, it was a dry day and night and we witnessed some great 'works from the city as well as a firework-off between a few of the boats on the water.

Kevin wouldn't let me tag him in this on facebook so I had to sneak it into my blog instead

         Other than a fun fourth, Matt and I have been working hard and have been wavering over some pretty big purchases- we almost went to the movies last night and I caved and bought chocolate today after a tiring day at work. We're saving up for tours and trips so we can have some serious fun on our days off and at the end of the work season, where we're planning on taking a week or two to visit some other parts of Alaska. In the mean time, we're taking it easy while reading and brushing up on our culinary skills. Much love to our friends in the lower 48!

More soon,

Bridget

FAQs about Life in Ketchikan

        It's been a pretty laid-back week for Matt and I- six days of work straight since my last post so we haven't done too much else. Today, however, we finally got our fishing licenses- we've been talking about getting them for a while but have been hesitating since they're a whopping $145 for non year-round residents. We've also been trying this new thing called "cooking" where we think about what we want to eat and find recipes for to make them. Other than spending money on fishing and food we haven't done too much else this week so I thought I'd take some time to answer a few questions I've gotten about living here in Alaska.


            1. How do you get around the island without a car?

Good question! We walk to work because we live in the downtown district so we're very close to all the tour headquarters and stores. We use the city bus to go grocery shopping. For everything else, I travel in the back of pick-up trucks. The first time I did this was to go to a bonfire and I was pretty skeptical, seeing as it's not legal to do anywhere else I've ever been. Then again, it's legal to smoke in bars here so I shouldn't be surprised that it's also legal to pile ten people and a dog in the back of a pick up truck that may or may not still have its tailgate attached.

Ketchikan, where daily transportation is like an 80's Coca Cola commercial

            2. How do the islanders get food and supplies?

By barge! Wednesday is barge day so Thursday is the best day to go to the supermarket around here, when the produce is the freshest. Shopping is a strategy on an island because you need to learn what lasts a long time and what doesn't. After weeks of painstaking research, we have concluded that: bananas and grapes last a long time, cucumbers and watermelon spoil almost immediately after removal from the grocery store.

Da barge

            3. Is it as easy to get a job in Alaska as everyone says it is?

At least in Ketchikan, it is really easy to get a job because many of the locals here aren't too keen on working. Also, there aren't too many locals here in their early 20s because many leave for the lower 48 after high school, so employers are eager to hire young out-of-staters that aren't expecting salaries or benefits, or anything above ten bucks an hour.

           4.  Are the lumberjacks you work with big and scary?

Some of them are, some of them are pretty skinny and small. All of them however, are strong and always spoiling for a fight. Every lumberjack function I have attended thus far has ended in this:

Lumberjacks bonding over punching each other in the face

          5. Do you make real food or are you still living like college neanderthals?

As I alluded to earlier in the post, we have just recently started meal-planning which has been both fun and a challenge. My mom sent us a cookbook about how to cook meals for both omnivores and vegetarians in an attempt to encourage our cooking endeavor. After a two hour conversation on whether we could pull off one of the fancy meals in the cookbook, we achieved our first cooking success: biscuit-topped chili!

Yummmm!

Matt serving the chili to our first guinea pigs, Tom Sr. and Tom Jr.

This is just the first installment of FAQs. Ask me some more questions and I'll post the answers, hopefully with a picture or two if I can snag one! Other upcoming posts to look forward to are: People who Ride the City Bus and The Truth about Walmart.


Stay Tuned!

Bridget