Flightseeing & Tourist for a day 5.11.09

This has been quite a week and we've had a ton of fun, again. Saturday, Ketchikan tours held the annual 'Tourist for a day' celebration where most of the excursion companies had special rates for locals on their tours. Since the Hummers are considered exclusive, we did not participate, which gave us the day off woohoo! :-) So we took advantage and took a floatplane out flightseeing at the Misty Fjords National Monument.



It was high on my list of things to do while we were here and it was so amazing! The Misty Fjords is an area of about 2 million acres that has been carved by glacial movement thousands of years ago leaving sheer granite cliffs (over 3,000ft high!),



rounded mountaintops, lakes, waterfalls,



& sheer beauty. It's called the "Yosemite of the North" for it's similar geology. The floatplane was called a 'Beaver' (de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver) which is the top bush plane that has can be adapted with skiis, floats, or wheels. We climbed in, with 4 other passengers plus the pilot, and spent about 45 minutes flying from Ketchikan through the Misty Fjords. The flight was spectacular, seeing Ketchikan from the air, identifying all of the features and seeing some new ones! As we flew, we saw all of the traditional trees of the area, amazingly beautiful islands, frozen lakes, lots of snow, black granite cliffs, & incredible colors everywhere. It was a bit overcast which only makes the pictures prettier! Michael sat in the co-pilot's seat on the way out, and I got to sit there on the way back. We landed in the Behm canal after flying over New Eddystone Rock, a 237 ft tall column of basalt in the middle of the canal, a frozen-over Big Goat lake with an incredible 1,800 ft waterfall, and punchbowl.



We were taken to a float plane dock and got to get out of the plane & look around. Then we hopped back in and took an alternate route back with another water landing. It was great! Our pilot was fantastic, answering all of our questions and making sure we got to see all of the wonders of the area. What a treat!! I would highly recommend it to anyone.

We got to work 3 days last week. Two of those days we 'sold ourself' (not illegal!)down at the docks as we did not have any prebooked tours. And one day we went up to Slide Mountain, a private area that only the Hummers are allowed, and cleared the path so as not to scratch the Hummers. That sounds waaaayyy easier than it was! The path is about 3 miles....straight up! There were 4 of us - two had chainsaws, Michael had long-handled pruning shears, and I had a pair of gloves! The boys chopped down and I picked up and threw over the side. There are a ton of wild berries here - blueberries, huckleberries, salmonberries, etc and the bushes grow like weeds! Not to mention the alder trees that are just as bad. It was a spectacular day though and it was nice getting out & doing something different.

We have also walked around the town, introducing ourselves to the local merchants, getting to know what all each place has to offer. Suprisingly (to me at least), many of them offered us a 'you scratch our back, I'll scratch yours' system with either a commission or merchandise. Cool! :-)

Today, we went to The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show which was just fantastic. There were two 'teams' who competed against each other in the different events like pole climbing, wood chopping, log rolling, & axe throwing.



It was amazing to see how quickly they performed each event! I was worried it would be corny and there were some corny things but the show was stunning, fun, & exciting. I was on the edge of my seat much of the show. The guys were great, and not bad looking either! haha...



I asked Michael if he wanted his picture with them and he said no, he had his picture with the Corona girls in Mexico, it was my turn. haha!! Here's a very quick video showing them on the straight saw...



In other news, we're getting all settled in & enjoying the area. We brought our PC 'brain' with us from Mexico as we will be getting a new desktop computer but we didn't bring any of the peripherals - monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer, etc. Since we're fighting each other for computer time on the laptop, we decided we would find a monitor & use it separately. We searched the Thrift stores for a monitor but couldn't find one and they're super expensive (did I mention how everything here and I mean EVERYTHING, is at least 30% more than in the lower 48!). We were driving by the local computer store and we stopped & went inside. We told them what we needed and they guy pointed to an area stacked with about 8 monitors and told us to take whatever we wanted! WOW! So we picked up a monitor, mouse, & keyboard for free! We scored on that deal! But when we got home, we realized we were missing a plug but found it at the thrift store for a buck. We're outfitted now for a whole buck. Not shabby! :-)

We've continued to find restaurants and went to a nice place called Ocean View that was really good - on Cinco de Mayo. We had a margarita and thought warm thoughts about our home in Mexico. We miss all of our cruising friends and are looking forward to next season already. It must be the cold, wet weather! haha... We've also come up with some favorites and 'never go back again' places. And so it goes!

Did you know? Ketchikan gets an average of 162 inches of rain a year...that's over 13 feet of rainfall a year! And the city that's 'known' for it's rain is Seattle but it weighs in at only 37 inches a year! I think Ketchikan has them beat...

OK, gotta get! I was just told I have a tour tomorrow and need to study up!
Enjoy our new pictures!
Rene