I used to pay good $$ for salmon! 6.30.09

I've come to heaven! haha... We are getting so incredibly spoiled with fresh salmon, I don't think I will be able to eat it at a restaurant again! We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and we are treated with fresh salmon, caught that day, regularly. A native friend, Art, has given us some, our boat neighbor who is a commercial fisherman, Jeff, and even a guy we work with, James, has spoiled us with some fresh caught salmon - huge pieces!



I am jonesing to get out there and fish myself. Tomorrow we have the day off so we're going to pick up our fishing licenses and a couple poles so we will be ready! The salmon are just beginning to swim upstream for spawning and there are fisherman that are catching their limit of 6 most days! And they're BIG!! They can be upwards of 40lbs!! This is one that James caught - probably 40-45lbs!!



Don't worry, I'll be sure and bring my camera when we go out and shoot some photos. We have also met up with some friends of friends that we met when we were in Mexico, Dave & Peg on an 80' schooner, Alaskan Gypsy, who went out shrimping and brought us back a package of shrimp! YUM!!! We made some improvised shrimp cocktail that was just spectacular.



We tried our hand at making a jelly from here called Spruce Tip jelly. We went for a hike up to Lower Silvis lake and along the way, robbed the Sitka Spruce trees (the state tree) of their tips,



then brought it back to the boat and attempted to make my first batch ever of jelly. First we boiled the tips...



We had to improvise with a couple steps as I didn't have the appropriate parts & pieces but we made it work, straining it being one thing!



It came out.....a bit sweet and not so minty. After discussing with the gal that gave me the recipe, apparently I did not boil the tips long enough. Oh well! Next time. There will be lots more times to try my hand at it....the Salmonberries are beginning to bloom which look like a raspberry but have a blander taste. I will definitely be making a batch of salmonberry jam. :-)

We hiked up to Lower Silvis Lake, looking for 2 geocaches along the way.



The hike was spectacular! It was a butt buster - a constant uphill all the way, but the view at the lake was amazing. It was an overcast day but still managed to take our breaths away (literally at times!). There is an Upper Silvis Lake that we will hike to also, we just didn't have time to hike there this time.



So....here we continue - working away! We have worked hard to make ourselves useful in most positions and can typically work each day, if only for a couple hours. Michael is good on the docks for sales (go figure!) and I have begun helping in the back office with filing. Not to mention doing our tours whenever needed. I have pulled a couple 'doubles' this month - doing two tours in a day. Now that's only 8 hours actually in the Hummer as it's two - 4hr tours, but it can certainly get exhausting talking for all that time! Not to mention a double often turns into 11 hour days. But I volunteer for them all, I'd rather work than not! When we were interviewing for the position, I bugged the manager with the question over and over again - "what are most tours like?" She told me every time that they were all different and couldn't answer the question, which I was baffled about! Surely there was some 'average' tour that she could explain to me. I know now though....it's unexplainable. Each and every tour is totally different! Each group has different things they want to do, different 'quirks', personalities, and it's baffling!! Each day I get back from a tour, I tell Tina (our manager) she was correct and then fill her in on the details of my day. It gets quite comical. I've been trying to write down small snipets that will let me remember each group - where they're from, how many in the group, and that little thing that I'll remember them by: here for their 40th anniversary, honeymoon, met on eharmony, here fishing with grandson, bought reindeer sausage, teacher, librarian, upset, owns a laundromat, etc! It's quite a list. Now Tina says she is putting me in charge of training the new drivers next year so I can explain my 'average' tour! haha... We had our first large tour - a group of 20 and 4 Hummers! I always give the group a business card, which has my e-mail address on it and tell them to shoot me a photo when they get back, or if they have any questions about where we went, what we saw, etc. they can contact me. I have received 3 e-mails so far, which is so EXCITING! To think somehow I made an impact enough that they took time out of their day to write me an e-mail warms my heart. I got this picture from a group out of Texas...



We've continued to explore the area on our days off too. The other day we went to 'Dolly's House'. Dolly Arthur was the most famous 'madam' in the area and left her home as a museum. Dolly purchased the home in 1919 for $800. She would make between $75 and $100 a night, when most men were lucky to make a dollar a day. She charged $3 for 3 minutes of her time, fifty cents for a short shot of watered down whisky, and two dollars for a tall shot. She paid off the house in two weeks! She also had a Handyman special.....for $5 you could get both hammered and screwed. :-) She has an interesting house, with some crazy oddities in it! A vibrator that looks like a power drill



and she has decorated parts of the house with 'flowers' made out of silk condoms.



She had a trap door under the house that she used to smuggle in Canadian whisky during prohibition and if a man didn't want to get caught walking in the front or back door of Dolly's, he could wedge his skiff under the house and climb up! Ketchikan creek has a saying that it is where more men than fish went upstream to spawn. haha!

We splurged on Father's Day and went to a fantastic dinner at the Salmon Falls Resort. What a spectacular place! And the food was out of this world. We had one of those absolutely amazing sunsets that made us realize, again, why we are here! Again, we left the darn camera at home so we were forced to use Michael's cell phone camera - you can only imagine how it really looked. Next year...a new/better camera!



We also had to laugh and remember we're in a small town the other day. We have been living on the boat now for a couple months and have made friends with the neighbors. We get transient boats in the slip beside us and Michael will often help them as they're coming in and chat with them. One day, John, the owner of the boat, came down to use his own dinghy and our neighbor questioned who he was and what he was doing! haha!! Now we KNOW we're in a small town!

Tomorrow is our day off and we have a full day planned! Haircuts, a ride on the underwater tour, and lots of catch-up computer work. The flowers are still blooming like crazy around here and they are so colorful! This is the Alaskan State Flower - the forget-me-not.



More to follow...
Rene

Lots of tours! 6.13.09

How is it possible it’s been two weeks since I last updated?! Time sure flies when you’re working! Haha… And we have been WORKing! We have been very busy. We are scheduled to have one day off a week and though we have gotten them, it sure feels like we’re working every day! The days can be long….if we have ‘doubles’ where we work two tours a day, it easily mounts to 11-12 hours. And we don’t turn down any work that comes our way. Just yesterday, I was released to go home after my morning tour so I took the Hummer back to the barn and caught a ride to the boat so that when Michael ended his tour, he could use the van to get back. I was called as soon as I put on my sweats & a pot of tea and asked if I could come back! Without any wheels my only option was to walk….which I did. We have been lucky we haven’t had to work on the docks for a week or so – there are enough Hummer tours sold to keep us working. Working for tips is sure a humbling experience for me. We have both been stiffed now and we wonder for days what we did to deserve it. I had one couple that spent over $1200 shopping for gifts for the family….and didn’t manage to get a one dollar tip from. What on earth could I have done to improve that tour?! And we even saw BEARS!!! But we continue to roll with the punches and hope for the best on the next tour. Tomorrow we get another rare day off together though I will more than likely go into the office and help the office manager with some projects. We’ve had people from all over the world and from all walks of life! All over the U.S., Holland, Egypt, Japan, Australia, plumbers, doctors, truck drivers – you name it!!

The wildlife has began to show itself more and more – I saw two bears just yesterday, some deer, pods of Orca whales (killer whales), salmon spawning upstream, and the ever present bald eagles. When I saw the bears, I’m pretty sure I was more excited than my passengers. Haha!!

We haven’t had much time to explore the area the past couple weeks as we have been so exhausted in the evening. It’s amazing how much energy we use on a 4 hour tour. One tour we had been looking forward to taking is the horse drawn trolley tour and we were able to jump on one this week. We enjoy learning what is being told on the other tours. The narrator on the tour was very informative and we picked up a couple of tidbits to use on our tour. I have been hearing all about a local jelly called Spruce Tip jelly and wanted to learn how to make it and it just so happened that the narrator had just made some so she told me the recipe and gave me a jar! The next day off, we went spruce tip hunting and once we get enough of them, will make our own. The spruce tree grows bright green ‘tips’ on the end of it’s branches that must be picked before they get too old, then boiled, and the juice is made into jelly.



I’ve never before made jelly so I’m excited to try. The Salmonberries have just started growing too, so in a few weeks we’ll be making salmonberry jelly & jam! The salmonberry looks just like a raspberry and has a little blander taste. We found a couple ripe berries the other day and ate them – yummy!! There are salmonberry bushes everywhere! The salmonberry has a bright pink flower on it that is edible and it’s fun getting the tourists to eat them. It has the taste of sweet grass….haha!!



The flowers are blooming in the area and are stunningly beautiful!



There are some bright orange California poppies that are as big as a softball, Bleeding heart flowers in City park, and lots of color everywhere!

I worked on the morning shift of my birthday and we had a very nice evening. No big parties this year! We went to dinner at Cape Fox, one of the higher end restaurants in the area.



The meal was just so-so and was very expensive….and the mixed drinks were too small. I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant but after eating dinner, we rode the funicular down the hill & walked all around town until dusk.



It was a lovely evening. I wanted something special for my birthday – a necklace that reminded me of the area and was unique. We scoured the town, checking out each and every store looking for that special necklace. Finally, just yesterday, I spotted it. It is a circular pendant with a native carving of the Raven. My favorite legend is of Raven stealing the Sun and this pendant reminds me of the story. It was well worth the wait. I have received numerous comments about it already.



I’ll tell you my rendition of Raven stealing the Sun, which is a Haida story. In the beginning the world was in total darkness. The Raven was tired of groping about and bumping into things in the dark. Eventually the Raven came upon the clanhouse of a powerful chief. Through his slyness, the Raven learned that he had a great treasure. This was all the light in the universe, contained in a tiny box concealed within many boxes. At once the Raven vowed to steal the box. He thought and thought, and finally came up with a plan. He waited until the chief’s daughter came to the river to gather water. Then the Raven changed himself into a single hemlock needle and dropped himself into the river, just as the girl was dipping her water-basket into the river. As she drank from the basket, she swallowed the needle. It slipped and slithered down into her warm belly, where the Raven transformed himself again, this time into a tiny human. After sleeping and growing there for a very long time, at last the Raven emerged into the world once more, this time as a human infant.

Even though he had a rather strange appearance, the Raven's grandfather loved him. But the chief threatened dire punishment if he ever touched the precious bent wood box. One day when the chief was out hunting, the Ravenchild went to the bentwood box and opened it. The first things to escape were the moon & stars, setting the land in a beautiful twilight. The chief began to run back to the clanhouse but before he could get there, Ravenchild changed himself back into a raven and pushed the sunlight out of the opening in the clanhouse. And that is how the sun, moon, & stars came into the universe. When you hear Raven calling in the forest, it's because he's still laughing about how clever he was

I have to tell you about a gift I received from a visitor the other day. I was working at the ‘Quack Shack’, attempting to sell myself a Hummer tour, and was chatting to everyone as they walked by. Now it’s a bit difficult to chat with folks because they don’t want to be propositioned and I get a lot of ‘no, thank you’ even before I can say anything. So I always just say “hi”, “How are you doing, sir”, etc just to get people to look my way. One man in particular walked by and I asked him how he was doing & he paused a moment to answer so I asked him what he was planning to do in town. He told me he was just going to walk around so I told him about my favorite ‘must see’s’ in Ketchikan – all within walking distance. He listened intently and I told him to make sure and stop by Dolly’s house and tell her I said hi. Dolly is the famous ‘madam’ of the area and her house is now a museum. He thanked me and went on his way. About 2 hours later, he showed back up and asked for me and told me to give him my hand. Then he slipped an origami dollar ring on my finger that he made and said it had an inscription that said ‘A dollar for a real doll’.



How cool is that?! It was incredibly nice and unexpected! Just a little perk of working with the tourists!!

I even had a group of geocachers in the Hummer this week! We were talking about what we would do that day and explained every stop we would make when they interrupted and said ‘we have one special request….have you ever heard of geocaching?’ HAVE I!! It was incredibly fun. It was a couple with a 6 year old daughter and we had fun finding 5 caches while they were here. Michael is working on a flyer to send to the cruise ships promoting the Hummers as geocaching friendly.

Not too much to report, but I'll update when I get a chance!!
Rene

Need some rubber boots?! Tongass Trading company has every size imaginable!! haha...