Alaska - Our 50th state

Day 4 - Tuesday, August 23, 2022 - Ketchican, Alaska


Up at 5:45 and room service came with our breakfast just after 6. The ship arrived in Ketchican at 7:00 and we disembarked and found our excursion meeting place. Norm was our guide for the morning and he showed us all around the city and shared some of the history and present day facts regarding it. Ketchican is known as the "Salmon Capital of the World" - move over Pulaski - and we saw hundreds of salmon at the fish ladders. There is a population of just over 8,000 people but it gets 1.4 million visitors a year. He shared his indigenous background and talked about the symbols on his vest which we later saw in the totems. This area has the largest collection of standing totems. We saw a black bear mother and cub from a distance. We went to Saxman Village and he explained what each of the totems there represented. The weather cooperated for us. Ketchican averages 165 inches of rain a year and it had been rainy last week but we lucked out. When I think of Alaska I think of snow but they had 6 years without snow but then had 3 1/2 feet last winter. We returned to the village and did some window shopping before going back to the ship. We got some lunch and then went for some quiet time. Ron was not feeling great. He had a cold and kept coughing. I got him some cough syrup and we ordered room service and made it an early evening.

Our ship docked in Ketchican





Ketchican is the southern most city of the Inside passage


Every where we looked there were beautiful views


 Norm's vest which represents his background

                                     The animals of Ketchican





The fish ladder

Don't think you can tell but the dark shadows in the water are salmon

                                            Our Native Guide Norm



A mocking totem

Abe Lincoln









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