Monday, July 4, 2011

Vacation, Part 5: Ketchikan

After Glacier Bay, we headed to Ketchikan.  Mom, Andrew and I boarded a boat.


The difference between low and high tide in Ketchikan is staggering.  We were at a particularly low point the morning we took our ride, and we saw eagles, a mink*, and these stunning sea stars.


The boat took us to an old salmon cannery.  Although the cannery is closed, it's now used for storage for fishermen and for tours.  There's an intact line, so they showed us the process of how the salmon were processed.  I am very, very grateful to be a vegetarian.



After the cannery, we took a short walk through the forest to get to a waiting bus.

The bus took us to Saxman Totem Village, a FDR-created New Deal project for the Tlinglit tribe.  



*I would like to know who first saw a mink and thought, "You know what would be awesome?  Raising these guys on 'farms' so we can kill them, skin them, and make them into coats!"  They're small and... well, ferret-looking.  We really should be smarter as a species than to make mink coats.  After seeing a live mink, I do feel particularly amused to think of rich, obnoxious women wearing their skins.  It's like a ferret coat.  My amusement is little help to the minks, and I apologize to them.

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