Friday, Ketchikan

On Friday we docked at Ketchikan, Alaska.  We docked early and had to be back on the ship before 1pm so I woke up early and got off the ship.
Looking back at my mobile hotel it looked enormous.  I had an interior cabin.  I think it would be great to cruise with one of those picture windows like the deck on the bottom.
Lots of ships were docked at Ketchikan that Friday.
We had to walk to our first shore activity.  I passed this statue on the way.  I think it represents the different pioneers who settled Alaska.
Even early in the morning, the port was busy.
Ketchikan was not as quaint was Skagway.  It was an old logging town.
There were lots of shops.
But, my shore activity involved a logging show and a Native American village.  First up logging.
Basically, it was a tourist show featuring strapping young men on two "teams" of loggers competing.  It seemed fairly rigged.  It was mildly entertaining, but I wouldn't have booked it except that it was part of the package to see the Native American village.
So, the loggers climbed on things and chopped things.
I think this was a chain saw sculpture.  It was a rabbit that became a chair for a little kid.
I think Canada won that day.

As we drove on the bus out to Saxman village, I noticed this totem in a yard.  We heard later that anyone can order a totem.  The poles cost at least $1000 a foot.
Our first stop was the Tlingit community center.  Those were symbols of the various family groups.
I think this was a maternal culture.  We learned that the Tlingit were more genetically similar to the Polynesians than the rest of the native groups.
Then we walked through a little wood.
It is a rain forest there, so there were ferns, but it has been a dry year.
Then we went to a dance ceremony  It was really loud with lots of drums.  Liked that mothers danced with their babies and even young children joined the dance.
They wore symbols of their clans on the back of their robes.
We left the lodge and went to see the totems.
This one was Seward, the man who negotiated buying Alaska.  He came up there and didn't return gifts for the ones he was given at the celebrations they gave for him, so this totem pokes fun at him.
They say that they just go to the hardware store and buy paint for the totems.  They can't seal them because moisture from inside would cause them to rot from the inside out.
They reproduce the old ones and make new ones just the same every few years.
They sell them to hotels and individuals for thousands of dollars.
Another view of Seward.
This explains that the Saxman village is named for Samuel Saxman, a school teacher who was lst in Dec. 1886 while scouting for a new location for the people of Tongass and Cape Fox Villages.  This is the world's largest collection of totems.  Many were relocated from other villages and restored under the Federal Works Project directed by the US Forest Service in 1939.
We went into a workshop where a famous totem artist was working on a new totem.
And then it was over.  We got back a few minutes early for the boat.
I shopped very briefly and then got aboard.  They weren't kidding about departure.  They would leave without you and charge you a thousand dollars for missing the boat.
This is looking back at Ketchikan.
And we were underway fairly quickly. Leaving Alaska behind.

The sun went down making a beautiful sunset.
These look almost the same, but notice the islands in the distance.
We were headed back toward Victoria and Seattle.

My steward didn't do an animal for me that evening.  I think the frog the night before was the last one. Even though we had one more stop, the cruise was winding down.