Tuesday In Ketchikan

This is the view from outside our lodge window.  The small commercial planes are constantly on the go and it isn't even the tourist season yet. 

Bridgett Mattson is the seminary teacher in Ketchikan.  We visited her this morning for her 6:00 a.m. seminary class.  About half of the class is on the ferry attending the SE high school basketball tournament being held in Sitka.  The crew on the Taku ferry we arrived in, told us on the return to Sitka they will be picking up 400 high school students in Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburgh.  After her lesson we spent some time visiting with her and getting to know her and her students.  We gave her a few of our thoughts on teaching.  We did suggest that she have her bishop call a teacher to help her.  Each of our Juneau seminary classes have two teachers.  It does help them from burning out so soon because of the early hour 5 days a week during school.

 

Chet Hugo is the son of my cousin Nancy Hugo.  He served in Alaska on his mission and decided at that time that this is where he wanted to live.  His 16 year old son Nat attends Sister Mattson's seminary class.  I was looking forward to meeting Nat's sister, Becca; but she is suffering a bad cold.

There is a beautiful creek that runs through downtown Ketchikan.  The street next to it is called Creek street.  It has a rather naughty past but is very well kept and interesting now.  The buildings are all built on steep creek sides and shored up with pilings to keep them safe from spring run offs.

 

The streets are full of people in Ketchikan after April.  The final cruise ship will pull out in the middle of September and then the streets will look like this, quite empty.  We did find a nice cafe that was advertised as the favorite of the locals.  Their navy bean and ham soup was very good.

This gift shop, closed, had a display of the newspaper printed in 1867 announcing the sale of Alaska to the U.S.  I wonder if Russia regrets that sale?

 

Look what we found in the flower box.  The temperature says that it is 47 degrees.  However the wind reminded us that it is still winter.

 

The buildings are built on pilings to keep them safe from rising creek waters in the spring.  It creates a wonderful wooden walkway to get around.

When you finish your walk around Creek Street you end up facing the Ketchikan Harbor.  Having come from the farm, these are fascinating for me to see.