Ketchikan - "The Sound of Thundering Eagle Wings"

September 14 – From Donna: Thursday we awoke at 6:30am and found the seaport of Ketchikan ("The Sound of Thundering Eagle Wings") right outside our balcony… literally. It was still dark, but the streets were lit up, a few cars were making their way here and there, and sleepy dock workers were ambling toward our ship to help pull it up against the pier. It was almost a parallel parking job, as we first lined up with the pier and then moved in sideways while a few men grabbed various lines and tied us into place. Pretty soon, the gangway was dropped, and everyone started lining up to depart the ship for a quick few hours in town.

We were very impressed with Ketchikan – perhaps more so than with any of the other towns. The port area is newly rebuilt, with many buildings standing in piers right over the water. Because the mountains come right down almost to the water, the people here decided to make their own flat ground by constructing almost their entire tourist district right over the sea.

The structures were new, clean, brightly painted, and all decked out like a Maine fishing village. Assorted boats bobbed in a marina and the sun came up bright and warm, turning it into a perfect morning. “You must have brought the good weather with you,” one shop owner said to us. “Normally we have rainy Septembers. You’re very lucky.”

We walked around, up one street and down the other, enjoying the array of local crafts and art, though we sneered at the interminable collection of jewelry shops. It seems that every port town is set up to lure in shoppers to buy diamonds, tanzanite, jade, emeralds, gold, watches, and other expensive goods. A local explained that most of them are owned by the cruise lines. “If they don’t get you to buy on board, then they get you to buy on shore,” he said.

Diane and I agreed that it was better to spend money in shops owned by the locals and to buy their handmade goods. After all, if we’re visiting their towns, we should contribute to their livelihood.

We stopped in one taxidermy shop where the proprietor was grizzled and friendly, but he appeared to have been quite handsome in his youth. Behind his counter, he had some artwork done by his grandkids. “My own kids don’t like me,” he said, “but the grandkids think I’m wonderful. My wife and I really like being grandparents.”

His shop was jammed with all kinds of leather, furs and skins – all beautiful pieces made into coats, collars, gloves, shawls, jackets, hats, scarves and anything else to ward off an Alaska winter. He also had collections of animal skulls – wolves, tortoises, beavers, wolverines, coyotes, and other animals found in the woods. “You need fur to stay warm here,” he said. “I don’t understand those places where they don’t like you to wear fur. Up here, they think you’re nuts if you don’t use it.”

In another shop, the owner sold beautiful arts and crafts made by local people. I picked up a pretty piece made from weathered beach glass and armature wire. “These are made by two sisters earning their way through dental school,” the woman said. “Their parents said that if they wanted to get eight years of college, they’d better start wrapping glass and selling it. Both of them are great kids. One of them is Alaska’s Junior Miss.”

She had another story for Diane, who picked out some brushes made from animal fur. “These are made by identical twin brothers,” the woman said. “They’re potters by trade, but they make their own glazing brushes. After a while, they started selling the brushes because people liked them so much.”

That’s the reason I prefer spending money on local stuff. The things in a jewelry store can be found anywhere. But you can help two girls in dental school only by picking up their handmade art.

We hadn’t seen much in the way of exotic wildlife, so we asked the shop owner in Ketchikan where we could see some eagles. “Oh, those are as common as pigeons around here. Just walk up the creek a bit, and you should see some feeding on the fish.”

So we headed in the direction she pointed us, arriving at a short bridge spanning the creek. It was incredible to see the water alive with fish leaping here and there. The creek was teeming with salmon, all crowded together, aiming in the same direction – upstream. Moving only a few inches at a time, they swam against the current to reach their spawning grounds, where they would lay and fertilize eggs before dying off. Three years ago, these same fish had hatched and moved down toward the sea, where they matured and grew into adulthood. Now they were returning to the place where they were born, ensuring that there would be a next generation to do the same thing.

We followed up the creek along a wooden sidewalk elevated on the steep banks. It was lined on both sides with old wooden buildings transformed for commercial use – mostly shops and museums. The most notable was Dolly’s House, a former bordello once owned by a young woman who earned her living by pleasing the old gold prospectors from a century ago. Her place was not illegal, as any place with only one or two women living together was not considered a bordello. So many houses of prostitution were set up by these solitary ladies. Dolly herself ran away from home at an early age to escape abuse. At 18, she figured out that she could make a better living in prostitution than by waiting tables. Her home proved to be one of the most popular in town.

Our stay in Ketchikan was too short. We had to return to the ship by noon, giving us only four hours in town - a huge disappointment because there was so much more to see. We envied the passengers on the other ships, who got to spend all day. As consolation, we hoped to see some bears along the shoreline as we left town, but alas, we saw no bears, just as we’d seen no eagles. However, a few hours later, a passing whale put on a great display of raising its tail above the water and splashing his way through the sea.