15 May 2006: Day 3 - Ketchikan, Salmon Capital Of The World.

According to the tour guide, there are 5 types of salmon available in Ketchikan – the “chum”or dog salmon, the sockeye salmon, the king or Chinook salmon, the silver salmon and the pink (north atlantic) salmon.

So yesh, welcome to Ketchikan.

This is the immediate view from the ship.



And me and my mom.



Yes, my hair is unusually thick and unusually black. *sigh*

And me and my dad, with the “Welcome to Ketchikan” sign.



And a close-up with it.



Our ship docked at 6.30am today, but due to my mom’s kiasuness, she was up by 5am, and me and my dad, by 6am. We went down to the International Dining Room for breakfast, which has this culture of pairing small parties from different nationalities with those of other nationalities. This morning, we were paired up with a couple of ladies from Australia, one of whom who was proudly Scottish, and an elderly American from Minnesota who looked like and was as jolly as Santa Claus.

It was a delight chatting with them. And the breakfast of ham steak and mushroom omelette tasted pretty damn good too.

After tt, we walked onto the pier for our tour today – the Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary Tour. We boarded the tour bus which took us out of town and to a part of the Tongass Rainforest, North America’s largest temperate rainforest tt spanned 17 million acres.

This is the view from the bus.



We got to pass by the ocean as we rode towards Tongass. The view was utterly amazing. We saw 2 American bald eagles on the rocks waiting for the salmon to come in, while a whale was spotted in the water.

We then started on the rainforest walking tour, which led us through a trail through the forest, in the hope tt we would see black bears today.



That is me, erm… too close-up though.



And this are black bear territorial clawings on the bark of a tree.



Ketchikan blueberry flowers – the sweetest berries around.



And this cross between a moss and an algae, which may only grow where the air is 99% pure or more. It also marks a welcome to the freshest air… possibly on this side of the world. Haha.

Me on the bridge after the forest.



Sandpipers in the water of the salmon hatchery.



Unfortunately, today we saw neither black bear nor white wolf nor Sitka short-tailed deer.

We did however, see reindeer!

Say “hello reindeer!”



This little fella’s domesticated. Reindeer were introduced to Alaska as food. But these guys are just pets. And we got to feed them. So I got to feed this guy and pet and stroke him, and omg but he is so gorgeous. He’s big and furry, and his vascular antlers are soft and furry too. And his eyes. The most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Big and brown and gentle, and with long long lashes.



But boy oh boy is he a greedy little bugger. Never stops eating. Hee hee.



After tt, we went to see the saw mill.



See the massive saw behind me!

And taxidermy!



Bear. And taxidermy.



Me with bear. Poor bear.



Moose and taxidermy.



Me with moose. Poor moose.



Totem pole! And for everyone’s who has been wondering, no a totem pole is not a religious symbol or anything to do with idol worship. In the days of old, the Native Americans or First Nations people as they were known here, had no way of preserving their stories and folktales in any kind of language other than through the images carved on the totem pole. As such, the totem pole was a living piece of their history, and every totem pole tells a different story.

After tt, it was back to Ketchikan for a walk.



Chocolate!!! Handmade Ketchikan chocolates… yummy. Except for the price. Not-so-yummy.

By the time we headed back to the ship, the queue in was horrendously long. Here is a view from the middle of the queue.



But we did get back in time for lunch. And guess what I had for lunch? I had calamari for my appetizer, and for my entrée… rabbit.



To be precise, rabbit roulade wrapped in broccoli and parma ham.



I look happy. Haha.

But actually, it tastes pretty well… dry. Doesn’t look or smell like rabbit, neither white nor furry nor anything. But rabbit meat is like eating dry chicken or turkey breast. It’s dry and needs salt or gravy.

I am such a carnivore.

Dessert was… Swan.

Wahaha.

But before you look upon me with your bleeding heart animal activist eyes…

This was the kind of swan tt I ate.



YUM.

Oh, and this is another ship tt docked at our harbour – the Norwegian Sun. Yeah, tt is the average size of a ship.



How do you think it can hold 18 levels… I mean, decks, in all?
Anyway we got in pretty early, but I spent the rest of my afternoon on the ship either a) sleeping, or b) watching TV (they were showing “Rumor Has It” and “Pride And Prejudice”, so I watched both.

Dinner was at the Savoy dining room. We got a table by the window, so this is what we got to see while we were eating.



And up close.



Me and my dad.



And for my dinner, this is what I had:

Appetizer was escargots in garlic herb butter sauce.



And goose liver pate.



Followed by French onion soup.



The main course: frog legs with marinara sauce.



Me with my yummy dish.

As always, altogether now: “Tastes like chicken!”

And dessert: chocolate mousse.



And me with my yummy chocoholic mousse.



Yes the food is decadent.

After dinner, we got to watch the evening live performance: this stand-up ventriloquist called Dan Horn was performing. After tt I went online for a while (coz going online costs US $0.35 a minute), and watched X-Files till I fell asleep. Close to 3 am. Damn those pesky afternoon naps.