Weather Report/ No report given as the ship pulled into port. (rainy)
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The 30th of May was spent in the port of Ketchikan, Alaska. Cruise ships make this a port of call. The city caters to the tourists as they do in the city of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Many of the same exotic jewelry stores, galleries, and souvenir shops are in both cities. It was overheard that the cruise ship lines take 20 percent off the top of all vendors as part of the deal.
The landscape surrounding Ketchikan is stunning. Ketchikan is a temperate rain forest. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, "Many scientists study the rain forest as an ecosystem - that is, they investigate the relationships among all its living things and the environment that supports them. Because of its great diversity of life, the rain forest ranks as the most complex ecosystem on land. Biologists have discovered and classified only a small percentage of the organisms believed to live there. As scientists learn more about rain forests, they can better understand how to conserve these and other ecosystems."
The researchers and I took a short hike through a salmon hatchery and then to town exploring the shops along the way. Creek St. is a boardwalk built on pilings that run along side the creek. Shops line the boardwalk. The taxidermist shop was interesting. There was a nine-foot polar bear that greeted you as you entered the store. Hundreds of pelts hung from hooks. A white wolf, gray wolf, wolverine, red fox, black bear, mule deer, musk ox, and all kinds of birds were displayed with lifelike effects.
It was a fun day to be ashore, but alas, as safe as it is for a ship to be in a harbor, ships are meant to be at sea.
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