ALASKA – Ketchikan day two
July 30
Monday Not such a rainy day as
yesterday. We headed out to Saxman Totem Park...we were looking for
Nathan Jackson who we had heard about from our John Holod Alaska DVD
which had been the inspiration for this trip. It was our lucky day!
Nathan was there. While there, he invited us into his studio. We felt very privileged to visit with him as he was working. Nathan Jackson is
an American artist. He is among the most important living Tlingit
artists and the most important Alaskan artists. He is best known for
his totem poles, but works in a variety of media. He has created more
than 50 totem poles, some of which are on display in the National
Museum of the American Indian, Not only did he invite us in, but
he introduced us to his son who is currently a student at Columbia
University in NY and is continuing the tradition of a Tlingit carver.
When a cruise ship tour showed up, before they came in, Nathan told
us and a young man who had brought him a king salmon from his day of
fishing, that the three of us could stay after the tour left. The
whole encounter was very special and one of the highlights of our
trip.
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| Nathan Jackson, Tlingit totem carver |
We
drove out to Herring Cove. We had heard that the bears gathered
there in the evening and we were hoping to see some. We weren't
disappointed! We saw about 6 brown bears in the creek. Gary got
some good pictures. Also, got more pictures of bald eagles. My
goodness, Alaska is full of bald eagles!
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| The three bears |
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| Mama bear |
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| Eagle coming in for a landing |
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| Eagles grow on trees in Alaska |
Driving
back into town we caught sight of these sea planes “paralleled”
parked at the dock! If you live on the Inside Passage, you need a
sea plane or a boat to get around. A ferry passenger from Wrangell on the ferry told us that there is 2.5 boats per household.
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| How would you like to parallel park one of these on your driver's test? |
We
had to catch our ferry, Matanuska, at 2:30am. We went back to the
RV and packed for the night on the ferry. Hard to believe that when
we get on this ship we will be saying good-bye to Alaska. Next stop
Canada...our trip home is beginning.
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| 1am ferry loading --- Good-bye Alaska :( |
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| Sailboat seem from our ferry |
what an amazing time you are having! And blogging about it will keep it fresh long after your return home. When do Laurie & Craig catch up with you. Has the time gone this quickly? You are going to be back in the 48 states already.
ReplyDeleteWell, I wanted to say Thank You for taking me on a wonderful trip from NY to Alaska. I looked through each page as I was hungry for information on RV'ing to Alaska. It's on my bucket list and since I live in Spokane, I'm VERY close compared to all the miles you had to travel.
ReplyDeleteMy My My..the exciting things you went through. I would love if you had a page that sort of summarized the entire trip and that included cost of things, such as how many windshields did you go through by the end of that trip?! And of course, how much did it cost!
My wife and I are eager to retire and Alaska will be our 1st major trip, so I made a list of many of the things you mentioned as far as places to visit and things you experienced, both good and bad. I had never thought about taking the RV on a cruise back to the states...going to have to think about that. Would be good to know what that cost too.
BTW, you mentioned Milepost guide, I stopped mid viewing and ordered it from Amazon. Sounds like a perfect tool for seeing things on that trip.
Anyway, really enjoyed your post and pictures and look forward to experiencing 'some' of the same things you guys did.
By the way...for some reason Gary looks familiar, but maybe he just has one of those faces, but when I 1st saw a picture of him on the blog I was like, "Wait a minute...I KNOW that guy!!"..but can't figure out if I really know him or he just has one of those faces.
Well, thanks again guys I sure did enjoy everything you shared. I'd be curious to know what camera you used for many of those shots.
Also, if you did do a summary post, perhaps you could put some of the high and low points and things you might do differently, such as the time of year, or maybe not do this, but definitely do this, etc, etc. And would you take an animal with you? Just thoughts.
God bless.
Paul aka TriMoot