Ketchikan, located 230 miles south of Juneau and 700 miles north of Seattle, is very cute. Very, very cute. Where Juneau has little personality, and Sitka is an attractive small town, Ketchikan is cute. Probably cuter than my few pictures make it appear.

It is not the capital of the state, it does not have a 10,000 year Tlinget or 200+ year Russian history. It is a town built in the early 20th century to process the salmon that run up the river through town (there were 13 canneries), and its second biggest industry a century ago seems to have been the thirty prostitution houses built to support the single men who came to work in the canneries.

Today, tourism is the biggest industry and the buildings which used to serve as brothels now serve as gift shops and restaurants. The population is about the same as Sitka’s but it has a different vibe.

A couple of stories.

1. There is a cafe called the New York Cafe, which was (maybe still is) owned by a Japenese-American family. At one time, Ketchikan was residentially segregated (Whites on one side, Native Americans on the other), and the Japanese-Americans were forced to live with their indigenous neighbors. I think that was changed and they were allowed to live elsewhere. Until World War II came, and they were moved to an internment camp.

2. We talked with a young woman who works at (owns?) an upscale shop called Ketchikan Dry Goods. She has lived here all of her 36 years and we were talking about life in the city (she rates it A+++), and then we got to her 14 year old son, and then to her 32 year old brother who came back from 10 years in the military with pretty severe PTSD, and then — whoa! — to her parents….both of whom died in a house fire only two months ago. Whoa!

Digression. Hannah broke away from the rest of us this morning to have breakfast with a graduate school friend who lives here and teaches in the middle school. She got a full island tour. End of digression.

Digression #2. Edie and Michelle met a bear while walking up a street right in the middle of town.

He was friendly and agreed to pose for the picture without asking for anything in return.

Other Ketchikan tidbits. Senator Lisa Murkowski’s home town. And the place where Ben Loman had an appointment in Death of a Salesman.

The food on the ship has been excellent (to my surprise) and last night we went to the Tamarind, the Asian specialty restaurant, and splurged on a premium dinner. I started with a Thai lemongrass soup with wontons, and then had two Mongolian lamb chops, bok choy, Thai fried rice, and Asian eggplant. Dessert was a trio of three sorbets – lychee, lemon-basil, and yuzu.

At 9:30 was the “Chocolate Surprise”. About 30 Indonesian servers walked through Deck 3 carrying trays of chocolate squares, white chocolate squares, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate macarons, and (the best of them all) chocolate covered cheerios.

Today (Friday) will be our last full day at sea. Saturday morning we dockk back in Seattle and then our week on land begins.