4th of July in Ketchikan

July 4 in Ketchikan followed true to form for this rainy part of southeast Alaska.
It rained off and on all day. However, when the parade passed by Thomas Basin, it was NOT raining....
Here are parts of the parade, not necessarily in the order it came down the street.

Note the tarped building in the background. That's the Federal Building being prepared for paint.


I showed it to you before as "the ugliest building in town".... pink... some call the color salmon.



Well it was in dire need of a facelift. The town was surveyed to see what color they thought would look good. Well either because of, or in spite of that survey, the color will be pink again.



Rubber Duck Race Float. We discovered later that evening, at the KYC BBQ, one of our members won the $2500 1st prize. It was raining pretty good at the time of the race and we chose not to attend. Wish we had known that this event was the highlight of the day... with free root beer floats, even.




Note the guy with the eagle. When I first looked up, the eagle had his wings stretched. He is one big bird.

Couldn't get another shot of that.



....even tho I tried. That eagle was on good behavior til he was out of sight.... at least.













the class of 2009....












The parade ended in a puff of smoke. A tribute the local fire department, I THINK. Hard to figure it out with all that smoke.




All the town's people - as well as us visitors - seemed to really enjoy this festive day in Ketchikan.

We did Friday Night BBQ at the Yacht Club. We weren't sure how many would show up since there was so much going on here in town on this big weekend. We must have had close to 30 people. Good turnout after all.

We visited with Evie and David from Zambeze, a 32' Grand Banks. They live in Richmond, California, and have spent summers in the Sacramento Delta on their Nordic Folkboat. Ahh the Delta - simmering, sweltering heat.... our old stomping grounds in days of yore. The Delta's only similarity to our current cruising is the "stingers/biters" (here they have skeeters AND no-seeums, AND little black flies they call "white socks" due to the little white patches on their back legs).... but I digress. These folks know Sven of Svenson's, George's favorite marine store in Alameda... so it was old home week. We compared stories and routes of the surrounding area here in Southeast as the locals call this part of Alaska. They're heading north, we heading to Fjords. We will more than likely meet up here again later in the summer.

The fireworks started at 11pm. We stayed awake for them. 15 minutes worth. Just about right for a small town. Not pretentious.... a pleasing concept in these times.

luv/jo
(check out the captain's blog.... he's ripping right along)

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