As we sail up the fjord, I am struck by how many houses there are along the shore. Houses that can’t be more than 1-2 meters above sea level. The road that hugs the shoreline reminds me of Road #1 in Iceland which circumnavigates much of the Iceland in sight of the ocean while avoiding the harsher landscape. The road appears to be two-lane with pine forests rising sharply from the land side edge of the road.
There is an extremely detailed article on Ketchikan in Wikipedia. In previous years, the average census of the town was doubled to tripled by the arrival of cruise ships. It isn’t hard to understand why a town with a population of under 9k could easily wind up being outnumbered by the tourists. OTOH – I think that tourism is part of the summer life blood.
(picture of the map)
Besides seeing Tsunami warning signs which is a recognition that being on the coast might not always be the safest place; a fair amount of the town is built on piers which just might be a further challege
(pix)
I wandered around for an hour or two – found The Whale Tail (the local quilt shop) and Parnassus Books which is the local book store. There are also coffee shops, so I was able to indulge myself in a latte. Or maybe a mocha…..
And then I came back to the ship…..
(note, I finally gave up trying to upload photos…
