[yukon ho!]

scenepix | warnpix | enginepix
[view from the boat deck] There's two sets of pictures, maybe three. The lovely scenery pictures, of which this is one, and of which I got very tired of photographing. Tough to run around with a camera when you'd rather be looking at stuff. Then on the last day, after I had finished most of this, we were invited to take a tour of the engine room. Don't know why, the crew was seeming friendly [and perhaps a bit bored] and we looked game. Then of course, there are all the funny warning signs you see around that are amusing at the time, but maybe not so much later. I have included a few of these because they still seem amusing to me.
I'm not sure if this was imploring us to vote for anything in particular, or just in general. Either way, this house or building, or whatever it was in Ketchikan was typical of a lot of the places we saw. Kinda falling down, funky looking. The book we all read on the boat Going to Extremes which is about rural Alaska, speaks often of the unpainted houses you see around. I reckon it would be tough to keep paint on a house very long in Alaska. [vote already!]
[tsunami evacuation route] I think it can be tough to realize, especially in the nice weather, just how different it can be living someplace so remote, and in such proximity to such exceptional weather patterns. Until you go into a store and are greeted with $3 cans of beans, or signs like this.
This funicular went to the top of a small hill in Ketchikan where there was a swanky restaurant. It was free and we rode it up and down because it was one of the things that was open on the day we were in Ketchikan. [funiculee funicular....] [looking downward]
[big freaking ropes] They toss a smallish rope to the guys on land who start dragging it in. The smallish rope is attached to a very big rope which is what holds the boat in place. It really makes you feel like a namby pamby wimp at your desk job watching people do work like this.