*Lana's Daily Fun Fact*
Ketchikan is known as Alaska's "First City" and "The Gateway to Alaska" because it is the first major community travelers come to as they journey north along the famous Inside Passage. It is also the salmon capital of the world and home to the world's oldest collection of totem poles at Totem Heritage Center. Not bad for Alaska's fourth-largest city.

*Dave's Daily Fun Fact*
The average amount of rainfall in Ketchikan is 12.5 feet annually. That's 150 inches of rain a year! Even if I were somehow physically able to stand on my own shoulders, I would still be underwater. That's crazy.

Ketchikan! Nothing like waking up at 6:30 in the morning on your vacation. The scary part is that sunrise was at 4:04am today. I bet even the early bird forgets the worm and hits the snooze for a few more hours of sleep. We started off with a quick breakfast and headed straight to town so we wouldn't miss our first excursion. The weather was just like San Francisco: in the low 50's and drizzly. Just the way we like it! It would sprinkle throughout the day, but nothing major to prevent us from having fun.

Ketchikan is a very small and quaint town; one t-shirt summed it up:"a small drinking town with a fishing problem." We walked along the pier and made our way to The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. We shopped around the Lumberjack Store for a few items before waiting in line. Some punk couple pretended to be interested in some items near the register and then ended up cutting the family behind us. If I were that family, I would have had to bust out my mad lumberjack skills on them.

The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show is exactly what it sounds like: imagine Ranger Rick meets ESPN and then gets hooked on steroids. It was very entertaining and we highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Ketchikan. Sourdough Sadie (sourdough is a term for anyone who has spent one winter in Alaska) was our saloon singer turned lumberjack hostess who provided all the introductions and colorful commentary. The show was essentially a contest between two American lumberjacks (Nate and Rylan) from the Spruce Mill Camp (our side) and two Canadian lumberjacks (Kasey and Corey) from the Dawson Creek Camp (no relation to James "I don't want yer life" Van Der Beek and Katie "I'm having Satan's child" Holmes). The winner of each event (axe bullseye, speed sawing, log chopping, etc.) gets a point for their camp, and the camp with the most points at the end wins.There was lots of trash talking, corny jokes and puns, boos and jeers, and just plain wood-destroying fun. We won by 1 point in the end, but I'm sure the whole thing was rigged (go USA!). I don't think I've ever been so excited to see rugged woodsmen go postal on Mother Nature.

After my testosterone level came back to normal, we shopped some more and the headed back to the pier for our seaplane tour. Our pilot was Michelle of Island Wings Air Service, and we went on a flightseeing tour of Misty Fjords National Monument (we originally signed up for the Glacier/Fjords combo tour, but the weather didn't permit for the glacier part). At the dock, there were probably about a dozen bald eagles perched on logs or soaring in the skies, co-existing with 'roid-raged crows. The eagles were an incredible sight to see, considering we had only seen eagles in museums or on flags. Alaska is home to thousands of bald eagles, and we would see a lot more during the rest of our trip. The seaplane itself was really cool: the take-off's and landings were very smooth and we each had headsets to listen to music (to drown out the sound of the propellers) and to communicate with one another. We flew 3500 feet high over 2.2 million acres of forest (2/3 of which is considered a protected National Monument, meaning the government has control of the other 1/3 for logging or extraction of natural resources) that was carved by glaciers. There were alpine lakes and saltwater fjords surrounded by sheer granite walls and waterfalls tumbling thousands of feet. We also got a chance to land on Manzanita lake, a pristine mountain lake 1000 feet above sea level and beautifully surrounded by small waterfalls and snow-capped mountains (this company is the only one that offers the chance to land on a lake and allow us to walk along the shore)! Even though it was drizzling, it was still such an awesome experience.

By the time we got back onboard our ship, we were super tired and took a much needed nap after a quick bite to eat. So far, we were having an awesome time in Alaska, and we couldn't wait to see what tomorrow had in store for us!