Ketchikan

I don’t know if you’ve ever run a mile through the dirty streets of Ketchikan, barefoot with a stomach full of beer, but I don’t recommend it. 

 

            The ferry stopped in Ketchikan today and we had 4 hours.  4 hours is plenty of time to walk the 2 miles into town, grab some real food, maybe a beer, and walk back.  After all, I’ve been sitting for days.  As I’m coming into town I run into the guy who has a chair right behind me and we start chatting.  We wander together for quite awhile, grab something to eat and head back.  On the way back there’s a bar called the Arctic Bar and it’s “Home of the Happy Bears.”  You can imagine what the picture of the bears was.  Of course, we have to stop for a drink.  You can’t pass that up.  We get to drinking and talking and then I notice kids jumping off the pier.  He’s from New York so I tell him he can hardly leave Alaska without jumping in the ocean.  I can be quite convincing when I put my head to it and eventually, he decides to do it.   We finish our pitcher and head to the pier.  In he goes and then understands why I stayed on land.  40 degree water is cold no matter how hot it is outside. 

 

            We start back to the boat and suddenly realize there is no way we’re going to make it.  Panic.  Huge panic.  We have to run.  We’ve had a pitcher of beer, which my gluten-free-stomach was already angry about and I’m wearing flops.  So, we’re running down the main street in Ketchikan to catch the ferry.  They saw us sprinting across the parking lot and were gracious enough to wait for us as I limped in barefoot.  But you know, once I could breathe and was sure I wasn’t going to puke, the only thing I could think was, “Man, I wish I’d jumped in too!”