They're Back!

It's been said that there is a season for everything as lately our town has seen some real changes this past week. Like the salmon that return each year so have the tourist. In one way its good to see people visiting our town from all over the world. But its not long before we are wishing we had our sleepy little sea side town back to our selves.

It seems that most of these visitor lose their sense of social bearing as jay walking is the one thing they have in common. Jay walking by these visitors is a real big problem for our town which distrubs the flow of traffic in the down town area. What usually takes a few minutes to drive through town can at times take us 10 minutes. It has gotten so bad over the years that the town was forced to hire crossing guards. As you can tell by these photos even the crossing guards are ignored.

Not only have the tourists returned to town but there is another group of people that show up each spring. The Alaska Department of Transportation feels the need to repair our roads, for which we are grateful, but during the tourist season? (Pat says, "what other season is there besides the rainy season?")

The roads just beyond the tunnel and down by the airport ferry terminal are all dug up. ADOT is not only repairing our roads but they're upgrading our water and sewer systems at the same time. Needless to say it does slow down life a bit in the summer.

Some of the residents find refugee from all of this activity during this time of the year as they participate in the Annual Memorial Day Salmon Fishing Derby. As you can see by the parking lot at Mountain Point which is full of parked vehicle and boat trailers this year's derby has a good showing. This will be the norm for the rest of the month. The derby fleet was quite large this weekend as it turned out to be a beautiful day to be out on the water. To bad I didn't have a boat it would've been nice to be out on the water soaking in the sun and reeling in a few salmon. Can't wait to find out what was the largest fish caught this weekend. They will not award a winner until the end of the month.

The other day towards the end of the evening I noticed a group of vehicles parked on the side of the road and people pointing out to sea. Pulling over to the side I jumped out just in time to see a fairly large pod of orca whales diving close to shore.

These creatures come through these waters every year about this time. It was great to just stand there witnessing them hunting for salmon circling out about 50 yards then closing in within a few yards of shore.

As soon as the sun started dipping below the horizon the whales formed in to small groups and headed off in the direction of the sunset. Each of us just kind of walked away not saying anything and drove off to our homes. There are some things that we don't mind returning to Ketchikan. If many of us had a choice these are the type of visitors we would all like to see more of in the future. Good thing we don't have that choice as these events do make our town seem special.