The view from the deck… but the sun was shining enough to require sun glasses… what a relief.
Arrived at 7am… our tour today was a late one where we had been getting earlier each day today it was 11am… We didn’t go in till tour time so we didn’t have a chance to over spend money… we still bought a lot of stuff… not sure we needed it all but hey, souvenirs are what a trip is for, right?…
I noticed that they had a tunnel and it appeared to be under this house at the end of the main road… but found that it turns and runs at an angle and not exactly under that house… neat town as a bunch of it was built on pilings as they just didn’t have a lot of good space to build on…
Now I did get out early and walk around the ship on the top decks and got some pictures… pulled this one as well… you can guess enough to figure out what it was for… although now a museum… they say…
They had advertised that they had Duck Tours here… and I didn’t need to go see the ducks but maybe I did? this was the duck… or one of them
This was the other so they did both land and sea tours… interesting…
When I did my top of the ship view I knew we would be in trouble as I spotted, just across from the ship, the Christmas Shoppe… Sherrie could do those constantly… and we had to hit it before our tour and after since we had a bit of time…
They did have some nice shirts… this and others and one I missed a picture of that said – “Santa- explain good”… it was a black ladies shirt… of course…
While in that Christmas store we met a lady working there that had been from Oklahoma… but came up when she was 20 and never left… her brother came up but went home and now lives in Shawnee…? interesting what you learn if you talk and ask questions.
We hustled back out to the bus Got on our bus and tour guide was from Tenn… he drove the bus as well out to the Totem park (Potlatch) and did a good job of explaining all the stuff out there and telling some of the stories…
Now after ward I found out that this park was across from the historic totem park… and that there is also one on the other end of the island where they do training and how to get do the tote…
the park is also home of a multitude of old cars, and collected old stuff. radios, parts, riding horses, guns, etc.…
Always heard about the Stanly Steamer but this was the first to see one…
Unusual to find an old Model A type converted to Electricity… but this one was and appeared to use the same old transmission? or one like it.
interesting and eclectic collection along with the hand made totems…
Explained that this one has added wings on but the center was like an original house – easily protected as people had to bend over and crawl in and that left them for a big head banging on entry… so a protected house…
In the group house we learned that as many as 50 people would live in these… with a fire pit in the middle.
Of course you can’t go anywhere with out having a watcher over you…
the story of Eagle Boy was given here… look that one up… We also got Fog Woman, and Whale singing… etc.…
Then to the carving room with one being worked on… they don’t work full time on it as they are artists… we are told… the one on the left was almost done then developed a big split so they had to start a new one…
We were also told they can get as much as $5000 per for for these but it takes about 2 years to do one today, if they did it full time it was still about 7 to 9 months… since it is all done by hand, no power tools, etc..
In the store we looked at all manner of things… including a wide selection of “MOOSETARD”?
We looked as the hand made totems, small ones… and I had thought about buying one but hey the 8 inch one with the story of whale song was $135… oops, cheap kicked in pretty quick on that…
They had a small gun collection as well as many other things like merry go round horses and some old bouncing horses that were out in front of stores way back…
When we were done we then went back to town and got into the logger exhibitions…
Although it appears they have bears helping with the collection in town? At the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show they did all the logging competition stuff, interesting and great stories told, decent show… they tried hard to play the parts… Sherrie did have to hit the Christmas store… twice… once before the tour and once after the logging show… ha!
This was a ‘HOTFOG” supposed to help make the saw run faster so they could cut more…
Ready set go….
Running the logs…
Rolling..
When we finished this we made it back to the Christmas store and a few others but not a lot of purchases… wearing down…
Back on the ship I spotted that some of the fishing tours were back and they were hanging up the catch… pretty nice…
We left port and headed out and during dinner I grabbed some pictures out the back windows… some were better but through a window is hard to do..
Oh and tonight we had Lobster… of course with 4 or 5 courses… I had scallop at first… then salad then the lobster then of course “Baked Alaska for desert…
After dinner we went back and got out of the “formal” wear and then went to the show… and the after show in the Cosmos Lounge… a newly wed game… oh boy , they didn’t do them selves any favors..
This was our animal for the night… interesting… tomorrow is a slow, cruise all day type thing…
WD0AJG