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This morning started with a wake up "ding" on my phone. It's Jerry texting me to tell me he emailed me?!?! Seems they managed to get an earlier flight in so instead of spending the whole day in Seattle waiting for the late flight to Ketchikan, they got a flight that brings them in at 11:00. Well, so much for last minute running around to get ready!
I met them at the airport, on foot, and got to watch their surprised faces as they walked into the airport and realized this big room was the whole airport! That's it, no walkways to other gates or anything, one big room. They are not expected to get their luggage until the late flight comes in since they changed flights to an earlier time. I'm thinking I'll just come back later and get the luggage. We go down to baggage to get the carry on they checked at the gate at last minute. We stand there waiting as Jerry looks at a bag go by for the second or third time and says that looks it like one of their bags. Turns out the airline sent the bags with the right flight! This was not a long flight but we are older so ... time for the all-important restroom breaks. The funny thing is that Amelia and Raul both went to the restroom at the same time with the agreement to meet outside the restroom and then go over to baggage claim. Well, Amelia got out and asked Nina to let Raul know she went over to the baggage area. Trust me, this was a very short walk from restrooms to baggage claim. We have only one carousel! A few minutes go by and we are wondering where Raul has gone off to. We find out that he is still waiting for Amelia at the restroom and Nina is just down a few feet from there. She didn't tell him Amelia was at baggage claim so he is still standing in front of the restrooms waiting for Amelia!
So baggage gathered and down to the airport ferry for a five minute ride to the main island. Keep in mind, our airport is on a different island than the one we live on. Since it's a nice day, I have opted to just walk on the ferry so we can stand outside on the ride back and get a view as we cross the narrows. I pay the fare at the booth and Nina and Jerry go past the booth with me. Since people are headed both ways and alternating back and forth, Amelia and Raul are still on the wrong side of the booth because they were being nice. We had to signal them to just push through and come over. On the ferry, ready to go, but we are delayed for water traffic. There are float planes landing and taking off plus a Disney cruise ship is in the narrows making it's way to the docks, Since they are bigger than us we wait. As we wait, I show them where the shipyard is, the power plant I work at, and the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry docks.
First order of the day is home, pick the rooms, and dump luggage. This has been a long travel day so adventure today will be minimal. We had a nice dinner of fish, beans, and rice and one tortilla each. It seems these people come with rules! One tortilla a week? I had to inform them that the one tortilla a week rule just won't fly here! Really, one tortilla a week?
After dinner we opted for a small outing to Totem Bight State Park which is only about a mile from our house. It has a long house (native Alaskan living structure) and some totem poles, plus lots of wild berries. We walked the grounds reading about the totems and helping ourselves to salmon berries, huckleberries, blueberries, and thimble berries. Tammy and I got a light hearted chastising by a local who thought we should know all about the totem poles ahead of time. She gave everybody who wanted a little pamphlet which explained the park and totems. We, of course, had to do the tourist thing and take a few pictures including inside the long house. As we walk around I show everyone which berries to eat. Hey, I love me some berries! The berries are darn sweet and tasty. One kid who is obviously not a local comes over and asks me if the salmon berries he has in his hand are edible. They are but I show him which ones are huckleberries, which are even better.
So back home for a rest and out again near low tide time. We headed out to Herring Cove which is about a half hour drive away where salmon run up a creek and the bears come catch some. At low tide, the water is really shallow and the salmon are sometimes partially exposed which makes it easier for the bears to catch them. Here it got funny because we got to Herring Cove, looked for a while and no bears! At one point, we all kept watching a clump on a far bank which we thought was a bear until someone realized this bear hadn't move in 10 minutes! Guess what, not a bear! We get ready to leave and everybody loads up with Jerry talking the third seat which means he crawls in from the trunk to get there, not easy, trust me.
We get ready to drive off when a kid starts waving frantically that a bear is coming. Of course this means we all jump out to see. We forgot Jerry in the car and he is not letting us forget it. Still funny in my book! Luckily, Amelia let him out in time to see the bear. We watched the bear come into the creek near us and then cross over to our side. We are standing on an embankment a few feet up from the creek so the bear is fairly close and just walks down the creek toward the ocean. Amelia said that was it, she had seen a bear and was ready to go! The rest of us were not done, we stayed a few minutes longer as the bear disappeared and then back home for the night for some good conversation and relaxation.
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