Breakfast in Meyers Chuck

Cassy delivered the goods.   At 0715, she boated over from her place to deliver eight fresh cinnamon rolls and a dozen oatmeal cookies that we ordered yesterday.   All the sophisticated palettes aboard gave Cassy's rolls a unanimous thumbs-up.   Picture courtesy of Kippy.

Cassy has lived in Meyers Chuck for 62 years.   Up until her husband died a few years ago, she was a full-time resident.   Now she's a snowbird.   She says they don't suffer hardships as they have a big generator, a well for fresh water, bi-weekly mail service, regular amazon deliveries, and frequent bush pilot stopovers to deliver the goods the community needs - with special care to make sure the eggs don't break!   If anything, she misses the selection of fresh produce we have in the lower 48.   Canned veggies just aren't the same.

In addition to being the local greeter and baker, she is also the Post Mistress.   A great character and I look forward to our next visit to Meyers Chuck.

We took off about 10:00am as the sun was trying to peek between the clouds and worked our way to Ketchikan, spotting distant whale spouts along the way.   The sun came out in force about halfway into our 4.5-hour trip - so we moved from the warmth of the pilothouse up to the flybridge which affords us better views.

As we were entering the Ketchikan area, we played "chicken" with this big cruise ship coming directly at us in the narrow part of the channel.   

Fortunately for all, I turned and skirted the side of the channel as we passed them.   So, I guess the cruise ship won.

We received a slip assignment at Bar Harbor South Marina, Pier 9, Slip 1, pretty close to shore and a nice location.   We will be here until midday on Saturday.

Boat secured and 50A shore power plugged-in, we headed to the free hop-on, hop-off bus to the touristy downtown area.

We wandered the old red-light district which has been renovated into a nice area with shops replacing the brothels.   The city has done a lot to romanticize and glorify the prostitution business in town, stating that the brothels were owned by women who were engaged pillars of the community.   The write up sound quite positive, but I have a difficult time thinking that there was anything romantic or glorious about this trade.

If you look closely at the picture to the left, you will see a salmon swimming upstream.   (It's the black thing in the rushing water about 1/4 down from the top of the picture).

This fish sculpture was commissioned to replace the prior Tlingit fish carving by Jones Yeltatzie.  That carving finally rotted and decayed beyond repair.   Ketchikan commissioned a new sculpture to replace it.   The new artist is Terry Pyles.

If you can read it here is a picture with the plaque commemorating the original carver and the new artist.

Note, in the picture below. the salmon school in the middle where the water is slower through the deeper pool there.

While hiking along the Married Man's Trail which runs along the salmon-choked Ketchikan Creek, we finally saw our first Alaskan black bear!  In downtown Ketchikan of all places.  He (or she) was fishing by the stream and being quite successful, I might add. 

We saw the black bear again a bit further downstream enjoying another fresh salmon.

The creek was just full of salmon at every location.   We hiked about 1/2 mile upstream and there were still salmon in the pools and eddies.

We saw lots of dead salmon as well.  I presume, these are the ones who successfully spawned and then died.

A sign in the area states "The Married Man's Trail is where the Men and Salmon come to spawn".

We walked back towards the marina and stopped at the Bush Pilot Lounge for dinner.   This is a pretty nice place.   I had the pan-grilled elk chops over mashed leaks & potatoes.  Karen, Kippy, & Dean had the pistachio encrusted halibut steaks over lemon risotto.    We paired this with a Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.   That worked well with the halibut, not so well with the strongly flavored elk.   No complaints regardless.   Thank you, Kippy & Dean, for dinner!

Tomorrow, Kippy & Dean leave us and our son, Ross, joins us.  So far, each guest has brought a different flavor to their part of our adventure.   Their curiosities, orientation, interests, and requests shape the little things we do each day which ends up having a big and very welcome impact.   This is all positive as we get to see, explore, and learn together.

In the late '70s, one of my favorite groups was Supertramp.   The album that really hooked me was Crime of the Century, but my second favorite album was Breakfast in America.   Now you know the inspiration for the blog's title.

Rock On!