Our shore excursion for Ketchikan was to go a little outside of town to a Rainforest Sanctuary for a 2 hour walk through a temperate rain forest. It was also a bear habitat area, so there was a chance to that we could see black bears, but alas, luck was not with us. A lot of bald eagles, but no bears, mink, marten or other assorted mammals. Jacob was bit balky about about the starting and stopping part of the walk, but we made it through. We also got to walk through an old sawmill that was shut down in the 80's or 90's for OSHA violations (it's hard to get parts that far north and OSHA didn't think much of their homemade repairs), see eagles and owls up close, feed reindeer and talk to a native totem carver as he was working on a new totem pole. That was my favorite part. I found it amusing that into every totem he carves (he's done 40 or so I think) he carves, Not Made in China into the base. It takes him about 2 months to carve and paint an 8 foot totem pole, so they get about two done a season. And, like a goober, I forgot to take a picture of one of his finished ones.
