In Which Miss Hoppington Zips Through Ketchikan

 Hulooo from Ketchikan!

We didn't stop very long in Ketchikan but long enough to have some adventures. Ketchikan is named after the creek that flows through the town. It is a Tlingit word but no one is really sure what it means. It could mean "Thundering Wings of an Eagle" which is a pretty sounding name. Or it could just mean "the river belonging to Kitschk."

The creek actually runs down what is called Creek Street. There are buildings built on either side of the creek and over the creek, on stilts because there is very little land to build on, especially on the east side of the river. It used to be a not very nice part of town but now it's all museums and art galleries and pretty shops. You can still see lots and lots of salmon in the river.

Creek Street

High up in the trees, ready to zip down!

My big adventure for the day was zip-lining!
I rode a bus and then a jeep up to the top of a mountain and then got to zip down on a series of cables. We were very high up in the trees, like 100 feet and would zip from platform to platform over a bear preserve. I really wanted to see a bear but they must have been sleeping or hunting somewhere else. Most of the people were scared, scared of being so high up but I wasn't. Ok, I was a little scared to jump off the platform but once I was zipping to the next one, I was having fun again!

Zipping off to the next adventure, hop, hop awaaaaaaaaaay!

Hedda

In Which Miss Hoppington Cruises a Fjord

Heading into the fjord.

 I sailed in a fjord today! Fjord is a word from Norway, a country on the other side of the world from where I was, and it means a long, narrow inlet of the sea between mountains. It is pronounced like fyord or fiord. We were sailing in the Tracy Arm Fjord, so called because when you look at a map, it looks like an arm! (you can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/j55wc8q) It's a fun word to say. Fjord, fjord, fjord!

At the end of the fjord was a big glacier called Sawyer Glacier. Fjords are made by glaciers like Sawyer and this fjord was very deep. The waters are a bright deep greenish blue, very pretty. Glacial silt gives the waters that color and helps protect harbor seals from orcas. The orcas use sonar to hear under the water but in the fjord, there is too much silt and it confuses them so they don't come up the fjord. When we got to the glacier, we saw lots of harbor seals relaxing on the the ice. In fact, some seals treat the glacier and the fjord like a nursery because they know it is safe to leave their pups while they go look for food.

We had lots of time to look at the glacier while the captain turned the boat around. He literally spun the boat around in place because there was so little room but did it very slowly so we could see everything and, in my case, not fall off the railing.

You can't see the glacier yet 'cause I'm standing in front of it.

It's so big! We're still about half a mile away.

See how blue!

The glacier was very blue, almost the color of glass cleaner! I was surprised at that but it was very beautiful. That color happens because there is so much ice and it's pressed together so hard that instead of the ice being white, it turns bright blue. So many pretty colors: the green water, the bright blue glacier and the dark green trees on the mountains around the fjord.

Heading back out of the fjord.

After we saw the glacier and spun around, we headed back out and on to our next adventure. There were large bits of drift ice from the glacier floating with us as we left the fjord. They look pretty small in the pictures but they were actually pretty big, especially to a little rabbit such as myself.

I think it's time for a nap and some sun on the upper deck. I am on a cruise after all!

See you next time!

Hedda