Que sera, Sarah

Another day, another port – but with today being a holiday, things were a bit different. As has become our habit, we started with a short tour, but we then had the option to blend in with the locals at the Ketchikan 4th of July parade.

Our tour was to a park called Totem Bight (pronounced “bite”) where there is a huge collection of really cool Tlingit and Haida totem poles and an example of a clan house:

After we were done at Totem Bight, we knocked around Ketchikan for a while, waiting for the parade to start. We bought some seafood chowder from the local Obama-Biden re-election team and popcorn, hotdogs, and soda from the local fire department. (Both patriotic acts, I think!)

After what seemed like a long wait, the parade was finally underway. It was heralded by a helicopter bearing an enormous American flag:

There were native groups marching:

And (somewhat perplexingly) Canadian Mounties:

The local Rotary Club was promoting its duck race:

And a bunch of teenagers were promoting… Uh, I guess their enthusiasm for the next film in the “Hunger Games” trilogy:

The parade lasted about an hour, and by the end we were convinced that everyone in the 8,000 person town had to have been in it – it was huge.

We spent the rest of the afternoon poking around the historic Creek Street area:

And looking at boats:

Tomorrow, we’ll be at sea all day, arriving in Vancouver on Friday. I’m thinking of hitting the spa to pass some of the time…