Dad has not been able to find a hot spot on the ferry portion of his trip to get online and blog from, so gave me a call, updated me on his progress, and asked I do a quick update on his blog. So here it goes.

Dad called from Ketchikan, Alaska today.  Ketchikan could be looked at as an old haunt of Dad's, considering he and I left the town in flames once years ago on a past ferry trip we took together (this was back when the old man drank). I found some pictures of Ketchikan on the web and posted them below.

The Lower 48ers reading this may remember Ketchikan from a while back when the "bridge to nowhere" controversy was in the national media. Alaska was getting a lot of crap for receiving what was being perceived as too much federal money. A bridge project in Ketchikan became the face of the criticisms and was characterized as a waist of money.

Of course, these criticisms were ridiculous. In the case of the Ketchikan bridge, the facts are as such: 1) Ketchikan is Alaska's fourth largest city, 2) Ketchikan's airport is an international airport used by people from all over the world, and 3) this airport, located in the fourth largest city of the country's largest state, is located across an ocean straight from the city itself and is not connected by a bridge.  So I ask you, what side of that equation equals "nothing," Alaska's fourth largest city or an international airport? I've included a picture below to better illustrate the situation.

Moving on, Dad said that aside from a small amount of rain, the weather has been great. Very sunny. Since leaving Whittier and before arriving in Ketchikan today, he has been to Yakutat and Juneau. Juneau is Alaska's state capital. Dad has seen whales and porpoises so far on his trip. He also wanted me to be sure and let everyone know that there are 166 passengers on his ferry. He gets into Bellingham, Washington on Saturday morning, so maybe by Saturday evening we'll see a new post from Dad himself.

Signing off.