42. Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is a nice town. Most of it is set on the face of a relatively steep, small mountain. It's on an island in the heart of the temperate rain forest that extends from Oregon way up to Kodiak Island. This is the view from Ketchikan High School.



Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska, and the rainiest in the US.

People generally seem into preserving Ketchikan's dignity in the face of tourism. I sense it's a satiable goal. Elections are tomorrow. On my drive home from my new job as a librarian, the streets were flooded with kids from the local high school holding up signs supporting their favorite candidates. I've never seen anything like it.

In my last post, I said I had a story to tell. The story has gotten longer since then, so I'll spare the details. Long story short: I left my job teaching in Tuntutulaik this May, went to back to school at Bread Loaf for the summer(this time to the Vermont campus), then I moved to Ketchikan in SE Alaska and became a librarian at the high school. I'm very happy to be here.