It was actually almost clear when I arrived. But that’s pretty rare, in Southeast Alaska. Mostly, it’s about rain and gusty wind. I think I saw somewhere that Ketchikan is the rainiest city in the US – not sure if it’s true, but it’s got to be near the top of the list, anyway.
Unlike everyone’s image or expectation of Alaska, much of the Southeast isn’t snowy or frozen, even in winter. When I stayed here in 98 for several months, I only actually saw snow twice, and both times is was a damp rain-to-snow-to-rain that never got around to sticking to the ground.
I walked around some last night, but there wasn’t much to see. The part of Ketchikan where my motel is has a couple of high-rise apartment buildings, which seems downright strange for a rural American city of less than 10,000 inhabitants – it fits in better with what I would call an “Asian” model of urban development: the idea of high density plunked down in the middle of nothing. I don’t remember those apartment buildings from before, but when I was here before, I didn’t spend much time in Ketchikan.
