Ketchikan is INCREDIBLE! - Our Perfect Weekend in Alaska’s MOST BEAUTIFUL Town! 😍 (RV Life, AK)

Well, good morning adventurers. Good morning. From the picturesque town of Ketchikan, Alaska. If you guys caught our last video, we were in Haines and we hopped on the ferry, and we decided to make a cheeky little stop, and it was to here in Ketchikan. Ketchikan is actually so far south in Alaska that it is known as Alaska's first city, although it is its fourth biggest city. Ketchikan is named after this creek right here. This is Ketchikan Creek, and this is probably the most famous and picturesque part of this town, and that is because of this adorable creek street right behind us. And you'll probably notice there is not a soul behind us, and that is because we are here in the off-season. The plus side of that is I feel like we get this entire town to ourselves. The downside is that not a lot of stuff is open right now. And by that, we mean not anything on this street that we have found is open. Yeah, but having less people around is only going to make this town more beautiful, so that's not going to stop us from seeing as much as we can, taking you guys all over this awesome little village. And of course, people still got to eat, even in the off-season, so there are plenty of restaurants still open that we have been dying to try. Ooh, hello, seafood. I can't get enough. Doesn't get any fresher than this, you guys. We were actually researching this town, and we saw this thread on Reddit where they were like, oh, what are the top things we should do in Ketchikan? And this guy says, well, get off the ship. You get a beer. You give it to a local, and then they throw it back at you. And you catch it, if you can. Ketchikan. Get it? Freaking Redditors are so dang cheeky. All right, let's do it. So this is the famous Creek Street, and it is so freaking charming, you guys. It is just this boardwalk that follows the creek. It's all hovering above the water. Everything's built on these piers, and all the buildings just look like they're out of, like, the early 1900s. And some of them actually are. Believe it or not, this was not always a touristy boardwalk. Well, maybe it was, but it was a different type of touristy boardwalk back in the day. This was the red-light district of Ketchikan for a long, long time, until about the 50s, when prostitution was officially outlawed. But there was, like, 20 or 30 different brothels on this Creek Street here, run by a ton of different working ladies. And for that reason, it was very, very famous. This is one that is still standing. This is Dolly's place, and I guess she was probably the most famous one. She worked here from 1919 to the 1940s. Did you see the slogan over here? Oh, gosh. Where both men and salmon came upstream to spawn. Clever. I'm not gonna say any more about it. Dolly said it, not us. We'll keep this PG-ish. Nowadays, sadly, it's just a museum, but apparently Dolly left a bunch of her personal belongings so you go in there, and it's set up, from what I understand, like a real brothel would have been back in the day. It'd be interesting to see, but it's closed. Everything's closed. Like everything. So, onward, deeper into Creek Street. So, apparently, after the Depression hurt a lot of the business here, and then they ended prostitution, the whole Creek Street area kind of went into disrepair around the 50s, I think. Luckily, though, in the 70s, they revitalized it. And theoretically, today, it still looks pretty similar to how it would have looked back in its heyday. Although, all those photos, it's all black and white, so you can't tell how colorful it might have been. You guys, we were just walking on the little boardwalk area, and we just realized there are little seals all over the place, just hanging out with the birds and catching fish. We've literally been sitting here for like 30 or 40 minutes just watching them. They're so freaking cute. They pop their little heads out, and they look like little dogs swimming in the water or something. They had so much personality. They were swimming upside down for a little while. I even saw some of the birds and the seals fighting each other, I guess, over a fish or something. Be warned, though, this area is very, very stinky. There are a lot of dead fish, like thousands of them just all over the place, and you can smell them. Be aware, when you're walking on the dock, there are spiders everywhere. They're making little webs in every available hole. They're inside the knots in the wood. Watch out. Just stay in the middle. There's a... Is there a spider on me? Don't do that. Is it really on me? No, there's not a spider. There's just a bit of a web. Oh, geez. But you gotta walk in the very middle. Don't touch any of the rails. And don't get close to any of the buildings, because they're all over the sides of them. I'm kind of afraid of spiders, so I keep stopping every 10 minutes and being like, is there a spider on me? Because, you know, you lean on the wood and stuff like that, and then before you know it, you've got a freaking spider on your head. I'll watch your back, you watch mine. Deal. You guys, salmon are freaking incredible, more than I ever thought. This creek is full of salmon, and apparently, way back in the day, they used to just put a big net at the end of it, and they would just catch all the salmon. Of course, they overfished it and messed with the whole ecosystem, so they don't really do that anymore. So, tons and tons of salmon are flowing through here, and man, they are just being attacked by predators every which way. You've got the seals that are just chomping them down, you've got birds that are trying to eat them, you've got humans, of course, eating a ton of them. We even saw a cat down there that looked like he was fishing for some salmon. And don't forget the bear, the wolves, the whales. Yeah, they are basically just food for everything else. But the young salmon start in freshwater, and then they slowly make their way downstream to the saltwater. They stay there for a long time, and then eventually, they fight the current all the way back to the exact spot where they were born, and then they reproduce there, and then they die. That's the life of a salmon. And man, it seems pretty futile, it's hard to watch, because there's some of them still trying to fight to get up this current, and they are just having a really hard time of it, man. I feel so bad for them. It seems impossible. And that's why there's so many dead on the side of the thing. I think they just flop up on rocks, and then they die. But humans have tried to make it easier for salmons to get up this particular spot. This is where the rapids get really insane, and they actually built the salmon ladder. It's this multi-stage unit here where this fish can fight a little bit of current, but not too much, and slowly get up to the top. But some of them are still choosing to just fight right through the rapids. They don't want to take the easy way out. Bless their hearts. For lunch, we came to the Alaska Fish House, which is this super iconic little lunch spot. It sits right on the water. It's in this cool old wooden building. And y'all, I think you can tell that we were hungry. We got a little bit of everything. I think seeing all those salmon, they were just so plump and delicious looking. It is all local, and we couldn't make a decision, as you can see. So we got the chowder. We got the Alaska sampler. So there are three kinds of fish here. There's salmon, cod, and halibut. And then we got the tacos, and that's also an Alaskan sampler. So there is salmon and halibut in those. And y'all, it's sunny in Ketchikan. It's almost T-shirt weather. It's crazy. It's insane because it's October, and this should be some of the rainiest time of the year. But sun's out, so we're out. Are your buns out? Oh, they are. No, tucked away, because it's too chilly for all that noise. We've had a lot of fish and chips so far, but I don't know that I've gotten a fish taco so far. It's in a hard shell, too. I know. And this is blackened salmon in there with some pineapple, pico de gallo, some cabbage. Eat after it. That's the crunch. Mm-hmm. Oh, baby. Oh, it's probably too big of a shell. Oh, it's cutting me. That's delicious. I don't know that I've ever had a hard-shelled fish taco, but I actually really like it because the fish in there is so nice and smooth and creamy. It is blackened to perfection, so it's got a little bit of heat. I think there's some chipotle aioli down in there. It is a flavor explosion. It is so good. So much better than fish tacos we get down in Missouri. And guess where the fish came from? Right over there. Right there. I'm gonna pretend like an eagle came down and grabbed one and then dropped it off for them and then they fried it up for me. I'm having to break all these open to tell which one is which. I kind of don't know. Well, that's one salmon. I know that. It's kind of crumbly and really hard compared to some of the fish and chips you get at other places. It's more kind of battery. Yeah, I think it's probably like a panko, which is like little breadcrumbs, right? I like that though, because it makes it super crunchy. I prefer it over the battered ones. Oh, yeah. That's a delectable hunk of fish. You can see just how fresh and fluffy the fish is. I really like it because you get the nice crunch of the outside and then you get kind of the creaminess of the fish on the inside. Is it weird to describe fish as creamy? It is kind of creamy in a good way. In the best way possible. The salmon actually wins it. It's freaking delicious. Plus, I've never really had salmon, fish and chips, I just realized. But salmon in this form is so strange, like with the flavor of the salmon and then the crunch of the panko on the outside. But it's very delicious, especially with some freaking vinegar. Yeah. Yeah, fried salmon. I don't think I've ever had that. I don't know, it's strange, but delicious. Three different types of fish, fried to perfection, on the coast, at a fish house. Doesn't get much better than this. Now, hopefully this isn't like the UK where the seagulls come down and try to steal this from us. No seagull attacks just yet, but there's still time. And there's a lot of seagulls around these parts. Fish cheers. Oops, you got some of mine on there, did you? Oh, yummy. You're welcome. We just hopped into a little gift shop and they have a gigantic, like taxidermy polar bear. This is like a world record level size polar bear. He's nine feet tall, 1400 pounds. He's big, but he ain't got nothing on this bear. One thing you will quickly notice when you're walking around Ketchikan is that there are totem poles everywhere. And while you can go on a self-guided tour and see them, we wanted to see all that we could at once. So we came to Totem Bite State Park and here they actually are restoring and replicating some of these amazing totem poles. And they even have a replica of an old clan house that would have housed anywhere from 30 to 50 people inside. And apparently in the middle, they would have had a big old fireplace. This is the coolest thing in the park because it's got a bunch of different totems. There's ones on the inside holding the structure up, elaborate carvings on the outside. It's very cool. So each one is supposed to more or less be a story, so it tells it from kind of start to finish. And that's what each different rung in the pole is meant to mean. It's really neat. Apparently there were three clans in the area that really specialized in creating these magnificent totem poles. And sadly, a lot of them have been lost to time and with people moving into the cities, I think it's kind of a bit of a lost art. But this park is here to let people know about the history, to restore these things, and just to see how majestic they are. Yeah, they have this whole workshop way back there where they have all these totems in there that they're currently restoring. It seems like a very specialized type of craft for sure. I can barely cut wood straight. I don't know how they carve such intricate things. Yeah, they're surprisingly elaborate, more than I ever thought they would be. So what do you guys think about our little off-grid campsite here? Why are we off-grid? Because all of Ketchikan is off-grid if you're in an RV. Apparently the only RV spaces are in parks here, and none of them have hookups. So we've just been glamping. Which wouldn't be so bad if we could get some freaking sunlight, but all these trees are making that not a thing, so. No, and the fact that this was the only sunny day that we have had all week. Otherwise it's been very overcast. So it's a little dicey, y'all. We have quite a few more days here. What's really cool is that we have this whole campsite to ourselves. There is nobody else silly enough to be camping here in October. The place that we're staying at is called Signal Creek. It's about 10 minutes or so outside of Ketchikan, so pretty close to the city, and it just wraps around Ward Lake, which is super beautiful. They have all these little hiking trails all over the place. We may or may not have seen a bear the other night. We did. We did. We saw a bear. We did. We didn't have our cameras with us. I got a very sad iPhone video of it. Well, that's the path back over there, and there's a bear right off the path. Over there to the right. He might look small in this video, but he looks very large in real life, and he's looking at us. But we're heading out, and maybe we'll get lucky and we'll see another bear from a very safe distance. We're on this very trail just on the other side of the lake. Came around a corner just like this, and there was a big old black bear. He took one look at us and went, joink, and disappeared up into the woods. I don't know. He was so big. I don't know how they make it up there. They're very nimble, you know, surprisingly. And very fast. Everything they say about bears, that they're really fast and don't try to run away from them, it's true, because they're going to get you. You know, look what I found. Somebody's keys. Yikes. They're going to have a bad night. Yeah. There's a handful of people we saw walking, and one of them probably dropped it. I guess we'll go back to the trailhead and restart the hike. Put it back there for them? Yeah. That seems like trail etiquette. Well, good morning, adventurers. It's another rainy day here in Ketchikan. It's been dumping down rain pretty much every freaking day since we got here. But you guys know, we've been eating a lot of seafood since we got to Alaska, and we've had it in pretty much all forms, but there is one way that we have not had it, and that is in donut form. Yes, there's a place in town that has some kind of a salmon donut, and we've been dying to try it out. Believe it or not, it gets really good ratings. Doesn't seem like you'd want to mix those two together, but we're going to mix. I don't know if we've been dying to try it out, more that we've been very curious to try it out. We might die after we try it. I don't know. We'll see. Well, I guess we'll have to put the kibosh on that idea. They're close. Even though it said they were still open online, but I think they might've actually closed for the season. Dang! Although it says they will return. I don't know if that's true or not. We'll come back every day to check. Man, I was so excited about that donut. I know it sounds weird, but it actually comes really highly rated. Everyone was raving about it, but oh well. You guys, they also have dumplings here too, and apparently they're pretty good. I was so excited to try it. It's going to be, we're going to get a savory donut, sweet donuts, dumplings. But we do have a backup plan, and we're going to head there right now. No, that's... Whatever. Good one. You guys, next up, we're taking a flight. No, not that kind of flight. This kind of flight. Or our style of flight. It's a beer flight. That's the joke. Do you want to tell them the joke that you just came up with? You know, it's so much better than the one Eric came up with. This flight is the only one you can pilot drunk. Ding, ding. But we actually found this really cool spot that's kind of a new spot. It's called the Bush Pilots Lounge. And I really wanted to go here because it has a killer view of all the kind of surrounding moody islands. And you get to see the planes. They actually do plane tours from this location, I guess. So there's a bunch of planes just kind of docked here. But the place is super classy. They have these little leather-bound menus that are about the fanciest menus I've ever seen. And all these really awesome photos from throughout the ages. I assume most of them are from Ketchikan or Alaska. And it's just of all these old-timey people with their planes. You guys, this one over here is my favorite. Look at these four little badasses here. This guy's got a rifle. They look like the Goonies in real life. I have a feeling each one of them actually knew how to fly this plane. This guy probably could shoot from the plane. The owner ended up coming by and chatting with us. And he actually said that all these photos are from a local pilot. And he took all of these all throughout the ages. These are actually his two kids. This little guy and this little guy. Believe it or not, the OG Goonies. The OGoonies, OG, you get it. Not a joke. Y'all, look at this guy just barging in here. What do you think? He just said that to me off camera and laughed just as hard. It's still funny. That's a good one. Never been said before, I guarantee it. Well, y'all, that is sadly gonna do it for our time here in Alaska. We have had such an amazing trip. This will definitely go down as one of our favorite experiences in the RV to date. Obviously, as some of you guys have noticed, we didn't get to do as much here as we wanted. And that's because we actually took a break in the middle of our trip and came back to Missouri to see family and to see Eric's mom. We haven't really been filming that stuff, but yeah. And we came here at the end of the season, so a lot of stuff closed down. So it wasn't as long of a trip as we had hoped, but we packed in a lot still. And I think we nailed almost everything on our bucket list. Northern Lights, though, dang it. We're still... The elusive Northern Lights. We haven't seen you yet, but one of these days. In a couple of days, we are actually taking the ferry back down to Seattle. It's gonna be a couple days back on the sea. But y'all, there is a huge storm a-brewin' out over the ocean. In fact, it was like a crazy tropical storm, category five. And we've heard that the ferry is gonna be probably pretty bad, so we're not looking forward to it. I'm a little nervous about it, y'all. I'm not gonna lie. It's supposed to be horrible weather. Luckily, we'll be inside, but I guess that'll do it. We gotta pack up and get ready for the long ferry ride. So we'll see you there. Goodbye, adventurers. Oh, we'll see you. We'll see you on the road. It's always weird when she says, we'll see ya, and then I have to say, we'll see ya. We'll see you there, on the road. We'll see you on the road. On the boat. On the boat, whatever.