Ketchikan

Ketchikan was wet. They average 137 inches of rain a year, so they provided a typical scene for us. William and Caroline went to the Lumberjack show while I went on the Zip Line Canopy Tour.

Being from Washington State, we've seen lumberjack competitions, but this was new to William and these guys put on a pretty entertaining show demonstrating lumber jack skills...

... and having some fun.

Not sure if this guy lost his balance as he was attempting to scoop up a hat full of water to splash his competitor with. If so, it backfired.

Here is one of the guides demonstrating the proper technique for zip lining. I was very impressed with the redundant safety of the zip line system. There was no one thing that could fail that would allow you to fall (two cables, two rollers, two safety lines...). However, that doesn't prevent the operator from coming in a little too fast... :-]

Although actually rolling down the zip lines was exciting, just standing on the platforms, with no rails, 100+ feet up a tree, as the wind and zip liners tug and sway the tree, was a bit phobia inducing. They did warn us that before we started was the best time to admit you were paralytically afraid of heights since any rescue after that point would be worse than the actual zip line adventure.

It's a little unnerving to step off the reasonably safe platform and swing among the top of the trees. Some of the lines were amazingly long. This one was 750 feet long.

I survived. Me with my GoPro Helmet Cam. Though, people have started calling it the 'Stache Cam. Watch the video to see why...

This night was one of the semi-formal nights. William looked sharp. We were back in the animators palate, but they didn't repeat the color changing show, but they still made it entertaining as always.

Video of Zip Lining. This was my first try at using the GoPro camera. It worked pretty well except that it was pushed back a bit too far and the auto exposure made most of the runs a bit dark, but you get the idea. You can watch me crash at 1:27. Luckily, the guide stepped out of the way (like he'd done this before...hmm) and I landed with both feet against the padded side of the tree. Just startled everyone and taught me a lesson, "Even if other people struggled to get to the end, since I'm bigger, I carry more momentum!":