Day of Rest

KETCHIKAN DAILY NEWS
In Our Opinion

Day of rest
Sunday, for most of us, is a nice, restful day: a day to relax and get our minds and bodies ready for the week ahead.

For those in the tourism industry, though, Sunday is just another work day.

Until this past Sunday, that is.

Sept. 14, you see, was the first day in 17 weeks with no cruise ship visit to Ketchikan. Downtown was quiet and mellow. It was a harbinger of late fall and winter, when the sidewalks and streets are clear, rather than filled with awestruck (albeit often rainsoaked) visitors, so happy to find themselves in Alaska that they often forget to watch where they're wandering.

We're used to it, and do our best to watch out for tourists darting into traffic to get a better angle for a picture. But it sure is nice, that first time in fall that we're able to drive through downtown without stopping even once.

Those of us who live here year round tend to breathe a sigh of relief when we get downtown to ourselves again. But we know that, in a month or two, after we get used to the quiet and more than a little sick of the dark, that we'll start looking forward to the busy crowds of summer.

That cycle has become part of life in Ketchikan as much as the salmon that return each fall: Summer is busy, filled with traffic, newcomers, visitors and seasonal residents. Winter can be busy if we choose, with numerous local events planned to keep us from getting bored, but it also can be mellow when, like the bears, we curl up in our caves and "hibernate" with our books and/or television.

Both seasons here have their merits, which is one of many reasons Ketchikan is such a great place to call home, and to visit.