You know you're living in Ketchikan, Alaska if...

• You look outside and it's still raining (we get 13 feet of rain in a year).


• To go bowling you either have to hop a plane to another island or play on Nintendo Wii.


• Going out shopping with the girls means meeting at someone's house, trying on sample sizes, and buying online.


• You show up to church ten minutes early in the summer time and you can't find a parking spot.


• Outdoor sports (football, soccer, baseball) are on gravel fields instead of grass or turf.


• You go any more than 20 miles on the highway and it dead ends.

• You drink hot chocolate at the 4th of July Parade.

• Half the town (in the winter) is at the high school basketball games on the weekend.


• The population of 11,000 is nowhere near downtown and 10,000 tourists are flooding downtown in the summer.


• You can tell the "locals" apart from everyone else by whether or not they're wearing rainboots - rain or shine.


• Your scout troop travels by float plane to another island to camp out, just because they can.


• You can count over 20 bald eagles perched in the same tree across the street from the fish cannery.


• You can't keep a fish (king salmon) if it's less than 28 inches long.


• It's not unusual to catch a fish (halibut) that weighs more than 100 lbs!


• People give away fresh and frozen halibut like it's zucchini from their garden.


• You can leave a bonfire burning on the beach and let the ocean take care of putting it out.


• You get breathless on beautiful hikes that are all over the island.


• You watch close enough you can see whales from your kitchen window.


• You can see cruish ships, bald eagles, and float planes whiz by daily as you wash dishes.


• Trees can grow up, down, and sideways.