Ketchikan’s Annual Blueberry Festival! The boys were at work, and so I ventured into the festival on my own. Walked around the stands – LOVED that they had an “instrument petting zoo”. I drooled all over the flute, but certainly wasn’t about to play it after God knows how many other mouths had been there. Ordered some blueberry crepes, but ended up only eating the berries. The crepe part itself was still a little too eggy for me. Bought blueberry banana bread instead, which was delicious. Ryan commented on the picture I had put on Facebook, telling me to try the blueberry BBQ pulled pork, but I had already walked away at that point. I don’t generally eat pulled pork, anyway. I talked to both Molly and Sarah on the phone, telling them all my stories so far, and enjoying the comfort of having other females to chat with. I hadn't realized until that point how lonely I was. I mean, I love the guys – but God knows I was missing some serious girl-time.

Spent the late afternoon at the apartment with Sam & Jay, eating toasted bread and listening to music. With Joey at work, and Ryan God-knows-where (he was pretty MIA that whole weekend), the three of us decided on trying out the beer fest that was happening that night. Jay also commented that needed a new pair of shoes, and so he and I headed out early to stop at Tongass before the festival. As we were climbing the stairs to their outlet store, he turned toward a ship that was parked right next to us and proceeded to stare down an old Asian couple that were enjoying their dinner. I tried to join in, but couldn’t stop giggling. He must have decided that they were boring, however, because he eventually went back to heading into the store. We did find some cool pairs, but they were all more expensive than he wanted. We left the store empty-handed and walked over to the beer festival. It was held at the Lumberjack Show venue, which was pretty cool. $20 to get in, which payed for your food and beer. Hot dogs, coleslaw, chips, and pop. Needless to say I didn’t eat much. Half a hot dog, I think. They had tables lined up with all different kinds of beer, and you basically stood in line and picked which ones you wanted to try – in the form of little 2oz cups. Jay introduced me to some cool people, including a kid who had hitch-hiked into town with him a few days before. In Jay’s words, “He looked like a traveler, walking down the street with his suitcase – so I gave him a ride.” Such a sweetheart. :)

We stood and chatted with different people for a bit – some of them I had met before; some of them that were new to me. The event itself was pretty cool, but not necessarily worth the money, we decided. Jay and I ended up leaving early and walked down along the store fronts, across from the open water. He proved to me just how tall he is by easily lifting his leg and gently kicking some of the signs that we passed on our way. (You know when you go to the outlets, and the shops have name tags hanging down, so that you can see them ahead of you as you’re walking down the sidewalk? Yeah, those are the types of signs I’m referring to here.) Next thing I know, he’s picking me up from behind, telling me to kick the sign above me, just like he had. Meanwhile, I’m yelling, “No! I don’t wanna kick at Joey’s hard work!” (Joey’s job in Ketchikan last year was designing and creating store-front signs for places all over town.) Basically, it ended in my flailing my legs in the air until he finally put me down. It was a beautiful sight walking along the port, with the sun setting and no ships docked to block the view. I took tons of pictures – though the only way you can know the real beauty of it all is to see it for yourself. So, my dear reader...if you ever get the chance – get your ass to Ketchikan.

At one point of my photo shoot, I looked over and saw Jay climbing down a ladder towards the water – in flip-flops, no less. Crazy kid. He claims he wanted to get a closer look at the salmon. I mean, they do jump around in the water when no boats are nearby…but I still don’t think they’d let him get close enough to catch one. After a few threats to throw me in and a few more pictures, we ended up at the Sourdough Bar, a place that sits right next to the docks. We drank Jameson and water – the special for that evening – while listening to the band play oldies. It was loud, but they were good. And older crowd – definitely not a lot of young people. Anyone that knows Jason knows that he's awesome because he’s just so easy to chat with. After about three days of being there, I felt like he was my best friend. Once we left the bar, we headed in separate directions– him back to his place, and me to Asylum in search of David, a friend of Ryan’s from work that I had been chatting with earlier in the week. Found Sam, but no David. I sat and watched Sam play pool for about 10 minutes before deciding to just head back to the apartment. Took advantage of the quiet house – showered, finished the tequila, and watched Pitch Perfect. At some point during my movie, I could hear feet running up the stairs outside leading to the boys’ apartment. Two seconds later, Sam came bursting through the front door, scaring the crap out of me. As he’s tearing through the apartment, stuffing his pockets with cans of beer, I’m like “What are you doing?” To which he responds, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Actually, you wanna hear the story now? You’ll appreciate it.” Well YEAH I wanna hear your story now! So he starts in on how this woman that we had talked to earlier on in the night had told him that her daughter thought he was cute, and had given her his number. And now they were going to hang out. Well good for you, bruh! He eventually ran back out of the apartment, me smiling and shaking my head. Went back to watching my movie and managed to pass out before the end. I couldn’t tell you what time it was when Sam came back in.