Alaska Part Two

Day 3:
On Tuesday we were in Ketchikan. This is such a beautiful part of Alaska. We started off the morning with some deep sea fishing. We met our captain (I think his name was Mike...but can't remember) and headed out to sea.






While on the way to our fishing spot we spotted the Time Bandit. Anyone that is a fan of Deadliest Catch will get excited...Brad sure was! :)



I spotted my house on the boat ride. I can dream right?



We started salmon fishing at it was a little slow but picked up. Before long Brad felt like he needed to go. Well, he asked Mike where to go. He pointed to a toilet at the front of the boat and said it was for the ladies. He then proceeded to grab a plastic pitcher and said something to the effect that the boys go up to the front of the boat, fill up the pitcher and then dump it into the ocean. Uh..okay. It was one of those times when you aren't quite sure if they are joking or not. Well, I took it as serious and Brad took it as joking so when the time came for Brad to go, he asked Mike again and Mike gave him some crap saying Brad was the first to ever complain. He finally told him to go on the toilet. Okay, he was joking about the whole pitcher thing. NOPE! A little while later he ordered everyone to the back of the boat because he needed a potty break. What? Well, he moved to the front of the boat about three feet away and filled the pitcher. Yes we heard everything. There is a first for everything! The famous pitcher below...



We kept spotting eagles on the beach. Bill got a rock fish and Mike told us to watch. He yelled, threw the fish back in the ocean and an eagle flew off the top of the pine tree, swooped down, grabbed the fish and flew back to the shore. It was so cool!! You don't see that everyday. I'll have to add the video later. You can see the eagle's white head on top of the pine tree in the picture below.



We caught around fifteen fish; fourteen pinks and one silver. Mike was really concerned about blood on his boat so he didn't like us to take too many pictures after pulling in the fish...that's why they aren't that great and I'm really cheesin it...







I do have to say that I think Mike was more interested in visiting then fishing. I know a lot about him now. I know about his childhood, family and even his Diet Coke addiction. I found out he knows who my cousins are in Vernal because he hunts also. Here he is telling his stories:





We decided to have the fish fileted and shipped to our house. We've been enjoying it ever since. As we were coming back into shore all these sea planes started landing on the water around us. It was so much fun to see. Next time we'll have to take a tour by these sea planes.








Afterwards we headed to Creek Street to walk around and see the salmon running. This was such an amazing thing to see. The river is almost pure black with all the salmon in it. It was so crazy to think that these salmon can swim up some of the obstacles that they do. You can see the fish jumping up in the first picture below. In the second one if you look closely all the little "bumps" on the water are fish.




As we were walking back to the ship, we looked out toward the ocean and there were so many fish jumping. It was so much fun to watch.
As the ship pulled away from Ketchikan I couldn't help but think how gorgeous it was. I don't think I could live there all the time, but the mountains, water and trees were breath taking.
This was also the day my dad had his open heart surgery so while it was such an amazing day, I was not myself. So thankful for prayer and cell phones!