So Curtis and I volunteered at this Fish Hatchery a little while back. Here is the little fishes that we were sorting through for them.

First we would put them to sleep. (they look dead)


Then we would send them through the blue machine next to Curtis's arm, which would check to make sure the tiny, tiny piece of metal in the fish's nose is there. This is how they will know in 5 years when the salmon come back to the hatchery to be harvested, which is theirs. It's really cool stuff!

You can't see the blue machine really well, but the two pipes shoot the fish out. The one over the net means that the fish's piece of metal is gone (or not there, where they don't tag every single fish). And you can see the fish are waking back up.

In the farther part, where the two long metal tanks are. That is where they have really little baby fish. They are so much fun to look at. See what they do is, harvest eggs from full grown (usually 5 year old) salmon (pink's, coho, king) and bring up thousands and thousands of little baby fish. They help them grow to the size of the ones that we are checking and then release them into the ocean. So this is not a salmon farm, just a hatchery. They do this to help with the fishing community. There are two hatchery's here. I have pictures of the other one I will post soon.

Crazy Moment

Ok, the craziest thing happened yesterday. Curtis, I and Caite went to go jump in a lake that you have to hike to first (it was a hot day!). Well, I get out of the jeep from the passenger side and just happen to be looking straight ahead of me. On the tree's I see this thing climbing up it and one more ono the next tree. I look closer (not actually stepping closter though) and realize it's two cubs!!! They were not even 50 feet away from me and there they were climbing a tree. Well, to say the least we did not want to meet momma bear! So we got back in the jeep to decide what to do. The cubs had already ran off. I only got to see them for a few seconds. We ended up getting out of the jeep and warning other people that were around the place and then left to tell the Sheriff that we saw cubs because so far there had been no sightings of bears by this specific trail yet. So to say the least it was the Coolest/Scariest thing I had ever seen. They even looked just like little black cubs with the brown snout that you would by in the store. Too bad I did not have my camera on me!

Hair

Well, we found out that getting a hair cut in Sitka is wicked expensive. So Curtis's mom sent him some clippers for his Birthday. And him being a brave soul, let me cut his hair. I don't think I did to bad for never really cutting hair before. It did end up a little shorter than he likes but my finger width is smaller than his finger width. But we decided in the end that in a week it would not matter either way. :0)



And no he really is not picking his nose. Just goofin off.

K, I know it's a long slide show but watch. IT'S KOOL!

SITKA SCENERY!

More Scenery! Beautiful!




Stranded boat on random beach

So then after the three days we got back on a ferry and lucked out it was the fast one, so we were only on it for 4 hours rather than about 12 or so, on the long ones.

This is the wake from the jets on the back of the ferry. There are two of them and they are huge.


This is out the front of the ferry. It was so gorgeous the whole way.


We did not see any whales though. But it was so much fun!

In Juneau we could hear this crashing sound and found this waterfall that had ice crashing down it. Tried to get a video of it but it did not turn out.

We also drove by this! you have to click on it to really see but this whole front entrance is made out of ski's. We had to get a picture, it's just too funny!

Finally in Juneau!! We were here for three days to get trained. Did not get pictures on the way into port though (it was 3:00a.m. when we got in).

This is out the back deck from the store. Pretty huh!


Curtis took this picture. He caught the reflection.

Another view from the back.

Some of the scenery that we saw on the way.


It was so gorgeous the whole way!



Next stop Wrangle. It was a really small city.

Ketchikan! First stop on our trip. We actually got off the ferry and walked to the closest store for food; the food on the ferry was expensive.

This is the first little city that we saw, not sure what it's called though. We did no stop here and it's really small.

We saw tons of waterfalls down the mountain sides of these big and little islands of tree's. This is a bigger one that the camera got a little more clearer than the other small ones.

Tug boats are awesome!!!! We saw so many that were pulling a huge load. This is the first one we saw.

This is the only light house we saw on the way to Sitka. Look close you will figure out were the light is. (kinda small huh.) Beautiful to look at though!

This is the people that stay at the light house all year round. We slowed down and the ferry honked so they came out and waved to us. There was a couple dogs too but did not get a good picture of them.

Here is another tug boa that we saw.

Here is the boat. And. . . .

Here is what it is pulling. Check that out!! You probably have to click on the picture to see every. Told you tug boats are amazing!

I found the video of the little thief's on the ferry. And here in Sitka, these little guys are not so little! They are huge and fat. I will have to get a picture and show ya.

Bellingham at a distance. We had just left port! On our way YIPPY!

Curtis striking a pose on the stool looking things that holds the ropes when at port.


Me by the windows, you can see the side deck through the window. It would get too cold to stand outside later at night. You can tell because I'm wearing my sweater and jacket.


A view out the front of the boat. Not allowed down there though, not that we were not tempted.


LOOK LOOK our first encounter with sea life. He he he. We passed them, go figure, we are a big slow ferry that can on average only manage 19-21 miles per hour and we pass a fishing boat.

Our Beds

Okay, you will think this video is weird, but it shows our beds ( I thought we got better pictures of it, but I could not find any, besides you get to see some of Bellingham while we are leaving and my infamous back side). The girl that is sitting on the lounge chair is 2 lounge chairs ahead of our beds (lounge chairs also). Since we had to change our plans for the ferry, we could not get into a cabin for the trip so instead we slept on the solarium (this is on the back of the ship, kinda like a covered deck); which was just fine by us because we took our sleeping bags and pads and set up on the lounge chairs. I wish we had a better picture of the solarium because every single lounge chair was taken by the time we left Bellingham. It was so much fun though. We got to know many people that were staying up there too. And we got a 24 hour view of the ocean the whole way. And don't worry we did not freeze because the ship has heat lamps all over the solarium that are running the entire time.


Some other people decided to sleep in tents instead. They had to be on the uncovered part because of possible fire hazard with the heating lamps. On the first night it was so windy by the tents that I swear some of them were going to fly off. There was one that got pretty close. After that most of them but like three went to the lower deck where they could be in a covered spot so they had less wind. I'm just glad we did not decide to use our tent.

On the second day we saw some little thief's. :) This was by someone lounge/bed. They left some food down and these crows just flew in and scrounged around for food. We thought it was so funny because we were in the middle of the sea.

FIRST DAY!

Okay, I finally have internet. It's not the greatest either so you have to have patience with my posting. It may take a couple days to get everything. But I will start from the beginning.



Well, we left so early in the morning I did not actually take this picture until it was later. I think we finally left by 1:30 a.m. or so. But here we are on the road.


Finally after about 14-15 hours of driving straight we saw this. But we still had an hour or so to go, to get to the ferry port. Yet we were so excited to be so close to not having to drive anymore.



Finally, we are at the port in Bellingham, WA. We were going to have to go up through Canada, but Del Sol needed us up there sooner so we had to catch the ferry in WA. Which was fine by us because that meant less driving. YIPPY! The first ferry in the video is the one we got on. The rest of the boats were in the same port with it. The ferry we got on is the biggest one they have and fits over a hundred cars in it. It was huge!