Tonights Dinner

About 15 miles out of Ketchican on our trip north we stopped for lunch so I dropped a herring over to see if I could catch a salmon. Sure enough, before we finished a nice 'silver' bit.
















Look at that pretty red meat. Fresh wild Alaska salmon. Yum Yum

Shakedown Cruise

We went out for a three day cruise to make sure everything was working right and we didn't forget anything before leaving Ketchikan. Found some loose connections on the batteries (found when I tried to cook coffee with the electric maker on inverter power) and a few items which required a last run to wal-mart. We went to Traitors cove about 15 miles north of Ketchikan and our favorite crab spot. We caught 26 on our first pot pull but only 4 keepers ( male over 6 1/2 inch). All together we caught over 60 with 10 keepers. Today we're headed north up the inside passage to see what we can see.

Also in traitors cove there is a bear viewing station overlooking a salmon stream. I caught a picture of 2 cub black bears before my camera batteries went dead. The cubs are right in the center of the pic with a bald eagle watching from a nearby log.

Tug For Two in Water

We launched the boat today. While cleaning and sevicing we found a bad galley (kitchen) and head (bathroom) water pump. I'll replace that this morning and we should be able to go crabbing and fishing.

Getting Ready

Working on a new coat of bottom paint on the 'Tug For Two'. Took two hours to put it on, six hours to recover, and 600mg of ibuprofen. Today we're going to launch it and after stocking it head for our favorite crab spot.

Dog Kennels

We made it to Ketchikan AK last night (after my bedtime). We made advanced reservations on the ferry and then had to hurry across British Columbia to catch it. We had been over most of that road 4 or 5 times before anyway. We saw 3 bear coming across and got a picture of this one. It was out in a field near the road. I know, you can barely see it but I couldn't get Nancy to walk out closer.





We stopped at a rest area in Alberta for breakfast an saw this facility. I couldn't pass up a photo. You might have to enlarge the image to read the captions.

Canada Canola

We just crossed into Saskatchewan. Lots of farm land across Manitoba. This is a field of Canola, the most prominent crop in this part of Canada. Had lots of rain and wonderfully cool weather. We'll post again when we find another free WI FI.

Monday Uncle Don and Cousin Nancy took us wild blueberry picking. It's a good thing they were along or we wouldn't have enough berries to even whet our appetite. This is in a state forest between Sturgeon Lake and Willow River MN.









Cousin Nancy baked this 'berry good' pie for us before she had to leave for home. We took it along to Ruby's as a desert with her wonderful dinner. Today we have sworn to begin our diet. Tonight we're in International Falls MN and will start across Canada to Alaska tomorrow. Not sure if we'll have internet service for the next few days so if you don't see our blog update, that is our excuse.