Today we participated in one of the best activities we have ever done on our trips. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip on the Aleutian Ballad, a boat that was part of the Deadliest Catch fleet during season #2. It is famous for catching a rogue wave which was caught on film. It also foundered and was abandoned at sea with no loss of life. Anyway, the point of this voyage was LOTS of stories which were all pretty good and lots of information about the various types of fishing the boat is capable of. In each demonstration, the crew recovered gear which actually caught fish or crabs and the reset the gear. So we saw longlines for fish, shrimp pots, dungeness crab, baradei and king crabs. They also had a big octopus they recovered. All the while somebody was talking. One of the highlights of the trip was a stop alongside a Bald Eagle roosting area where the crew started throwing frozen herring overboard. We were swarmed with eagles. There had to be almost 100 of them. So they swooped around and snatched the herring from the water and put on a show for quite a while.

Upon return to Ketchikan, we went through the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center which was pretty good. They had a nice movie and a nice display about the area. We then walked down Creek Street which turned out to be mostly tourist shops. We wandered back through downtown and eventually back to the hotel. This was our last day in Southeast Alaska. We have had a great time.