S is for...

Salmon and Sea lions.

We saw several salmon canneries on our trip. We were there during the last week of the official fishing season. We often saw the fishing boats as they sailed in and out of the ports.

Hoonah Packing Company is in Icy Straight, Alaska, an out-of-the-way area that only allows one cruise ship per day. There are no jewelry shops lining the streets, no tshirt shops or tacky souvenir places. This is the real Alaska, a small native town depending on fishing and subsistence living, surrounded by breathtaking scenery. The cannery and the machinery you see here is no longer commercially functioning; it has been converted into a museum, a restaurant, and a few shops with Alaska and native made items. We had a lunch of halibut and chips. The portions were so huge, we could have gotten away with just splitting one order. We bought a case of canned salmon and had it shipped home, as well as shopping for some other souvenirs and Christmas gifts. Everything was on sale for the end of the cruise season. We shopped and shopped and had it all mailed home. (It was a little like Christmas when we got home. Barbara had everything stacked up and opening all the boxes was an adventure in rediscovering what we had purchased a week or so ago.)

In Sitka we went walking along the water's edge and came to a salmon stream. Although it was near the end of the spawning season, we saw many salmon working their way upstream. On this trip I ate Alaskan salmon for the first time. It was the best!

We saw this small island with sea lions while in Juneau. There had to be a couple hundred clustered on this little bit of dry land. The noise was incredible. Several groups were playing in the water, splashing and diving and wrestling with each other. At other times, when we would be in port, harbor seals would come up to the ship and pop their heads out of the water. I guess they enjoyed seeing the ship and the passengers just as much as the passengers enjoyed seeing them.

Of course, S is also for the Ship! Beautiful Radiance of the Seas!