Deadliest Catch

The Deadliest Catch is a TV show on the discovery channel, that follows the Alaskan king crab fisherman in the Bering sea.

I have watched it in the past, and I had a chance to go on a tour on one of the ships from the second season of the show. The ship was called the Aleutian Ballad.


The ship was converted a few years back so it could take passengers out to sea and give them an idea of how things are done on a ship.

A view from the wheelhouse.

The crab pots full with tasty king crab. The operators of the tour have a catch and release deal with a local native tribe, because in normal Alaskan waters you cant catch any crab except in a very controlled season.

We were able to touch and hold the crab that were brought up from the sea.

And take funny pictures.

One of the best parts of the tour that I didn't expect was the eagles. The tour operators are allowed to feed the eagles, something that other tours in Alaskan waters can't do.


This was really cool. There were over 2 dozen eagles all flying mere feet from the ship and grabbing the fish. I got some awesome pictures and videos.


I had never seen so many eagles in one place before.

And it was really cool to see them do their swoop and grab from the water thing.

We were also able to see some of the other things that are caught from the waters, like prawns, other types of crab, and even octopus.

The people who ran the tour were really great and overall it was one of the best tours I have ever done.

Hubbard Glacier

The Hubbard Glacier is another of the places we only went to the one time.



It was interesting to watch our ship sail in through the icebergs.

And when we got closer they were all around us.

We got fairly close to the glacier. We were able to see large chunks of ice fall off the end into the water, but you had to be lucky to catch them with the camera, because you would see the splash before you hear the sound.

Icy Strait Point, and the Worlds longest zipline

We only stop the one time in Icy Strait Point. which is a very small town, but very nice and there is lots of wildlife to see in the area.

Including large ravens that were eager to steal some of the fries from my fish and chips, but weren't as daring as some crows or other birds you see in cities.



We also saw plenty of eagles




And even a few whales.

But the main attraction in the town was the worlds longest zipline. Which is over 5,300 feet long. I was lucky enough to get on one of the first tours going down the zipline that day

On the ride down there are great views of the surrounding areas, including our ship at the bottom of the mountain, and you can reach speeds of up to 60mph. I took a video of the first half then switched to pictures.

It was a exciting ride down, and even being the longest in the world it was over in just under 90 seconds.


After the zipline, and then lunch we walked down the path into town and came across a really small bar, that was pointed out on the ride up the mountain, which was apparently put in a travel magazine as the friendliest in America. It was called the Office Bar.

Wile there wasn't much to see inside it did turn out to be run by very friendly people, and as crew they gave us our first drink free.

They also gave us a good deal on the beer glasses with the logo on it that we used, which made a good souvenir.

First few days in Alaksa

Our first stop was in Ketchikan, where we went for burgers at a small shack that is said to have one of the best burgers in Alaska, and because it was closed on Sundays which is the day we would be in the town every other time this was our only chance.

The burger did live up to my expectations and so did the fries and milkshake.

We were also lucky this first day as Ketchikan is supposed to be one of the wettest places in North America but it was nice and sunny this day.

Our second day was in Juneau which is the capital of Alaska.

We went to another small place to eat that also has a reputation of great food.

This one was Tracy's Crab Shack.

I ordered the #1 combo: Small crab bisque, 3 crab cakes, and 1 huge king crab leg.

All of it was very tasty and I know I will be going back many times this summer.

Our last of the 3 towns we will be going to this summer is Skagway, which is the smallest of the 3 towns. Its basically a one street town.

This town is known for the White Pass Railway, which is a steep climb up the mountain, and heads into the Yukon. And was built during the Klondike gold rush.

I didn't go on the train tour this time but I will soon.

San Francisco

The Day in San Francisco We were only in San Francisco for one day, but I made the most of it.

Starting with waking up at 3am to see the sail in under the Golden Gate Bridge, and then a walk through fisherman's wharf, with a view of Alcatraz in the background.

Then we walked to the zig zag street which has a steady stream of cars driving down the many swichbacks.

We climbed up the street to the top where we caught a streetcar to downtown.

The streetcars have been in San Francisco since 1873 and are controlled by levers grabbing a cable that runs continuously under the street.

The fun thing about these cars is you can ride them by hanging on the outside of them, which is what we did, and it made for a interesting ride through the city.

When we got downtown we did a bit of shopping and stopped in the apple store to look at the new ipad, interesting looking, but i didn't see any being bought.

After that we jumped back on the cable car and headed back towards the wharf area. Which we again rode on the outside of the car, until it started to pour rain then we moved into the covered part.

Once we got to the end of the line we went for lunch at the ever popular In and Out Burger.

After that it was back to the ship. And off to Alaska.

Last tour in Cosa Rica

The last time we were in Costa Rica, I did a tour to the Le Paz Waterfalls, and wildlife park.

The place we dock is quite far from any of the places we do tours, and this place is no different.

It took our bus 2.5 hours on the roads to get to the mountain rain forest and the waterfalls and park.

Once we were there we went to many of the places on the site.

The bird aviary

The butterfly house

The big cat house

The Monkey Pens

And finally the waterfalls.

The day we were there was at the start of the rainy season, and the area gets a lot of rain in general, so I got every lucky, because it rained before we got there, and a bit after we left it started to rain very hard. I didn't bring anything extra to wear, just my shorts and t-shirt, so any rain wouldn't have been fun.

Once we got back to the ship, there was a big storm, driving rain, lots of wind, and thunder and lightning.