Salmon, and black cod, and crabs, oh my!

The last two days have been filled with yummy seafoody goodness here in Haines!

First, we visited a fish store and picked up some smoked salmon and smoked black cod (and part of that was today's lunch). Then we drove out to a lake north of town to look for bald eagles (spotted only one, but also saw a bear), and on the way back stopped at the Haines Packing Company for a tour.

Haines Packing Company

Haines Packing Company Sign We made a new friend, Elize, who was filling in at the gift shop. We watched the freshly caught salmon taken from the boat to the processing plant where it was gutted, filleted, and packed. We bought some King Salmon and Sockeye, taken directly from the processing line, and will stock up on a few more pounds for the freezer before we leave Haines (but we must leave room for all the halibut John will catch later!).

Unloading the Boat

Filleting Salmon

Today the owner of our campground hosted a Dungeness Crab dinner -- $6 per crab, so fresh they were swimming this morning. When the crab boat came in, we all tagged along to help with the cleaning. Here is a video of our dinner-to-be as it came off the boat and was cleaned (the blonde woman is our campground owner and hostess, Joyce): And some photos:

Dave Eyes Dinner

Cleaning Lesson At 6:30, we walked over to a tent set up outside the office for the crab potluck. The temperature was in the mid 50s with a chilly wind, but the tent kept us warm. The company was fun and the crabs were huge and delicious!

Joyce with Freshly Cooked Crabs

John and I Get Crabs

The Crab Eaters Haines is quickly becoming a favorite spot of ours!