It started with me getting to sleep in until 11am. It's been forever since that has happened. I guess I was pretty tired. I got up and Tyler was already awake for a while so I cuddled with him on the couch, still in a half sleep haze. Then he yells one glorious word - "WHALE!". We raced out to the balcony because Tyler saw a whale off by the coast guard, which is across the channel. We were looking really hard to see him again, when suddenly, right in front of our house, no further then the spit, another whale spouted and came out of the water. It startled me so much. I almost peed my pants a little. So we went into drill mode. We raced around the house, trying to find shoes, socks, appropriate shirts (as I was still in my pjs) and our camera. We got out there, joining a co-worker who raced out there with no shoes on, just socks. We ended up watching 2 different whales in two different directions. Both whales flashed us their tales a couple times and I think we got a few good pictures. Those will be posted either on facebook or or on the blog. It was incredible how close the whale got to the shore, about 50 feet away. Both whales were headed in opposite directions away from us so we soon lost them.
That co-worker who joined us told us that we should join her and some other co-workers who were going to be cleaning some sockeye salmon down on the warf. 2 big fishing boats came in yesterday and brought in 23,000 of these fish. Every person in the village got about 60 fish for free because the owner of this boat has family who lives in Bella Bella. We went down and Tyler was immediately in Heaven.
There were about 5 of us to start. We each manned our own stations. Tyler was handed a fillet knife and was shown the traditional way to cut a salmon so you can easily smoke it. For the most part, Tyler and the guy we were helping out, Carl, just gutted the fish, and didn't fillet them. I was part of the cleaning team. The bloody gutted fish would be put into another tote. The 3 of us women would put these fish into another bucket of water and get all the nasty stuff off it. Then we put it in the last tote where it would sit and get covered with ice.
It was long day of fish cleaning. Tyler was covered in blood. The boat was covered in blood. But it was such a great day. It was super fun to hang out people who are easy going and really knowledgeable about their culture. It was also fun to see Tyler get convinced into taking most of his clothes off and jump into the freezing cold ocean. Now he really doesn't have any excuse for when we are out at Slave Lake and doesn't want to go in. He will be going in!
We just got home and Tyler's hand still smell like fish. He has washed them 3 times and he has showered. Oh, our current salmon count is 17. That was our payment for helping out today. Tyler still wants to try to catch one himself.
It's sad because Kitty was along all day long and I think she's a little mad at us. Perhaps if she could taste the fish we just brought home, she'd lighten up a little. It was beautiful day today. The sun was out and it was glorious.
We will put up pictures of our day soon.
Son
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