Day 15 // 6/28

Derry Kramer
Today, we were woken up for a breakfast of pancakes. Our van (Moose) wasn’t around when we were woken, but Ishtar showed up eventually. After eating breakfast, we had meeting to discuss what we would be doing later in the day, and to ask about Olivia’s missing sweatshirt. A little after that, a small group of us cleaned and seasoned salmon for tonight’s dinner. I worked at the end of the line and salted the fish before Kendra seasoned it further and Ishtar wrapped it in foil. During this time, others who chose not to help had some free time.
After helping with dinner, I read with Kendra for a few minutes. Then, everyone left for the Bear Creek Salmon Weir, where we watched the workers there catch and count the salmon that went through. Many others and I got to hold some of the fish; a few of us even kissed one! After that, our group came back to camp for a little while (to change if we had gotten wet in the river attempting to catch a fish). We left again soon after arriving to write in our journals at another campground in Seward. Later, we were allowed to walk around town and look at the shops.
Not too long after this, our group went to the Alaska Sealife Center. Half of us went walked around and looked through the center, while the other half sat through a class. Halfway through our visit, we switched. In the center, we saw seals, sea lions, sea otters, and sea birds like puffins and certain ducks. During the class, we listened to a woman talk about the population decrease of sea lions and other marine mammals in a ten year period. Then, she talked about how we could determine what caused the loss based on the animals’ poop.
After our visit to the Sealife Center, our group returned to camp to eat dinner: the salmon we had prepared earlier. It was really good, so much better than the packaged fish you buy from a store. Today was a great day, and I’m looking forward to arriving in Homer tomorrow after our long rides in the van.