Thursday, June 28, 2012

Where are the fish?!

Well, the fishing hasnt been all that great :(
The rivers are very high, and the run is below average this year. Which is such a bummer, but hey, its nobodys fault! (but the fish! hehe)
We have mainly been fishing the Russian and Kenai River Confluence.
Normally, on a good year you can go fish and get your limit of three a day and head home. Sometimes, they even up it to six fish a day. But this year, we would fish for a good 7 hours and only bring home 2 out of 4 of us fishing. Big bummer. But, that's ok. I had a great time fishin with my new fly rod, watching the Mama grizz and her two cubs play on the other side across from us. That was just amazingly beautiful. :) Oh, and I fed some salmon roe to the trout..nice big dolly vardens and got my thumb bit..haha, drew blood and everything! :)

Now, since I started writing this the other day, we have left from Soldotna and are in Denali. Another must see for everyone who loves nature. :)
We are spending three nights here and then starting our trek back home.
I'm ready to get back home, as much as I love Alaska, I'm ready to get back into my routine, get some photography sessions in, sleep in my own bed, with my hubby, and..meet our new puppy!! Our Bernese Mt Dog, Thor! My friend Shayna has his brother, Stryker. I'm so excited for the kids to see him too. Sean is in love. He called me and said Thor slept in bed with him..I told him he better quit that habit now, soon he will be 100+ lbs and trying to steal all the covers!! ;) I've included a picture Sean sent me of him on the couch, he is 12 weeks old.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Pictures

A few cell phone pictures(some were edited thru instagram..great app for sharing pictures!) from this week. Hopefully my explanations match, I'm using my blogger app :)

1. Allergies suck, and especially when it looks like its snowing outside! ;)
2. A beautiful meadow near the Kasilof River..about 10:30pm.
3. The Kasilof River..tried, but caught no sockeyes here. :/ But, did get to watch an eagle swoop in and catch one! 10:40pm
4. My sweet boy loves the woods. Just like his Mama.
5. I love a man in camo. Enough said. ;)






Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Grama Ruby Wants to Go Home.

And we will let her. This trip has had its stresses. Firstly, breaking down on the way was a good test, but Alaska didn't turn out to be anything my Great Grama was expecting. She is 89 years old, so she requires a lot of help, which of course is not a problem and we all chipped in. Getting her coffee, dinner, making sure she was taking her pills, helping her get dressed, helping her shower, all things that would make her trip enjoyable. Like I said, we didn't mind doing the things, but she ended up not liking it here. I'm not sure what she was expecting Alaska to look like, but it's too cold (I laugh because you can see snow on the mountains in the distance and she claims it snows at camp at night..hehe) Anyway, she asked my Grandparents to fly her home, so she will head back to Seattle with Sean on the 24th. This decision she made caused a lot of family drama from one particular side. We explained to her that she would not get to see her great Grandson and his daughter who is due this month, which we planned to visit on the way home (my grandparents drove down to see him on the way here, but Grama Ruby CHOSE not to go see him then..but of course we were blamed for that). Anyway, he heard wind that she is flying home and literally a war of words began on Facebook. I ended up deleting my cousin because I really truly don't need that stress in my life. My grandparents extended him the offer of flying him here to see her, he declined, with some nasty remarks of course. So I decided its not worth my happiness to see his disrespectful, ungrateful attitude towards the people who had NOTHING to do with Grama Ruby's decision to fly back to Seattle.. she made the choice knowing she woudnt see him, why do we get the wrath for that? Ah, such a ridiculous thing. I do understand he is upset he won't see her, but that isn't my fault.
I enjoying logging on Facebook to see pictures of my family, friends and old classmates..not reading hurtful comments or remarks. I mean, i could have been truthful with him, but I knew that would have been hurtful, I could have wrote and said, 'Grama doesnt want to come see you, she wants to fly home, we tried to get her to stay for you, but SHE decided otherwise' or how she would not fly two hours to see him, but when she was talking to her daughter about coming home, when she gets back to Tennessee would like to fly to Thailand to see her other grandson. That would have hurt..but that's not my style.
It's obvious to us here that she has a softer spot in her heart for those who were close to her on the east coast, and that's ok. ..I'm just going to quit complaining, but I obviously needed to vent :)
It was refreshing this morning to log on and see no drama :) I like instagram for that reason, just sharing pictures. I have a soft spot for pictures so that is a favorite app on my phone for me ;)

Yesterday and today are the first two days where it has really rained since we have been here. I love how it rains in this area..it's not such a hard down pour like at home. I have talked to people about the weather here..yes it snows, yes it gets dark during the winter for longer periods(like 5 hours of daylight) but its a refreshing place to live. The grocery stores have much more, made in Alaska items than at home because it costs so much to get stuff up here, they really do depend on local farmers, artists, fisherman. (yes, i know we have this in WA too) but it just seems more people really do live off the land here. And you know what..the girls that stick out here are the fancy dressed, high heels and coach purse girls. I fit in! Although I do at home in Eatonville too ;) it's just not a huge priority to have perfect make up here, more natural, pony tail, jeans and Columbia coat.
Anyways, I'm enjoying my trip, wishing my Grama could have enjoyed it more, but she can at least say she has been to the great state of Alaska!! The first sockeye run should be any day now and I'm ready to hook a big one!

We saw this Mama and her two babes on the way to Walmart, how awesome is that!!

Monday, June 4, 2012

My trip, thus far.

Well, I am alive and in Alaska! We had quite the trip getting up here.
We left on Saturday May 12th at about 10am. My Grandpa Was coming down with a pretty bad cold, but we left anyway. We stopped at Walmart in Quilceda and got some medicine and hit the road. That night we made it to Boston Bar, BC. The truck was making it, but slowly and I had a bad feeling it wouldn't make it. Anyway the next day we took a road trip to Hells Gate air tram. That was awesome..and scary! Easy day trip from the Seattle area, I recommend it :)
We stayed one more night in Boston Bar and then were on the road again. Here is where the fun begins :) we made it to Ashcroft, BC and the truck just quit working. Thankfully we had cell service and called AAA for a tow to Cache Creek where they could look at the truck. Distributor was bad and we would be on the road the following day. We made it all the way to 70 Mile House, BC..which actually isn't that far and broke down again. Grama was fed up at this point. We called AAA again and were towed to 100 Mile House where there was a Ford dealer to look at the truck more in depth. We got my Grampa into a medical clinic and got him some antibiotics since he was still sick, and they decided they were getting a new truck. And I was so glad. For one, they deserve it and second I don't think we would have made it the rest of the way. I will say one thing, we got some of the best treatment in Canada. The people there took such great care of us each time we had a problem. It was very heartwarming to see people that caring still exist in the world :)
So they ended up buying a new truck and we were off. Grampa loves his new truck by the way.
Fast forward to Dawson Creek, BC where Great Grama Ruby and I went to a medical clinic, I had a sinus infection and she had a upper chest thing, we got our antibiotics, from the nicest pharmacist. I won't forget him.
Now it's Monday June 4th and we are at our home base for the month of Soldotna, Alaska. Sean and my Dad flew into Anchorage on the 25th and we were able to do a lot of fun things..but of course time flies when you're having fun! We went Halibut fishing out of Homer and between us all were able to seal up 106# of fresh caught Alaskan Halibut. Yum! Sean had a great time doing that. Saying goodbye yesterday was heartbreaking. Mostly because Silas had the biggest sad face, with tears quietly streaming and he just shattered my heart. Lol. So we did what anyone does when they are sad. We got ice cream at the Tastee Freeze. On the way there I spotted Bristol Palin's truck, would have liked to meet her, but wasnt going to sit and stalk her lol.
Sean will be back in 11 days and I can't wait :D The salmon run should just be hitting hard at that time and I hope we can fill the freezer!

Today, we rest. :) And I've got my bible study to catch up on!
Until next time!