Kenai River fishing

This past weekend we headed down to the Kenai River to fish kings with D's parents and also dipnet for reds. It was an incredibly successful afternoon since the reds were running strong. We hit our limit within 2.5 hours on Saturday: 35 for our household and 25 for D's friend Karl who came down to dipnet with us.

Here is the bridge where D picks up his passengers. It is faster to run the boat down the river by himself (less weight) and pick us up at this point.

D and Karl manned the nets this year - they were pros! Sometimes pulling in 2 or even 3 fish at a time. Fish & Game requires that we clip the tail fins to designate that these are dipnet-caught sockeyes (reds).

Thank goodness it didn't rain this year - last year we were cold and wet. The boats all jockey for position and try to avoid: 1) getting too close to shore; 2) hitting other boats; 3) getting stuck on a sandbar; and 4) colliding with the commercial fishing boats moored up to buoys. It's hard work for everyone and I am happy to be done for the year!

Looks crowded in the boats, doesn't it? In previous years we have seen people dipnetting out of Zodiacs or little inflatable boats. This year took the cake though -- a guy and gal were dipnetting in a JET SKI! I was too busy driving the boat to get a photo but it the most insane thing I have ever seen out there. Where the heck do they put the fish? Alaskans are crazy, no doubt about it.

This is what we call "cherry pie all over the boat." I have found red splotches of fish blood in the boat months after dipnetting is over.

After arriving home on Sunday evening we got straight to work canning a batch of reds with my favorite recipe (basil & onion) and vacuum-sealing 4 gallons of filets for the freezer. With the amount of fish we have, it'll be a week-long schedule of processing fish after work!

Pond excursion

I sure hope Accuweather.com lives up to their name because that site is predicting 73 degrees and partly sunny weather on Saturday the 26th!!! I don't care if it's cloudy - even a rain-free, overcast day is a blessing. I feel like a big weight has been lifted off of my shoulders since both sets of parents have arrived. Don got right to work mowing both lawns (yahoo!) Then he and Mim worked some kind of magic and traded in D's too-big suit for a stunning BRAND-NEW modern suit. My parents have hit the ground running today and have their own list of to-do's. This wedding really is a group effort!

Lots of wonderful events this month and the next - my cousin Angie's birthday, Don and Mim's anniversary, D's birthday (today!) and my parents' anniversary. So many reasons to celebrate.

Since D has been gone I take a lot of walks with Drift. This pond is maybe a mile or so from our house and the dog loves to fetch sticks that I throw (like a girl) into the water.

Drift also likes to dig up sticks that are mired in the mud.

The area is beautiful but so many mosquitos and no-see-ums (tiny gnats).

Here is the poor Canada Goose that Drift spotted and then tried to catch up with in the water. They swam in a circle around half the pond - Drift swimming as fast as he could with the goose quacking the whole time before flying away. Thank goodness no one saw him because technically that is harassing wildlife.

A very dirty dog. He has started dunking his whole head in the water to look for sticks and rocks. So weird, but we love him anyway. :-)

More wedding updates

OMG, I'm getting married two weeks from tomorrow!!!

The house is looking better -- knowing that both sets of parents are arriving early next week is motivating me to work on the yard, finish some little interior projects and get the guest room ready. Everything in there is washed and clean, so the pets have to stay out. I ran out of boxes for the multitude of wedding items and ended up purchasing some nice-sized green rubbermaid totes that can double as beverage holders/coolers during the reception. Multi-tasking, I love it.

Sent in our marriage license paperwork this morning and we will be able to pick it up in person on the Monday after D arrives back in town. It makes me a bit nervous to have waited until the last week for this, but it couldn't be helped - that lodge job kinda threw a kink into our plans!

Still trying to connect with the owners of the Inn about meals and setup -- they are in full-on wedding mode already with a couple events under their belt already this month. Oh, flowers are done! I visited a wholesale flower company in town and placed an order, to be picked up Friday morning before we leave Anchorage for Moose Pass. I'm feeling really good about this - $550-$600 worth of blooms for $217!

The girls at work are throwing me my second bridal shower next Wednesday. I don't even care about the gifts - I'm more interested in good food and wine. ;-)

Memorial Weekend in PWS 6

We arrived back in Whittier on Sunday afternoon and caught an early tunnel back to Anchorage. It was still gorgeous out. This is the boat launch area for small vessels, although annoyingly enough, bigger boats dock here a lot.

Waiting in line for our turn to enter the tunnel on the Whittier side. There are waterfalls everywhere.

You can see the triangle-shaped entrance to the tunnel below. It's TINY compared to the size of the mountain. It's a 2.5 mile long tunnel.

D stopped here at Portage to do some additional tie-downs in the boat, so I got out and snapped some photos of the icebergs. Portage Glacier used to come all the way down into the water but it has receeded significantly over the years.

Memorial weekend in PWS 5

I think I have one more set of photos and then we're done with Memorial weekend. The one below was taken from my comfy vantage point on the beach. Drift and I were able to hang out here while D sat in his tree stand and hunted for bears. The boat is floating way out there because it is on an anchor system - prevents us from getting beached at low tide.

Super awesome view. I found this huge flat rock on the beach and created a makeshift beach chair. Surprisingly comfy. I watched lots of boats, otters and seals go by. No whales on this day.

Drift got a little upset when D walked off through the woods towards the bear hunting site. This dog loves D so much.

The Princess cruise ship goes by to look at College Fjord (all of the glaciers in this area are named after colleges back east).

More photos of the area...it was mostly low tide while we waited for D, so I did some walking across the rocks.

Difficult to see, but this is a glacier running into the Sound.

My ring (I got a little bored at one point).

Close up of a little critter stuck to the rock. They are easy to pull off and you can see the little mollusk (or whatever they are) retreat back into its shell.

A curious seal that watched us for a while.

Our beach and staging area. In total, we waited about 5 hours for D to hunt. No bears were shot, but he did see one come into the bear bait site.

It's still so light outside at 11 p.m.! The fishing boats were congregated in this part of the sound, near the beach, fishing for reds (sockeye salmon). They put the nets out, wait for a bit and then pull in the catch. I watched them for a looong time. They were still going strong when we left for our hour-long ride back to camp.

The weekend

I cannot WAIT until my and D's parents come into town next week -- I'm at that point where I could use a little help with things. There is so much wedding junk everywhere, but most of it has been moved into my craft room and out of the spare bedroom. I don't think my parents would appreciate sleeping on top of this stuff.

Everyday I come home from work and get things together for the big event. Bed time has been 1 a.m. for the last week. My to-do list is 4 pages long now, but I'm one of those people who needs to be organized. I live and die by my lists!

D will be back in less than two weeks, so the dog and I are excited about that. I thought maybe I could get away with not cutting the lawn until our parents arrive, but it's looking a big long. Plus our neighbors on either side both mowed this weekend so ours looks especially unkempt. I can't remember the last time I cut the grass -- probably when I was in high school!

This weekend was pretty full -- a first Friday/artwalk downtown with friends to kick off the weekend, plus lots of errands and wedding stuff on Saturday, and then I took my coworker to brunch on Sunday for her birthday.

Yesterday (Monday) I took a boat trip into Prince William Sound for work. Will post some photos later.

Memorial weekend in PWS 4

We stopped in this area to purify some water at the waterfall (from melting snow high up in the mountain) and check out one of D's old bear baiting sites.

We really got lucky with the weather. Very warm and sunny all day Saturday.

An eagle soared very high above us. It made at least 10 revolutions around its nest before I stopped watching.

Tromping through the wet, marshy muskeg. It was crazy hot by this time of day. Saw some bear scat over here too, I think.

D spotted some fiddle ferns (an Asian delicacy) so we went back to the boat for garbage bags and then started picking! We have seen these ferns in PWS and near Homer - probably never been picked before. I kept them on ice in the cooler until we arrived home, then boiled them quickly and dried them outside. Will mail half to my grandma and half to my mom.

Memorial weekend in PWS 3

More photos...a lot of these are posted to my Facebook account as well.

I was snuggled up all warm and cozy in my sleeping bag when this photo was taken from the door of our tent. Good morning! We had a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit as we watched boats go by.

A really great first haul of shrimp for the weekend (and my engagement ring too.)

The dog gets pretty freaking excited when D pulls up or drops the pots.

D has been soaking the shrimp in seawater before shucking - seems to clean them out a bit.

Some of our biggies...guess what we had for dinner when we returned to town?

Just kidding, I didn't eat it. I'm not that crazy. Even the dog is weirded out!

Crab that crawled into our shrimp pot - we threw him back since legally we're not supposed to keep crabs. D says there is some way to tell whether it's a male or female by looking at the back?

D put the crab down so I could photograph it and it scooted clear across the surface!

It's no Alaskan King Crab, but still the biggest one we've ever caught.

Memorial weekend in PWS 2

After dropping the shrimp pots and setting up camp we headed over to D's bear bait station in the woods, which was about an hour-long boat ride from our campsite.

The puppy rides up front and his ears tend to flop around in the wind.

Tide was still going out so we had to make sure the boat didn't get stuck on the beach. Otherwise we would have had to sleep overnight in this area and wait for the tide to come in and float the boat again!

A cruise ship on its way into Whittier harbor.