Fishing in Alaska! ;)

I had this awesome opportunity a couple of weeks ago to go on what I would think is a once in a lifetime adventure to the great wide open Alaskian waters. I thought I could be like the Alaskian natives and hunt and gather. I was so excited. I felt tough. Really cool, ninjaish almost. We'll not really...especially since the marine gear I was to wear was totally my grandmothers. It's kinda hard to feel tough in your grandmas rain gear. Anyway, I think you get that I was really excited to try this new fangled thing.

A really nifty spouse in Dave's squadron organized the trip and even offered to drive some ladies down to the departure point. I have to say ALL the ladies I met that day were absolutely super cool and I am so very much looking forward to hanging out with them again soon! I just want to say a big thanks to this particular nifty spouse for organizing this really awesome trip :) YOU ROCK!
Approx. O dark 30 Friday we all got to the meeting points and loaded all our gear into the chosen vehicle. On our way! Beautiful mountains, ocean, roads as we twisted and turned through breathtaking Alaskian highway. Coffee is so very good on mornings such as these. What a great ride! For all of my family and friends back on the East coast, this was the morning of the Earthquake we didn't feel. Apparently there was a tsunami warning that had been cancelled. Yup, guess who had no clue.....this girl. Why worry? Its not like its one of those things you can avoid easily. Long story short. Anything can happen...anytime... I used to worry about most things instead of the other way around. I've realized that worry just gives me lines in between my eyes and bags under them too, sometimes a tension headache to boot. And I figure when I worry, I'm loosing a moment of smiles. :) Left turn coming back...and not just in my writing..We got a call that the seas were a too rough and no one was going out that day. We had driven about 3 and a half hours and we had a beautiful drive back! Thank you to our wonderful, amazing, driver, and coordinator! The gals I got to chat with on the trip were super sweet and I was so glad to get the chance to hang with them! :) Most of us however had some really nifty sea sickness patches on and were starting to feel a bit interesting....so we all thought breakfast!!! :) When we returned to Anchorage we stopped at this nifty little place for breakfast. They had reindeer sausage!!! Yumm!! It is the best!!! Wait..I hope I didn't offend anyone, especially Santa. Don't want coal again this year unless its of the chocolate variety. They did have amazingly awesome cinnamon buns! Service was great to! Would you believe that the sweet lady that drove us won some sort of free breakfast! ;) It was really nifty!

Take two...
We met again!!! Drive down was great!! :) The weather was nice and the company was better! We arrive and get our gear on! It was a bit chilly but nice...we were going to ride in a paddy wagon that was attatched to the boat on a trailer to the water. We should have been wearing stripes...kinda different but we were on board. Boat went in the water...off we were. Its amazing how fast boats can go! This boat had some get up and go! We finally arrive at our destination and were kindly shown how to hook a Halibut. I felt tough, all rugged Alaska now. And I took hold of that line with a death grip thinking if something bit my line I was going in the water with it. However that wasn't the case. My line hadn't been in 30 seconds and I felt something....Someone said "reel"! I did! I was really fishing! WOW! And man that line felt so much longer coming in than going out. Talk about elbow grease!! YAY!!
All the gals hooked theirs just as quickly..Got to say for beginners we were absolutely blessed. A 6 hour trip turned into 1 hour and 30 minutes on the water....It was an amazing 1 hour and 30 minutes too. We all caught our fish quickly, with minimal seasickness ;). Thank you to the guy who invented these little patches. They came in quite handy!

In short it was Breathtaking....made me think of how we can take just a little time and have enough to write a blog post on it and remember it for a lifetime. Snow on the mountain, sunshine rippling on the water..time with a great group of ladies, making memories and appreciating the peacefulness of being in the presence of such beauty. Truly something that I am really learning to appreciate. We have really enjoyed great times with our family and friends. We are enjoying the time, however brief it may seem, can last a lifetime of memories. We are thankful for the memories we have, looking fondly on them, and the new ones we hope to make. :)

Attempt at catching up ;)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I have been not keeping you all up to date on things around this great new adventure of ours. We kinda dropped off for a little while but I do have to say, the more I have my I phone, the happier I am that I have it (for picture purposes of course), since sometimes it doesn't ring quite loud enough for me to realize that it is ringing...(maybe a ring tone change would help!) This is especially so when I have left my camera somewhere up on shelf while we were running out the door to who knows where. So how about we play catch up. Sounds like a plan to me!!
I believe I mentioned that Mike came and helped us unload when we first arrived. But I don't remember if I mentioned that he took us on a Grand tour of Anchorage. That was really super duper cool of him and then invited us to his church. Where for some of you, Steven Creekers, I have to say that seeing a securegive kiosk there made us feel right at home 4300 miles away. People were so friendly!! We have met a bunch of really cool folks at our new church here and are really excited about this upcoming season!
Speaking of really cool folk, My friend Nicole also came to our rescue when the moving truck showed up. She came and helped us unpack the truck space we hired to move here. Thank you sooooo much Nicole. We literally unloaded the whole contracted truck in 20 minutes with her and the truck drivers help. He said it would be more trouble to leave the back of the truck in our driveway than to help. I happened to bake some cookies which I think offset the hurried truck emptying extravaganza. :) But oatmeal was in them I think so that makes them healthy right? But I digress.......The kiddos were returning soon and Dave and I, had a house to unpack and put together.
Everything was coated in a fine layer of road grime or something. Most of the assembled furniture didn't make the trip so well, so for all of you visiting we hope you don't mind its weathered "antique" look. It's the "in" thing right now anyway, right? Maybe a better plan is to be doing some furniture refacing on the darker days of winter.
Speaking of winter it is coming fast. There is already snow on the mountains higher up. The kiddos got back and it has been a mad dash to find gear. Snow boots check, indoor gym shoes-check, outdoor snow gear-check, ice skates-still looking but we have faith they will show up random while we are out somewhere. Ice skates....seems recreational however during the winter months the children are encouraged to go out to the schools skating rink after lunch to skate and to soak up the little bit of sun that appears around that time of day during those months. Whoa who would have thought? I'm thinking ROCK ON! It is beautiful....all of this beauty around us makes us realize how truly blessed we are, even though we are in this transition that isn't the easiest. We miss our lower 48 state family! (That's what the Alaska people always refer to everyone else in the United States) Makes me wonder why they left out poor Hawaii. Wait....oh its not poor Hawaii, I'm thinking someone somewhere was jealous that Hawaii doesn't get snow 7-8 months out of the year of snow is what. But of course that's just a hunch. Miss you all in Hawaii too! :)
School is an all walking school, with paths all the way there. When the children returned, Dad held a what to do when wildlife attacks session. That was fun. Mamma moose and bears are crazy and we really need to be aware of our surroundings. They apparently hang out by our houses and on the trails. Someone even told me sometimes Bullwinkle will be staring at me through my kitchen window all quiet and covert. Just hangin out. Cool.
Grandma and Grandpa came and hung out with us and the kiddos for a couple of weeks, and what a blast it was to have an excuse to hang out and explore this frontier known as Alaska...Glaciers...Parks....flowers....mosquitos.....food (YUMM!) probably too much food ( not so good for the waistline), and salmon, salmon, salmon! We are now salmon spoiled for the rest of our earthly lives. Someone said to us that the welcome to Alaska cookie is fish. Seriously. We have been welcomed to the neighborhood with fresh caught fish about 5 different occasions and it is the best we have ever had and will ever have. To all you amazing fishermen and woman out there, I tried and did succeed!! YAY! Halibut is sooooo yummmy!! I will post a seperate blog post for that just because I felt all Alaskianized (is that a word) with that single act. Well maybe purchasing bear spray helped in that area but it was wearing the fully suited marine gear that did me in.

Fall is here!!! We are hoping it is cooling off for everyone! We love and miss you!

I think that's all we have for now.....and I will be getting to the fishing trip post coming to a blog near you soon.