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. :)