Kenai Lake

Can you believe all of this fit comfortably in one pickup? We stopped on the way back from Homer to check out Kenai Lake. We're facing the lake.

What can be said?

Not all halibut

I've been halibut fishing several times before and there's always something besides halibut being caught. But there were two firsts for me on this trip. I've seen these before in Hawaii in  about a foot of water, but Lee caught this brittle star at about 200 feet. I don't know how he felt it taking his bait. The bait is bigger than the catch!

This is another first, a huge octopus. Lee almost had one up and it got away. Then the deck hand hooked into a fish and handed the pole to Chase and he reeled up this monster. Pretty cool and HEAVY!.

That's a five gallon bucket they're trying to stuff him into.

Homer

Good times ahead.

One of my favorite things about Homer. You can always find eagles.
The Nauti-lady, our fishing vessel.

On our way to catch that beautiful delicious fish.
Paul holding the biggest of our catch.

Exit Glacier

Our first stop on the Kenai Peninsula was Exit Glacier. Truly incredible.

It was a beautiful day, it's hazy because of several wildfires going on across the state. But it was perfect to get their first little hike in. Lee and Bill striking a pose.

Boyd is sampling some moose nuggets. I told him they weren't chocolate. There's a mosquito sampling some Kentucky boy on his cheek.

There were several trails to the glacier. They had the top roped off so we couldn't touch it. So we went to the bottom (toe) of it and there was water raging over the trail. I already said I want my people to see Alaska! That means touch it too. So we found a rough trail through the woods and they all got to touch it. Here, they are walking away from the scene of the crime.

And this is as far as we went. Next stop, Homer!

Been busy!

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been burnin' that proverbial candle at both ends and the middle. My last post just said that my dear family was up for an Alaskan adventure. And we did venture out as much as we could in too little time. So' I'll start where I left off. With 4 beefy family members coming to visit, I felt it would be cruel to stuff them all into my ext cab truck knowing all the miles and hours we were going to be putting on the road. And, well, I've been wanting a crew cab 4x4 for hunting and fishing for a couple of years. Why not now? So, when Boyd got off the plane, we went shopping. It was a good plan and worked out quite well. And it gets better gas milage than my other truck!

On the day the cousins showed up, I took Boyd to the House of Harly. You have to have your picture takin' with the bear. It's an unwritten law.

You won't see this anywhere else either. This is cut from a piece of the Alaska pipeline. Very cool.

Any time I have family coming to visit, I desperately want to show them Alaska and all its beauty. I have no control over nature, and unfortunately the bears did not cooperate. The dall sheep however, that's another story! I've seen this a couple of times before, but it doesn't happen often. So I was delighted they did this while they were here. This yew and lamb are right down by the Seward highway just 10 miles from Anchorage.

On our first full day together, we headed down to the Kenai Peninsula. This was one of many stops along the way.

Watch out Alaska

They have arrived!

Chase bear fence video

Chase went to Katmai with the boy scouts for a week. In this video, he talks a couple of buddies into grabbing the electric bear fence. I wouldn't dare. But this is FUNNY!

Slip-n-slide!

Colt got a slip-n-slide as a gift a couple of years ago. I didn't think we'd ever use it. This was the second time this summer. This is cousin Joshua. He wasn't very keen on it at first but he came around.

I couldn't get them to do the Pete Rose into it.

Look at that washboard stomach.

My Princess is 11

O.K. So she's been eleven for a couple of weeks now. Cathy took this on the other camera and I just found it.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. We had sunshine, so it was good for us. You can see Justice took his shirt off, so it was warm too. The other bare chest is cousin Joshua. He followed Justice's lead and took his shirt off. But he didn't stop there, he tried to take his pants off too. His mama caught him in the act though and stopped him.

June Camping Trip

We took a few days and went camping on the Kenai Peninsula. Our first camp was in Seward. We drove into rain and it broke up by the time we got there. We set our tent up under rainless clouds then hoped for the best. When we woke in the morning it was blue skies. With all the rain, justice didn't have any trouble finding worms. I wouldn't let him keep them, so he made a worm house for them. That's the little pile of leaves in front of him.

Colt is helping set up the tent. I think he's found a spot where the rain/bugs can't get in and he's going to fix it. They loved helping with the tent.

After we broke camp, we went exploring around Seward. This cliff was on the beach. We found lots of crabs, eels and starfish under the rocks where the tide had abandoned them.

I can't believe I had never been here before. This is Exit Glacier, and it is incredible. Any visitors to Alaska will get a chance to come see it. 

The next night we stayed on the beach in Homer on the spit. It was very nice. Good weather, thick grass to pitch the tent on, and hot dogs over the fire.

I took this trying to catch the moon reflecting in the pool. I was disappointed in how small it is in the photo. It was more impressive seeing it real time. Then I noticed all the colors captured in the photo and I'm happy with it again. This is looking west into Kachemak Bay at 11:15 p.m.

Group photo on the spit beach. Again looking across Kachemak Bay.

Salmon trip number 2

After my first trip to the Russian this year, they upped the limit to 6 per day. We limited this time too. That's a lot of fish. JC and I did the cleaning. Eddie and Kevin did all the foot work. This was Kevin's first trip down. He's hooked. It was a beautiful day.