Alaska!

We both had a great time in Alaska! We flew into Anchorage where some friends then picked us up and took us to their house in Kenai. They were gracious hosts the entire time and we will forever be thankful that they opened their hearts and their homes to us!

Homer is where we went Halibut fishing. What a day! We were on the water about 7:00 and after a 45 minute ride out into the ocean we dropped anchor and just started catching fish. The limit is 2 per person and we had 7 people on the boat - we were after 14 halibut! The first two fish were caught after about 2 minutes, by Abigail (age 10) who set a new boat record for catching two halibut at the same time. Both hooks on her pole had a fish on - way to go Abigail!

The only downfall of the whole trip was that Wade caught a Manta Ray. Oh Wade! Really Wade and I thought it was pretty cool, but it is a lot of work for nothing. We saw a ton of otters - litterally - okay well at least a lot of otters. They float on their backs with a rock on their tummy, then they get clams and crack them against the rock on their stomachs. They are actually pretty cool little animals.

This is the type of equipment they have to put boats in and out of the ocean. The tide changes so much that it makes it difficult to just do it yourself.

This is one of four active volcanoes in Alaska. We stopped at a lookout on the way back from Halibut fishing and admired the scenery!

This is a Bald Eagle flying. We saw a lot of Eagles. In fact, before this one took flight, we counted nine of them together in the field below this.

This rock is out in the ocean and would actually be black if it weren't for all of the bird poop! There are many species of birds that come to this rock island to nest.

Can you spot the Mountain Sheep? Wade could!

This is the river where we went King Salmon fishing. This photograph was taken about 10:00 p.m. In the summer it never gets dark in Alaska - it makes it hard to go to bed!

Brian, one of our friends, had his friend take us out fishing. What an awesome trip! Brian caught a King right off and we were super pumped - However, we had to let it go because it was a native King and you can only keep them on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It was Friday. We didn't catch any other Kings, but had light action on a few small fish. There was a light drizzle of rain throughout the night, but what an awesome trip! A shout our to our Super-Awesome guide - Tim, he worked his butt off for us, all the while cracking jokes and staying very positive - he never gave up hope on us Nevadans!

Here is a herd of caribou. The scenery was just beautiful all around us at all times!
This is Brian and Wade getting a better look at the caribou.

There is beauty all around!