Anchorage, Alaska: Another Fanastic Visit

Our sons Christopher & Scott and Christopher's wife Rachael spent the week with us and boy, did the week ever fly by.... I have been too busy to do much in the way of posting so let me recap what happened since the last post.

Christopher, Scott and I went deep

sea fishing on Wednesday for Halibut & Salmon. We left the dock in Seward around 7 am and didn't get back until 5 pm. In addition to salmon and halibut our captain took us fishing for Lingcod and Black Rockfish. We only caught four silver salmon however we caught our limit of halibut, lingcod and rockfish. Halibut, lingcod and rockfish are all good eating white meat fish and OMG are they fun to catch.

There were the three of us on the boat plus two other fishermen and the captain.

We spotted a male Killer Whale (Orca) on the way out of Resurrection Bay, that was truly beautiful in the early morning light with the glacier carved mountain in the background. The captain made a little detour for us to enjoy the beauty of this magnificent animal and somehow, spotting that

Killer Whale let us know we were in for a fantastic day of fishing.

Scott got the day started right by catching the first fish of the day within minutes of putting the lines overboard for the first time. After that Christopher caught three silver salmon in a row. From then on, everyone was busy catching fish the rest of the day. The only breaks in the action were when we moved form one fishing 'hole' to another and when we headed home.

The picture shows the fish we kept; we probably released about the same number of fish. Halibut and Lingcod put up an amazing fight; Black Rockfish are a lot of fun, especially when a huge Lingcod follows then to the surface. The Lingcod are so big the Black Rockfish look like 'bait' to them. It's pretty common to find an entire salmon or rockfish (18-24 inches in length) in the stomach of a Lingcod.

Oh yeah, did I mention I caught the largest halibut of the day -- right around 50 pounds. It was at the end of the day and all of us were pretty exhausted; then I tied into this whopper (for me) and just about died getting him aboard. After we landed him all I could do was grin -- I was too tired to do anything else.

We were fishing 280 feet down when I caught this bad boy and I thought the fishing pole would break he fought so hard. Halibut get much, much bigger up here -- the current Homer Fishing Derby winner is 346 pounds. They call them "Barn Door Halibut" because -- wait for it -- there as bug as a barn door. I was plenty happy with my 'little' 50 pound'er!

After cleaning the fish, Scott, Christopher and I had 115 pounds of halibut, lingcod & rockfish fillets! Then we had to figure out what we were going to do with that much fish! That's the kind of problem every fisherman wants to have at the end of a day of fishing!

We kept a third fresh and shipped the other two thirds back to Maryland;

don't even ask what it costs to send 100 pounds of fish back to the lower 48 using FedEx overnight delivery.

And if I tell you please don't tell Mary Lynn who does not like fish.

Actually, that's not entirely true. She now enjoys the occasional halibut and lingcod when prepared in the 'fish and chips' style. Delicious.

While the men went fishing, Mary Lynn and Rachael too a scenic float trip down the Kenai River and had a great time. They even had a quick

glimpse of a grizzly bear while floating by an island.

Friday morning we moved from the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. Turns out Christopher has a friend Johnny whose parents live in Palmer, about 40 minutes north of Anchorage. Johnny's parents invited us over Friday afternoon for dinner. Don & Cindy, plus Johnny's sister Rebecca are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Like most Alaskans they take advantage of all that Alaska has to offer by fishing and hunting.

They pulled some halibut and rockfish from their freezer and prepared a real feast for us. We had a great time sitting around the table and sharing stories about each others lives.

After a terrific evening of food and fellowship we headed off to Walmart to replenish our supplies.

Saturday we explored a few of the sights around Anchorage and , all too soon, found ourselves at the Anchorage airport saying goodbye to our kids. We had such a great time with them the week literally flew by....

Today is Sunday and we've spoken with them; all arrived safely back in the 'lower 48' as planned.

Tomorrow is Monday and we will leave Anchorage headed towards Valdez. Valdez is only about 100 miles away as a bird flies however, because of several mountain ranges it's about 375 miles away by road.

See Ya!