Halibut Honey Hole

Our jobs often lead us into great opportunities. That and the fact that for a big city, Anchorage is still a pretty small town. Amy has a couple of patients who also happen to be neighbors. Luckily, they are very generous people who love to fish. We were invited to join them for a day of halibut fishing in Ressurection Bay. The captain took us to his "secret honey hole" about a 4 hour boat ride out of Seward harbor. We were all alone out in the middle of the ocean with about 15 other charter boats. Despite the cold, over cast gloom, and the 6 ft seas (not bad for this part of the world) the whole boat limited out in less than an hour. They were all "chickens", but it was enough to fill the freezer for the season. Chris even caught a couple of ling cod (out of season, so we had to throw them back), and discovered that cod are, in fact, uglier than the 'butt ugly' halibut!

Thar she blows!

Jay and Sara, our roommate/tenants, talked Amy into going down to Homer for the Shorebird Festival. Unfortunately, Chris had to work, so he couldn't go. We camped out on the Homer spit, which is a little sand bar that sticks out into the Ketchimak Bay. In the earthquake of 1964, the spit dropped 3 feet. But that doesn't stop anyone from building on it. There are a couple of campgrounds, and a huge selection of cute little shops and restaurants that attract tourist. We spent one morning at several viewing places to check out the birds, and even saw a sandhill crane. Jay and Sara's friend Rob, arrived that afternoon with his 18 ft whaler, and took us on a boat ride into the Bay. The water was calm, and the sun poked out a few times from behind the clouds- a real treat for this area. Our first stop was "Gull Island", where thousands of kitty wakes and other birds hang out. We watched an osprey swoop down and capture a kitty wake for lunch, and saw a sea otter sneak into a nest to steal it's eggs. Then it was off to Halibut Cove, a little artist community accessible only by boat. They have the only floating post office in the country. We checked out the tide pools and played with starfish and sea urchins, and then headed out for some more sight seeing. Amy was thinking that it was an amazing day, and couldn't possibly get any better. We were zooming along by Glacier beach (yes, there is a glacier right there), and Amy spotted something big coming out of the water about 30 ft away from the boat. It was the fin of a Minke whale! We watched it crest out of the water several times, and he circled an eddy, probably fishing. We chased him, from a safe distance, for several minutes, before turning off to head back to the harbor. Amy was disappointed to leave, as this was the first time she'd seen a whale, what a suprise. Then, about 50 yards in front of the boat, an Orca peaked out of the water...with her baby beside her! We kept a very safe distance from her, not wanting to scare her and make them dive. At one point, she was coming straight for our boat, and then turned sharply away from us...a little JAWS moment, got our hearts racing. We lost sight of them and headed to Sadie Cove, and Sadie mountain. We beached the boat, and drank a beer from Homer brewery, before going back to the harbor. Several locals that we spoke to said that it is extremely rare to see whales in this area, and none of them had EVER seen two different species in one day! What LUCK! The only thing that was missing that day was Chris. Otherwise, it would have been the perfect Alaskan adventure.

Chris is 29! and holding.....

For Chris's 29th birthday, Amy took him to Cooper Landing for a "romantic" fishing weekend. We stayed at Gwin's lodge, a cozy little shit hole next to the Kenai River. We drove down to the Kasilof river for some steelhead fishing. Early May in Alaska is "spring break up", and we hiked through snow to get to the frozen edge of the river. Bald eagles and cloud cover was abundant, but not a steelhead to be had! After all that hard work, it was time for a cabin-cooked meal of fresh Alaskan king crab cake, tiramisu and wine. The next day, we hiked up to the waterfalls at the Russian river. And let's just say, there is nothing like bad renditions of 80's music to keep those hungry spring bears at bay!

Back in Action....Literally

So, the short version of the story is that Amy herniated a disc in November 2005. That's about when the last blog stopped. Amy was in a lot of pain, out of a job and not too much fun to be around. We spent a lot of time on the couch watching movies, going to physical therapy and trying not to slip on the ice. The following summer, we had lots of friends and family in town to check out Alaska. There was a five day period last summer when we didn't have guests. Most of the time our trips to the airport overlapped. Chances are, if you are reading this, you were here, or know someone who was....

Chris graduated from Air Traffic Control school in December 2006, Amy is well on the road to recovery. This summer, with a lot more time on our hands, and a little better pain control, we have been cramming in the adventures.

We hope that this will give you an idea of what is available here in Alaska, what we have been up to, and inspire you to join us in the future.