The Trip

So the trip overall was amazing, just what I needed and was looking forward to. I've loved to fish ever since I was a little girl and went with my grandpa for the first time, so fishing for salmon in Alaska was a dream come true. We left Fairbanks at seven pm and arrived in Valdez around 2am. Even though I slept a few hours in the car it wasn't relaxing, lets just say the sleep was forced as opposed to wondering when we would wreck :) My plan of getting up early to fish changed when I saw it was 2am. The boys went out a few hours before us but said the fishing wasn't good and asked if we still wanted to go out. Uh ya!! So needles to say once we got on the boat the mood changed. The fish we were bringing in were enormous and we ended up catching five more, seven in all.

The view from the boat was amazing, clear blue waters, giant mountains and surrounded by glaciers. If there was a moment when we weren't catching fish all we had to do was look around because they were jumping out of the water everywhere.

The next morning started off the same, the boys had caught only two small fish and we joked around and told them to pick us up when they were ready to catch some fish. Well it turns out that was truly the case. After getting on the boat we caught twelve salmon in a matter of hours!!! I also saw a bald eagle flying around the trees and eventually land in a nest where another eagle waited, beautiful.


I was excited for the drive home because I had heard about what a beautiful drive it was but was unable to observe that on the way there due to the darkness. Truly is was beautiful, if you've never been to Alaska you're missing out. Prepare to to awed, it is truly the epitome of nature. Everywhere you look you see something that takes your breath away. We first stopped at a little creek that held salmon that were spawning while all around them others were coming to the end of their mission in life. It's a fascinating thing to watch (hard to see in the pictures, but fascinating). I also couldn't help but take some pictures of the beautiful mountains that surrounded the creek.




This is the Alaska version of Bridal Veil Falls and I must say that it kicks the Utah versions butt. It's enormous, in fact I had my picture taken in front of it but I ended up just looking like a spec so I didn't post that one.


Then we stopped at the famous Worthington glacier, you were able to hike up the glacier if you wanted but due to our seven hour ride home we opted just to take pictures. Overall it was a blast and I'm so so so happy that I'm on vacation, not sure I can come back :)







I've never seen these before so I took a picture, sea lice. Yep strange I know .

At one point we thought we had caught a fish but we ended up with this.... A starfish arm? Hmm not sure but it had a weird growth or entity on the bottom of it so we're still unsure.


Oh did I forget to mention the huge halibut that I caught??? Ha ha ha well I couldn't resist taking my picture by this in hopes that one day I will truly get to catch one of those.

Valdez

Fishing was so so so much fun! I wasn't able to bring my laptop with me so sorry for not updating the blog. It's beautiful in Valdez but cold and wet. We had a little bit of a slow start on Friday fishing but yesterday we couldn't keep them from jumping in the boat ;) I'm going to post a few pictures tonight before I go to bed then I'll update you on all the fish stories tomorrow when I wake up. It's a seven hour drive each way from Fairbanks, so needless to say I'm pooped. I caught five by the way :)

The Garden of Eatin

I arrived and I'm feelin good :) Yesterday was sort of a recoup day and I didn't do much besides relax which I guess is what I'm here to do so that works. Today I was able to explore the garden and wow!
The greenhouse is full of tomatoes of all kinds, cucumbers, and the blank area on the left was full of corn only a few weeks earlier. The tomatoes are delicious, nothing beats a home grown garden tomato. I don't think I could ever get sick of them. Last night I ate mozzarella, tomatoes and basil drizzled with balsamic vinegar and was in heaven.

Below is the garden full of squash, pumpkins, lettuce, beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots and probably some more veggies I've yet to discover. I've always like broccoli but fresh from the garden is so different, it's sweet and delicious even raw. There are fruit trees planted over to the right that you can't see in the picture but they've got a few years left yet before they produce, the greenhouse you can see at the top right. Then the beautiful beautiful house in the back ground. Heated floor, steam room shower, exercise room among everything else. It's so beautiful and green here right now but COLD. Strange to leave 100% weather in Utah to come to 50% rainy weather here. I did however get some new Ugg boots yesterday to help keep me warm :)



A vacation has never felt so good. Last night I realized I left my phone charger at home which at first I was a little concerned about but then I decided it was a blessing. Of course I can go get a charger but for a day wow, amazing. I've been reading quite a bit and have finished one of the four books that I brought. I'm excited to write a little about the first book The Witch of Portobello which I plan on doing sometime tomorrow. It's the first book I've completed since graduate school, I forgot how nice it is to read just to read.

Wow

I can't believe the last time I posted was on Dec 7th!! That was so long ago it seems and so little but so much has happened. I want to continue using this blogspot address even though I'm not on a third world adventure in hopes that I will be again soon. I leave for Alaska on Sunday the 23rd and hope to have some new fun adventures to post about. The Summer feels like it just beginning and already it's coming to a rapid close. Apparently it's already Fall in Alaska and by the time I get back to Utah it will be Fall here as well. I swore I wouldn't be in Utah for another Winter and even though I'm jumping the gun a bit and I still have a few months, it seems that I may be stuck for yet another. I guess you have to take the good with the bad and I have plenty of good going on right now :)