FISH ON!

My closest friend and partner in all things adventure in Alaska is Alicia. She is such a great Christian woman who encourages me every time we are together! Often times the encouragement is in a spiritual nature, whether she knows she is doing it or not. But, other times her encouragement is more on the WILD SIDE, LOL.

Last year we went White Water Rafting on the Nenana River in the Denali National Park area. I had won the tickets at a Boy Scout meeting, but because of her "encouragement" we actually jumped IN the river that is fed by a glacier!!!! It was a blast!

So I was all excited when she called Thursday afternoon to see if I wanted to go Halibut fishing with a bunch of ladies from PWOC. Of course, I called Jerome immediately. Surprisingly he said yes - even though I had NO DETAILS of the trip. (Cost, Where, Who...) Turns out all the other ladies had to cancel and it was just me and Alicia, again. Turns out there really weren't any details to be had. Like many of our adventures, this was all decided last minute.

At 10pm Thursday night we sat up on the phone and Internet looking for the best deal for two people. We found a buy one get one coupon and had to wait till Sat morning to call. We decided on two companies. If one of them had an opening, then we would go. If they did not, then we would have to wait till later or maybe next year. Luckily Saltwater Adventures had exactly two openings! YEA

I let Alicia call and book us a place to stay Friday night. We had to settle for the Duck Inn where we picked the keys up from the bar tender. Oh, and its Karaoke Night. "We don't have a reservation for you, but we got a room. You want the one over the bar or the one at the other end of the hall? Is a queen bed alright?" This is going to be interesting. We did go check out Karaoke for a bit. Only in Alaska do you hear the pick up line, "You gals ever dance with a man in waders?" You know me - I LOVE Karaoke. With a little bit of "encouragement" from my friend I chose Red Neck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. Lets just say I failed miserably ... the smoke from the bar put a BIG FROG in my throat. But the whole bar was singing with me, it was fun!! Then we ducked out to our tiny room upstairs. We were glad we brought our own pillows.

There were five of us fishing on the boat Saturday morning. The tide was fast and the water was a little rough, but we managed to get our limit. I pulled in the biggest fish with help from Alicia. It was 51 inches and 68 pounds!!!! Our lines were tide up together, and I could really tell that she had been helping when they got unstuck. There is NO WAY I could pull in a 150 pounder or more. One of the men on board got a 40 something and the rest were 25-30 pounds. We had a blast fishing, and I cant wait to go back. The company we used were great. They did nearly everything for us, and for a bunch of fisherman they were polite for us girls!

All together we got about 30 large bags of Halibut. We decided that it would cost at least $1200 in the store. Thank you Jesus for the bounty you have provided our families and for the fun that we had along the way!

On the way home Alicia and I decided that our adventures are not just habits. We are gonna make them a tradition, and we are already thinking about what to do next summer. I won't say planning, because short notice and poor planning does seem to be our habit!

This was the sign under the bathroom sink.

There was only about a foot and a half around the bed.