Back to Alaska- the last frontier

Spent the week in Anchorage and worked hard for the living. Mark and I decided to stay an extra day and went fishing. I found the guide and he found the plane to get us there. Good teamwork. we could have driven, but 4 hours on the road vs 1 in the air= a no brainer.

An eagle we passed by.

I called her Bertha. It was a ridiculous spot of luck (or skill) that I hooked this baby on my third cast of the day. Literally 5 minutes after we started fishing. She ended up weighing 26 pounds. Last night, we barbecued and boy was it yummy!

Megan was next on the hit parade. She landed a 23 pound beauty. She named her Martha.
It's like an optical illusion: Does my fish look big because I am small? Does Megans fish look smaller because she is tall?

Kennon was the pilots son. With a little help from his Dad, they pulled in this 25 lb male.

I think Mark hooked the most fish, but they all got away except for this one.

Last Tuesday, we had to do some aerial photography for CBS. We hired a chopper out of Girdwood and started flying at around 7pm. We didn't land till 9pm. Sunset was around midnight.





The Blackstone glacier

There were times we were less than 20 feet from the earth. Fantastic. From the air, we did spot a bunch of bald eagles and a few moose in the bush. One moose, two mice?

After landing, we went to Jack Sprats in Girdwood for dinner. So good. I had a seafood paella that was big enough for three people. Mark had Copper River Salmon (he would order Salmon almost everytime we went out-just like his Dad) that was delicious too. The other crew and the AP wanted to join us but the restaurant was closing up soon. Luckily, they let us preorder for everyone. Other dishes included halibut and chicken. Our server was so nice, A vast diffference from the service we got a few nights later. Oh well.

Thursday, the 21st was Summer Solstice and despite working till 11:15pm, we rallied and went to F Street Station. A bar that stayed open til 2am and served food till 1am. It was a good thing too because I was starving. After all the great seafood, I was hankering for a burger and it was tasty. The clientele reminded my college days, what with all the girls at the next table yelping for some strange reason. Soon enough they left, and we took over their table. We left around 1:45am and decided to sleep in for the first time all week.

Alas, we are back home now and it's great. Our freezer is full of fresh salmon and although the sun sets way before midnight, I'll take sunny and 72' any day.