WELL..... THIS IS IT. OUR ALASKAN ADVENTURE COMES TO AN END. IN SOME WAYS IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE LIVED HERE FOREVER AND IN SOME WAYS IT FEELS LIKE WE JUST GOT HERE.

WE LEAVE KODIAK TOMORROW, WEATHER PERMITTING, AND WILL LAND IN MEMPHIS ON SATURDAY.

I'M NOT SURE HOW TO END THE BLOG OTHER THAN TO SAY THANKS TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL FRIENDS, NEW AND OLD, WHO HAVE ENJOYED FOLLOWING OUR LIVES AS ALASKANS!!

NEXT UP, BO AND HOLLY'S ARKANSAS ADVENTURE! I WON'T BE BLOGGING ABOUT THAT SO YOU WILL HAVE TO COME AND VISIT!

Our last night in Kodiak. We decided to drive out to Sergeant Creek and look what we saw-a mama brown bear and two cubs.

House/dog sitting at Kent and Carol's. This is Angel the beagle. She loved watching the dog training video! HA!

Training days. She is becoming quite the little hunting dog.

Bunkhouse - Abby is right at home, as always!

Fishing with Kent and Carol
Black Rockfish

Sea Otter. These "little" guys are actually hard to get pictures of without a big zoom. They dive when you get close, so I was excited to be able to get this one.

Big ugly fish - no clue what it is. Not edible but cool looking.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15TH

Two weeks until we make our move South! We are getting excited about starting our new life in a new place. I am so ready to have my own place. We are thankful for all the house/dog sitting jobs in Kodiak, but we are ready to sit in our own chairs, cook with our own cookware, drive our own trucks, watch our own tv, etc. Abby, however, does not care. She would be so happy to live with a gypsy family. She is no doubt the most adaptable dog I have ever seen!! No one can say that we failed to socialize her! HA!

BUT, we both miss McGrath so much. This is the best time of the year to live there. The leaves will be changing, berries are ready, and MOOSE SEASON! Roger Seavoy had to make it worse by telling us that he spotted two nice bulls in our hunting spot while flying the other day.

2 MORE WEEKS!

Buskin River
We didn't know at first, but there was a kid's fishing derby going on.

Pink salmon caught in the Buskin River. This is straight out of the ocean so it doesn't have the characteristic hump of the pink (humpy) salmon.

This is Angel. She belongs to Kent and Carol. We house/dog sat for them for awhile. She was SO interested in the dog training video on tv. So cute.

Moose backstrap stuffed with cream cheese, jalapenos and spices, wrapped with bacon and cooked on the grill. It was so yummy. I'm going to add whole cloves of garlic next time (this week).

One rockfish! At least we didn't zero. Kent took us out fishing on Sunday. The plan was to fish for rockfish first and then go out about 3 more miles to catch some halibut. The rockfish seemed to disappear and the fog was so bad that it was unsafe to travel out to the good halibut spot. We later found out that commercial jiggers cleaned out the rockfish from this spot!!!!

This is a puffin. There are two kinds-horned and tufted. It's hard to see the puffin, but this gives you a good feel for the fog that was out there. It was slow going to get out there and the fog really didn't start lifting until we were finished fishing and headed back to the harbor, of course! It was a fun day even if we didn't fill the boat full of fish. At least it wasn't raining, cold or rough seas! Fun times!

This is a skate (a type of sting ray). Kent accidentally caught it while halibut fishing. Kent got quite a workout to get this thing up only to find out it was not a halibut. They released it with no harm done!

 

 

This is a sculpin fish. Interesting looking fish. This is a little info I found about them on the internet:

Related to scorpionfish, sculpins have spines that are mildly venomous. However, the venom would affect a person no more than a mosquito bite, with localized swelling and mild itching. A person stung by a sculpin would be more at risk for infection than invenomation.
Luckily, Bo didn't get stuck!

This is Luke. He is the neighbor's dog that comes over often. He sits at the back door and whines until someone comes out. I'm going to miss being in a neighborhood of such great, friendly, well-behaved dogs!!!

Happy Hooker Charters
The Reel Fun - boat name
7/25/13

We started our day catching herring to use for bait.

our bait-herring

Hanging out while we traveled to our fishing spot. We were roughing it, weren't we?

Cutting up herring for bait.

Fish on - what you say when you hook one
Color - what you say when you can see it in the water
Me fighting my first halibut! Very exciting and tough.

A kiss for my first halibut ever! It's an initiation thing. HA. At least they didn't make me bite a chunk and eat it!
 Captain Michael - don't let the gangsta hat fool you, he was great!

Reeling in my second halibut.

Bo caught these two at once. That was a quick limit! White side and camo side of halibut.

fish on - two of them

Biggest one of the day - 90 pounder

chattin' with the captain between fishing spots

fresh cooked rockfish

Stellar Sea Lions - we also saw lots of Fin Whales but no pictures.

a group of sea otters

Trolling for King Salmon-only caught a few pinks.

This is the biggest halibut caught on the boat today and a ling cod.

white side and camo side of halibut

Black Rockfish - also called Black Sea Bass

Salmonberries. They are EVERYWHERE. Too bad I'm not set up for jam making.