Last time I wrote, we were just finishing up from our grandson’s wedding. Well after the wedding all of our kids, who came from out of town, headed home. We were once again back to normal and preparing for the Alaska trip,
We did take some time out of preparing for Alaska to travel to Portland and visit my sister. On August 15, we and our daughter (Leigh) visited my sister (Vonna) my niece (Judy) and my nephew (Pete). My sis is 14 years older than me and even though she lives in Portland, we don’t get to see a lot of each other… of course, it is because I am usually on the go so much. Even though she has become a bit forgetful (haven’t we all?) she is still holding her own and managing life as it comes. She, like all of us is slowing down, but she still enjoys her freedom. I can certainly identify with this! We had a marvelous visit and vowed to do it more often.
The next week I came down with a bad chest cold. I was down the whole week! Ken had medical appointments and had to deal with getting all the gear ready for Alaska, plus working on cleaning the yard up at the old house we are managing. Wasn't a fun week for him! We are looking at selling the place just for the land because the house itself is not liveable. However, it doesn't look like it will get done this year!!
On the 28th of August, we shipped our boat motor, fishing poles, and a crate of supplies to Alaska. We also did some needed shopping and some geocaching before attending an evening Geo Club Meeting in Clackamas. Ken had some geocoins with him and ended up selling some very nice ones.
August 29, we spent the day at the Oregon State Fair. We had to sample some of the various foods, take a peek at all the vendor merchandise, have a Dairy Wives Milk Shake (yum), and of course visit the miniature horses. They are sooo cute and about the size of a Great Dane.
The day we were there, they had a Veteran's Appreciation Day Parade.
A new structure was added on the State Fairgrounds and they are having a contest to name it. Some have come up with something like "Tower of Hope" and many other names beginning with Tower. Hmm what would you name it?
Of course, the Ferris Wheel is always a highlight.
No, we didn't ride it, but there was a long line for it.September 4th was the birthday of two of our great grandchildren, Noah-6, and Adriana-3. Yep, both were born on the same day, just three years apart. The party to celebrate was on Saturday, Sept 5 and we had the whole family there…what a wild time that was with the wild itty bittys running amok. There were 4 running around, but it seemed like a legion (grin). Thankfully, the 5th great grandchild (Ciara) was just 2 months old then, so she slept most of the time. I am sooooo not used to the noise of all the little ones, so it was nice to finally get back to the peace and quiet of our own home.
The next couple of days we were busy finalizing the packing our bags for Alaska (stuff we didn’t ship) and packaging up 26 oil paintings (and frames) that a very old friend (Mike-who passed away several years ago) had painted. We made arrangements with his niece (Bev) in Seattle, who wanted the paintings, to pick them up while we were there to catch the plane out of SeaTac.
On September 7 (Labor Day) we drove to Seattle. We didn’t do much geocaching because we were in a hurry to get there and meet Mike’s niece, but we did find a few from Kalama, WA north until it started to rain, then we quit.
Once we got to the Airport EconoLodge Hotel, where we had booked a room for the night, we contacted Bev, and she drove down to visit and pick up the paintings. She was so very excited to get them because Mike had meant so much to her. We told her that we are still in process of cleaning out the old house, and if we find more, we will make sure she gets them.September 8, at 7:20 am, we boarded the plane for Yakutat, Alaska. We had been at the airport since 5:30, which was a good thing, because it seemed to take forever to get through the baggage check in, security, and boarding process. Our flight to Yakutat made one stop in Juneau at 9:25. Actually, it was 10:25, but we crossed into another time zone, so we had to set our clocks back one hour.
We got to Yakutat, AK at 11 am. Once we got the rental van, we had to pick up our shipped cargo (boat motor, box of supplies, and fishing poles) and get checked into our room at the Glacier Bear Lodge. We had the rest of the afternoon in which we got everything unpacked and ready for the next 7 days of fishing. The weather was cloudy, but not raining like it was in Seattle. We were told a storm was coming in, but no one knew exactly when it would hit (oh joy).The next couple days (9th & 10th) were fantastic days for fishing. We were up at 5:30 each morning and had a hearty breakfast (free for lodge guests) then it was to the river where we had a boat waiting (a small John Boat).
The river we fish on is a tidal water, and we like to go up it during low tide because the fish bite the best then.The fish tend to hunker down and not bite when the tide is outgoing. Well, these two days the tide was fairly high when we got to boat and motored up (about 1 ½ miles) to where we like to fish. This is Ken fishing the high tide in the chute.
We found so many fish in our favorite spot that we were being very choosy on which ones we kept. We threw back ones that were too small and some that were darker (more red than silver) than we liked, plus some that Seals had taken bites out of (hate those Seals). We had a fantastic two days and ended up with about 70 pounds of Salmon Filets after all was said and done. Both days all of the fish were cleaned, vacuum packed, and in freezer before 1 pm. Wow, we thought we were in heaven this year!!!Do you remember my saying a storm was coming in? Well mid-afternoon on the 10th it hit. It poured down rain all night long and was coming down really hard the morning of September 11. The wind was ferocious, but we thought we could still fish in it. We did get ready and drove to the boat and even managed to get up to where we like to fish, but the wind was gale force and we had a very rough time navigating the river in the small boat. Yes, we were stupid, but soon realized we shouldn’t be out there and, very carefully, made our way back to where we kept the boat docked. It wasn’t too bad when we were either facing the wind or had it at our tail, but when we were sideways to the wind, we were really rocked and the waves were as high as we were. Thank God, we made it back safely! The rest of the afternoon, we spent it in the room watching the rain come down sideways. We even ended up with a lake behind our room at the lodge. I had two books with me, so I was very comfortable.
The next day, September 12, we were again up at 5:30 and having a wonderful breakfast before heading to the river. It was still raining, but not near as windy as the day before. Out on the river, we didn’t have near the luck or catches that we did during the first two days of fishing. We only got 3 fish that day. Could have had our limit, but when I had one to the boat, Ken tried to net it and ended up knocking the lure out of its mouth (I wasn’t too happy about that). Of course that same day we both had hooked more, but they either threw the lure or broke the line taking the lure with them (dang).
We continued to fish on September 13 & 14, and only got a total of 7 more fish those days. We hardly saw any sign of fish. Seems the storm added a lot more water to the rivers and the fish quit biting. Also the fish in the bay won’t enter the rivers until the water level goes down. The 14th turned out to be a nice day and we actually fished without having our rain coats on. However, when the rain quits, the bugs come out. Our moisturizer was DEET (grin). Thankfully, we didn’t get eaten up too much. Ken only had a couple bites around his hat, and I had 2 on my right wrist where the gloves and shirt met. Not near as bad as in past years. Since we literally had 3 full boxes of fish filets at the end of the 14th, we decided to quit fishing for the season and turn the boat back into the lodge. Since Tuesday the 15th was going to be another nice sunny day, we thought it would be great to get all the gear dried out before packing to go home. Also, it would be a nice time to rinse out the motor and winterize it.
As predicted, Tuesday was a beautiful day. We got a lot accomplished and even tried to find some ripe Cranberries and Blue Berries. The Blueberries were abundant, but not very big and there were no Cranberries to pick. Seems the unusually warm summer held down the growth of the berries……of course the bears could have gotten there before we did. We did see lots of wild life this year, but no bears. We had some deer (Sitka Deer) run down the road in front of us one morning while on the way to the river. They look very much like our White Tail Deer, but are a lot smaller. Eagles, Geese, Cranes, Swan, Ducks, and Seals were all spotted by us. This cutie her name is Angel, is quite the begger around the lodge. She also loves to chase bears away from the lodges fish cleaning station. Just a few days before we arrived, she was spotted biting one bear on the rear as she chased it away.
After cleaning out the boat motor and winterizing it, we left it at a friend’s house in Yakutat. We usually ship it back to Oregon and have it serviced and winterized here, so hope leaving it in AK doesn’t cause it to have problems next year. I guess we will find out. We did ship the fishing poles and a box of fishing gear back to Portland, OR (they were what we had shipped up to AK).Wednesday, September 16 was back to heavy rain, so after we checked out, weighed the fish boxes to make sure we weren’t over the 50 lb limit on each box. We had two that weighed just over 49, and the third was 46 lbs. Of course that included the weight of the fish boxes too. We equaled out the boxes and had no problems as using them as our luggage. A seabag full of our fishing clothes along with the S&W 500 that Ken wears while out fishing (and picking Cranberries) was our fourth piece of luggage. Since we didn’t leave until late in the evening, we waited out the time at the Lodge, and I was finally able to get on their computer and clear up what email made it through my blocking of messages. Yes, I did have the iPhone with me to catch the WiFi at lodge, but half the time, the WiFi was bouncing on and off, so I gave up and didn’t use it.
At 6:10 (7:10 Oregon time) we boarded the plane and in the air at 6:55 (right on time). We landed just over the mountain in Juneau at 7:30 and were told it would be a short turn around, so stay on the plane. But…. about the time we were to take off, the Pilot got on the mike and said a flight out of Anchorage that landed in Ketchikan was disabled, and the passengers that were headed for Portland were stranded and needed us to stop and pick them. He said it would only be a short delay (yeah right). We sat on the ground at Juneau for another 45 minutes while the baggage guys rearranged ALL the baggage and cargo to balance the weight for the extra passengers.
Finally, at 8:45 we left Juneau and landed in Ketchikan at 9:20. With all the new baggage and passengers being added to plane, we were very full and didn’t get off the ground and headed to Seattle until 10:20. We originally were supposed to land in Seattle at 11:30 (Seattle time)…..well, that didn’t happen. With the time change and all, we didn’t get to Seattle until just after 1 the morning of the 17th. We ended up getting Alaska Air to put our fish in their freezer, so we could get a few hours of sleep before heading off to Salem.
After getting about 5 hours sleep, we picked the fish up at the airport and headed for home. We did find a few caches on the way home, but with the Jeep loaded with frozen fish, we skipped a lot of them. We did stop in Tracy so Ken could check out the Cabelas store there. Of course, that was a special stop because there also was a cache in the parking lot (grin). After an uneventful drive, we arrived home about 1:20 pm and got things unloaded and put away for the afternoon.
The rest of this week we have been getting all the gear washed and back in working order for next year. The big thing to finish is getting the coach ready to move for traveling. We will be taking it to Cummins on the 28th for its annual checkup and service. The 29th we are getting the front end realigned, then head to the coast (Newport) to camp with some friends.
At this time, it looks like we will be heading to Arizona sometime near the end of October, but we don’t have an exact date because there is still a lot of things we have to finish up here first.
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