Homecoming

Mike is home!  The boat pulled in early yesterday morning and the kids and I went to greet her.  It was a beautiful morning!  The kids and I are so happy to have him home!

The tradition is that the families meet at "Wives' Point" so that the crew can see that we're there.  They say that it's the first part of Cordova that can be seen when the boat turns into the inlet.  After they passed us, we drove to the Coast Guard pier to hug our men.  It was really neat to be out there with the girls.

There he is, in the white hard hat!

Mike still has his hard hat on.  He and Whitney are hugging.

My Arctic Summer

Here are a few pictures from above the Arctic Circle.  I have seen so many things I never thought that I would see.  Some days I can't believe I get paid to do this!  There will be more.  Oh yes, there will be more.  Stay tuned.

More Fishing

Austin and I went fishing again this weekend.  This time, I got my fishing license so I could join in the fun.  I got skunked yesterday, but Austin was successful. This was not Austin's first salmon, but it was his first keeper.  It was a female so we kept the eggs to use as bait for today.  Today was fun even though we got skunked.  We would have caught our limit in about an hour, but every fish we had on the line either found its way off or snapped the line. 

Silver salmon

The egg sacs are on the top right.

There is a membrane that goes about 3/4 of the way around the sac to hold them all together.

This has been quite a learning experience for me and it's been fun!  We're living the Alaskan dream!

Fishing

Orca Inlet on Prince William Sound.  Cordova is to the left. 

To our back is a road.  On the other side of that road is Hippie Cove, where Austin caught two Silver Salmon.  I didn't have my phone with me :/

This is Ibeck Creek in the Copper River Delta.  Lots of silvers being caught here.  Several people were catching their limit within two hours.  Austin wasn't using the right bait/lure so the silvers skunked him.

This is a Dolly Varden.

That's a glacier.  I can't remember the name.

This is a male Silver Salmon.  I am casting a shadow, but its beak is how we know it's male.

Yep.  That's a bear track.  I'm glad we didn't run into this guy!

Beautiful area!

Furniture!!

It was a long month sleeping on air mattresses and sitting in camping chairs, but that's all over now!  I had all the boxes unpacked and out of the house on Monday, but I wanted to wait until I had everything the way I wanted it before I posted pictures. 

Silly girl!

Believe it or not, her room was clean yesterday :/  When Mike gets home, we're going to figure out how to hang curtains.  The two corner windows are going to be tough to work around.

 

I can't wait until Mike retires so we can get grown up bedroom furniture!

Hartney Bay

Yesterday was a beautiful Summer day that felt more like a beautiful Spring day.  It was 63 and sunny so the kids and I got out of the house and spent a couple of hours at Hartney Bay.  It's five miles out Whitshed (pronounced Whiteshed) Road.  Austin and I learned that there are no fishing restrictions there so he took his pole in the hopes that he'd catch his first salmon.  Whitney and I went for a walk on a hiking trail while Austin fished.  It was so warm in the sun that I lay on the gravel and soaked it up!

You can see Cordova in the distance, on the right.

Look closely.  All those little dots are bugs.  There must have been millions of them.  When we walked toward them, they all took flight, but stayed close to the ground.  It was quiet enough that we could hear them swarm!

Salmonberry

Austin caught his first salmon! 

Pink Salmon, on the water's edge.