Late Entry for Day 17

The time seemed to get away from us yesterday--we were having too much fun! Putting fish away got priority over blogging. We started out the day by heading south to Homer--Patte's new favorite place. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped and took lots of pictures--we will get them up eventually, but trust us it is amazing. WE kept looking for moose along the way, but none were spotted. We went to Homer Spit and checked out the Salty Dawg bar and the other "touristy" things and walked along the spit listening to the ocean. Having grown up in Oregon, Patte still misses the ocean. Ken showed her where him and Jeff went out on the halibut charter and we watched a couple of boats go out.

Upon heading out of Homer, came the big decision--how many days do we want to buy fishing licenses for? Patte isn't as much as a fisherman as Ken is, but she wanted to try her hand at catching some salmon. We opted for one day, so we could have time for prospecting--remember, we planto hit the motherlode!!!! So we got our licenses and headed back towards Kasilof; stopping to fish along the Anchor River--well Ken did, Patte was waiting to get to a little slower water. Ken had no luck there, so we headed to the Kasilof River. Ken managed to get his limit--3 salmon in a little under 2 hours--2 Humpy's and 1 Silver (we think). Patte wasn't quite as fortunate, although she did have a pretty good-sized one on that got away--no, really! By this time it was starting to get dark and we headed back towards "home".

On the way back, a baby moose ran across road; we stopped and watched while the mama moose followed, taking time to stand in the middle of the road, so we could get a good look at her. What an awesome animal! Unfortunately, by the time Patte got the camera out, the mama had sauntered off and her and baby disappeared into the woods. Patte did catch a glimpse of another one in the woods, but just briefly. We also saw 2 eagles while fishing and several bunnies today. No bears, but there was a report of fresh bear tracks close to where we were fishing, but we didn't find that out til we got back.

Once back, the work began--and another decision--what to do with the fish Ken just caught. That was easy for Patte--ship them to Montana!!!! So Ken proceeded to cut the fish, while Patte wrapped. Humpy's are hard to cut evenly, because they really are humpy! There were several "kodak" moments, but we were too fishy to take pictures--Ken with bright pink curing stuff all over his hands and Patte having issues with the fish not cooperating. And we were doing this about 11:30 pm, so it was a long day--no complaints! On Tuesday morning, or as close to morning as we can get, we are heading up to Anchorage to ship out the fish and hopefully do a little fishing on the way.

We will keep you posted as best we can--remember, 2 non-techy people at the helm---but we are alive and well in Alaska.