Alaska

Grandpa decided that going to Alaska and doing a little fishing was one of the items on his bucket list. So, off we went during the middle of June. Trent and I joined up with Grandpa and Grandma Savage, my sister Janet, her husband Bert and two of their kids, BreAnna and Josh, and my brothers Roy and Blake. The ten of us – off on a fishing and sight seeing adventure.

We flew into Anchorage, AK late one night and headed straight for the hotel. The next day, we picked up the rental cars and did a little sight seeing around Anchorage. I lived in Anchorage for a summer (18 years) ago but I was surprised that I could still remember a few of the streets around town. But it obviously has changed. They have a temple now – which we stopped by to see.

After a few hours in Anchorage, we headed down the Kenai Peninsula towards Homer, AK. On the way, we stopped at Portage Lake to get a glimpse of Portage Glacier. The Glacier has receded way up the mountainside but there are small icebergs floating in the lake.

Here is the remains of an iceberg just before it completely gone.


The road follows Cook Inlet for quite a ways down the road. The view is beautiful.

We stopped at the little (and I mean little) town of Ninilchik. We had a couple of rental "cabins" to stay in for the week. The cabins were small but nice. While in Ninilchik, we went fishing out on Cook Inlet for Halibut three times. We caught our limit (2 per person) each time as well as a few other types of fish (sculpin and cod) that were either used as bait or tossed back. The Sculpin (Irish LordFish) were about the ugliest fish I have personally laid eyes on. It was like an oversized bullfish with fins that stuck way out. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Here are the ten of us with one days catch.


Most of the halibut were in the 25 - 40 pound range but a few were bigger. Trent got lucky and pulled in a 90 lb one. It took him a while to get it in.

Grandma and Grandpa admiring the catch. Grandpa caught the second largest one that day (47 pounds). It looks puny next to Trents.


The view down a halibut's mouth. Not as scenic as other parts of Alaska.

One day we went King salmon fishing on the Kasilof river using a drift boat. It wasn' t as fun as I thought it would be. The fishing was slow and the river was full (and I mean full) of boats. Still we saw plenty of eagles and I was one of the lucky ones. I pulled in a 31 inch (28 lb) King salmon. I really enjoyed the fight. I got him up to the boat several times and he would take off again.

One day we decided to go down to Homer and take a sight seeing tour out on the ocean and across to Seldovia. Seldovia is a small town of about 250 -300 that can only be reach by boat or plane. It was a pretty view getting there. We saw lots of birds and a few sea otters.

Trent decided to read up on Seldovia while we are on the cruise ship.

Overall, it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun.

Yeah, thats what I'm talking about.
Bruce