Fish, goodbyes and more sight seeing Alaska!

Okay, I don't want to brag but as Kat and I were cleaning our fish after her first day of fishing I happened to notice the difference in sizes of our two fish! LOL Okay, maybe I do like to brag! LOL
After Kat had been here for a few days we had to say goodbye to my mom who was here with me from June until August 2nd. I don't know what I would have done without her here with me. She is an amazing woman and Kat and I were both so very sad to say goodbye to her. See you in November Mom!!
While Kat was here I got the privilege of singing with my trio from church. We sang for a retreat for all the Interact Missionaries and it was just wonderful to be able to sing with these talented ladies. In case you are wondering what we sang, it was 'We All Bow Down".
So, if we weren't fishing we were sight seeing! Here is Kat looking at the great waterfowl at Potter's Marsh. It is an important marsh for migrating birds. Click on the link for more information.
We continued on to the Portage Valley. More about this in a little while. I will tell you all about our bear story, but I need to show you the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center first.

Kat's Alaskan Vacation!!!

Well, Kat finally made it up to Alaska. I thought she would never get here! We had a wonderful visit. The next few blog entries will be of her visit and then Ralph's brother's visit which came on the heals of Kat's visit. Enjoy Alaska through mine and Kat's eyes!
This is what fishing was like Kat's first time to the river. She joined right into the combat fishing line just like a professional. WE thought there were lots of fishermen there at that time. As you will see in the next few pictures, we were wrong. The lines continued to grow and grow and even got worse when Ralph's brother was here. BUT...we all caught plenty of salmon! Who says we can't 'Alaskan combat fish' with the best of them!?
Kat's first fish. One medium and one well, little one??
Here she is in the line the next day. See her in her pink jacket (my pink jacket?)
NOW...that is more like it. This was her BIG fish! Nicely done Kathleen!

In memory of Ralph's niece...

THORPE-ESTRADA, KELLY Age 36 of Highlands Ranch, CO died Aug. 6, 2007. Beloved mother of Marly and Milo. Daughter of Sheila and Pat Thorpe, sister of Tom. Time of service is pending. Please go to www.Newcomer Family.com for more information. Memorials may be made to the Kelly Thorpe- Estrada Memorial Fund in care of Grand Mountain Bank P.O. Box 749 Grand Lake, CO 80447 Attn: Tim Thorpe.

This is the obituary of Ralph's niece. Please pray for Ralph's family as they deal with the tragic death of Kelly. She was murdered by her husband who then killed himself. Join with me in praying for the Lord's comfort for our entire family.

A few more sites from Kyrgyzstan

Lunch out with the boys.

Catching a monster fish!

Now how about that? I think after catching this fish, Ralph will be ready to be back in Alaska catching King Salmon! LOL He said he was the only one to catch anything and THIS was it! What a hoot!

From Alaska to Kyrgyzstan

Ralph was able to take a fishing trip in Kyrgyzstan a couple of days ago. Here are some photos of the area. Isn't the cowboy great? Ralph says the cows and goats roam free around the streets and the houses are just horrible, little shanties. A good reminder to pray for the Kyrgyzstan people.

Sailing on the lake...

Curtis and Elizabeth in the sailboat. Pretty romantic for the newlyweds!

Sunset on the lake

Just another beautiful shot of the sunset.

More kayaking

They had a wonderful time and even took the kayaks out to a floating platform for a little 'cool' water swimming!

Sunset and kayaking at the B & B

Here is Curtis, Kyle, Jessica and Josh out in the Kayaks at sunset (or near sunset at 10:30p). It was a beautiful place to stay and we are so thankful to Tess and her cousin for arranging and allowing us to stay with them!

Jessica's fish in the net

Here is the one and only Sockeye for the evening. Kyle and Jessica would work together the next day to pull in a HUGE sockeye and save yet another fishing day. Only two fish caught all weekend, with about 4-5 hours of fishing. Here is Curtis' description of the weekend:
1 river, 5 fishermen, 4 dipnets, 5 hours of fishing...2 FISH! PRICELESS or EXPENSIVE whichever way you want to look at it!LOL

Jessica gets her fish!

So Jessica saved the day for our group! We call this the $400 fish, since this was the only fish caught that night on the river. It was a medium Sockeye Salmon and we were so proud of Jessica for landing this one!

We need a fire!

Here is Elizabeth so wonderfully gathering drift wood for a fire. I got a little colder than we were expecting out on the 'river', but Elizabeth and Glenda were the wood gatherers and the younger boys started a great fire with my box of kleenex!

Line of dip netters

Okay, so here is a small amount of the MANY dip netters along the river. There was every kind of dip net imaginable!

In the WATER!

So Kyle and I pushed the huge net into the ocean (I mean river) and waited for our fish to swim into our net. Guess what? It never happened! At least not for Kyle and I. The fish just had not arrived in the 'river' yet! Maybe in another week or so they will be there in abundance!

Let the dip netting begin!!!!!

So this is how the dip netting began...putting this huge net into the 'river' (it was actually the ocean, but they pretend it is the river since the river and ocean meet in this area!)

River Update

The river continues to rise. Click here for previous photos.

Our friendly neighborhood moose on display!

Cow in the meadow
Twins on the road near my house

Bull in the meadow. My husband thinks this might be a legal moose by hunting season! Of course at that point he will be nowhere to be found.

Black bear alert!

While on the train ride home from Seward, Stacey was standing between train cars in the open air and spotted this young black bear cub sitting in the grass just next to the train. These are a little blurry because we tried to blow them up as big as possible and because we were moving down the train tracks while she took the pictures. BUT, they are wonderful none-the-less. Enjoy!

Humpback whale alert!

A highlight of our cruise! The pictures speak for themselves!