Kenai Alaska summer of 2010

Durring this summer we were able to travel through a lot of Alaska.  We visited Fairbanks for a few weeks, the Kenai peninsula for two months.  We also visited Anchorage, Homer, Anchorpiont, Seward, Soldotna, Denali, and Kodiak for a few weeks.  Lloyd was in Juneau before I joined him in Fairbanks.  I am sure there were others places in there that we drove through as well.  The country is unreal.  each place was beautiful for different reasons.  I remember being shocked at how dense the forests were.   The pine trees grew so close together, and they were small.  

Eagles Landing.  

This is the Russian River.  People are combat fly fishing.  It was so much fun to watch.  The salmon had just came in (it was July)  so the river was really busy.    

King Salmon (chinook)!  These are the best type of Salmon that you can eat.  Locals say that there is a huge difference between the 7 different kinds of salmon.  When you eat a king you know it!

Pretty view we found after work one day in Kenai.

We were driving around and saw these cute twins and decided to stop.  It is very common to see moose and all kinds of wildlife close to the road.  The Moose calf around memorial day.  

This guy carves amazing things out of wood with a chain saw.  He let us hang around and watch for a while.  I can use a Chainsaw, but I can imagine it would be pretty heavy to carve with!

Lloyd and I on one of the carvings.

Lloyd wanted to show my brother David how it's done :)  He had to make sure his pose was just right! (key word pose) ha ha ha

When we were in Kenai the iphone 4 came out.  Lloyd waited in line for 5 hours to get one.  He went with his friend Travis at 2 am and the store opened at about 7 am.  I couldn't resist taking this picture of him sleeping with it.  He says its because it was on vibrate, but i really thing he loves that thing :) Maybe even more than me. ha ha ha

This was my favorite restaurant in Soldotna.  Lloyd didn't get off work until 10 pm sometimes.  By then the only places to eat were McDonalds or Carls Jr.  I got so sick of eating fast food!  Colt of one of the guys selling with Lloyd found this place.  It was open 24/7.  It was pretty much heaven! I love breakfast, but they served everything!  Lloyd loved their breakfast burritos. (it was about 11:00pm in this picture)  The sun never goes down in the summer...

Suzies Restaurant on the way to Soldotna.  This was my first time eating clam.  it was fried and breaded of course, so i am not so sure I even know what clam tastes like... If it weren't for clam chowder I would never know.  This place served some mean clam chowder! YUM!

Fathers Day!!! We went to Anchorage with Lloyd's friend Chris.  Chris went and sold while Lloyd and I went on a nature hike.  It was so funny it looked like an Eagle Scout project trail with pictures and props to do exercises along the way.  We then met back up with Chris and had sushi to celebrate!  This place had the best sushi I have ever had!  Some of the rolls had some interesting names... Lloyd is eating the Orgasm Roll.... need I say more.  The first time I read the menu and all the dirty names I laughed out loud without not realizing it.  

Chris sold a lady that was raising a baby moose.  The mother had died, and the moose was going to die.  Fish and Game said let nature take its course... The lady decided to raise it herself.  She fed it goats milk. It cost about $12. a day to feed it.  She let us feed it bananas and a bottle.  

Me and Makenzie Combe

Lloyd and Chris Eastman

Lloyd sold a family that was so nice.  This was my favorite neighborhood.  I went and sold with Lloyd a little bit.  I even had a lady in this area take me shopping while Lloyd was working.  They were so friendly!  He pretty much had a sign on every lawn there.  They all loved him.  This family invited all 17 of us to a BBQ.  They fed us bear, moose, Halibut, Kind and Snow Crab.  They new that I had never had it so they got it specially for me.  In restaurants they were charing $60. a plate.... so expensive.  

King Crab! 

My first time eating king crab.  It was a challenge but it was so good! 

Terry, The guy that invited us over and Lloyd.  His name slipped my mind :(

The guys back yard. (Shay, Joe Joe or Steven, Josh, Colt and Lloyd)

They boys all play football after.  It was a great sunday.  That is the only day they have off to relax.    

We went bear watching.  Someone told us that if we drove down a certain road we would see a bear every time.  It was just outside of Kenai.  We saw three bears that night, a mom a baby and a loner bear.  The whole group went with us.  Grant was driving our car.  We saw a bear on the side of the road.  we sped up to catch it up close.  It started to go into the trees.  I took a picture but all I got were shadows... I lightened it up so you can see the outline.  but there is nothing like seeing a bear in real life.  

We went to Seward for the 4th of July to see the Mt. Marathon.  The foot race is a climb and descent on Mt. Marathon - a mile and a half up and a mile and a half down, complete with cliffs, scree fields, waterfalls, and a spectacular view.  This annual event draws runners from around the world.  Cruise ships stop at this port so there were a ton of people!  We saw people come down bloody and broken.  The race was intense!  If my knees weren't broken I might attempt it.  

all the spectators. 

The boys would go and play bball with the locals at the rec center a few times a week.  Lloyd loves his basketball time.  I also love watching them.  I spent a lot of time doing so.  I think I was mostly always the only wife that went to watch.  ha ha.  I am not sure if I am weird or if the other ladies just didn't like to go???  

Dip netting was a big deal in the Kenai area.  Families would go and spend days fishing.  You can see the big nets that they would use.  They wade into the water and stick there big nets out and hope to catch some fish.  They were allowed 25 per couple and 10 per child after that.  This was their way of preparing for the winter.   

This man was so cute.  He looked just like an old fisherman from the deadliest catch.  Weathered face and everything.  

We went Halibut fishing in Anchorpoint in July.  This was our Guide.  He was really cranky! 

Lloyd catching a big one!  He caught like 7.  We were only allowed two Halibut each.  Lloyd just kept getting bites.  He would then pass his pole on to someone else so they could get one.  

Halibut are so ugly.  They start out normal but as they get older one of their eyes migrates to one side of their face. They stay on the bottom of the ocean and side swim their whole lives.  

Collin Brinkerhoff, Grant Carlson, and Lloyd.

The other load of guys from our group. 

Colt and Sami Valentine, Grant Carlson, Collin Brinkerhoff, me and Lloyd. 

Lloyd and I and Mr. Halibut.  I wasn't the best at hooking the fish Lloyd had to help me.  He also helped me real in those things, they were so heavy!  Especially when I caught a halibut and a carp at the same time.  We had to real in more than 200 ft.  talk about your sore arm!  I loved fishing on the ocean!  It was way more intense than fishing on a lake.  If you were getting a bite you knew it because your whole pole would move up and down. 

Our guide had Lloyd drive the boat back to port as he stayed in back to cut up the fish.  Our boat was the biggest and nicest.  I am glad we chose it.  Our guide was good, but he scared me.  He would get mad at us a lot... kind of like he expected us to know what we were doing... none of us had fished halibut before.  Some of us got our lines tangled.  You can imagine what he said...  I would go again in a heart beat though.  He knew where the big ones were.

can you see both eyes.  They are not to pretty. 

We sent home about 70 lbs of halibut.  It was about $300. to ship it but it was worth it!  I can't wait to start cooking it!