Well, we are home from Alaska now and Damon and I have recovered from our jet lag. The trip was the "second best trip" Damon had ever taken, according to him. Disney World was the best he said. Hard to beat Disney World. But 19 moose, over 25 bald eagles, tons of bear tracks and one live bear, 2 river otters, and 21 salmon (that GrandPaul and I actually brought home) were the reason. He loved the camping, fishing, mountain climbing and outdoor life these Alaskans live in the summer. Even though the weather was unsually warm and pleasant, it did cool off at night. Damon commented about how chilling it was getting at about 11:00 pm as we were cruising along the Nushagak as the sun was nearing the horizon. He said, "You mean it gets colder then this?!" Jon thought that was hilarious since it was only in the 50's and it gets well below 0 in the winter. We did manage to help Jon get a few chores done during his short summer. We cut and split 4.5 cords of firewood, painted three rooms while GrandPaul installed a medicine cabinet, worked on the roof, painted on the outside of the house, built and painted window frames among other things. Jon, thank you so much for taking valuable time from your family and your summer to show Damon and I a good time. I really understand how valuable your time is and therefore I understand the sacrifice you made to taking us camping, fishing, and mountain climbing. I have helped create some life long memories for Damon and I. Love you.

Stephanie

"Red Fish, Blue Fish, Big Fish, Small fish!"

Wow! We have had an interesting introduction salmon fishing market here in Dillingham, Alaska! It started with a tour of the Peter Pan Cannery. Dillingham is basically the only place in the world where a sustainable wild salmon run still exist in conjunction with a fishing market. All other salmon runs have been damage by human contact (over fishing, habitat destruction.) Anyway, we got to see how the salmon is processed from wild fish to canned salmon. It was pretty amazing! Damon's face was pricless when he saw the beheading and gutting process. Pretty gruesome! Then we were finaaly able to experience fishing the native way (with a set net.) After two excursions yesterday, we ended up with 21 fish. Damon cleaned them while I filleted them all under the supervision of brother Jon. Then I vacuum packek everything and it is in the freezer ready to ship home! GrandPaul came with us on our first trip early in the morning but he stayed home on our second trip at 10:30 pm. We have to fish with the high tide so we can insure a better catch. A highlight for me was see baloga whales in the bay. They were everywhere! And of course watching Damon's face when we pulled in six fish at once. I am pretty tired today after getting back home at about 1:00 am. But it was worth it! Expecially sitting with Jon and Damon and eating steak and King Crab as a midnight snack when we returned. Where else can you do that!

"The Hills Are Alive..."

Just like a scene from "The Sound of Music" Kiley and Damon raced up Snake Lake Mountain. It was about an hour up and an hour down. Pretty tough climbing in some spots, at least for jon and me. The kids were loving it! We made it nearly to the top but they were getting tired (or at least we thought they should have been!) The view from where we were was amazing to say the least. We could see the Bristle Bay and the Wood and Nushagak rivers that feed into it on one side and we could see Lake Aleginek on the other side. Kiley and Damon both made Jon and I very nervous with the way they ran around near sheer drop offs. Kiley insisted on climbing to the top of nearly every granate outcropping and Jon had to insists more that she come down. Their highlight of the day was rolling rocks down the side of the mountain and watching them careen into the brush. Damon proclaimed that Alaska was where he wanted to live when he grew up. Jon told him to come back during the winter before packing his bags to move!

We have seen lots of bear prints up here. Damon found some big ones where we camped up the Nushagak river. At Lake Alegnigek, we had a visiting bear early in the morning. Jon's dog Oscar was our sentry through the night as we slumbered in our tents. Then at about 5:00am, he sounded the alarm! Jon always camps with his rifle so he climbed out of his tent and found the prints that showed how close the bear had been. Only about 30 yards off! Thinking that the excitement was probably over, he went back to bed only to be aroused again by Oscar's deep barks. This time he decided to stay awake since it seemed we had persistent visiter. I was up too. About 30 minutes later the bear appeared again about 130 yards away. It walked out into the lake for a swim and then lumbered back onto the beach. It was REALLY BIG! After Oscar went wild again, it ran off into the forest. Grandpaul saw it from the tent but Damon was not able to locate it in his binoculars. However, later we walked the beach and found prints. Not just adult prints but cub prints too! The pictures are of the prints Damon found on the Nushagak and the one in the sand is our visitor. Pretty big print if you ask a greenhorn like me!

Damon and I are enjoying the usually warm weather we brought to Alaska from Texas. These folks up here don't know what to do with 80 degree sunny days! It has been a wonderful first week at brother Jon's house. We have had lots of camping and fishing, although sport fishing with a pole has been unsuccessful to say the least. Jon and Shannon don't usually fish with a pole. If they want fish, they throw in a net! Much more efficient. We may have a chance to try that later this week. So far the wild life count is 19 moose, 2 river otters, about 25 bald eagles, and countless sea gulls. And we can't forget the big curious bear that aroused the dog this morning at 5:00 am. The toughest aspect to get use to is the lack of true night time. It starts to look like dusk around 2:00 am and stays that way until about 6:00 am. Makes it kind of hard to sleep in a tent if you like it dark!