Summer Happenings - Part 2

Part Two: Kenai Fishing Trip

The weekend after Danae left, (July 23-25) the kids and I packed up and drove to Kenai for our church's annual fishing trip.  Most of the people that went stayed in tents and campers, but seeing as I was going "husband-less", I got us a room at a local Bed & Breakfast.  (No WAY was I camping alone, being pregnant, with two kids!!)

Kenai, AK

(top left: Red salmon filets, ready to be grilled, top right: fishermen on the Kenai river, bottom left: a Mama moose and her twins on the side of the road, bottom right: more fishermen on the Kenai)

We had a great time of fellowship, but the rain and cold were the PITS!  Brrrr!  When I left Anchorage on Friday afternoon, it was nice and sunny, so all I packed were a few light sweaters for us to wear in the evenings.  Well, when I got there, I very quickly realized we would need more than just sweaters to make it through!  For Friday evening we just doubled up on sweaters, and the next morning, before heading back to the camp, I went to Wal-Mart and got socks for me and the kids (forgot those too!), and a warm hoody for myself.  There were no jackets to be found in the ENTIRE store (shocker!!) so we had to continue to double up on sweaters.  Thankfully the kids' sweaters were somewhat warm, but the one I had brought for myself was not warm at all, and doubled up, it was just perfect.  (Oh, and I also bought myself a cheap pair of sneakers, since the only shoes I'd brought for myself were flip flops!)

I didn't go fishing, since for one, I don't really know HOW to fish (haven't done it since I was a kid, and never for anything as big as a salmon) and two, we're not "residents" yet, so we're not allowed to dip-net (that's a "resident only" perk, and you have to have lived in Alaska for at least a year to be considered a resident). 

Let me explain dip-netting real quick:  Dip-netting is when you take this big huge net (seriously, you could sit in some of them, that's how big they are) and you either stand on a boat or stand in the water, and hold the net in the water until a fish swims into it, and then you pull it out.  You can get TONS of fish this way.  And the limit per family is insane!  I think the head of house-hold gets like 35-40 and each member after that is 20-something.  NUTS!

So when the church goes down there to do this every year, they make sure that they get enough fish for everyone to get as much as they want.  It's alot of work (for those involved in the fishing) but it's so worth it!!!  Faith's hubby, Joe, got me 10 Reds, and those were enough to fill both of my fridge freezers!  Thankfully, I didn't have to do any of the nasty fish cleaning or filleting!  The pastor took pity on me and filleted all my fish for me!  I'm sure I would have butchered the poor fish if they'd tried to teach me to do it (as someone was suggesting!! *shiver*).

After all the fishing was done on Saturday, everyone met up at the park for a fish BBQ.  Yummmmmmy!!!  Was that fish ever good!!!  The assistant pastor did up the fish, and does that man know how to grill some salmon!  Mmmm!

On Sunday morning we all met up back at the park for a short service.  It was kind of fun having church in the park!  We mostly just sang a few songs (I got called on to sing again, but this time I had to do it a capella) and the pastor read a scripture and said a few words, prayed for traveling mercies for all of us, as we were going to be venturing home soon.

So, aside from the rain and cold, it was a great trip.  I'm looking forward to next year, and praying that we'll have lots and lots of sunshine and WARMTH!

p.s. Remember to vote on my poll in the sidebar, if you haven't already.  Just 3 more days and we'll know what Baby Wollman #3 will be, but it's fun to see the guesses as well!