That time in Alaska….

I noticed that my vacation bank is getting full again and it got me thinking about vacations.  In fact, every few months I start itching to take a vacation to somewhere fun and somewhere off the grid.  Granted, Jeff and I are going to take a mini-road trip in a month to run the Utah Valley Marathon, but I want to go somewhere for a extended time.  Like that time I went to Alaska.
I’ve actually been to Alaska twice, once to visit our friend and the other time for work.  Both times were AMAZING.  I love Alaska and would move there if it wasn’t so far from family.   There is just so much to do there and so much to see.  Oh how I miss Alaska and it got me looking through photos from the trip. 
Tune out if you don’t give a hoot about my trip to Alaska, or tune in if you are interested in what we did there….. (by the way, I got the nickname Barbarazzi there)
We flew into Anchorage where our friend, Melon (nickname), picked us up and we did some King Salmon fishing on the Kenai River.  Melon and Jeff both caught huge Kings, I got skunked.  But it didn’t really matter.
Then we headed up to Denali State Park where we went backpacking.  Jeff almost got us killed when he spilled Chili Mac all over our tent, “Come here Bears, come eat us while we sleep!”  Good thing Melon was armed just in case.  Yes, the three of us shared that little yellow tent.  It was nice and cozy…. and the smell was horrendous, mostly because of MY feet.  Sorry guys.
On the way to Valdez, where Melon lived, we stopped and toured a glacier.  The geologist part of me got all sorts of excited over the glacial striations and the fact that it was receeding.  Oh and the three of us should be models, just look at our outstanding poses!  The Look-Away is always a crowd pleaser. In Valdez we fished upon “The Short Bus,” Melon’s boat.   The pinks were all over the bay and were practically jumping in our boat.  Have you seen that Sesame Street episode where Ernie says “Here Fishy Fishy Fishy” and the fish jump in his boat?  Yeah, it was like that.  We also became professional fish bonkers (sorry PETA, but it was fun to bonk the heck out of those feisty salmon).
We then headed out a bit further to go after the big guys and set our hooks at 300 feet to catch us some Halibut.  I got a couple of chickens (small Halibut), and then Jeff and Melon reeled in the big guy.
We caught ourselves 100 pound of pure fury!
After fishing a few days on Prince William Sound, we headed inland to Chitina where we did backpacked out to do some Red Salmon dip netting on the Copper River.  More fish…..so we got really good at cleaning fish.  Call me if you need your fish cleaned.
We also went white water rafting and shot some guns. 
Great fun was had in Alaska.  Now do you see why I want to go back?!? 
Sorry to recycle “old” photos, I was just taking a trip down vacation memory lane and decided to make you take the trip as well.  And hey, this is my blog and I can do what I want.