Look at those tiny ears with their little silks sticking out! The stalks haven't gotten very big, so who knows if this corn will actually develop or become edible- but I remain ridiculously optimistic. I expect to be chomping into my own buttered corn on the cob and saying "I told you so" to Kyle as small bits of chewed kernels escape my mouth.
These should have gone up earlier, but I guess I've been cooking since we got back. We had many ripe tomatoes (and we stole some from our friend Amelia's garden while she's out of town) so I spent a day making and freezing pasta sauce and tomato soup. Then, I made some refrigerator pickles, and veggie burgers to freeze, too. So the freezer is full and here we go!
I am on Joe's boat, staring intently in the direction of two humpback whales diving and resurfacing nearby! Baxter, Joe and Sunny's black lab, doesn't think it's worth getting up for.
Humpback's humpback.
This is a skate fish, which is a member of the shark family, and the very first thing I caught (besides the herring we were using for bait). It is not apparently delicious, so we threw it back. But it looked amazing!
This sea lion was hanging out in the harbor most of the time we were there- it liked to jump out of the water and scare the floating gulls.
This eagle watched us with a smirk while we tried unsuccessfully to catch some Coho salmon. All we caught were bug bites.
Here we are on the Petersburg dock posing with three of our halibut. We caught a total of five keepers- two for me and three for Kyle. We caught five more that were a little too small to keep. We managed to come home with 20 lbs of halibut fillets for the freezer!
Kyle is holding our first day's catch- one each. Next year maybe this will be me- actually touching a fish:) I did, however, club one of my halibut once I caught it, which was a big step for me. They are very tough fish, so you have to club them on the head a few times to kill them. It's actually more humane then letting them flop around and suffocate.
Switching gears from fishing to wedding, Kyle and I had the honor of decorating Jeff and Liz's van. It was a windy, drizzly day, and Kyle was skeptical of the balloons holding on through the afternoon- but they were still there the next day:)
He was especially proud of the even distribution of cans along the back of the van.
The first afternoon we arrived, Jeff and Liz had a BBQ for out of town guests. It was four straight days of wedding festivities: BBQ, Batchelor/Batchelorette parties, Rehearsal dinner, Wedding. I am on Jeff and Liz's great deck overlooking Frederick Sound, visiting with Farley- the kind of dog you might get if you crossed a chocolate lab with a great dane.
Petersburg is known as "Little Norway", and the speed bump signs outside the Sons of Norway Hall (where the reception was held) are in Norwiegan. Posing is 11 yr old Jovanna, one of Liz's cousins from Miami. She and I hung out at the Batchelorette party since neither of us knew more than three of the twenty women present:)
Kyle took this picture of Joe and I "gettin' down" on the dance floor while he was acting bartender for an hour at the reception. The women of Petersburg are unstoppable dancers, and the reception ended at 2:30am!
Willow stayed with our friends Jill and Patrick, and Lance checked in on the cats while we were away. Once we returned home, Cheeto would not leave our sides, and Cleo was genuinely friendly- it can't last. Kyle took this picture in the morning after we came back while I was still sleeping with the cats on top of me.
Heading to Seattle on the afternoon jet today (there are two flights out of Petersburg everyday at the same time- 11:30 and 5:30). It has been a great trip- four days of wedding festivities, one day of recovery, and two days of fishing. We are bringing home about thirty pounds of halibut- Kyle caught two more yesterday and I caught one more, bringing our total to five. We caught a lot of halibut that were an inch or two short of the length for keeping:) Joe took us up Petersburg Creek yesterday afternoon, after a morning of fishing halibut in the ocean waters. We fished for Coho salmon but didn't get a single bite that wasn't a sculpen(scary prehistoric bottom feeder who are all mouth) or a little trout. We have seen, in the past two days of fishing: sea lions, harbor seals, two humpback whales, and a bald eagle. Awesome! Once we are back in Portland, we will post our pictures! Tonight we get in late, 11pm, and will sleep at John and Dana's before driving back to Portland tomorrow to see our pets! Belowis a picture of Jeff and Liz, the happy married couple, flanked by Sunny and Joe, our incredibly gracious hosts and great friends!
Four days of wedding festivities and one long nap recovery day behind us, we are heading out to try and catch some halibut today. We have managed to EAT some halibut every day since we arrived, but this will be our first fishing day. Tomorrow we will head out to Petersburg Creek and go after some Coho salmon. I have to remember how to cast for that; halibut fishng involves a lot of waiting and drinking beer, hoping your line takes a sudden dip. The picture above is from the rehearsal dinner. Hope everyone is enjoying what's left of summer- sounds cool in OR and humid in IA....
I look at this picture from our Alaska trip two years ago and I think...gosh, my mouth is HUGE. Oh, and I get really excited to be returning to Petersburg! We are taking off this week from Seattle for Petersburg, AK, where we will stay with Joe and Sunny for a week. Kyle's friend Jeff is getting married on Saturday August 8th, so we have wedding festivities to attend, as well as a couple fishing trips, for halibut and salmon:) We will also get to return to the cabin pictured for camping and coho salmon fishing at the beginning of next week. I cannot WAIT to get back into a pair of waders. They are the coolest piece of clothing ever. You can walk around in the water, but fish can't touch you! My goal this year is to not only catch some fish I can keep, but actually, well, touch one. We'll see. Willow is staying with our friend Jill while we're gone, and the cats will be supervised by Lance. John is driving us to the airport. So, we owe a lot of people fish already:) Look forward to Alaska stories upon our return!
While I just threw on an old dog costume from the closet:
Just kidding. ;)
