Oh Sweet Summertime, cont.

John and I decided to have another go at salmon fishing.  We drove down to Kenai early last Saturday morning (another 3AM departure). I'll admit... I'm not the best travel buddy.  I was good for two hours, then Zzzzzz. I was out like a light!  Anchorage was a little drizzly, so I didn't get to see that great of a sunrise, but the view was beautiful nonetheless.

 After we parked and settled we ventured down to the tent city to see if anyone was catching anything.  Things looked pretty slow. After we ventured back to the Jeep it was nap time!  Despite the uncomfortable sleeping quarters, I was out like a light. (yet again)  John on the other hand... He might have gotten a 20 minute nap. 

This is the "room" a $20 parking pass will get you

 We finally woke up around 8:30 and sat around until the tide came in.   The one thing I'm not a fan of when it comes to fishing is all the waiting you do.

Begley had a lot of fun while waiting 

Eventually the ride was in and we were off fishing!   I almost lost my boots in the water.  The sand creates this suction that makes moving around in the water just about impossible. Thankfully there were safe spots where I could stand and not fear losing my shoes. :)  We might have been out there an hour before we made our first catch of the day. Over the course of 3 hours, fish were caught, fish got away and we threw a couple of flounder back in.

Here is the lesson I learned about fishing... you have to knock the fish out in just the right spot. Here is how my first experience knocking a fish out went:

Beat it twice on the head

Picked the fish up and took it over to cooler to bleed it

Picked up the knife

The fish starts flopping around again.

I drop the knife and start screaming "Noooo!! Dont' come back to life!!!" 

Then I beat it on the head again

John comes over to investigate

It comes back to life. Again.

John officially kills it

Later, while John was trying to clean our salmon, the tide kept creeping in further and further. So while John is cutting away on the fish, I'm chasing after my boots that were floating away, chased down the wet wipes that the tide wanted to take, and tried to keep the cooler from floating away so we wouldn't lose any fish.  It was a workout!

We attempted round 2 of fishing when the tide started going out.  I lasted about 20 minutes.  This is what we were dealing with....

Waders of water.  :)

After 20 minutes in the water,  I was beyond exhausted, wet, cold, and I reeked of fish.  We ended up staying in Kenai until 6, hoping that salmon would reappear.  They didn't :(  Then we had our adventure home.  Much like the trip to Kenai, I lasted 2 hours and I was out.  I did manage to get some pictures :)

Here is one thing that can be difficult to deal with- all the daylight. This picture was taking around 10:30PM. 

Despite our exhaustion we were super excited to see a double rainbow on the way home :)  

Alaska has been a great adventure that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world :)