Different Views

Once you live in a place for awhile you forget how others see it at first glance. Little things that we see everyday that put others in awe. I'm not saying that the beauty of Alaska doesn't still thrill me, I never forget how blessed we are to be able to live here, to see the whales, always awesome, the sunsets because they are so rare, and any wildlife. But there are times I forget we are really remote, and I forget to point out the eagles, berries, starfish or crab to others who are just visiting, even though I'm still looking at them and enjoying seeing them, I forget that others don't see them as easily as I do now. I thought I would share some pictures that were taken by someone "just visiting" to give a little different perspective on Hoonah.This is how it usually looks, weather wise, overcast, low clouds, fog. Downtown Hoonah taken from the harbor.
A many legged starfish. I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of starfish until we moved here. One of the Tlingit cemeteries. There are 2 here, one for the Eagle Clan and one for the Raven Clan. I have never figured out where they put you if you are not Tlingit.......... A sure feeling of remotenessA rare sunset.

Bubble Feed

This guy has been hanging around Hoonah right where we catch our bait in front of town. He's been bubble feeding all by himself, seems pretty content and the boats all around him don't seem to bother him at all. He's been fun to watch and tourists and locals alike line up on the docks to get his picture. In this video he's in about 30 feet of water.

Fire Works at 10pm

Oh ya, it's another 4th of July in Hoonah! We made it down for the parade today, we had to show Chase (our friends son who is staying with us and learning to deck hand) what it's like to celebrate the 4th of July in a small community. I'm sure he was terribly impressed! The parade looked the same as last year, Smoky the Bear and Sammy the Sockeye were riding high again, along with all the sirens from the ambulance and fire trucks. Chase didn't complain about all the candy he scored though. We actually went down to the park after to check out what was happening there. Not much.....not even horse shoes! A lot of food being sold, and there were races for the kids, but that was about it. Fireworks start at 10pm tonight, last year half of our van occupants were snoring before they were finished! I hope we can make it up that late for Chases sake, he really wants to go. Man, are we getting old or what?!These 3 wheeled bikes were a new addition. I keep waiting to see them around town with tourists in them, someone should be making some $ with them.
Frank (or Dread Barta) is finally getting his salmon itch scratched, we went out for fun yesterday and caught 9 Silvers, 1 big beautiful Chum and 6 halibut. Chase will learn to fillet too!

Montana Deb and Lin week-end

Our friends Lin and Montana Deb from Juneau were here last week-end with Debs parents who were visiting from Montana. A little rough water the first day out, but we managed to bring in a boat load of halibuts, a ton of crab and we gorged on clams too!

Lin with the "one" that didn't get away! Nice 56 pounder!

Saturday the guys had their own day on the water for some salmon fishing, they managed to bring in 5 silvers and a nice chum. YUM!
Frank (Dread) got over his salmon bluesDebs parents, that look says it all. I can't wait until we go visit them in Montana, what a great couple of couples!

Fun Filled Friend Week-end

Friends from Juneau and friends from Washington all were here this week-end. That meant a lot of fishing and crabbing. The first day we brought in a limit of halibut (14!) That's a whole lot of fish to clean and wrap. I think the last of the crab has just finished cooking, we'll be shelling those for a while, good thing a lot of them will be going back to Juneau. I think we are all tired, but a good tired, it's always so much fun when we get together, the week-end went by way too fast.

We got so many crab, we ate until we couldn't hold any more!
That week-end was so much fun, time went way too fast, but we got a ton a halibuts and lotsa crabs. Yum YUM!
This is "Aflack", she comes back every year to the marina and every year she looses all of her babies to Eagles, mink, and other predators. This picture was taken last week-end, I saw her today and she had no babies left.........poor Aflack.
I love the "girls" week-ends, and I love my girls!!!! I can't wait until our next one!

Neka Bay

Frank and Erickson went up to Neka Bay fishing the other day, what a beautiful day they picked too. For some reason I had a different idea of how it would be up there so stayed home instead, but now that I see the pictures, I don't think I will turn down my next invitation.They caught and released a bunch of beautiful sea run Dolly Varden. What beautiful fish they are!The wild flowers were in bloom everywhere.
Frank got a great picture of these shooting starsAnd these are something I've never seen before. Chocolate Lilies, how pretty is that! They tried to talk him into bringing me home a big bouquet for in the house. But they never made it here, they thought they were pretty funny, I guess they don't smell as good as they look!

Sum, Sum, Summer Time!

Someone said to me today, "I wish it would rain", ACK! Bite your tongue!!!! It's been 2 years since we've had this nice of weather. I don't know what she was thinking. It's so nice to say, "man, it's hot in here", or "where are my shorts?" And I know I am not the only one feeling GOOD!
The kids are out swimming off the docks, the water temperature today was around 50, that's really not that warm.......

The tubing looked like a lot of fun too:
And sunbathers, ha, you don't see that very often in SE Alaska! I bet those 2 were really red today!And this awesome picture that Frank took today while doing a whale charter. He said they were jumping everywhere. It's not just the land lovers that are liking this sun.