Seward

We went to Seward Sunday and stayed a couple days. Cal and Thomas had a halibut charter reserved for Monday and I had a salmon trip reserved for Tuesday. (We didn't need salmon, but they don't do half day halibut out of Seward. I was not interested in spending 12 hours on a boat full of men I didn't know.) We were excited about getting some halibut. Oh, but not the right week for us. There was a big storm at sea churning up 12 ft. swells. The boats couldn't go past the protected bay. The charters would only schedule salmon. Needing salmon or not, we were there to fish, so they switched to salmon. They got soaked. The rain was pounding and Cal's raingear was old. The rain went through his jacket. He didn't care though. They got a total of 7 salmon.

The weather was worse the next morning. The rain and wind had picked up considerably. My raingear is the same age as Cal's, so I got to the docks early the next morning to buy the best quality rain protection I could find. By golly, I was going fishing and determined not to get wet. (In my book, wet=cold.) Bought the gear and some nice thick socks, and headed for the boat. When I got there, this kid jumps from the boat onto the pier and says, "Were you supposed to go out on this boat today?" Excuse me, "supposed to? Uh-huh".....Yes, I am. He said all the charters had been canceled. Silly boy. You don't know what you're talking about. I am supposed to go fishing BY MYSELF today. Hello...no kids to worry about...you know, fish alone! Sorry ma'm. Sure you are...you just got a day off. Ornery little boy. When I went to get my money back, the guy said "All the Captn's are saying this is the one of the worse storms they've ever seen. We can't even go out into the bay." So, we got some ice cream, hooked up the camper, and headed home. There must have been some reason why I wasn't meant to go. I've already started petitioning for a girl's weekend out/fishing in Seward. Now, I just need to find some girls. (That doesn't sound right.)

Just pretend that's Renee holding the fish.

The trip wasn't a total waste. We did get a lot of yummy fish. (We grilled some Monday night and it was wonderful. Even Emma liked it and she will adamantly tell you that she doesn't like "red fish.") While Cal and Thomas were fishing, Matthew, Emma and I went to visit a sled dog team. It was kind of expensive, but I'm glad we did it. It was so much fun. We took a ride, but not with a real sled....summer version on wheels. The guy said the "cart"and all of us (total of 6 adults, 4 kids) was around 1000 lbs, and there were only about 8 or 10 dogs pulling. And it went much faster than I expected! After the ride, we played with puppies. Matthew and Emma loved it. They were trying to decide which one we were taking home, and I had to keep telling them we weren't keeping any of them.

85 dogs! Couldn't get them all in the picture. Might I say this is a very clean place! I saw very little poo, and there wasn't a smell.

The ride was about 30 minutes. We stopped here for the dogs to rest.

After the dogs, we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center. This was the touching pool. I forgot to charge the camera battery, so no more pictures from there.