Alaska Trip - The Sideways Spanker

You are probably wondering by now, what in the world is a "sideways spanker?"  It's a name Riley made up for a halibut.  He said that when you catch them and bring them on deck, they lie there sideways (because their eyes are on the same side of their body) and spank their tails against the deck.  The boys went on an all day wildlife/fishing charter the same day the girls went on the Gilligan tour.

They started out by seeing different parts of the bay and the wildlife, then started casting their lines.  All 4 boys were disappointed that they didn't catch more salmon (not enough time spent trying for salmon), but I think they were still happy with all of halibut, cod and rockfish they got.

Aboard in the small boat harbor in Seward

Checking out the boat

More exploring

And they are off to see wildlife in the bay

I can only imagine what Uncle Matt and Riley were discussing

Another in depth discussion with Dad

Looking for wildlife

First catch of the day!

Andy was thrilled!

Uncle Matt helping Riley with the fishing rod

Everyone checking out the next catch

Got 'em!

Getting him off the hook

Uncle Matt giving Riley a personal tour

Pointing out whales to Riley

Taking a snack break to try to settle his stomach

Looking for more whales

Riley even made a buddy on the boat

Uncle Matt's catch

Looks like a rockfish

A sideways spanker!

Got another one

Andy not feeling so good

Filleting the fish for the boys

Meeting up on the dock - our boats docked across from each other at the same time!

Happy to see her Daddy

I think Andy and Riley ate my brother out of his own personally canned salmon - well, at least put a serious dent in his supply.  Andy was determined to eat as much salmon as possible while in Alaska and I think he came close to eating it daily!  Riley enjoyed all the fresh fish as well.  He ate a lot of his favorite salmon - the sockeye salmon.  He likes them so much he got a sockeye salmon stuffed animal at a gift shop!

After we had our happy reunion, the boys took their catch to the dock to have it vacuum packed and shipped to our homes.  Ours arrived Tuesday after we returned.  Mom and Dad's will arrive after they get home from their bike trip. I know my boys are anxious to try some here on the grill.

The night after the big fishing trip, we went to a restaurant where they will prepare YOUR catch of the day and serve it to you.  Pretty cool idea, huh?  The guys took a bunch of the fish in and everyone enjoyed eating it.  Kendall even tried a fish stick that they made for an appetizer.  Sadly, I was alone in not eating anything that swims, so I enjoyed my veggie calzone instead.

Alaska Trip - The Gilligan Tour

Yes, that's right, we went on a three hour tour of Resurrection Bay - jokingly called the Gilligan Tour.  All of the girls went on this tour together while the boys went fishing all day.  The little ones were so excited for it.  They couldn't wait to get on the boat and check it out.  We were on a boat called the Orca Song.  I would have been nervous if it was the SS Minnow!

Some of the views from the boat

The sea lions were hanging out together enjoying the sunshine

More picturesque views

Isn't it gorgeous?

Bear Glacier - you can kayak around the bottom of this glacier which might be a fun trip sometime

This is how Kendall spent a majority of the trip - between my lap and my mom's.  Why is it when I want her to nap she won't, and when I want her to be awake, she sleeps?

Another view of Bear Glacier

This is what we waited about 25 minutes to see, but it was well worth the wait!

My cute little niece watching for wildlife from the boat

They both found wildlife to look at!

The girls had a blast and Kendall enjoyed the Dall's porpoise the most - she kept saying "Yook Mom!  Orcas!"

These guys were so cute - maybe 4-6 of them playing around in front of our boat after we saw the whale.

We also got to see a sea otter (but I had a sleepyhead on my lap so I could see it but not get a picture).  There were lots of birds to be seen on this cruise too!

The puffins were so cute!

I'm glad we got the chance to go see some of the bay and some wildlife - especially the whale!  Thankfully our 3 hour tour didn't end up the way the SS Minnow's did!

Alaska Trip - The Trilogy

SLED DOGS!  What would a trip to Alaska be without stopping in to see the Seavey's sled dogs.  Mitch Seavey was the 2004 Iditarod champion (and a few other top ten finishes since then) and they have some (maybe 100) of their dogs in Seward for the summer.  Since Kendall is crazy about dogs, and Alice had seen them before and went nuts over them, we decided to at least take them there to do the kennel tour and see the dogs.

When we got there Aunt Mere decided she was brave enough to take on the task of taking all three munchkins on the sled dog ride by herself.  She gets our "Aunt of the Year" award hands down!  

This place becomes a zoo when people come to see them

Rows and rows of dogs and kennels

Meeting one of the sled dogs

Love at first sight?

"Yook Mom!  A sled doggie!"

See the fight breaking out on the left side of this picture?  This is what caused me to compare sled dogs waiting for a run to a classroom of unsupervised students!  Chaos broke out!  There was pandemonium!

Talking to the puppies after the ride

Getting to hold the puppies!

These photos still crack me up.  Riley pretending to be the musher and Kendall trying to pull the sled!

Trying to pull it a different way

Still no luck, but she tried hard!

We had a great time seeing the sled dogs.  If you get a chance to go see these dogs and learn about them, their training, breeding, etc., I highly recommend it.

There's a phrase we use here in Utah to describe all of the connections we make with others.  We often call it "Small Lake City" instead of Salt Lake City.  This happened to me not once, but TWICE during our trip to Alaska.  I found out a good friend of ours' family use to sponsor the Seavey's sled dog team!  How cool is that?  The second time was when Mere and I met for tea after my daily morning run, we went to this cool little coffee shop (yes, we went to their competition so Mere didn't feel the need to step in and work while we were catching up!).  Do you remember that cute little church I posted earlier?  The red one?  Well there are tons of cute little churches like that all over town and this coffee shop is located in an old church.  It's so adorable (but honestly, Matt and Mere's is at a great location and I like the lay out of theirs much better as well as their extensive drink selection - yes, I'm plugging The Sea Bean so if you visit Seward, look them up!)  Anyhow, back to Small Lake City, so there is this guy standing in line in front of us with a Snowbird shirt on.  Snowbird is that place Kevin and I skied on the 4th and where Riley is in ski school.  So I ask the guy if he's skied Snowbird and of course he replies, "Yes, I actually live in Salt Lake City!"  We got to talking and his wife teaches ski school there and he works at The Canyons Resort.

As I mentioned I went for morning runs almost daily.  I skipped out on the morning that I realized I lost my license and the morning we went kayaking.  After running at 4500 above sea level and then to run AT sea level...WOW!  I felt like a super athlete!  I could go so much further than I can here in Utah.  All those extra red blood cells I guess.  I didn't realize how much I would notice it.  One morning I decided to run along the bay out this gravel road towards Millers Landing where we were going to take our kayaking trip from.  This was my view along the way:

This view just made me want to keep running along there forever - then all gravel that was getting spit up in my eyes and mouth as the many vehicles passed me on their way out to Miller's Landing eventually made me turn around and come back.  But the view was breath taking that morning!

So far, I shared about our adventure getting to Seward and some of the family photos and landscape and now about us seeing the sled dogs.  Stay tuned for future posts about wildlife, sockeye salmon and "sideways spankers!"