Yello!

Francis and I recently returned from a week of visiting my brother and sister-in-law, Glenn and Pat and seeing the majestic sights of Alaska. Friends Denny and Shelley went along and we all had a great time. We flew into Anchorage and spent a day seeing the city before boarding the train for Denali National Park. At the park, we took a daylong tour into the heart of the park where we saw moose, caribou, a wolf pack, grizzly and black bears, Dall sheep and red fox. The one thing we were looking forward to seeing, but actually saw very little of, was Denali itself – Mt. McKinley. Evidently the massive moutain is only visible 20% of the time due to the usual cloudy conditions. We saw just a glimpse of it through a small gap in the cloud cover, but even that is more than most of the visitors to the park get to see. Later in the week, we all rode in Glenn’s truck from Anchorage down to Homer where Glenn and Pat live. They built a beautiful log home there a couple of years ago upon their move from Honolulu to Homer. A highlight of the trip was our two days of fishing. Glenn has an awesome boat and the fishing skills to go along with it that made our experience with deep-sea fishing so rewarding. I caught a 32-inch halibut and trolled with the boat while the others caught pink, silver and king salmon. We also caught shark, but released them back as we did with the smaller halibut. Glenn let me drive the boat, which was really fun – especially the second day with 4 foot waves. Pat grilled our catch and it was superb!!! We brought a big box of our frozen fish home, so I hope I can prepare it as well. If any of you ever get the chance to visit Alaska, I heartily recommend it. It was truly amazing to see the tundra, permafrost, glaciers, volcanos, mountains and the ocean all right there together. I can hardly wait to go back!