What a glorious Memorial Day weekend we had in Alaska! The sun stayed out (almost all night long), the bugs were not to terrible, a few of us made it a 4 day weekend and overall it was a wonderful time! We had promised the "Grandma's" that we would make it down to their neck of the woods for the weekend but as it approached hubby decided that he really needed to spend some time in the garage (building, organizing and getting ready for fishing this coming weekend). I was feeling conflicted as I really like to take the long weekends and go South to Homer and Seldovia since it is quite a long drive, I like the extra day to make it a semi decent weekend. I asked my girlfriend Patti to join me on my adventure so that I could please the Grandma's and also myself... We hit the road early Friday morning with one of mine, Elliot and hers, Chance. We made it to Cooper Landing in time for breakfast at Sunrise (my friend Farrah's Mom works here so we stopped to see if she was in, no Sharon but Farrah's Dad and Pumba the dog were there having breakfast).
After breakfast we made record time to Homer! First order of business, walk around the Homer Spit and have a good LINNER. We visited The Deadliest Catch store and did a little bit more shopping. We had to stop and get some saltwater taffy at The Salty Girls and then go down on the beach and skip rocks.
The next morning we got up early to head over to Seldovia on the NEW SELDOVIA BAY FERRY! Besides seeing my folks and my Mother in Law this was the highlight of my trip. I have been a part of the building of this Ferry (I have written ALL of the checks to have it built). The Ferry just started operations this last week so we got to ride on it while it is fairly new! What a beautiful boat!
One of the reasons I like to go to Seldovia over Memorial Day Weekend is because of the festivities... This is the 5th year that they have had the Chainsaw Carving Competition and this year the Artists were creating something for the new Childrens Park. It is amazing what one can do with a log, chainsaw and small hand tools. Here are some shots of my favorites.
I just learned that the seal/sealion or whatever it is came in first and the salmon with saddle came in second. I wish I had pictures of them more completed because the winner had another otter in front and starfish foot holders. You can check these out on the Seldovia web site. Other things we enjoy doing when in Seldovia are visiting the beaches, skipping rocks, riding bikes, drinking coffee and walking from one end of town to the other. Here are some pictures of our trip to Inside Beach.
Oh and how could I forget the boys excitement. Papa took them fishing. First they went out on Saturday night, Papa thought he would troll for salmon but they got into the halibut. After trying for a few hours the halibut were bait stealers and they came home with nothing. They decided to be troopers and go out early the next morning before we caught the ferry back to Homer. Those two little ones and Papa got up at 4:30 am to make it out with the right tide and what do you know, they all caught their limit!
Halibut tacos were the featured menu item at our house last night!
After the ferry ride back to Homer and a few more hours hanging out with Grandma Little we were on our way back to Anchorage and Elliot didn't last for 10 minutes before he was out for the count! He slept until dinner in Soldotna and then we laughed at Bill Engval the rest of the ride home!
