Settled in Cooper Landing for the night

8/18/14

Headed out of Homer at about 11:30 am and took some previously missed pictures from the Spit of the full time summer tent residents. Apparently they are college age people that work in the fishing industry and Homer allows them to live in tents on the beach (I know you're reading my mind right now...only in Alaska!)

We drove back around the peninsula the way we came and got some great view pics that we didn't see on the way in

Our plan was to go straight to Seward, which was about a 3 1/2 hour drive (but look at how few miles it is haha)

However, as soon as we got to Cooper Landing and saw just how big, blue and beautiful the Kenai-Russian river is we had to stop and see it up close. We just so happened to pull into a camp ground with a perfectly available spot that had a short little walking trail right to the edge of the water (and I mean short, like 20-30 feet away!) 

At the waters edge we could see fish jumping everywhere! And most of them were obviously red salmon!

Needless to say, we couldn't get ourselves to leave and decided we just had to fish! Only one problem, we didn't have any fishing poles. Luckily around the  corner there was a little business called "Troutfitters" which was able to help. Unfortunately all they had to rent was fly fishing poles, and doubly unfortunately that is one of the few outdoor activities my mountain man Chuck has zero experience in so he was apprehensive about renting the poles. I on the other hand was like, "ahh c'mon how hard can it be and can't we just use it like a regular pole?!" So we went ahead and rented two poles, figuring we could share, and only had to get an adult license because kids didn't need one. Kids were soooo excited to fish!!

Saw a bald eagle! It's the little black and white thing standing on the dirt...

At first just Grace and Gwen were fishing and they couldn't wait to catch a fish! Grace was certain she was gonna catch the first one. Was sooo promising with the fish jumping around every few minutes but they weren't biting. And fly fishing proved to be a little more difficult than it looked, but Chuck and I figured so what if they do it wrong, they're having a blast! We decided to add small pieces of hot dog to the hook (basically we were totally not fly fishing at all haha) and it worked! Kids kept saying they were getting bites but the fish were stealing their hot dogs! Or the entire hook with the hot dog! It got so exciting that Chuck and Gage ended up making their own pole out of a stick, line and hook. I think the adventure in that was way more fun for them than the fishing itself.

 In the end, Gwen had 8 good bites, and pulled in 2 rainbow trout. 

Gwen was the first to catch a fish and Grace said, "Awww I wanted to be the first Auge to catch a fish in Alaska!"

When Gwen pulled in her first fish, being the animal lover that she is, the first thing she said was, "Oh no what do I do it can't breathe!" She was very thankful that it was too small to keep and Chuck threw it back in the water to go on living. 

Next catch was Grace, and my goodness was this girl proud! And she caught a huge rainbow trout! Her excitement quickly turned to tears as she suddenly realized the fate of the fish. 

Notice Gracre's outfit, this was not a random act of style this was well planned out as her ultimate outdoorsman fishing outfit. 

But then it got cold...wardrobe change

Grace recovered from her sadness over the fish pretty quickly and went on fishing, but every few minutes she would say something about the event as she tried to reassure herself that it was ok. She caught 3 rainbow trout all together. Gage and chuck brought in one each on their custom pole too! We ended up releasing quite a few back into the water which made the kids very happy. Such a fun day! And on the Eve of our last official day in Alaska we got a beautiful gift (in addition to the fish!) a double rainbow! We've never seen a double rainbow!

And then one of the rainbows became a full complete rainbow half circle! Never in my life have I seen that!

Lots of warning signs about bears, whereas Chuck was inspired to wear his gun on his hip while we fished...only in Alaska!

And yes, we did eat the fish courtesy of Dad who gutted it, filleted it and barbecued it!

Goodbye day 5!!! We will miss you!!!