Last visit of the summer

I can't believe it, but it's already been a half a week since Mom, Dad and Heather left Kodiak. It seems like it took forever for August to get here, and now their visit has come and gone, and we're without any more planned visitors for the foreseeable future (Ryan? Josh? Who's next!?)

We had a great visit, with almost a week straight of the best weather we've seen in Kodiak this summer! With sun almost every day, and temps in the 60's, the three of them got to see a Kodiak that is rarely seen by anyone, let alone people who are only visiting for a week!

Much like our visit with Maryanne and Jim, we tried our best to show them all of Kodiak in a short period of time, including some time out halibut fishing for Dad! (Heather and Mom decided not to join us on that one!)

The visit started out with a bang on two different counts. First, Jason got sent out on a SAR case on Tuesday morning to Adak, AK (think Russia for location). Of course, the family was coming in on Wednesday morning, so it figured that he'd be sleeping in when they got here, since he didn't think he'd be home til 2 or 3 am on Wednesday. Knowing full well that I shouldn't have been relieved by the original plan getting him home "at least" Wednesday morning, I got a call from the Air Station on Tuesday night saying he'd be a bit later. Silly me, I asked how much later it could be than an early morning arrival the next day. Keep in mind, the call came at about 7pm Tuesday night. The answer to my question was: Thursday. So, dodging volcanoes erupting, and pulling the "my family is in town" card to get out of there, Jason finally made it back from Adak late Thursday afternoon, two days into the trip.

The second major event was that Heather's luggage did NOT make it to Kodiak at the same time Heather did. Now, in most places, this might be a blessing in disguise. I mean, the airline gives you money to go out shopping to replace your lost items. YAY! Shopping! In Kodiak, that's a bit more of a challenge. Let's just say it's good that Heather and I are the same size! Come to find out, the idiot who checked them in at Logan (Boston) was too busy chatting to pay attention to which tags went on which bags. So Heather's bag ended up in Seattle, a guy who was going to Calgary had his bag sent to Kodiak, and a third guy who was going to Seattle theoretically had his bag end up in Calgary. Lesson learned: Watch the airline people put YOUR tag on YOUR bag before taking it off the scale and moving it behind the counter!!! Thanks to the AK airlines agents here in Kodiak, Heather's bag was located mid-day on Friday, and made it in Friday night. YAY!

We didn't let either event slow us down, though, making the most of the beautiful weather and the rest of what Kodiak has to offer. And now, onto the pictures:

This one was taken from the overlook at Ft. Abercrombie. I took a similar one earlier in the week, but it was missing Jason (and me), so we tried again later. Yay for tripods, so I could actually be in a picture!

While halibut fishing on Friday, we were treated to a beautifully calm, warm, sunny day (which means I'm two-for-two on the NOT puking while halibut fishing). Although we only got one halibut on our short trip, we were treated to a visit by a whale, not too far away from the boat. After we got back from fishing, Mom, Heather and I saw more whales hanging out in the same area when we went for a walk. It was awesome to listen to them breathing and calling to each other. Thanks to Dad's camera and the power of Photoshop, you can even tell that it was really a whale!

Pulling Mom away from the end of Spruce Cape and the sounds of the whales, we went to our secret stash spot for salmonberries, and ate a light snack during our walk. Mom managed to find one of the biggest berries I've ever seen! The ones all grouped together in this picture are on teh bigger end of normal sized. The one on the right was a monstah!

Saturday found us heading out the road for a picnic lunch in Pasagshak again. We stopped by the base to buy Heather a new camera, and then picked up sandwiches at a new coffee house/sandwich shop outside of town, Java Flats. From there, we made the long drive out to Pasagshak, on a gloriously sunny day. As we unloaded the car, we were talking about how neat the fog looked off in the distance, at the base of the mountains. Little did we realize, the fog was NOT that far away. By the time we found seats on some driftwood, and unpacked the sandwiches, we were sitting in the fog!
With our view gone, we ate our lunches, and decided not to stick around too long. We took two cars out, though, so that Jason could load up some driftwood for us to burn this winter. So, he did his best (with Dad's help, and a useless chainsaw) to load up the truck, and we headed back toward home. Luckily, the weather cleared on the way, and the girls (me, Mom, Heather and neighbor Christina) stopped to pick berries on the way, while the guys headed back toward the Buskin to fish a little.

Dad caught his first salmon, and brought it home to be filleted and smoked (the pink salmon are really best smoked). Here he is before trying to fillet his catch. He very quickly allowed Jason to step in and take care of it. He said he didn't want to ruin it, but, Dad - I think you just didn't like the slime!

On the final day of good weather, we headed back out to Spruce Cape to pick more berries, look for whales, and enjoy an Alaskan beach experience (which is just walking on the beach since no one in their right mind would go swimming!!!). Camera in hand, I caught a few last shots of the family in the sunshine.

And, of course, a good shot of what we saw a lot of this week - the back of Dad as he stayed behind to capture another picture. The man takes more pictures than me!!!

We finally encountered some of the famous Kodiak rain on the last day of their visit, so we headed into town to check out the museums and the Wildlife Refuge visitor center. So as to be sure that Mom doesn't think I under-represented here on this trip report, I'll include one final picture from the trip. Watch out - the Kodiak bears can be vicious!!

Hey, Mom, it would've been more realistic if you could've stopped laughing... I'm just sayin'...

So, that was the visit with the Waitt side of the family. We're happy to have the house back to ourselves, but sad that everyone has come and gone for the summer. We're looking forward to the next round of visitors - hopefully sooner than later! Remember, the door is always open! Though now we're just counting down the days until we get our chance for vacation - only about a month and a half til our trip to Florida and St. Thomas! We're definitely looking foward to that!

That's all for now! We'll try to make some of our own Kodiak excitement so we have things to share!

Ah, civilization!

Seattle, to be exact!

I got an all-expense-paid trip to Seattle this week, courtesy of some new developments in fisheries management. By day, I attended a conference at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center (In Seattle? What?), and by night, I hit Seattle for some fun and food! Oh, the food... uh, I mean, the, uh... probably no one cares about that as much as I do. So I'll move on.

Tuesday was a long day in the conference, so there wasn't a lot of time for getting out to see things, so I just spent some time shopping and eating some fabulous risotto at an actual risotteria (a place that specializes in it! Wait, how'd I get back to the food??). Wednesday, though, we were done a little earlier, so I got to do some real sight-seeing.

Armed with my trusty camera, I headed out for a nice walk through town (it was GORGEOUS yesterday down there) and over to the Space Needle. Deciding to forego the $12.50 military rate to go UP in the Needle (nevermind the fear of heights), I snapped some pictures from the ground, and then spent my $12.00 at the Experience Music Project instead. I wandered around in there for close to two hours... I totally couldn't get enough of the Guitar Gallery, and they have a temporary Jimi Hendrix exhibition that was hard to walk away from.

Oh, and how cool is this? It's a cyclone made out of guitars (mostly) and a few other random instruments. This greets you as you walk into the EMP. So cool!

Admission included access to the Science Fiction Museum, too, but I passed that up since time was getting away from me, and I really wanted to check out Pike's Place before the vendors starting closing up shop for the night.

I don't even know what to say about Pike's Place, other than we need one in Kodiak. Holy sensory overload! Fruits, vegetables, street muscians, smells of delicious baked things, the famous fish throwers, the FLOWERS! Oh my gosh! The flowers! Honestly, though, after becoming acclimated to my little world here in Kodiak, Pike's was a little hard to handle. I wandered around for a while, and then headed back up to the shopping, of course. Before I left, though, I made sure to get a shot of my favorite fish:

Ok, it's not really my favorite fish - I mean, look at it. BUT, the lowly monkfish definitely kept me entertained when on boardings off the east coast. Just in case you wondered - even if mostly dead, a monkfish on the deck of a fishing boat WILL clamp down on your boot if you put it in its mouth. Just sayin'....

Eventually, I headed back to the hotel, picked up the car, and found my way to the nearest Kohl's. Mom, you'd be so proud of me - I swear, I have Kohl's radar! Oh, and, lucky for me, there was a Red Robin in the same place. Shopping and yummy burgers - how can you go wrong!!!

After almost missing my flight this morning due to a gate change and change-back debacle, I made it back to a gorgeous day in Kodiak - only to find that the fridge konked out at some point in time (recently because some stuff was still cold) during my trip. Thankfully I have a wonderful neighbor in Christina, and she rescued the stuff from the fridge (the freezer was a loss, completely...), and she rescued me from having to cook dinner, taking me in for the evening!

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a call from the repairman - luckily, it appears as though the fridge (if it's the compressor like I think it is) is still covered under the original warranty - with a wopping 6 days until it expires! YAY!

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip back into the real world, but was just as happy to get back home today. I would've been happier if I had a working refrigerator, but it's still good to be back in little ol' Kodiak.

Next up: The next visitors - Mom, Dad, and Heather! Looking forward to their arrival - hopefully we have a working fridge by then!

Our latest houseguests!

Ok, so maybe they were a little more than houseguests... ;)

Maryanne and Jim (aka Mom and Jim) made their way up here to Kodiak almost two weeks ago now, and enjoyed the Kodiak fun for about a week. They came in on the early jet on a Saturday morning, and left on the early jet the following Sunday. By the way, for those planning their big trips to the bustling metropolis of Kodiak, we say the "early jet" because there are only two jets per day - one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. We have other flights during the day, too, but those are little turboprop planes - the jets are actual 737's. Oh, and also, if you're meeting with your travel agent, and they ask you which one you want to take - you want the afternoon one. Want to know why? Because it's rude to make your hosts get up that early to pick you up at 7am. ;) (Just kidding! Mostly...)

We had a fantastic visit, with a flurry of outdoor activities to keep us busy. Luckily, the weather cooperated for almost the whole week - I just hope that doesn't mean we've used up all the good weather for the summer! So far, we haven't had much of a summer, and I'm just hoping it doesn't rain the whole time Mom, Dad and Heather are here!

I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum, and just get to the pictures. Sadly, Jason took the small camera with him to Cordova, so I don't have any of our halibut fishing pictures. I'll just say that I am now just as "hooked" (HA! Get it?) on halibut fishing as I am on salmon fishing. We had a blast!! And, no, I did not toss my cookies while we were out on the boat. Just know that I'm very proud of that.

Moving on.....

Day one, once everyone got all cleaned up from the 24 hours of traveling, we headed over to the base to show the place off, and partake in the brats the Chief's Association were cookin' up. First stop, of course, was Jason's side of the base - let's face it, helo's are way more exciting than an office! Here are the boys posing for a quick shot next to one of the helo's!

We took other pics, but that's enough for now. Later that day, we headed out to Ft. Abercrombie for a quick walk with Fred, and a tour of the Military History Museum. Lucky for me, I was carrying my gorillapod, so I was able to get a shot of all four of us! It's not even that bad!

As the week went on, we picked a favorite place to hike every day. On this day, we went over to Near Island (connected to Kodiak by a bridge), and enjoyed a stroll on the beach. Jason enjoyed taking us on about a two mile detour because he thought he knew a different way back. Yeah, thanks Jason.

Before the detour, though, Jim and Maryanne enjoyed climbing up a pretty substantial breakwall and getting a view of the harbor on the other side. By the way, guys, you could see the same things from the top of the hill....

Not satisfied with what the Commissary and Safeway had to offer, Jim decided to check out the offerings for the bears while we were at the National Wildlife Refuge Visitor's Center. Hey, Jim, they say the bears can eat the pushki - wanna try it??

Thursday (was it Thursday???) found us "out the road" in Pasagshak. We promised Maryanne some buffalo, and thankfully, we didn't disappoint. It was touch and go for a while there when we didn't see them on the way out, but after our picnic lunch, we hiked up the cliff and found these guys. I was determined to get a good picture of them, and hiked half way across this open field to get closer. I quickly turned around when the big guy in the front actually noticed me. YIKES! (Photo courtesy of Jim!)

While we were still down on the beach, finishing up lunch, Jason took Maryanne over to the cliffs to look for fossils - the reason it's called Fossil Beach. I think Jason was a smidge disappointed to learn that Maryanne couldn't have cared less about the fossils - she's a "live animal" kind of girl! We didn't disappoint while in Pasagshak - when we hiked up the cliffs, we had a view of buffalo to the left, and whales playing in the inlet to the right! Where else can you find that?!?!?

On the last day of their trip, we were once again treated to some gorgeous weather! Following an hour or so of crafting at my friend Jana's house (by me and Maryanne), we headed out to Old Woman for a nice, long hike. Long hike = Fred carrying his own stuff.... yeah, he looks like he likes that, huh?

Referencing my comment about summer apparently skipping Kodiak this summer, I bring you exhibit A. Yes, that's snow. Ok, to be fair, it's at the top of a mountain. However, there was a lot more snow up there than about this time last year. How do I know that? Because the last time I was on Old Woman was about this time last year...

Incidentally, Maryanne, as I tried to look up Old Woman for another handy-dandy link, I found someone else's blog about hiking it. That guy said that it's called Old Woman because the old women used to hike up it to die. So we were off a little... And I don't know if he's right. It still might be because you feel like an Old Woman when you're done. Not sure.

Here's a view from the top... wait! How'd those people get in there? Oh, yeah, I actually tried to take some pictures of people this time around! So, here's everyone but me right before I decided to try to beat them all to the top of the next ridge. I don't think I was capable of taking pictures after that. I'm out of shape... that's what I learned that day.

And, finally, so people don't think I never step out from behind the camera - a little shot of the FlyingFish. Oh, and if you look closely, you'll see the tell-tale facial hair that indicates Jason had been on leave for a week! (Picture courtesy of Maryanne, I think... Maybe Jim)

So much for limiting the commentary. You all should know I can't shut up, so I'm sure you didn't expect anything less!
That was our week with the latest family visitors - we're now counting down til Mom, Dad and Heather get here! Luckily, I have a trip to Seattle for work to make the time pass more quickly (YAY! Civilization!!), since I'm really looking forward to the next round of guests!

Everything else is going well up here. We've both been busy with work (in order to be able to take the time off for visitors!), and have been taking advantage of every ounce of sunshine to get outside. I'm still waiting to put short-sleeves on - I was so sure I'd get there this year! - but other than chilly temps, we've had some decent days to enjoy the good part of Kodiak - the summer!

More summertime activity pictures to come in the next few weeks. At the least, I'll share the visit with my side of the family!

A day for the birds!

As my friend Rich would always say about a rainy day in North Carolina - "Nice day for a duck!" That's definitely what we've been experiencing for the last three or four days. UGH!

We were rained out for the 4th, though that didn't stop my pyro of a husband from playing with the fireworks he purchased from the local vendor, though! I'll save you all from those pictures, though, since they were the cheesiest fireworks ever, and the pictures were all taken from inside the garage because it was pouring and Jason was the only one excited enough to be out in the rain! Even with the rain, we hosted a cook-out (cook-in??) with a bunch of friends, including a few new arrivals to Kodiak. If you want to see who we partied with, check out Abbie and Jesse's blog, and Brad and Christina's blog. Brad and Christina are our new neighbors - bringing some life back to Coho circle after the house has been empty for a couple months now (we miss you Holloways!!!).

I digress, though, since this was supposed to be a blog about the birds. Even though we finally had a break in the rain today (I'm even looking out a BLUE skies right now!), it was still a fine day for a duck - or a bunch of 'em! We got out to Ft. Abercrombie for a walk, and Fred was not disappointed in his duck hunting. As we made the turn back up the hill from Lake Gertrude, a small (or big) family of ducks came into view. Jason had fun holding Fred back while I snapped a few pics.

At first, Mama was in the water. But she quickly hopped up on the log when she saw us coming. She was definitely very quick to protect her ducklings!

The funniest part about seeing these guys on the log was that the log was moving... there's just something funny about ducks balancing on a log!

As we got even closer, Mama got a bit more nervous, and headed back into the water. She must've signaled to her kids on the way, though, because they all joined her in the water shortly after.

And, yes, ducklings jumping off a log is almost as good as them balancing on it!

Finally, the little family swam off into the lillies, taking comfort, I'm sure, in the protection and camouflage the lillies offered.

Did I mention that, this whole time, Fred was laying down on the path, but at full alert, just waiting for Jason to ease up on the leash the tiniest bit? Yeah, he was ready. I'm not sure what he would ever do if he actually caught one!

Better than ducks, though, was the more regal variety of bird that was hanging out behind my building this afternoon. This guy caught my eye as I was packing up to leave the office. It's not unusual to see an eagle or two outside my window, but this one caught my eye because he was laying down like a chicken! Unfortunately, I couldn't get any closer than this before he moved. But you can definitely tell he's laying like a chicken. Guess he was tired!

As I said, I tried to get in closer, and he moved. So I just kept creeping toward him and snapping pics. I'll just share a couple of what I think were the best.


I don't care what people say about losing your awe for these guys once you see them at the dump. Dumpster divers or not, I'll never get used to this!

This was taken right after he stood up - he had to fluff!

I started to get the feeling he wasn't very happy with me interrupting his rest. He spent a lot of time swiveling his head around about 180 degrees, with every click of the camera. In my defense, a morale boat came into the basin to tie up, too, so he spent some time checking that out, too.

I think I got within about 10 or 15 yards of him, but kept snapping with my 300mm zoom. I need a bigger lense.....

Finally, I wasn't the only show in town.... my eagle friend seems to be wondering what's going on with that other bird!

So, even though the sun came out for a while today, it was still a day for the birds! Hope you enjoyed the view!

Becca

Quick edit here - so as to not leave them out, our party also included the Koehlers (their blog is linked over there on the right), and our friends Jerrod and Kate. Jerrod brought along his brother James, who just recently transferred to Kodiak, too!

Are you happy now, Beth!?! :) Love ya, chickie!

Combat Fishing at Midnight on the Summer Solstice

Well here I end the second of four weeks here in "Man Camp" aka Cordova and thought I would bring everyone back up to speed as I have been absent from the blog for a while. After my dad and Dave Aldous left (Memorial Day weekend) I was sent over to Cordova for my first trip of 4 for the summer. I was lucky enough to be sent over 17with Bart, one of our other pilots at the unit, who really (I mean really, really) likes fishing. You might say that he is slightly addicted, or at least has a small fishing fetish. Since the red season (sockeye salmon) season is currently on hold back in Kodiak due to low numbers this year, we thought that we would try our hand here in Cordova. Well the first week ended up being a complete washout for reds here too. There wasn't anything coming up the rivers and even the commercial fishermen weren't out trying.

So in between flights on our days off Bart and I decided to head out for the some halibut (or buts) as they are commonly referred too. Luckily the station here in Cordova has some handme down boats that are no longer used in Kodiak, and we can rent them for 15 dollars a day plus fuel. What a deal, a 17' whaler that ours for the day. So we headed out on two different days that first week and were able to catch some but. This one here is my very first but since arriving in Alaska, not a whopper, but still fun to catch on a salmon pole.

In between fishing, or I mean on our days that we had to work, we did do some great flying as the weather was truly fabulous. Here is a picture of us working a moving people and equipment from Hichinbrook lighthouse at the entrance to Prince William Sound. It's kind of hard to remember you are working when you get see scenery like this.

After the first week Bart and I were sent home for a week where we were either standing duty everyday or deployed to Anchorage. So after a week home, we were afforded another vacation, I mean forced to deploy to Cordova again. This time we were lucky enough to find out that the reds had started running and were given the location of a sweet spot that the previous crew found. I tell you what, if they hadn't found the hole we would have never suspected there were even fish there as it was a drainage ditch off one of the feeders to the Copper River.

So we arrived the first night here in Cordova, minus all of our gear as the Herc never made the trip from Kodiak to here due to Sar, and borrowed what we could and headed out. After a short drive (ha) we found this ditch that the previous crew had told us about, we were pretty sure that they were screwing with us once we actually found it. Like I said it looked just like a drainage ditch. Well were we wrong! I don't know why, but this little hole had more reds in it than we could imagine.

The second night we were there we were lucky enough to be fishing on the summer solstice. As the title of the post you can probably imagine that we were fishing all four of us, around that little hole and trying not to catch each other's line, until well past midnight on the longest day of the year. Yup that's right, we were fishing after midnight because the sun doesn't really set up here until way after most normal people are in bed. At 2am last night when we finally finished cleaning fish, it was still pink in the sky.

The last night we were off duty, we ended up taking a full crew ( 7 in all) back out to the hole for day 5 of our fishing trips and really had a great setup. Jarred, our flight mech, ended up receiving a package from his girl friend with tamales from a local favorite in Kodiak, along with a case of beer. So with a few smores added in for desert we headed out for a night of true combat fishing, cooking food in an open fire (any man's favorite passtime), drinking beer, and oh year catching fish. We ended up having such a good setup on the side of the road (because I refer you back to the drainage ditch) that people thought we were stranded at first and then soon realized we were in for the long haul.

So after 5 days of fishing, and at least 4 people each trip, we ended up with 39 reds total and over 150 lbs of fillets that we are bring home to Kodiak for a one week trip. Can't beat that! If you are lucky enough we may even share some with others. =) Well that's all for now, hopefully we'll be heading home tomorrow, and home that everyone is doing well.

Jason

As seen in Kodiak

Unfortunately (or fortunately... depending on how you look at it), not much has been going on around here lately, so all I really have is pictures. I've been bringing my camera with me pretty much everywhere I go these days, trying to catch the signs of spring (or summer?) that are finally coming to Kodiak. So, here's a week of Kodiak through my camera!

First up - a sure sign of spring (summer) - lupine! These purple flowers were everywhere when we got here last summer. In fact, on one of our drives out the road, we found an entire field of them near an old air strip. It was awesome, and one of the pics from that visit now adorns our bathroom wall in an 11x14 version! Here's just the beginnings of blooms that are sure to be everywhere sooner than later!


Also seen on the same day as the lupine were some sprouts of this flower. I have no idea what this is, though... so, if anyone does, let me know! I just thought it was pretty!

The first two pictures were taken from one of my favorite spots in Kodiak on Near Island. Near Island is a small island connected to the City of Kodiak by a bridge. It's also home to the Trident sea plane basin. As usual, I was caught unprepared with only my 18-70mm lens on the camera, but I finally got at least a decent shot of one of the planes coming in. One day, I'll have my big lens ready and will get a good shot off!

And, for the last shot from Near Island (these were all taken the same day, by the way), this flower is a VERY welcome sight to many in Kodiak. This is the bloom of the salmonberry bush. Last year, because of a horrible winter, the salmonberry bushes never really bloomed, and produced VERY few actual berries. In fact, when we got here last year, most of the "bushes" were just brown sticks, without even any leaves! Late in the season, we managed to find a stray berry or two, but it just wasn't what it was supposed to be. Judging by how many of these pretty pink blooms I've seen over the past week, in all our favorite hiking spots, the crop should be healthy this year! I can't wait!

About mid-week, I glanced out my window at work early in the morning, before the wind kicked up, and was greeted with the view below... seriously, I get to look at that from my office! This is Old Woman mountain, and her reflection in the CG boat basin.

On Thursday, Fred and I ventured out to Ft. Abercrombie. Given my ridiculously bad sense of direction, I have never gone out to Abercrombie by myself. I have been afraid that I would get lost! Feeling confident about one particular trail, and after walking through a big cook-out to get to it, we set out onto the Wildflower Trail, and made it back to the car with no issues! Of course, Fred had to stop and smell the flowers.... (ok, maybe he's eating grass... but whatever).

Going back in time to a week earlier, and back on Near Island, here's a view from the beach. Yes, we still have a ton of snow up in the mountains, but the temperature is rising, and the coastal mountains are slowly losing their snow and turning green!

Finally, we end the week(ish) in pictures with a couple shots from yesterday. Because it was GORGEOUS out yesterday (over 60 degrees and SUNNY!), Beth and Zach called us early in the afternoon to see if we wanted to head out to the beach for a campfire and cook-out. Our original plan of staying "local" at the Buskin River pavilions was crushed since a LOT of other people had the same idea, so we headed out to Mayflower Beach, way out the road instead, and enjoyed a few hours of sunshine, campfire smoke, the rocky beach, and great friends!

First up - Fred, digging in the water for.... a rock. He won't put his face in to get something on the bottom (though he'll chase sticks, grab 'em and bring 'em back!), so he paws at them to get them to the beach. We thought maybe he'd found a bone of some sort, or maybe a dead crab or something. But, no, it was a rock. Actually, two rocks. Ah, endless source of entertainment! At least one of us thoroughly enjoyed the rocks on the beach. I won't give away his identity since he seemed to be concealing it with the hood, but we'll just say that the G-man seemed to have a good time!
And, finally, most of the group - Looks like a couple kids, Zach and Jason didn't make it into this one. Jason was probably tending to the meat-on-a-stick we brought out to eat, and Zach was probably trying to get a piece of meat-on-a-stick!

So, that's my week, in pictures. Jason was gone for most of the week, out in "Man Camp" (aka Cordova) for the first of many deployments this summer. As usual, he enjoyed himself thoroughly out there, and caught his first halibut (babies, but halibut nonetheless). I'll let him share that if/when he gets to it.

A belated Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers in our lives! We miss everyone and we're looking forward to our upcoming visitors!!
Becca

In China, they call Chinese food... "Food."

I'm hoping that I've got this slide show thing figured out... we'll see how this goes!!

So, as promised, a post about China. In the interest of saving myself some time, I'm going to just paste a post I made about my trip on another interent board I frequent. But, I've included a slide show of 27 of the 150 or so pictures I took while I was there. I think they're a good representation of what I saw! So here's the copied text:

Holy whirlwhind of a trip!!

I left on Memorial Day morning to head out to Shanghai, China, with an overnight in Seattle on the way. So, I got to Shanghai on Wednesday afternoon, their time, which is still too hard for me to figure out in relation to my time here! UGH!

Travel went REALLY well on the way out. Somehow I ended up in my own row on the long 12 hour flight, so I got to stretch out a bit between the two seats. Air Canada rocked.... I would totally fly them again! They had TVs in the seat, a plug to be able to charge your laptop, even an USB port right in the seat... it was crazy! They flight attendants were great - they kept the carts moving up and down the aisle (FREE drinks, too!), and kept coming around with water, too, which was key!

We hit the town on Wednesday night, doing anything, really to keep ourselves awake until a "normal" time. Unfortunately, I felt like crap after the trip and couldn't eat any of the awesome food the Captain ordered for us (there's a CG Capt stationed in Beijing who came over for our meetings). I then slept like crap Wed. night because of not eating, feeling sick, and being worried about not waking up on time for our meetings on Thursday!

Thursday, we got up early and headed to the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command base on the East China Sea. We got the chance to tour one of their cutters before heading back towad Shanghai for the rest of our meeting. The meetings were really productive, and a great experience to see cooperation between the two countries. It's amazing to me that China is actually one of the best partners we have for high seas fisheries enforcement - let's just say that the country as a whole, is not normally known for cooperation at sea!

Thursday night, they held a banquet in our honor, which was just a crazy experience! I don't even know how to describe it! We all sat around a HUGE round table, with the biggest "lazy susan" I've ever seen in the middle of it! Unlike our lunches, we each got individuals dishes at the banquet, but the servers would still put it all on the lazy susan in front of us. The food kept coming alllll night! CRAZY! We also toasted to anything and everything - I guess it's rude to drink without a toast when you're at something like that! Lucky for me, they go easy on the women (I was the only one), so I didn't drink nearly as much as the guys did. It was insane!
The other insane thing was the food choices!! YIKES! Lucky for me, it didn't appear to be rude to leave stuff behind, because there was no way I was trying dried jellyfish or duck tongue! Yes, that's right - duck tongue! Among some other strange dishes - chicken feet, beef tendon (which I did try, and don't recommend), some kind of dried squid, sea cucumbers, snake skin, river eels and I don't even know what else! Some of the food was really good... some of it, well, not so much!

Friday morning, we wrapped up our meeting, had lunch, and then headed out to do a little sightseeing.

Oh, first, lunch - much like dinner, we were at round tables, with huge, glass lazy susan's in the middle of the table. The server would just bring the dishes out, and put them on the table, and then we'd just take food from the family style dishes... Apparently, they were serving us pretty fancy food (a whole plate of foie gras!), so I felt bad when I really didn't like some of it, but most of it was good. Or, at least, edible! The lazy susan and the communal dishes (using just your own chopsticks to serve) was a little weird at first, but at least then you don't have to try to pass plates all night!

So, Friday afternoon, we finally got to sightsee... we went to a town called Zhouzhuang, a "water town." It had all kinds of canals and rivers running through it, with bridges to cross it all. (I guess there was something like it in Mission Impossible 3, though I never saw that one.) We did the complete tourist thing there, but it was totally worth it! It was beautiful, and ancient (over 900 years old), and gave us a better taste for China than Shanghai ever could. Our hosts took us out to a relaxed meal after our tour, where we ate "country" Chinese food - the kind of things people actually cook for themselves, rather than what we'd had up to that point. It was all WONDERFUL, and has ruined me for our American version of "Chinese" food. *sigh*
We headed back to "The Bund" in Shanghai on Friday night, getting a chance to see the skyline lit up at night. It was beautiful and weird at the same time - the lights are gorgeous, but it's strange that it's so flashy and non-traditional! It was neat to see, though!

We left for the airport first thing Saturday morning, and then flew for what seemed like forever. I got back here to Kodiak at about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon (after getting a day back during the trip), but my body thought it was almost 24 hours since I'd left Shanghai, and I spent most of the beginning of the week all screwed up now!

It was an amazing trip, and I'm so grateful that my job gave me this opportunity! Who knew that being in the CG, and being stationed in Kodiak would allow me to travel to CHINA, of all places!
Oh, and about the title of my post - thanks to Dave Aldous for that one - that was his pithy advice for me before I left. What a guy! Enjoy the slide show!!
Becca