June 15: HALF-WAY POINT OF HOSTING EXPERIENCE

Today is only the second really "rainy day" that we've had since we began our hosting duties at Willow Creek. Of course it rained a lot when we spent the week in the Kenai. But not since then. How cool to have a "job" (hardly a "job") that we can just take off pretty much when we want to. Chris and I walked through the campground this morning, picking up litter, then went down to the creek and watched a couple of Kings being caught, and visited with folks. Then we decided to come to town and see if our Burger Bus had their internet hooked up yet. Not yet. Bummer. So, since we were there, we had to have dessert (a brownie w/ ice cream on it), and then split a burger....yes in that order, too. Sounds good to me! Now we're in the library so I can post the blog and Chris picked up a book to read.

These are priceless pictures of our little friend, Josh, teaching Chris how tie the big hooks on and make a lure for the king salmon. He took this very seriously.

On Monday, we had to shoot down to Wasilla to do a little shopping, and we had a pleasant surprise along our road to the camp. This moose really didn’t give a care about us watching him. He was a small bull. See his horns?

Chris has almost totally usurped my I-phone to play Words with Friends on it with Andrea and Julio. (It’s like Scrabble) It’s an interactive game app that you can play with someone else on their I-phone.

He has lots of fun, although Julio usually smokes him (but did beat him once, and had to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me. YUK!)….but he is so-far, beating Andrea. She’s new at it.

Here Chef Josh is applying is creativity in our RV.

This was so good. I would have never thought of cooking King salmon with bar-b-q sauce! It was awesome. His daddy says that he likes to experiment.

This was the feast, of which the main course was prepared by Chef Josh. It was such fun with Brad, Josh and Zaheta. They are leaving today; probably won’t see them again since Brad just got a fireman job on an island in the Aleutians….furthest out island. And, yes, he will be able to see Russia from theret. He will be working 10 weeks on and 5 off. So, that takes him until after we leave Alaska. I was hoping that Dawson, who comes tomorrow, would be able to hang with him a bit....but no such luck.

No luck yet....that 's why they call it "fishing"....otherwise they would call it "catching"

The kings are beginning their run; the word is getting out and more and more people show up to fish; families watching; kids playing. It’s a real family thing. Most people are real considerate about those fishing next to them. If someone hooks a fish, they yell “fish on!” and everyone else reels in their lines so that the one with the fish can reel in his King; they usually run down stream and takes a lot of room. They yell “down” or “up” depending on the way the fish is running. If they loose the fish, they yell “fish off”…and everyone start fishing again. Real exciting, because we’re now seeing more fish caught.

Josh worked real hard on this King. He, unfortunately, hooked it in the gill, and had to release it. That was hard for him; had a few moments being really irritated…but his dad quickly brought him back to reality…or else he was going to be done fishing….Josh recovered from his loss. He is only 11 yrs. old, so loss is rough.

The big sister of our little friend, Josh, caught her King last night. She was a good fisher person.

Zahita amazed me getting down there and gutting the fish herself. Her Dad says if he teaches them to fish, they have to clean it themselves. Sounds good to me! Way to go, girl friend!

It was just a few minutes before sunset; probably about 11:30 pm when I took this picture.

Still fishing......

Tomorrow Dawson comes, so we will be making the journey to Anchorage to pick him up. :)
Until we connect again.....