Bitter Sweet Endings

June 29, 2011

Today was my last day of my first rotation. I’m definitely going to be sad leaving Elmendorf. I had a great overall experience. I met some truly awesome people who I’m going to try my best to stay in touch with. I had high expectations for Alaska, and it has lived beyond those expectations. Normally in life, I've become use to disappointment when I get my hopes up only to be crushed by reality. But in this case, this “dream” world has become real life. I've learned so much about myself and about people over the course of this month. Not only did this rotation grow me professionally and intellectual, but it grew me personally and emotionally.

It was harder to say bye to everyone than I thought. These next few days I’m going to be mentally preparing myself to return to Kansas City. I know it will be great to get back and see everyone, but at the same time I’m sad to be leaving this place of adventure and fun. Thus, during my last week here I plan on having as many Alaskan Adventures as I can.

Tonight Becca and I drove to Homer to stay the night before halibut/salmon fishing in the morning in Ninilchik which is 35 minutes North of Homer. I'm really growing to like that fishing town a lot as it is my third time visiting Homer.


June 30, 2011

We woke up pretty early to grab breakfast and lunch for our fishing adventure. Shortly after 8am we met up with Captain Dan and his friend Ben in Ninilchik. We then met Dan's Aunt Ann and Uncle Charlie who joined us on the boat for the day. We all hopped into Dan's truck pulling the 24-foot vessel on a trailer. This boat was a lot smaller than the 50-foot Whistler we fished off of a couple weeks before, but with only 6 of us fishing for the day, it was perfect. Because of the 27-foot tide differential (between high and low tide - 2nd highest in the world), tractors pull and push your boat on trailer into and out of the water. This was a pretty cool experience riding in a boat on a trailer on the beach.

The weather predicted strong winds and overcast weather, but Becca and I seem to bring the sunshine and calm weather, so it was a BEAUTIFUL day to be out on the water. Once we got out to our halibut spot, Dan dropped anchor and gave us detailed instructions on how/what to do to hit bottom, catch the fish, reel it in, etc. Not even 5 minutes after dropping our lines, I caught a 35 lb halibut. From then on, we joked that it was going to be a good day fishing. About 3 hours, 12 halibut, and 2 cod later, I finished up with 2 nice sized halibut. Yep, I threw back 10 halibut. The entire time fishing Ben and I had some unspoken competition about who was catching more fish. Among all the joking, we really had a good time with everyone on the boat.

Ben, Me, Becca, Ann, and Charlie with our halibut.
(Mine are to the left and right of me in the picture) 

After halibut fishing, Dan took us in to troll for King Salmon. This part of the afternoon was much slower and not as exciting and fast paced as fishing for halibut. We trolled 10-17 feet deep water and only snagged one baby King. Dan promptly tossed me the rod and told me to reel. Apparently I didn't reel fast enough or the salmon wasn't actually caught, because our one King for the day got away. As it got later in the afternoon, we called it a day and headed back to the beach to be fished out of the water by the tractor.

Dan and his dad, Bob, filleted up our fish and sent us over to Tanner's Fish Processing to get our 35 lbs worth of halibut flash frozen and vacuum sealed. We then decided to spend another night in Homer since our fish wouldn't be ready until the following morning. While in Homer we enjoyed a delicious steak and crab dinner before heading to bed as it was a very long and exhausting day. Props to the fishermen out there who do this day in and day out. It's definitely tough work.


July 1, 2011

We spent the morning in Homer as it would probably be our last time there during this trip. We went for a hike and found a waterfall. We enjoyed lunch at Sweet Berries a cute store/bakery/lunch place. We then picked up our halibut and headed back to Anchorage. Once we were back in the city, we decided to stop at Humpey's for some of their famous halibut tacos. They were delicious. By now you'd think I'm sick of halibut,  but I absolutely love it. And I better love it as our entire freezer is full of it!

Freezer full of fish. The challenge: get it all back to Missouri...

As the weekend approaches, I'm getting excited for the 4th. But it's bitter sweet as I'm definitely ready to be home and not ready to leave this place. My mind and heart are very confused at where they want to be.