PETA

Here's a little video we took while halibut fishing...a short PETA advertisement. PETA, as in People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.



Doesn't it make you want to come and get your own tasty animal? (Don't forget your baseball bat!)

I saw this short video over at Team Alexander's blog, which is an absolutely unbelievable journey, so check it out. I also wanted to post it because I was so touched by his passion and message.

Kickin' butt with the Halibut!

WOW!!! I have never caught such a huge fish in my life, nor has Justin!! Plus, I have never been so completely frozen while fishing either!

So, we tried a little halibut fishing last month (May), which is supposedly a little early in the season to catch any big fish. We left at 3:00 in the morning, picked up our friend Nick, and headed down Highway 1 to Seward, which is rated the #1 most beautiful drive in North America (or at least somewhere in the top 10). I slept the whole way down since it was 3:00 in the morning unfortunately....the joys of being a resident, not a tourist. You don't feel quite so compelled to do everything today...there's always another weekend trip!

Once we got to the ocean, we hopped aboard, flashed our fish licenses, and staked out our spot in the back of the boat. For some brilliant reason, all the other passengers sat in the heated, dry cabin instead of being frozen solid under layers of wool, gore-tex, and other non-cotton materials. (A common saying in Alaska is "cotton kills" since it doesn't dry out easily when it gets wet and facilitates hypothermia or something like that. Ask your local REI specialist...not me! I like cotton!)

We sped away through the gorgeous, mountainous straits of Resurrection Bay and watched the sea lions, otters, mountain goats, and other wildlife along the way. After 3 hours of breakneck speed on choppy arctic waves and only one sick passenger, we came to a stop and anchored off of Montague Island (the largest uninhabited island in North America, for you Trivial Pursuit nerds!). We threw our lines overboard and waited and waited...this is lazyman's fishing. You don't do a thing...no setting the hook, jigging, or any of other kind of sportsmen's lingo. So, I kinda like this!

After a while, you feel a little nibbling at your bait. You wait a little longer, then start reeling. After 90 feet of line being fought over, the mammoth appears. Here are some pics to whet your appetite in case you've never tried.


Onward ho!

Aggie connection

Captain Hook

Fish bigger than me! Can you believe I caught that sucker! Must have been the polka dot boots!!

Straining with our two carcasses...

Not the prettiest fish...but look better in sepia!

Chillin' (literally) on the ride back to port...

B-E-A-Utiful!

So, I am pretty much the worst blogger ever. Sorry that I have not done any posts in a LONG time! We have been house-hunting...or rather, condo-hunting. We finally found one the end of April and have now just moved in...and love it! For those of you who may be familiar with Anchorage, it is on the west side of town by Westchester Lake and just south of downtown. We love being close to all of the fun trails; I even get to ride my bike to work now! Moving in wasn't much of a challenge since we left all of our furniture in Texas....I think that's the way it should be!! My apologies to all of you incredible interior decorators out there, but why can't we just all sell our houses furnished...package deal! Life is so much easier that way. Leave the big stuff. If you don't like the way it's furnished, don't buy it. Anybody else with me on this one?

I will definitely put some pics up from around the house. We don't yet have any art up on the walls yet, but you can at least see some "before" pictures, and then I'll post once we finish decorating... probably when we decide to move out, right? ;)

It is slooowly starting to feel like our home. We have 2 guest bedrooms if anybody is headed up here this BEAUTIFUL time of year!!

Plenty-Nine!

Earlier this month, I got to celebrate my 29th birthday - Alaskan style. We went out to dinner the night before, relaxed all day (relax meaning caught up with stuff around home instead of going to work), opened presents, talked with friends and family, watched a teenager moose play (that's the Alaskan part) and had dinner with friends. That's my idea of a great birthday.

Here's some pics of the day!

Justin's so good at making me feel special...3 dozen very long-stemmed roses. Gorgeous! (I will have to say that they don't smell as good up here for some reason??). But they are beautiful to look at!
I felt like an Alaskan princess, so it deserved the queen wave. I just needed my pearls to be complete!And what you really have been waiting for.....can you find him?He was on top of the little hill...that brown glob that looks like a rock!Eating, eating, and more eating...
They even eat the bark off the tree! Bad moose!!But, how can you be mad when they look so cute?!?!?

Next up...pics from Iditarod...what you really missed out on!

Alaska For Fur

During these past two weeks, Fur Rendezvous (aka Fur Rondy!) has been the big excitement around town. Historically, it was the time of year that the fur trapper/trader dudes began to come back into the city with all of their hides, pelts, and furs. (Now, what is the difference between a hide, pelt and fur?) Anyway, they would bring them back and auction them off to the willing buyers. A bunch of other festivities have been thrown into the mix of this celebration too. And, then it all leads up to the Iditarod, which is this weekend (March 8)!! Don't worry....there will be coverage of the Iditarod to be uploaded to the blog shortly thereafter! But for now, enjoy some pics from Fur Rondy!

Also, in case anyone was wondering, there were absolutely no "indecency or cruelty" to animals hurt in the process of making this blog.
As you can see, there's a short sled-dog race the first weekend of Fur Rondy that is kind of a warm-up to the Iditarod.
I had never seen a sign like this before, especially in the middle of the downtown of a city.
I thought this picture exemplified the lifestyle of these dog-racers - sled on top, dogs in back - ready for their next adventure.
Brr!! A little cold for outside entertainment and dining...even with all the outdoor heaters!
We also decided to check out the fur market.
We even found ourselves at the fur auction....and yes, we got some fur!! (When in Alaska, do as the Alaskans, right?) I would show you the gorgeous red foxes we bought for Ann, Justin's mom, for her birthday this month, but then it wouldn't be a surprise! If you want a pretty good idea of how beautiful these creatures are, check out an older post with pics of the red fox in our backyard.

Sometimes we all get a little CRABBY!!

Well, in case you couldn't tell, we are now officially in snow crab season.

Justin really got a hankerin' for crab this past week, especially once we saw how cheap it was fresh at the grocery store! So, we have been doing a little experimenting...with pretty good success!! (Mainly because there's very little involved in making crab!) So, here are some pics of our snow crab session:

I enjoyed the snow crab way more than I thought it would. I guess for some reason I thought we could never reproduce the taste that the restaurant chefs create. But, I am now a snow crab snob!! I even like it more than our next experiment: King Crab!


As you can tell, it's quite a bit larger than the snow crab, and God definitely has some pretty cool defense mechanisms for this sucker. It hurt my hands just to try and break a leg off it! I don't know what I would do if I was swimming in the ocean and came up to one of these!!! Yikes!(We had to clean our oven afterwards, so everything that we baked wouldn't smell like king crab!)

Here are some of our snow crab remains!!! Yummy!! We wish we could have enjoyed it with everyone else!! So, come and visit!! We promise we will make you some tasty crab if you do!!