Got any halibut recipes?

Tim had this whole week off. The end is very near and everybody had block leave. (If you aren't following, email me. We'll talk.) So, while we've been busy wrapping up a few last minute details and honey-do's, we've also made sure to have fun too.

Tim took a charter boat out of Seward on Wednesday with a friend from work. After a long day of fishing Tim helped reel in a 276 pound Halibut! While he didn't get to lay ultimate claim to the big one, he still came home with 50 POUNDS of Halibut!!!

Here's a few pics of his conquest.

Following the tourist

If there is anything we have learned in our world travels, it's this: when all else fails, follow the tourist, they seem to know where they are going.

This is especially true with wildlife here in Alaska. No matter how long people have lived here, they will pull over and stop to observe any creature that is in sight.

As we were headed to catch the train the other day, the traffic came to a stand still. And that's when I hollered, "start looking!" Sure enough there was a giant pod of Beluga whales swimming down the Turnagain Arm. Everyone one was so in awe that we were all silent and you could hear them "pppshhhhh" as they came to the surface. However, no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get a picture of their white backs. Here's a picture anyway. It was only last night that I realized how beautiful the water and mountains were behing them.

I Found my thrill....

on Blueberry Hill....

We found a TON of blueberries last year on a ski slope, so we couldn't let the rest of town rob us of the yummy memories. And just in case we forgot who provided all that natural goodness, He put a beautiful, perfect rainbow behind the mountain-just to remind us!

Alaska Railroad Riders!!!

We finally did it yesterday. We took our train boy on his first offical train ride. We caught the train at Portage (the glacier for those that have been here) and rode into the mountains. The journey was absolutely beautiful. We sat in a dome topped train that allowed us a great view all around and a sweet park ranger that just ended up hanging out with us answering every single question LeighAnne could fire at her. Oh, and there were only 9 of us on the whole train. If we saw something we wanted to look at longer, they radioed the driver, and we would stop. A few times we even backed up to look at things.

Jamison was in hog heaven and could care less about all the glaciers and creatures we saw. He loved standing between the cars and watching the engine do it's thing. He just talked and talked to the conductor. The only time he was uncomfortable was when he got to take pictures with the conductor right on the engine. He wasn't real thrilled about the loud noise.

Overall, it was a precious memory and the best way to spend a Labor Day.