Alaska Trip with the Carlson Family

At the end of July Susan's mother Helen sponsored a wonderful Alaskan cruise for her daughters and their spouses. We cruised up the Inside Pasage and spent additional days with Ann's son Jason who is a radiologist at Elmondorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. Jason and his wife Rachelle were excellent tour guides and hosts and we had a good time with their family. My favorite activity was the salmon and halibut fishing trip out of Seward.

Any cruise is fun, but there is something special about an Alaskan cruise. The scenery is so pristine and majestic and the wildlife viewing (whales, seals, bald eagles, orcas) is an extra bonus. It's fun to be out on the deck as you cruise silently up to awesome glaciers.

At the Icy Strait port we went whale watching and add the exciting experience of a whole pod of whales (7 total) head straight for our boat. They submerged and came up on the other side!

Here is the harbor in Seward, the final stop of the cruise. After a few days with the Eves in Anchorage we returned here to board a charter fishing boat. We fished for halibut in the morning and silver salmon in the afternoon. All seven in our group limited out for both species.

Jason's son Cameron caught the largest halibut of the group.

Here's a lunker with a lunker.

When we returned to Jason and Rachelle' s house we set up a two-station fish processing center and spent several hours filleting and packing our 14 halibut and 21 salmon. We took them home in coolers packed with dry ice and they were still frozen when we arrived.

Alaska is an amazing place and we didn't have nearly enough time to explore. Hopefully we will have more opportunities in the future. We would especially like to visit Denali Park.