Did I say we were done fishing? Krista and Danny G came fishing this year. They had fished 4 or 5 tides and had 17 fish. They decided to try one more tide this morning. The hope was to get at least 3 more and make 20.....the tides turned, and they caught 24 salmon in one tide! They got to experience the fun of what we had been telling them - and not just the work. This brought their household total to 41.
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| Krista G, Danny & salmon 📷by Krista |
For the rest of us this was a day to relax...no more fish to clean, we did clean up the campground, washed equipment and waders, stowed as much as possible.
I got up and went out with CoRielle and the boys today. Michael and the girls slept in. The girls did get up and enjoy some hot drinks and Jesus time.
KENAI MUNICIPAL PARK
CoRielle and I headed to Kenai Municipal Park. This park is on a bluff. It's a fun park, and we like the walk down to the beach. We had visited this area in years past and the beach was usually deserted. Today, there were cars and people on the beach and they were bringing in quite a few salmon. This is when we began to have big hope for Danny and Krista fishing down the beach in the "better" spots.
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| 📷by Arielle |
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| Benny in the spider web |
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| Pretty proud of catching the whole family in one shot |
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| The boys📷by Arielle |
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| Benny on the Beach |
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| Alas, no duck sculptures. |
Fun play structures, wide open fields, pavilions, paths to the beach and wooden sculptures throughout the park. This is a great park. I was commenting it, "Had to be the best park in Alaska," when a gentlemen told me, "NO - drive up to Nikiski. They've got the best park and then eat at Charlie's Angels Pizza...2 slices for $5." ::snort::
Around 11:00 we went back to camp for lunch and naps for their family. Michael was up and moving. The girls were ready to jump in the van. They had a list of three stores they wanted to visit. A music store, an antique store and the other one was closed. They each found great gifts of this week's youth Christmas in July. I found amazing china, but common sense prevailed when I remembered all the teacups I have yet to unpack in the basement.
We got back to camp, and everyone was napping except Benny and Papa. Papa was reading a chapter from The Mad Scientists Club to Benny.
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| Reading with Papa |
Eventually everyone was up at once. We decided to drive out to Nikiski. We knew the pool was closed but the boys would be just as happy at another park....and we had it on authority of the man who works at the Park and Recreation Department that THIS would be the best park in Alaska. LOL
NIKISKI COMMUNITY PARK
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Arielle, Cory, Michael, Me
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| Danny & Bachan |
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| Arielle, Stacia, Allie, Danny, Cory, Charles, Benny, Papa |
We liked both parks. This one did have the rubber around the structures, and it was all fenced with plenty of room for tag. Everyone got involved in a rousing game of tag.
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| Charles and I were on the other end |
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| Man down! |
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| Allie and Benny - Tag! |
EVENING AT THE CAMPGROUND
We drove back to the campground where we discovered a Rally/Caravan of 26 RV's was in the process of arriving to our loop. Ye' Gads! That's a whole lot of snowy hair, big rigs and maneuvering. They were putting two RVs to a site...I get they were a bit tired after the drive. But some of them are simply GRUMPY. I would say don't do an RV Rally if you don't want to sing karaoke around a big bonfire in the middle of a campground. ::snort:: The one furthest away that I saw was from Pennsylvania to Alaska! That's a ROAD TRIP. You've never seen this many jeeps with various vanity plates to the effect of "mytoad" "RVpull" etc.
Danny and Krista G were back from their adventure getting their recent haul bedded down. They came over for dinner....BBQ meatballs, salad, rice, fruit.... We set around and talked....Stacia convinced the kids she was a magician.
Michael and Cory cut up the last two or three pallets Michael found on the side of the road. We knew we didn't want to leave the pallets here or return them to the side of the road. We also didn't want to carry them back to the Valley. We had hoped for a fire tonight, after the boys were in bed.
We thought the wind was a bit much for a fire...and then the campground employees came over to the big RV gathering and built a ginormous bonfire. Well - if they could have a fire, we figured we could too. We had a hose beside the blue chair you see in the corner. The fire stayed in the ring well.
For those who worry about such things, Michael removed the ash with nails from our fire ring. We enjoyed relaxing with Danny and Krista.
When they went back to their site, we threw the rest of the wood on the fire....and called it a night... once that burned down.
I LOVE that the last few years we have deliberately stayed past our fish catching needs to have a day to play, connect, relax and have fun together. This is a perfect balance of work and play.
From the park, but it won't post there....taken by Allie. LOL
