Friday, July 21, 2023

Day 2 - Fish Camp 2023

 I just posted the BIGGEST catch of the day - Carrie and Liv arrived in Kenai and got the most awaited picture of the year taken! LOL  What fun to think of all that has happened since the first time Carrie and Liv joined us at Fish Camp - when CyRi had just begun dating. 

MORNING TIDE

OK...We left for the beach at 0630. Our household fished for four hours, four nets and got 11 salmon (total group). Stacia caught five of those! She caught some chunky ones too! Our household count for the first tide was 8...yeah...Stacia got 5, Michael got 3. 

New to us this year - parking permits at a local business to which Josiah has connections. This insures us a place to park, even if the city parking is full - which has happened to us numerous times. Its next to what used to be the campgrounds we stayed at our first dipnetting year. We collected our gear and headed DOWN the long hill to the main road to the beach. 

Cory - leading the charge

Stacia, Me andAllie


Fairly soon after arriving Nicole and her kids came down to the beach. Nicole is the eldest daughter of our friends Ed and Jennifer. The rest of their family didn't come out this year, but we got to spend the day visiting with Nicole and Ben and their kids.


Their little boys were troopers. Josiah (right) caught THREE salmon with his little net! He's 8 years old. 

I wouldn't say Arielle had a more leisurely morning back at camp. However, she did not attempt to get the boys on the beach at 6:30 a.m.  They drove down with our 2nd permit a bit later. This Charles' first dip netting year. Having two two year olds on the beach adds a new level of intense activity and FUN. 


Danny, Charles and Benny heading to the beach
📷by Arielle 

Danny & Charles - cookies on the beach
📷by Arielle 

Bachan's crew - and Allie 
📷by Arielle 

Reporting for action 

Fishing Hair

Occupying Charles




Running up and down the beach - the new workout


Snack time @ the coolers

Charle's first dip netting 

An Alaskan mom 


Untangling and bonking Stacia's Fish - Allie 
on shore crew 

Coming back UP the incline with full coolers after a long shift of fishing is MUCH harder than going down. 
Stacia is amazing

AFTERNOON/ EARLY EVENING

We got back to our sites about 1:00 p.m.  We SHOWERED. We had lunch. We relaxed in various ways. 
Fun @ home or while camping 

Luke, Krista and Reno arrived. Carrie and Livie arrived. We went for walks, and visited them at their campsites in the field. 

Krista and Luke are sharing a spot in the pasture with Josiah and Carrie. 



Aunt Coco and Livie and Benny - and RENO. 



I LOVE this. The little grey tent is Carrie's personal outhouse. The only way to camp if pregnant. 


Getting ready for dinner


Carrie made us a yummy spaghetti dinner tonight! 

While we were getting ready to eat Bryce and Ketziah drove up. HOw fun to all be here at the same time. We need to find them. 
Danny and Krista 

Friends from the beach found Benny

EVENING TIDE 

Heading down again...hoping for a better tide...it was not to be. We got a total of 6 fish on this tide.  But we had fun. We got CyRi's announcement picture - the night was a success. 
📷by Carrie

Such flattering fashions. 📷by Carrie

📷by Carrie

We were tired. Carrie was tired. We headed home. KrUke had opted not to come out this evening. We left the guys on the beach. Carrie dropped us off around 9:30 p.m. and the RV was locked. We drove back to the beach. Allie and Livie ran down to get the keys. Michael had left them with ARIELLE. Arielle was asleep in the tent with the boys. She'd had a horrible night the night before and there was NO WAY I was waking her (and the boys) up for a key. I suspected when they all came home around midnight, they would wake the boys up and she needed a few hours of sleep. The van was unlocked so we climbed in and visited and fell asleep....At 11:21 p.m. Arielle woke up and went in to use the RV bathroom...we came inside, and the girls got ready for bed. 

The guys got home after midnight - got into bed around 1 a.m. They were tired. Michael was in quite a bit of pain. Everyone decided to skip tomorrow morning's tide.  The rumor is the fisherman will have restricted hours and the fish count will be up tomorrow. 

I hope so. We've fished 2 tides and our household has caught 14 fish...with 3 nets in the water. That's way less than we usually get...but slow and steady. That's why we schedule 5 days...if we need the days, we'll use them...if not, we'll explore Kenai. 

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