A mountain of a trip, and a mountain of pictures
Kodiak, an Island of the southwest coast of Alaska was home to me. I will always have a fond place in my heart for “the rock” as it is known by those of us who frequent it. I know people who love it and I know people who hate it, but I don’t think I have ever heard any say “meh, it’s Okay”. Some people cannot stand the thought of the rain, remoteness and the possibility of being stranded days beyond your intended stay. I have been there. There are only two ways to Kodiak, the ferry and the air. I remember once when I was commercial fishing, waiting five days, five full days to get off that Island and go home to my wife. That was a time when I hated the rock. That was long before internet and cell phones, the days before lattes, facebook posts and twitter. So we just sat, sat , sat in the airport, me, my crew and about 200 other unwashed, stinking commercial fisherman, waiting for one day of decent, not good, just decent weather.
The view from our hosts, the Mortenson's
Mort , Sonya & Olivia, some of my favorite people.
Mom & Dad reliving some old memories at Fort Abercrombie
hanging on the old cannon at Abercrombie
old bunker at Abercrombie
The woods at Abercrombie
Ben picking salmonberries
Finally found something that quieted him up for a minute
posing in the Abercrombie woods
fences mean nothing to this family
mom & dad still reminiscing
But even that could not sour me on Kodiak. It is nearly impossible to beat Kodiak when the weather is nice; those three days are awesome! I know when we last lived there we loved it. We loved the pace of life, the beauty, the fishing and hunting, and our church. Shoot, we even got a Wal-Mart. It was a good life.
hey, I wanted a turn!
who let Jeremy drive?
Ensign?
My ladies
The newest attraction, 120 ft. blades on these bad boys. That'll keep you cool on them hot summer days.
view from the top of Pillar Mountain.
More Pillar Mt.
boyz on the Mt.
This time we were just going back for a visit. You see my dad was born and raised in Kodiak, and he went on to become Commissioner of the Dept. of Public Safety. He was very involved in native issues and did quite a bit for the native community. He was the first Alaska Native Commissioner and proud to be so. He died a few years ago, and since then a few of the native corporations made a move to name a Mountain after him, one in a bay where he and mom spent there last time together. So our trip was part of the celebration of the naming of this mountain. I, unfortunately, was on the committee planning this thing out. Had I the foresight to know what that would entail, I likely would’ve excused myself.
on the road to Pasagshak
Nana talking to her friends the seals. Alli learning the ways of her crazy elders.
Indiana Godfrey and his bullwhip of death. Don' t believe me, ask Ben where his left ear is.
One of us has a little less hair than the last time we were here.
she still likes me!
Notice the famous rocket launch tower in the background
scenes from the beach
more beach scenes
even more
Part of the committee job was travel, travel to get the family to and from Kodiak. Things were falling into place a little nicely and I should have known a curve ball, nay a sinking slider was upon us. The day they were supposed to arrive, our air transportation was cancelled. coincidently, this was the day prior to the event. Ahhh Kodiak you got me again! Myself and my family, understanding how this hearty island worked, we were there a week early on the ferry, so we were good to go. It was the other 18 people with which I had to deal with. Frantically, as fast as my fingers could pound the flat screen of my iphone, I was sending emails, making phone calls, and reading emails. Finally after hours and hours of heartache, indigestion, anxiety, stress and a little fear, we were able to make arrangements to get the family to the Island with hope, just hope of getting them home ( I of course did not tell them that). But I knew once I got them there, the rest would depend on the Island.
some of the buffalo
getting an early start on fine arts
watch out Jake!
Nana, Grandma and us
Dorian doing what he loves the most
nana doing her best at Lake Rose Tead
the kids? wading
Dorian may like fishing, but he don't like wading
here comes a big one
A scene from Baywatch!
run for your lives! or at least for your socks
cleaning up Papa's grave
I don’t want it to appear that the whole time was a stressful mess, just a few days of the trip. The rest of the time we explored the rock as if it was our first time. We hit up our favorite beaches, sites and mountains. Visited spots where Tra and I had dates, ate at new places and old, visited great friends and had a genuine good time. The first day of the ceremony went well, for most of it was indoors. The second day of the ceremony, well….. it didn’t happen. It was to involve a boat trip to the mountain to place a plaque. But when the weather is blowing Northeast 45, no one is too skippy to take a boat trip anywhere, especially the skippers of the boat. None-the-less, we made a day of it, again hitting the beaches, all 30 of us.
the most popular drummer
One of the dancers
The traditional mask that was built to be burnt.
The fire to burn the mask those logs are about 8 feet long
The beach we chose that day was Pasagshak, a beautiful forty minute drive through three Kodiak wind swept bays and over the mountains. There were horses, buffalo, salmon, bald eagles, deer and more spread along the way. After several stops, we arrived at the end of the road, our beach of choice.Upon unloading the crew, and doing a little beach combing, I sat on the beach, watching my kids playing in the surf, looking for fossils, exploring the WW II bunkers, and climbing every hill in sight; I breathed in the salt air, listened to the massive surf pound the beach, and felt the wind pressing against the back of my jacket, and I was in the moment in one of God’s greatest creations. Just then, a small, but fast raindrop pelted against my nose, and caused me to look up into the sky. I didn’t have to look up much, and I saw the low dark clouds hovering in a haze of foggy rain, and I realized that I had to figure how to get all these people home. At that moment I knew, the Island had got me once again. How many days this time Kodiak? Some things never change.
leaving scenes
Jake reflecting
Jake Reflecting
Nana, Grandma and their 20 grandkids and counting, color coded of course
Labor Day Weekend Part II. The long awaited sequel to Labor Day weekend part I
The next day we again ventured out into the briny sea, this time with the whole family in tow. Early to the high tide, the fishing was not nearly as productive, but everyone managed to catch something. Unfortunately, something more often than not, was a 50 pound skate or a feisty little dogfish shark. Somehow, I don’t think the little ones minded too much, except for dad who had to wrangle each and every one of them off the circle hooks. I made a bit of an art of it after a dozen or so attempts, and a few cuts, and a few crushed fingers from those blasted skates.
A shark.....
... a skate........
.....my hot date!
To the little ones, a picture with a shark or skate was much more exciting than a stinking halibut anyway. Although before the trip was over, Alli landed a 30 lb. prize, followed by Jeremy and his 50 pounder, added to the halibut of day one, we ended up with enough meat for even our family.
I have no clue.
Shyla on the boat doing the same thing she does at home
Alli on the boat doing the same thing she does at home.
While fishing, the fog come upon us without warning and we had to rely on our old fashioned navigation, the gps. It guided us right back to spit. After a vessel and fish cleaning session, we grabbed some pizza at Starvin Marvin’s and headed back to home sweet home. That night, cuddled up and cramped, we ate some home made popcorn and played games while sitting on top of each other.
that's a rod bender there.
more bow poses
Jake chillin
kids kissin
dad drivin
Jeremy fishin
dad gaffin
Jeremy posin
Instant Foggin
That night the kids retreated to their exclusive loft, which managed to sleep each and every one of them. The downfall, the loft was right above our room, so every shift of weight, walk to the bathroom, or acrobatic bed jump, flexed the roof above our bed and sounded as if Dorian’s halibut from the day prior was flopping around on top of us.
our humble abode
our view
their loft
We finished our mini vacation to the south with some stream fishing on the way home. There wasn’t much in the way of catching, just fishing and bug fighting but opportunity for lots of pictures and hopefully some memories. The trip ended with unpacking of twice as much stuff as we packed. I still don’t get how that happens. Every trip, every time, even when we do no shopping and eat everything we packed, we come back with at least twice as much stuff. I equate that to the mystery of missing laundry socks.
Anchor River fishing
jakey working the Nemo pole
Ben fishing?
Alli in B&W
Kachemak Bay
still working that Nemo pole and mohawk
looking for fish, not catching, just looking
All things considered, the trip was a lot of fun for a mini vacation 90 minutes from home. Next time though, we won’t pack as much stuff.
Jake found a ride home
Labor day weekend part I. Dorian and Goliath.
Three days to commemorate this summer and we decide to spend them south, as far south as we can drive that is. We spent the Labor Day weekend in Homer, camping errr cabining and fishing. We found a quaint little, and I mean little, cabin down near Homer to hang our hats for the weekend. But first, Dorian and I had to venture down ahead of the rest of the crew to do a little fish scouting. So we embarked from Homer, as we have done several times, hoping to tempt the giants of the deep; the Homer Halibut. As we headed out on the shimmering, sunny flat calm day, we had no idea if we would be fighting off sharks or pulling up slabs of white tender meat, but either way, we were going to try.
a glass flat calm day
Within one hour Dorian had landed a nice 20 pound halibut, dad had zero. Within another 1/2 hour Dorian’s rod started peeling line as he was loosely holding it on his lap, and he reared back hard to set the hook. The rod tip never even moved up. Then he began reeling, and reeling and reeling. Finally, while I waited with gaff in hand, he said “dad I need help. I need the belt”. I was sure he had a solid 50 pounder on the line. So I took the rod so he could get the belt and I felt the tug. Now I have caught a few halibut in my day so I consider myself a good judge of size. This was way more than 50 pounds. “Dorian grab the harpoon while you are at it” I yelled. Knowing I would need much more than a gaff if I wanted to maintain the bone structure in my arms. Just then my rod goes down, as we had left it unattended while we dealt with rod one. Not sure what I had, I left it be while we dealt with the rod at hand.
the tamed beast
Finally with the fighting belt in place with many minutes and many tugs, he managed to get it near the surface. In the water I estimated it to be over 5 feet long, but I didn’t sit back and look, I immediately began debating whether or not we should keep it, and that lasted for about 1/10th of a second as I reared back and harpooned the flat giant. It did not like that. It thrashed hard against the boat drenching both of us with the glittery gold water, which to be honest was a refreshing welcome, as my heart was pounding and I was dripping sweat in anticipation. I loaded up again and put another in her, concerned that she may break free. That settled her down and we both realized that Dorian had just landed a trophy, likely a once in a lifetime fish. I then rushed over and tended to my rod. As I reeled up my pole, the 30 pounder felt like a feather compared to what we had just dealt with. None-the-less, I swallowed my pride and landed it happy to have the meat.
We had no one to take pictures of us loading this hog, so this is after we got her on board.
We left the trophy in the water as it would’ve taken up the whole deck, while I finished fishing. The bite was on and we wanted to catch our final fish, which would have limited us both out. I was getting bites and decided that my bait had been decimated, and as I was reeling up to check, I did my little reel pause just in case. Now the reel pause has worked once, maybe twice ever in my lifetime, just enough for me to keep doing it. Well this day was the third time as 70 feet below the surface my reel spooled line like Usain Bolt was running the 100 yard dash with it. I could tell it was a nice fish, but not like we had just dealt with. After a few minutes, I managed to get it to the surface and realized it too would need a harpoon, but those were still hanging in the other fish. I handed the rod to Dorian and quickly ( at least the way I remember it was quickly. Dorian has other memories) removed one harpoon head from the trophy halibut, loaded it up and had Dorian gently lift its head, careful to keep it in the water. Slam, perfect shot. We had limited out. Now to get Dorian’s fish on the boat.
Dorian posing with the day's catch. Guess which one he caught. Notice there is about 6 inches of tail flat against the ground.
The both of us, pausing for some photos from several different groups of people. And yes I did not notice the pulley until after some nice guy helped me get the But hung.
With some creative engineering, we rigged up a large tie up line through her gills, and after clearing the deck of all remnants of gear, we both gave her the old heave ho. I knew if we didn’t get her the first time we would have to go to plan B. Plan B involve a long slow ride back to the harbor with But in tow. We managed to wiggle the head over the rail and we both fell backwards as we slid her on deck. Success.
Kassie posing, even with tail flat it is still taller than her.
Jake, Ben and Kassie wondering if we could keep her as another pet. Just what we need, another pet.
Unbeknownst to me, getting her on the boat was the easy part. Upon arriving at the harbor, we then had to transfer that slab off the boat onto a Costco type flatbed trailer, without dropping her back in the water. No small feat, but one accomplished. The next trick, pulling that trophy loaded trailer up the ramp to the cleaning station. Now if you have never been in a boat harbor, then you might not realize that harbors float. They rise and fall with the tide. So the ramp rises and falls as well. At high tide in Homer, it is almost as flat as Missouri. At low tide it is closer to Mt. McKinley. By the grace of God, we were closer to Missouri. As we motored our way over to the ramp, amidst the oohs and ahhs of the clients disembarking from their charter boats with their limit of 20 lb. halibut, I knew we would once again have only one shot at getting up the ramp. If we stop, if we rested, we were likely done. We decided that dad would pull and Dorian would push. In hindsight, probably not the best strategy for if I was to slip, Dorian would be run over by the near 200 pounds of fish and steel. Alas, we made with dad’s checks beat red as the blood from the fish, huffing and puffing all the way.
a little more ingenuity to get her on the cleaning table.
Dr. Godfrey getting ready to work his magic.
other than a piece of someone elses bait, the only other thing in her stomach was this full size dungeness crab. I was ready to cook it up, but no one else was game.
At the top of the ramp we, with some help from the myriad of onlookers, were able to get the fish up on the picture hooks and snap some shots. Tracy showed up just as we were finishing up and all the kids got to see Dorian’s pride and joy. After another hour of fish cleaning, and an over flowing cooler, we were off to dinner and onto the cabin to check out our digs for the weekend. That was day one. Stay tuned for day two.
Dorian is about 5'8", or 68 inches. We figure the But at about 70" or 165 lbs.
Happy Birthday to Me!!
So it isn’t actually my birthday, it’s the blog’s birthday. Yes this blog is now a year old, and my oh my how it has grown. One year was key for me, very key. You see I hate being an average statistic. For some reason that just sticks in my craw (have no idea what that is but I hope it isn’t bad). If you know me you may have picked up some clues. For instance, the average American family has 2.1 kids we have a few more. The average American gets married between June and October, we got married in December ( much to the shagrin of someone). The median age for a first marriage, 27, me 20. About 3% of American kids are home schooled all of ours have been, in fact we probably account for 1% of that in our family alone.
So what does all these stats have to do with anything? I am very glad you asked. You see when I first started this blog ( after influence from my Jedi blog master Ty at schemanski shenanigans ) I read a stat. This stat stated that something like 92% of all blogs do not last 1 year. So there it was staring me right in the face, a challenge, a glove to the kisser and I knew right then, even if the only people that ever read it was me, Tracy and my mom, I would be blogging for at least 1 year. So you see this day means a lot to me. My last challenge was from twitter, the average twitter has 112 followers, you know what that means! Don’t follow me on twitter unless you really like the stock market and charts, cuz that is all I talk about.
I am glad to see that we have a pretty consistent and growing readership and I really really enjoy the comments, emails, cards etc. They keep me motivated to keep on writing. I must say, this past year has had some of the most difficult moments ever in our lives, and it was theraputic for me to write about them on this blog. I was very conflicted whether or not to post those blogs, they only took me moments to write, but hours to decide whether or not to publish. In hindsight I am glad I did. They were some of our most read posts.
In closing, I want to thank you all so much for reading the blog and encouraging us, for prayers, thoughts and kind words. I especially want to thank those who take the time to comment, whether on our facebook link or on the actual blog. It seems to intimidate people, so I love to see those that do step out. Some of our all star commenters are Liz, Alli, Chelsea, Ty, & Brad. But our top two have been STEPHEN Stephen’s blog, and NIKI schemanski shenanigans, they are the winners of the annual akgodfreys commenters Oscars. Congrats, you two deserve it.
I will finish today’s rambling with links to our top ten posts over the past year in order of popularity. Dumb I know since they are the most popular you have already read them eh? Maybe I should do the least popular and have you read those ones instead, that’ll teach ya! Nope, most popular in order.
1. I have a bbq stain on my white t-shirt This one gets a lot of hits due to people searching for this song. It was not intended.
2. 2009 Christmas Letter Mostly about Florida
3. Costa Rica Day 4 Surf\’s Up! The whole time we were in Costa the blog was hit hard, it was great.
4. Apparently Popping and Locking Refers to the Knees in Hip Hop Dancing Alli’s knee surgery was very popular, probably due to the nasty pics of her knee.
5. Costa Rica Day 12/13 A Thorn in my Heel
6. Costa Rica Last Full Day, Sailing Take me Away
7. At What Cost The day we had to drop Jo off.
8. The Real Costa Rica First Day in Costa
9. Kodiak Moment = Orlando Trip Some of Dorian’s pictures showing off his skills that earned him a trip to Orlando for Fine Arts.
10. It\’s not about the money it\’s about the memories The first time we found out that Jo was leaving us, this one had quite a few comments as well.
So there you have it, they span over various topics, moods and time periods. I wanted to repost the very first blog I ever did, but I moved hosts since then and I couldn’t find it. Trust me, it was no big loss.
You’re driving me crazy!
Dorian is now driving me everywhere I want to go. He has been permitted for several months now and he is doing a fine job as my chauffeur. He hasn’t done too much chauffeuring for mom, because they still want to have an amicable relationship once he is fully licensed to drive.
I have been breaking him in on my beast of a truck, a 1996 rebuilt (95 body) Chevy K1500 with a 5 speed manual. This truck intimidates those with low testosterone levels if they merely enter the beast, much less dare to drive it! ( ask Pastor Scott about that!) The smashed in driver’s side door, the scratches on the deep dark blue paint, the over-sized tires, the unintentional hole in the muffler giving her the sound of a Harley on four tires, and the blood colored fluid leaks, make this man’s toy no child’s play.
Pure concentration as he delivers the whole family safely to church
I have several ulterior motives for training him on this TRUCK. 1. If he can drive it, he can drive anything! 2. If he hits something, odds are that something will likely be worse off than the behemoth. 3. It is nearly impossible to drink, text, talk on the cell, or even itch your ear when driving this four tired terror. 4. It has the old fashioned muscle power window rollers so that he can build some mass on those arms as he orders dad’s coffee. 5. When he masters it, and has his Alaska Driver’s license hot of the laminator, he will be endowed with this beauty of a motor vehicle, a vehicle that the cash for clunkers program was invented for, but will ride the roads of Alaska until she can ride no more. I will not bow to the government’s instance of taking all the cars with character off the roads of America!
The big van
the "girly" car
The "beast" note the fluid stains under the engine. This is the dump run, hunting, fishing, towing, packing, mountain climbing, man machine.
Unfortunately, he cannot always drive the truck, so sometimes he has to drive mom’s girly car, the Mercury Sable with leather seats. Or, if he is lucky he gets to drive the 15 passenger Chevy Express, a ride that puts Hummers to shame ( and embarrasses all teenagers that are dropped off at high school in it) . This past Sunday Dorian drove us all the way to Church and back in the van, and he even became a true Alaskan, making his first coffee drive through. A dad couldn’t have been more proud to have his sugar free white chocolate americano passed through the hands of his son ( and yes that is a very manly drink!)
Dorian's first coffee shop drive thru, a true Alaskan experience
Coffee menu, I am craving one right now! And yes those prices are in American dollars.
So stay tuned as we embark on the adventure of adding our third licensed driver to our household, and the joys that come with driving, such as going to the dump for dad, to the store for milk for mom, to the coffee shop to get mom and dad their s/f white Americanos…. oh to be young again!
