#33 - Travel to Alaska

Alaska.  It was such an amazing trip, and I'm so glad I got to do it. 

The summer after I graduated college, I had a few months before I started working.  My dad was ready to do his annual fishing trip with his friend, Harry.  This year, they had decided to go fishing up in Alaska together.  My dad decided he was going to drive up to Alaska to meet up with Harry, then when their trip was over, my mom was going to fly out to Alaska to meet up with my dad, and they were going to drive back down through Oregon and visit the relatives.

Since I had nothing to do, my dad asked me if I wanted to drive up to Alaska with him and go fishing, and then fly back home.  I had never been to Alaska, and since it was between fishing with my dad and sitting at home, the former sounded pretty good.  And I can't pass up a good road trip.

When we were on the road, we saw this Winnebago drive by with this on the spare tire:

I just had to take a picture - growing up, every single road trip our family took started off with Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" jamming through the van.  It was a staple of every road trip we took.  My mom took every chance she could to get rid of my dad's Willie Nelson collection.  No matter how many times his cassette/CD went "missing," my dad found a new one at a gas station along the way.

My dad and I headed out and went up through Canada.  As we crossed Canada, we made a few stops and rented some cabins on a couple of lakes.  There, we got to do some fishing before we hit Alaska.  We surprisingly found some lakes that didn't have anybody on them; basically, we were fishing by ourselves for quite some time. 

At one point in Canada, my dad and I stopped at a museum.  We were half way through the museum when my dad's license plate was called over the speaker, with the request for the owner to come to the front.  My dad headed to the lobby, only to find out our van had been broken into. 

The only thing we saw that was taken was a case of beer we had.  It literally wasn't until hours later that I realized my suitcase was stolen as well.  There I was, two weeks ahead of me with no clothes.  An immediate trip to the store was planned.

Anyways, we did the huge trek up to Alaska by car.  The scenery was amazing.  My pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the mountains/lakes that we saw.  The water was more blue than the Caribbean Sea, and the landscape was right out of a calendar. 

So we finally arrived in Alaska and went to the Kenai peninsula.  It was here that for the first time I did fly fishing, as well as fished within the river and not in a boat.  It was an awesome experience.  We were fishing for king salmon - my dad and I both caught one.  I also got a red salmon (I think?).  It was so cool to be standing in the river fishing; we stood in this little pool right off of the river.  We'd cast into the rushing river, where the salmon was.  Once we hooked one, we'd try to move it into the pool, where we'd pull it in.   

After a few days of fishing up in Alaska, I took a flight back home the day before Harry flew up to meet my dad.  It was a great trip and the last fishing trip I got to take with my dad.  I'll never forget it, and I hope I'll be able to get back up there again.