4th and Virginia: The Great State of Alaska

Our very good friend Jim invited us to his company fishing lodge in Alaska over the weekend. Well, let's call it a long weekend. We shot out of Seattle Wednesday night for Anchorage, stayed a night there in my old hometown - which was an eye opener - then headed out to Dillingham, Alaska and up to the lodge on Thursday morning for a great Alaskan fishing experience.

The lodge is owned and operated by a large Alaskan corporation, so no expense is spared in making guests feel comfortable. All the gear necessary for fishing, boating, skeet shooting, paddle boarding, kayaking, etc... is there and available. There are guides provided for every activity too.

Most guests are there to salmon fish, but we were between the King Salmon run and the Silver Salmon run, so we mostly fished the river and lake for smaller fish like Trout, Arctic Char and Grayling, all catch and release. We had the best time, didn't see any bears, but still.... amazing!

These trips are generally for clients and employees, so we were super lucky to be invited, and I so so so hope we get to go again someday.

And still trying to work off the chocolate chip cookies!

Oh, back to Anchorage for a sec. I grew up there - and it was good. But not having been back to Anchorage except maybe 3 times in the past 25 years -well- it's looking a little shabby. I have a feeling that maybe Anchorage was always somewhat shabby, but my younger self was more forgiving. Anchorage may possibly have the worst urban planning in the United States. You should see the number of crappy strip malls with crappy stores, and there isn't a sidewalk to be found anywhere. Thank God there is snow covering it up most of the year, cuz it ain't pretty.

We took a little tour past the house I grew up in - still looks exactly the same. Drove past my high school - which sort of resembles a large prison - ahhh.... again, not so charming or attractive. But, there you go! We are all who we are and where we came from - so as we drove around, we just laughed and thought about how great it was to visit and not still live there. We did get to meet up with some old friends before we flew back to Seattle, so that was a really great part - I still have some good friends up there - and they are all super happy to live in Alaska still. See, Alaska is great for some, not great for me!