I’m on a boat annnnnnd….
Well, I was on a boat. I’m actually sitting in my favorite rocking chair in my living room while watching Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network Channel while trying to get that song out of my head while simultaneously obsessively watching the baby beside me to ensure she is still breathing. (It’s kind of a “new baby” obsession of mine… don’t judge.) But that’s beside the point.
A couple of weekends ago, a very generous coworker of the husband invited us to go on his boat with his family. Well heck yes we will take you up on that offer! These people… did they realize we have 15 children? Probably not. Poor people. Ok so it’s actually only 3 children but I swear my 2 boys can be louder than 15 children combined. Bless their hearts for inviting our clan to spend time with them in a place where no one could escape even if they wanted to. These people are so brave! We purchased our King Salmon stamp (because you can’t fish for them without it) and away we went.
We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. As we were sailing off go trolling for salmon at an unknown destination, I was watching the water go by and thinking to myself, this is the life! I couldn’t get over how beautiful this place I call home — Juneau — looked through the eyes of a boat in the water. I know the ocean is a beast, but holy wow…. it’s an amazingly beautiful beast.
So we trolled for salmon. And trolled.
And trolled! With as many lines out as we could handle. We pulled out every trick in the book but the fish simply were not biting. Actually it’s probably because we have been bitten with a “no fish” curse. Thankfully our lovely hosts knew what they were doing when it comes to fishing in the ocean… we certainly did not and are still learning. If there were fish out there, they would have caught them for sure.
But we clearly weren’t the only people who had this idea. Many other people were soaking up the sun and hoping for fish as well.
After we got the hint that the salmon were JUST NOT INTERESTED (rude!), we decided to head for deeper waters to try our hand at fishing for halibut. I believe the halibut typically aren’t yet in this time of year but it was worth a shot. Did you know you have to put your fishing line allllll the way down to the bottom of the ocean floor to fish for halibut? And when you reel it in with a big fat halibut on the end of it, it can take 30 minutes or more to accomplish that task? Not that I would know personally… but I’ve heard stories.
Oh, nothing much to see here, just a freaking beautiful glacier along the way. (Sorry, can’t think of the name of it right off hand). It’s just not everyday you can go 15 minutes in a boat and see glaciers galore. This land of Juneau truly is a gorgeous land in which to live.
Whaaaaaales!! I was too slow with my camera and they were too impatient to wait. You can see a speck of it way out there.
“Beautiful” is the only word I can think of to describe these surroundings. This day was quite amazing. Taking in the fresh air… visiting with new friends… listening to our kids play together (and my son following their son around asking “hey what’s your name again?” every 3.18 seconds)…. enjoying the scenery. Yes… this is the life!
But it gets better.
Doesn’t look like much, does it?
Look closer.
It’s a Rookery, y’all! Look at all of those sea lions! Eagles and whales and sea lions, Oh My! We just sat and watched them for a while. The big ones liked to knock the little ones out into the water. The fat ones rolled around on top of the skinny ones. The baby ones followed their mommies around. The dumb ones got too close to the big ones and got knocked off the planet as well. It’s a lion-eat-lion world out there, I tell ya.
Ahhhh it was so cool to watch. Even cooler to listen to them. But I didn’t get a video of that. Because I’m a loser. Carry on.
Almost made me want to strip down to mah skivvies and jump into the water and float with them. Almost. Almost. And even though Resistance is Futile (any Trekkie fans out there?), I resisted.
I could have sat there for hours and hours. But time was somewhat limited and I didn’t want to wear out our welcome with our kind hosts. So we called it a day and headed back to shore with an empty fishing poles but full hearts. I have no earthly idea if our friends had a good time or not, but for us it was a jolly good time. The kids had fun as well, fishing and playing and watching sea lions. And no one got sea sick, which was pretty fantastic I would say!
There is so much to explore around Juneau if you own a boat. The world is an open oyster for you to devour! And while you’re busy devouring it on your boat….. would you take us along with you?