the Doctors are arrived

Hiking Rendezvous Peak in the rain

In the Spring, they told me they were going to come. People have said that before. This time was different. This time, they came.

Just two days after fishing, I cooked my catch for me, for my brothers, and for Ruth and Austin Doctor. Yes, two of my best buds have moved to Anchorage and I can hardly control my excitement, for them. 
Their first day working at the hotel, Ruth bounced up to the office, spread her hands wide towards me and exclaimed "...And it's like we already have family here!" I know she's right. Already, the presence of their active and faithful characters have encouraged and comforted life in Alaska as the distance from other friends and family grows strained with mounting time and darkening days.
With the addition of these two adventurers and new friends on the way, this could possibly be the best winter of my 23 years.
Now to find some skis...

Fishing

We left the hockey rink in Anchorage after the sun had already set. Two hours later, the slowed car and the sound of gravel woke me to the scattered lights of the docks.
"We decided to sleep on the boat," Chantal told me.
My eyes drooped open and corners of my mouth slowly turned up in drowsy delight.

The next morning, I rolled from my nest of sleeping bags to the upper cabin where Chantal played banana grams and her husband Tom tinkered with the control panel wires. Chantal made cappuccinos as we left Seward's docks. Coffee in hand, we stared speechless at Paul Allen's yacht, Octopus, moored in the middle of Resurrection Bay. I was incapable of imagining what it would be like to vacation on the largest expedition yacht in the world.

All week, nothing but a constant, half-hearted rain. Then, Sunday, fishing, the clouds opened and the sun shot through, warm and soothing. We sat on the deck, fishing, grilling, for 12hrs as the sun bore down on my shoulders and the weight of everything else floated away on the current and the wind.
I didn't catch any salmon but I maxed out on Halibut and caught a Chinese Rock Fish.

This was by far one of my favorite days this summer. It was also the last.

The smallest two are mine.