Fun Times with Sarah

One of my favorite friends and former colleague came to visit us!  Sarah spent a couple of days hiking on her own and discovering Alaska then joined us for her last 3 days.  It was so much fun to do things with just a girl for a change!  Sarah is a very active person and managed to do 20+ miles of hiking almost everyday she wasn't with us.  She got more hiking done in 5 days than Ryan and I have in one year!  Sarah and I went sea kayaking in Tutka Bay which is across the bay from Homer.  We were able to see lots of sea animals and eat some edible plants found in nature.  It was a fun time for us first time kayakers.  I'm looking forward to doing more kayaking in the future.

Don't worry, I didn't really eat the starfish!  Sarah and I also went halibut fishing just the two of us and that was a blast too.  The trip started off a bit wobbly and I felt guilty for bringing her out in the middle of the Cook Inlet to sit in a nausea inducing boat to catch fish 280 feet down.  Our hopes for catching halibut were diminishing and Sarah "talked" to some fish and we immediately had 2 on our lines.  It was interesting to see another person's reaction to fishing for the first time in years.  I know Sarah felt bad for the fish being bled and thrown into the dry well while they were still flopping but after the initial surprise, she was awesome!  I really only caught 2 fish and an Irish Lord but Sarah caught 8 halibut.  

Seriously, ALL of the big ones Sarah caught.  Oh and one of the men on the boat also caught a skate!  It was so cool!  They wanted to catch a "grandma" which are huge halibut.  All of the huge halibut are female, males only get up to about 75 pounds.  Oh the things I've learned! :)
Today was the last day of Sarah's trip and we went to do a 1 mile hike together.  We hiked the Skyline Trail and in 1.5 miles it gains 1,800 feet in elevation.  It was a tough one!  Of course Sarah breezed through the hike and had to constantly wait for out of shape me.  She wasn't even sweating!  It took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to finish the hike.  I think Sarah could have done it in 1 hour by herself.

This panoramic picture does not do it justice.  Tops of mountains are definitely things that you have to see with your own eyes.

I realized today that we will be leaving Alaska two weeks from tomorrow!  I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!