Halibut!

If you look close enough - you can see the tail of a whale

and I think a spout of water coming up too!

Jason and Rob with their delicious halibut!

Me catching my 1st halibut.

The evening sunset from our back deck.

Ever since our first dinner at the Hudson’s,where Shannon made the BEST halibut ever, I’ve been dying for Jason to catch some. So when we were invited out by Rob (the middle school science teacher) and his wife Jen on their fishing boat – I was very excited.

Jason had already been out salmon fishing – so we have plenty of salmon. And last weekend we went bottom fishing just right out on the dock with our friends Joe (the high school social studies teacher) and his wife Rachel. It was really rainy and Rachel and I lasted a good hour before we got cold and went home. They guys walked to the dock on the other side of our house and brought back 3 rock fish which we made fish and chips from for dinner. It was delicious – and Rachel and I got a kick out of watching the guys from the window in our living room.

Anyways, back to our halibut fishing trip. We drove out only about a mile away from the island and put in our fishing poles. Sitting there waiting I started to feel sea sick – which was a first for me. Jen gave me some Dramamine, a little too late. I was able to pull up our first small fish before getting sick off the side of the boat. As I was sick, Jason pulled up another fish AND there were whales breaching off in the distance. This all happened simultaneously. It was quite the experience.

All in all it was a great trip – we came home with probably 15lbs of halibut. I was glad to get off the boat and we had a great halibut dinner with Rob and Jen.

A Little More . . .

We’ve done so much already it’s hard to remember what to write about! The island reminds us of a beach town. It’s kind of weathered, but cozy at the same time. You can fish off the docks – Jason and Kurtis caught 4 rock fish for lunch one day).
There are a couple of grocery/convenient stores, one restaurant/bed and breakfast and a small casino (where I hear they have great free coffee and bingo).

There are LOTS of roaming dogs. . . which we haven’t decided if they have owners or not. They are definitely not fixed. Most of them are really cute and make us miss our dog Texas – but also glad we didn’t bring her.

On a walk the other day we watched a man working on a memorial totem pole for his Grandmother who passed away a little over a year ago. He came over to our house last night with some friends from the school and explained more to us about the culture of the Tsimshian people, which was really amazing. He invited us to the potlatch where the totem pole will be put up in his front yard this September. We are looking forward to attending.

One of the things that Jason’s cousin Kurtis really wanted to do was to jump off the dock into the water before he went home. We all walked down and there were about 5 junior high girls hanging out there. It was really cute because they had gone to the store and bought a carton of ice cream and a package of plastic spoons to eat it on the dock. It was gone by the time we were there, but looked like they had a good time. Kurtis jumped in the water a couple of times – so it couldn’t have been that cold – but we weren’t about to find out. He had a good time doing front and back flips and there was even a little boy who thought he was the coolest, begging him to do more.

Jason and Kurtis also went on a hike one day up Purple Mountain. They took some great pictures of the town. The hike goes up to a lake that provides the city water. Apparently there used to be a bottled water company here. . .the water is really fresh and delicious tasting.

My First Week At Work

I wish I had a little more to tell here. I was hired as a K-12 counselor, my office is located in the high school. I am looking forward to being pretty busy there and it’s fun that Jason and I will be in the same building! My office is just down the hall from his classroom.

The school is beautiful. It is all newly remodeled inside. The whole district is on one campus- with an elementary, middle, & high school. I will have 285 students K-12.

My office is wonderful – I’ll hopefully post some pictures.

This week I organized my office, sent home a letter of introduction to families, worked out all of the technical kinks, and made contacts at all of the testing organizations – I even scheduled the ASVAB for this September! As the counselor, I am the acting test coordinator for the district, which means I will be giving the ASVAB, SAT, ACT, as well as some Alaska specific tests. It was kind of a lonely first week because the teachers don’t start until next week and students the week after. I’m excited to meet all of them and begin working with my new team.

Moving In

Our apartment is just above a little clothing store called “So So Hot.” The store is only open for a couple of hours, on some days. . . so it’s pretty much just us. And it’s just the perfect space. We were impressed with our packing skills and how what we brought fit just perfectly in the apartment.

We have a large living area, a good sized kitchen, a HUGE bathroom (which I LOVE), and two bedrooms – the second room is pretty small so we just use that for storage. We have a lot of camping and outdoor gear as well as the freezer chest (for all the fish Jason is planning on catching) and mounds of food we bought from Costco in Oregon.

It was so great to have Jason’s grandparents and his cousin Kurtis here to help move in. The three guys did most of the back and forth (up and down the stairs) between the UHaul and the apartment while Grandma and I put things away and organized. We had the UHaul empty and the house just about put together in just about 5 hours! And that first night as we were all relaxing on the couch, a bald eagle almost flew right into our living room window! It was amazing. Since then, we’ve seen bald eagles pretty frequently. . . Along with seals (which I’ve named all Salty), seagulls (which I’ve named all Tina) and fish (they don’t have a name yet) jumping out of the water. We also have many fishing boats right outside our window and can see the cruise ships in the distance. No whale sightings from our house yet, but they are known to be out there.

I was especially glad to have family here to help because I had to report for my first day of work the day after we arrived. Every day that I came home from work something else was put away or hung up on the wall. It was so nice.

Speaking of nice, the people here are just that. We haven’t met a rude person yet. All the teachers are excited to be here, anxious for school to begin and for our adventure of a year together. Jason and I are both excited to work with such a great group of people. Our superintendant and his wife stopped by with cookies in hand to welcome us to Metlakatla. Some of the other teachers took Jason and his family out fishing for salmon while I was at work one day – they caught 9 salmon! I can’t wait for some of the ladies to share their recipes with me, because we are going to be eating a lot of fish!

We just can’t get over how kind everyone here is. Everyone knows everyone else – and everyone waves at you as you pass them on the street. Jason and his Grandma went walking around in the rain one day to explore our new little town and people were stopping in their cars to ask if they needed a ride! It really is the nicest place we’ve ever been.

The Ferry Ride

We have learned a lot in the past week about Alaska. One of the most important things we learned is that the ferry rides are totally worth every penny! If you are planning to visit Metlakatla we highly recommend using the Alaska Marine Highway System and taking a ferry instead of flying. It takes a bit more time, and may be a bit more expensive but is such an enjoyable experience!

Our journey began with a UHaul, my Saturn, Jason’s grandparents, his cousin, and us. We left Portland after a tearful goodbye about 7:00 pm on Thursday. We had a very LONG drive to Jason’s aunt Cobi’s house due to road construction in Chehalis. We spent the night there and then left for Bellingham around noon the next day, which was only an hour and a half drive.

Side note: Bellingham is so cute. If you get the chance to go there make time to stay. We definitely want to go back and spend more time to see the town.

On the ferry Jason and I had a state room, but his Grandparents and Kurtis stayed in a tent – so we got to experience the best of both worlds. We were incredibly impressed with our state room, it was nice to have a private shower & toilet. We woke up the first morning to killer whales right outside our stateroom window. We couldn’t believe it! Then as we got ourselves gathered we had breakfast together in the dining room where we watched dolphins chase the ferry. What a treat! And just when we thought our day couldn’t possibly be better, salmon were jumping out of the water everywhere!

We had a great time playing cards, sight seeing, walking around the boat, and we even watched Kung Fu Panda 2 in the “theater.”

The second morning we docked in Ketchikan two hours earlier than planned – 5:30am. A little early, but a beautiful morning. There were really low, foggy looking clouds all around the mountains that surrounded us – but the sun was still peeping out. It was unlike anything we had ever seen. We had breakfast and toured the town, which is also a cute place I’d like to go back to. Our next ferry left Ketchikan at 10:30am and although it was a smaller boat it was just as beautiful of a ride! There were whales and fish jumping everywhere! We arrived to Metlakatla/Annette Island around noon on Sunday and our landlady met us at the ferry terminal. We drove just a few minutes down the road and finally – arrived at our new home!

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