SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.: LETTER FROM ALASKA

June 26, 2007

LETTER FROM ALASKA

In what could only be described as a blessing for everyone in the Last Frontier, the fishing season has begun for my Uncle Pete, (yes, the one who was in the paper posing with a potato he grew that was shaped like a moose). No man with that much energy matched with such a capacity for mischief should be deprived of his main mission in life: making fish pay with their lives for being so delicious.

I got this letter from him this morning:

FINALLY GOT TO GO HALIBUT "FISHIN.". HAD A GREAT DAY WITH FRIENDS LARRY AND DAVE. GOT OUR LIMIT. 2 EACH OR 6 FISH.
LARRY CAUGHT THE BIG 103 POUNDER. I WAS SECOND AT 59 LBS. THE OTHERS WERE WHAT WE CALL CHICKENS -- 15 TO 25 LBS.

THE WEATHER HAS BEEN BAD MOST OF MAY AND JUNE BUT TODAY WAS GREAT. SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS.

WILL GO AGAIN.

P

This e-mail was in stark contrast to the one I got only a few days earlier, when he wrote about his newest hobby: painting.

MY FIRST TWO PAINTINGS, LESSONS AT THE SENIOR CITIZENS CENTER.

JUST LOOK, DON'T PICK THEM APART, YOU CAN DO THAT AFTER I PAINT FOR A COUPLE YEARS.

THE BEAR PIX WAS TAKEN ACROSS THE COOK INLET WHILE DOUG BAIRD, MARILYN BROWN CECILE AND I WERE "FISHING WITH THE BEARS" DOUG TOOK THIS PIX, IT WAS A GRIZZLY THAT JUST CAME OUT OF THE WATER WAITING FOR ANOTHER CATCH. WATER STILL DRIPPING OF HIS CHIN AND BODY.

THE OTHER, THE KENAI RIVER ABOUT 35 MILES UP STREAM FROM SOLDOTNA. A FALL PIX AND THIS IS THE WORLD FAMOUS RIVER WHERE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DIFFERENT SPECIES OF SALMON RETURN TO SPAWN. GREAT FISHING AND THIS IS WHERE THOUSANDS OF VISITORS COME EACH YEAR TO FULFILL THEIR SALMON FISHING DREAM----

PETE