Weekend on the Kenai

This past weekend was our annual dip netting trip to the Kenai Peninsula.

Geoff's company gives everyone the day off on Friday so everyone heads down on Thursday night after work. 

It's a three hour drive south of Anchorage and we stay usually stay until Saturday night or Sunday morning to catch our salmon for the year. We were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to get down to the Kenai due to a wildfire burning along the Seward Highway. But thankfully the road was open and traffic was moving so we made it down there with no delays.

The dip netting season is only open for a few weeks while the salmon are returning to the river to spawn.

Only residents of Alaska are allowed to dip net and each family is allowed 25 fish for the head of the house and 10 for each additional person. So the limit for our family would be 55 salmon. We came home with 31 this year. They are now all vacuum sealed and in the freezer. Well, minus the one that we enjoyed for dinner last night!

The past couple years we've pitched a tent on the lawn of the house Geoff's boss rents but this year we got to use the company RV.

Elijah enjoyed watching the action from his bed.

It was refreshing to get out of the city and sleep in the cool fresh air.

Oh my, the sunset Thursday night was breath taking. The boys didn't get to see it since they were already asleep. These were taken around 11:30

Friday turned out to be a very rainy day which we were thankful for because we really needed the rain and it helped the firefighters get the wild fire under control.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and I headed down to the beach with my guys to watch them fish. Maybe next year i'll get my own waders and dip net and help out!

The Post's had kid size waders and a smaller net that they let Elijah use and he stood in that cold water up to his elbows for quite a while! I was so proud of him for trying something new.

There goes Geoff with his super long dip net. Try hanging on to that for hours with the strong tide pulling on it. Gives you a good work out!

The tide was going out so you can see the line of people moving farther out.

My mom got us started looking for heart shaped rocks when she was here and Ethan brought me this one that he found.