We started the next morning with church with the staff by satellite phone. It was a good way to begin the day.

We then headed out to catch some fish.

We caught one fish, then had an issue with our motor. Bill, the owner came out to help and we need a new hose, so we got to experience a “boat tow”.

Since we were back at Sunny Point, our daughter, Jerie and granddaughter Kaylee joined us for the afternoon.

We caught 5 rock fish in 45 minutes

We had our first up-close encounter with whales

We headed back to the lodge and celebrated Kaylee’s 3rd birthday…there were movies and snuggles

And a birthday party

The next morning we headed out with our son-in-law, Chris. We had a beautiful view of Calder Mountain.

More whales

And a few fish…

We had a playful seal while we were fishing to entertain us.

We continued to fish, catching numerous varieties of rock fish. These are very good, deep fried for fish tacos. Uncle Mike and Aunt Shirley were getting very serious about their fishing

We ate lunch in a place called Hole in the Rock.

We headed back to Sunny Point, which is the second lodge. It is across the cove from the main Calder Mountain lodge. It was a great morning with Chris

Kaylee and her friend Gracie, were enjoying popsicles. We had brought them Minion mitten popsicle holders and they were trying them out.

After a quick tutorial of how to tie a halibut knot, we headed back out. No fish, but some nice whale tails.

Back at Sunny Point, Kaylee and her Poppy went fishing for Dolly Vardens off the dock.

That evening we celebrated the 4th of July…Point Baker style. Kaylee rang the dinner bell.

The cooks at Sunny Point had an All-American meal!!

Being Alaska, the fireworks are late in the evening due to the sun not setting until after midnight. One guest passed the time by playing with Kaylee. The Calder Mountain staff were excited to watch a LDS missionary call be announced through    e-mail. Kaylee played with the poker chips that the guests sometimes use.

It was Firework time!!

And a beautiful sunset to end the evening.

The next morning, we gathered Aunt Shirley and Uncle Mike for another day on the water. Each day had been so different and varied. We were good at hooking the fish, but not at landing them, but we were having a blast.

Here fishy, fishy….

We did have abit of excitement as a whale swam right towards the front of our boat. Cindy said, “Hang on, as she thought that it was going to flip it’s tail onto the front. Luckily, it just dove under the boat.

On one of our outings, Jim had hooked a huge salmon, either a King or a Silver. Cindy messed up and didn’t get the net in the correct position and the fish cut the line on the down-rigger. So to make up for that, she got up at 4:30am to go out with him and try to get Jim a big fish…

After Jim caught his Silver Salmon, we came back in, had breakfast, and went out for a couple of hours.

Uncle Mike caught a little halibut that the dock boys called chicken nugget…lol

In the late 1930s, Jim’s grandparents left Texas, and headed to Alaska. Being a territory, the US government wanted to encourage people to move there with the promise of free land. They made it as far as California, when their youngest son became ill and was diagnosed with leukemia. They never made it to Alaska but we wanted to complete the journey for them. We had family members send items or stories that we placed in a water-proof box. Grandpa liked to fish, so we had fishing lures and his knife. Grandma liked to sew so we had some of her Christmas ornaments. We also had their engagement picture.  Jerie took the afternoon off and came with us to place the box.

Our destination…

We found an area that had a beautiful view. It was really rocky so Aunt Shirley and Uncle Mike stayed in the boat.

Then it was back in the boat…

As we left, Cindy asked Aunt Shirley if she wanted to say anything, she said “Welcome Home Dad”. 

So Grandpa would have wanted us to fish on the way back to the lodge and that is exactly what we did…I don’t know who was more excited to catch the halibut Jim or Jerie. 

We had an amazing meal and one more night with the best “greeter” at Sunny Point.

We did get a cool view of a cruise ship sailing past Point Baker.

Our final morning was full of hugs, sweet good-byes, and one last view.

We headed toward Petersburg with two boxes of fish and a lifetime of memories.

We had a long lay-over in Juneau, so we took a taxi to the Red Dog Saloon, where we enjoyed lunch

Back at the airport, we thought Aunt Shirley was going to have to take all of her clothes off in security….lol…All the excitement, finally caught up with her!!

Thank you Alaska, we had an absolute BLAST!!!