The Bucket-list just got Longer

What a weekend! Last time when we came to Alaska, a kid in Olivia's class asked if we had gone fishing. We said that we hadn't and he said, "You went to Alaska and didn't go fishing? That's like standing in front of a toilet and peeing your pants." Well, I got the opportunity this last week to go fishing and I didn't pee my pants. I went fishing and man, it was a weekend!

Sadie and I got invited to go down to Kenai with like the three best looking guys at the Single's Ward. What? So, of course we said yeah. The plan, meet them in Kenai Friday night after dropping my mom off at the airport (sad) and sleep a little and wake up and fish on Saturday and catch HUGE salmon. In my mind I wanted to catch 3 fish that I would bring home to my family and we'd have this beautiful salmon for dinner and I'd beam with pride because I had caught them! It was going to be a dream! Well, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get (I watched Forest Gump for the first time this week too. Awesome movie!).

We showed up around 12:30 a.m. and went to a fishin' spot to meet up with the boys. The guys had boots for us to wear that went all the way up to our waists so that we could stand in the river and fish.They got us all set up and they were so nice and patient when they were helping us. Good people. Then we headed down to the river. Well, I was pretty darn tired. Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 and ran 10 miles and I was feeling kind of sick and such, but you know, you gotta just live through tiredness. So, I was like yeah, let's do it, but I did let it slip that I was tired. Anyways, they started teaching us how to fish. I snagged the ground so much and so good and deep that they had to keep helping me get it unstuck and I felt like a loser because I was killing their fishing because they had to keep helping me, and I am not good at doing stuff that I've never done before. It makes me feel stupid and I get embarrassed. So, we were snagging a ton and I felt like a party ruiner in front of these super good looking boys. After about 30 minutes, the guys were like, okay. Let's go and get like 2 hours of sleep and come back out between 4 and 5. So, we thought that was a good idea. False. We went forever away to the tent. I was ready to crash, but Dillan and Ethan thought that 2 hours of sleep wasn't really going to help, it was just going to make them feel groggy. So they chatted and then chatted with me and Sadie and then I couldn't sleep and just zero sleeping happened and we went and got donuts at 5:30 and headed out fishing at 6.

We tried a couple of spots, but didn't get anything. Then we heard that there were a lot of fish at Bing's. I stink at my Alaskan geography, but it's somewhere. So, we went out to Bing's. First cast, Dillan had a big ol' fish! So impressive! And he and Kyle caught good fish. Then they let me and Sadie borrow their hip-waders so that we could go in a little deeper and catch some fish. The water was cold and I was very grateful for the water proof gear, but it's not cold proof. Kyle helped me get my casting and my fishing etiquette learned a little and then I was on my own, kind of, to catch a fish. I said a lot of sorry's for crossing someone else's line and I was embarrassed, but I soon got the hang of the cast and pull and was ready to catch a fish. After about an hour of casting and pulling the frustration started tappin' on my brain. Dillan took 1 cast and caught a fish. He is a pro, but still, it'd been an hour and I hadn't even had a hit. And my feet were numb and my arm was starting to get sore. I know I sound like I'm complaining and I guess I kind of am. I wanted to catch a fish. I was determined, so I just kept on casting and pulling and casting and pulling. After a little while longer, Ethan came out and was fishin' by me and tryin' to encourage me and then boom, he caught a fish. Talk about frustration. I just wanted to catch a fish! After 2 hours of not catching a fish, it was 2 and we were all starving, but really we were just hungry, because pioneers were starving. We were just hungry. They said, okay, 15 more casts and then we're going to get lunch. So after counting to 15 casts, and getting increasingly more frustrated and because I hadn't slept in forever, almost to the point of tears, and feeling a little like a failure at fishing, I came out of the river and we went to get lunch. Lunch was delicious, by the way! We were hungry and had Mexican food. :)

Kyle's dad said maybe we should go out to Hope, about 2 hours from Kenai and catch some pinks. They're not good to eat or anything, but at least we could probably get a fish on my line and it would be bigger than the baby fish I caught in Seldovia. I wasn't really pumped about this plan because I wanted to catch a fish that I could bring home and eat and I didn't want to make anyone go two hours our of their way for me to catch a fish. But everyone really wanted me to catch a fish. So, I said, okay. Let's go. Sadie and I had to go back to the tent, forever away, and get her wallet and our sleepin' stuff, and then we'd meet the guys in Hope. We drove out to the tent and I changed my clothes and got our stuff. In the process I left my phone in the tent and didn't realize it until we were 45 minutes away from the tent. So, I won't have my phone til Wednesday when Dillan and Ethan come back and kindly bring it to me.

Then we set off for Hope. Sometimes, when you're young, you make dumb decisions. We should have slept probably, but we didn't. There's no rush like the rush that comes when you feel yourself drifting a little on the road and your eyes pop open and you realize you had just been sleepin' a little. That happened one time and then I was so scared of it happening again that I was able to stay awake. Also, Heavenly Father was watching out for the five of us because we all took turns dozing behind the wheel. Don't drive drowsy people. It's not a good thing. Just take a nap! I drove for about an hour and a half and then couldn't do it anymore. I pulled over and Sadie took over for the next hour. So, she got an hour nap and I got an hour nap. Life, it's just awesome sometimes! We made it into Hope and realized that we were pretty much out of gas. Hope is a podunk little town and on the internet map, there wasn't a gas station and no gas station for like 30ish miles away. We were desperate, because when we called the boys to tell them we were in Hope and almost out of gas, they said they were too. We were gonna be trapped, so Sadie and I kept driving a little past Hope, down a dead-end road. It doesn't sound like it would result in a gas station, but sleep deprived brain doesn't know that, so we drove on. Again, Heavenly Father blessed us with a little one pump, tiny little gas station. We got 5 gallons and were saved! The guys met us out there at the gas station and they were saved too. Then we went back into the town to go and check out the fishing. What a disappointment. Hope is like nothing I've ever seen before. It was possibly the most hill-billy town I've ever seen. There were a lot of people there and I could tell that the guys were like, this is dumb. We don't wanna be caught dead here, and I was kind of feeling the same way. But I felt totally responsible for this little trip and that made me feel like the biggest idiot of all. Nobody wanted to be in Hope and Dillan and Ethan had driven 2 hours out there and were going two hours back to Kenai. Luckily for Sadie and Kyle and me, it was 2 hours towards home. I felt so bad that we were all so tired and had come all this way out here and we weren't gonna get a fish that I could put in my belly and we just decided it wasn't even worth it and we didn't even stick a line in the water. We just split ways and went home.

Hind sight is 20-20. Here's what we should have done, fished all through the night, instead of leaving to take a 2 hour nap. We may have caught something in the night. Then we should have napped in the afternoon during the time that we used to drive out to Hope. Then we should have fished more in Kenai. That would have given us more time in the river with the good fish, would have made everyone happier, and would have made me feel like less of a dumb girl and a fishing party killer. I just really wanted to catch a fish that I could get a good picture with and take home to my family and have them be so impressed and I wanted those hotty-mattoty boys we were fishing with to be impressed and it just didn't turn out like the fishing trip I had designed in my head. But it was a blast! And I so don't regret going. It was so much fun to fish and the company was the BEST and I would do it again, even without catching the fish, though that would just put the top on life!

This weekend totally makes the top list of great weekends in life. And sorry no pictures, I didn't take my camera with me to the river because I just didn't and so the trip went without documentation. I was going to get a good picture with my huge fish and also with my good lookin' fishin' group. So, really I'm sorry for the lack of pictures and the length of this post. But really, just trust me that it was such a fun weekend!

So, my bucket list got longer. I WILL catch a salmon on the Kenai and I will take it home and when we eat it, I'll be so proud of my fish and my family will be so impressed with me! Someday I am going to go back to Kenai and get my fish!