Alaska

Brett (friend), Danny (my bro), Nathan (my bro), Sam (my bro-in-law),
Ben (my hubby, of course), Nicholas (my cousin), Ben (my bro), Zdenek (friend)

I was having some trouble with the Internet last night and couldn't upload photo's very well. There's more to come, but here are a few photos from the big Alaska man-trip Ben took two weeks ago with my dad, brothers and a few others. Unfortunately, it rained non-stop and temperatures stayed in the mid-fifties most of the time. Fortunately, they were prepared for exactly that kind of weather and stayed warm (enough) and dry (enough) to have a great time.

The group met up in Anchorage from all their various origination points, together flew to Bethel, AK, and, then, in three separate float planes, landed on a lake in the middle of absolutely nowhere. From there, they inflated their rafts, launched into a river, and floated their way back towards Bethel, making camp each night along the way.They did a whole lot of fishing, which was pretty much the point of the trip. Ben says he caught at least a hundred fish. The trout pictured above was one of the smaller fish he caught. There are pictures of really, really big salmon to come later. Ben had a couple quick fly-fishing lessons with friends this summer as preparation and then packed in plenty of practice on the river.
Here is a picture of Ben catching a nap. I understand he did plenty of this too. Only his mouth is exposed, allowing him to breath. Otherwise, he's perfectly positioned to keep himself warm. All that clothing and all the necessary gear Ben took represents his birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, etc. gifts over the past year. I wonder if he's looking forward to some other kind of gift at this point? On the upside, he did say he'd love to do this again, so maybe they weren't all one-use purchases. Also, the group was far from cell phone reception the entire trip. While Ben stressed enormously to get all his work obligations to a point that he could leave them for 10 days, he says he enjoyed the inability to check his cellphone and email for a spell. I wasn't sure it was in him to relax, but apparently it is possible.