Oh My Gosh, Look At My (not so) Little Fuzzy!

 

Okay, so not being in Alaska is seriously depressing. I'm ready to go back, um NOW! Things I have attempted since being home for the month: bear hunting and tuna fishing. Well, bear hunting (I originally wrote "fishing" before I just read this over- yea, I don't think bear fishing would work well, though maybe it would!) was a flop. First of all it was SO HOT outside, and the pollen was seriously irritating my allergies so instead of valiantly shooting an awesome bear, I caughed my brains out on a log then my face swelled up and well that was the end of that. November though, watch out bears! So then I tried tuna fishing twice. The first time, we didn't even bother because it was rough but we caught 800 billion bluefish-  my fingers were so cramped by the end of the day I had to stop fishing (um, when do I ever want to stop fishing!?) because I seriously could not reel anymore! They looked like that guys fingers from Scary Movie 2 when he dips them in the potatoes-woof. The blues were like 10 pounds just so you know, I'm not a total baby. So anyways the second time we tried we were all ready to go. I got to the boat around 5:30 and it was still pretty dark when we were leaving the marina. Within a few minutes outside of the safety of the marina, we got SLAMMED with big waves. We were all soaked within like 5 minutes. The boys were like "Hey Molly, when we duck, make sure you duck because it means you're gunna get wet" Simple enough, right? Yuh, not to me at 6AM with only 1 cup of coffee down. The boys both ducked and my big dumb mouth opened right up to say "What are you ducking for?", but instead the stupid words were drowned down with about a gallon of saltwater. Fail. We decided shortly after that that um we might as well go home and go to bed because this wasn't going to happen! So anyways, the real point of this blog post is that I am still living vacariously through Scott with his Alaskan awesome life and obviously if you've been reading this blog, you know I was OBSESSED with this bear cub that I named Fuzzy because geez he was just so dang cute and had such a lovely personality-true little doll. Anyways, Scott finally tracked little Fuzz down 1 month later to get pictures for me sooo obviously I'm going to share them with you. He got SO PUDGY! And he is so dang cute I seriously just gushed and smooshied aww'd for about 18 hours over this little gem. Sooo I hope you are getting some pleasure from watching this little chubby cub pork out because I know I sure am. Now, if only I stole him, imagine I could have that cute little fuzzball cuddling with me on the couch right now...lame. Anyways, I'm heading up north fishing this weekend sooo I will post about that on Sunday and Monday! Again, enjoy baby. 

Baby Fuzz- mid August. What a little cutie with his little belly and feet!

Fuzzy as of the end of September- what a little pork!!! I so love him.

Okay Seriously, the cutest bear cub on Earth, right? I hope you are totally gushing over this little pig right now like I have been for oh only the past 2 days!

Fuzz and his mommy in August!




Fuzzy's got back now... no joke.

 

Goodbye Kodiak...for Now

I've only thrown 1 major tantrum in my life. I was 5 years old and so thoroughly enjoying my vacation in Florida that when it was time to go, I lost my mind. My mom didn't know what to do with me because I was a pretty sweet, mellow little child (do not even comment- maybe that's why I'm not so sweet and mellow anymore). Whelp, I got so dang upset that I puked up orange juice all over my aunt's leg before our flight home. Sorry Dee. Anyways, that's how I felt this morning. Obviously, I didn't throw myself to the ground and puke and cry like a barbarian, but I was definitely in a pretty horrible mood. I was all words on my way to Alaska on the float plane, but this time, I was quiet. Ugh, this sucked. As most of you know, my moods change as fast as New England weather, so I got over that pretty quickly. Though I am pretty bummed out that Fuzzy was NOT at the fish ladder this morning, shoulda nabbed him yesterday. ugh. So we got to Kodiak (the town) and my bank account took a serious hit (from buying my family stuff- I know mom dad and Kel I wasn't supposed to, but I did anyways). And I bought myself a bunch of crap. We went to the top of some hill (I know, doesn't sound half as epic when I call it "some hill", but Scott is out cold on the Seattle airport floor and I really don't want to disturb him) and could see EVERYTHING it was an incredible place. Good place for a wedding if you ask me, except for the fog everywhere. But it was gorgeous. We hit up the Kodiak Island Brewery, which I just could not seem to find. Place looked like an old VCR store missing it's signs, definitely not "Brewery" looking from the outside, but the inside was sweet. We also made it over to another fish hatchery and watched them spawn out some king salmon, and I got to hold them and help out a little bit (enough to get blood and iodine all over my pants...that I'm traveling in). So bang Kodiak time is over. The flight to Anchorage is stunning- glaciers and ocean and green beautiful mountains everywhere. I would just fly back and forth over that area all day long. So we land in Anchorage and boom there's a bull moose basically on the runway (5 points for ME!). So the flight that we were just on was interesting. Way back when 2 weeks ago I said I didn't want to get stuck with a chatty cathy next to me... well, Scott and I were the chatty cathys. I pulled out my laptop and played a slideshow of my trip and we were laughing and having a grand time- Scott kept tapping on the guy next to us going "Look at this one!". Dude ordered 2 shots and moved to sit in the back. Whoopsies! The dude in front of us though, he smelled like a french whore. Like literally, I can taste whatever perfume crap he (yes, he) was wearing and I have a cold and it made my throat really dry. So we get into the airport and the Frozen Treats place is right there, but closed. I know, its midnight, but I don't care I want a frozen treat. So now I'm here for the next 8 hours trying to figure out what to do. I was that weird person in the bathroom brushing my teeth. The bathroom walls say "wash your hands to prevent the spread of germs" how about brush your teeth? The way I see it is, I just took extra precautions. So I don't know if I can just sleep on the floor in the airport like Scotts doing it like a pro and I don't think I can. Something about me just ya know conking out on a floor that babies puke on, peoples bearshit shoes (aka Scotts) walk on, and yeah. So some terminal is closing and I'm not moving Alaska Airlines because I am comfortable sitting in my chair and not sleeping here. So EXCITING news if you made it this far... umm I applied for this TV show called "Top Hooker" (um, no I'm not selling my body) it's for the best angler in the country- guys, I made it to the second round of interviews. HOLY CRAP! What do you think, would I be alright for tv? I think it could be thoroughly entertaining. Anyways, not to get too excited but dang I'm just punch happy because I'm tired, and flattered for the chance. Anyways, enjoy the pictures. I'll probably complain about people in the airports tomorrow.

Pretty purple Alaska flowers

View from the top of "Some hill"

Thank you Scott for keeping me alive for 2 weeks in bearland.

gotta love beer.

How I feel about being in airports for the next 24 hours?

Hahahaha- I was like "Scott, get off the ground, people are looking at us, this is society here!"

amazing view.

King salmon- looking like it came out of a horror flick.. kinda just got clubbed in the head.

Kodiak boatyard. No Time Bandit :(

Last Day Already :( noooo!

Last day completely flew by (of course!). We woke up and made everyone a pretty frickin epic (it was pretty foggy out, Scott says) breakfast – eggs, chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, bacon (“mmmm breakfast,” Scott says,  only have 3 burners so we had to use one on the porch to maximize our food making potential”), venison sausage, homefries, um yeah delicious. Venison sausage is so savagely delicious I could eat it all day. So I’m blogging with Scott next to me so I’ll add in his commentary also- some of my favorite posts solely for the fact that his comments (such as just now: “Oh, I made you those badass earrings”) are either totally out in left field, or do not fit into what I’m writing. Anyways, after breakfast we went (“they were badass come on now”- Scott says about the earrings. Again, totally doesn’t fit into my story) out to Little Kitoi and Scott snagged a beautiful red sockeye salmon! Okay so we were planning on the worst- we brought a bow, a 12 guage shotgun, and a .44 pistol incase the snagging hooks wouldn’t work on the fish. Yes, I was desperate. Scott tried to get a few with the bow, but it didn’t work out for him at all. Then he was trying to hook the fish so hard he almost caught his face with the GIANT snagging hook and I was nervous so I ducked and covered and put my (Scott says, “You can tell them about me almost hooking myself in the goddamn face with that snagging hook, sucker almost -I don’t even know anymore- but it definitely almost almost (yes he said it twice) macked me in the dome. If it didn’t wrap around the pole 6 times, probably woulda got me. Saved by the fishing rod”) lifejacket over my face so I wouldn’t get nabbed in the face with a fist sized treble hook.  But after all that chaos, he got a nice red one. After that we were kind of done fishing (“Poor Carl lost all his fishing tackle, I kind of felt bad, and he didn’t have his drag adjusted real well”- Scott) because yeah Carl had issues and we were sick of catching pink salmon. There was a badass eagle over there though it was chirping and being just plain awesome. So we go over to another fishing spot and there were no fish so we busted out the guns. I shot the shotgun (it was a pump- ummm I LOVE pump shotguns) so I just shot 5 rounds real fast, followed with a “yeahhhh, that was badass” and I also shot the .44 pistol- also amazing. Then I took pictures holding all the weapons, though I have no idea what I’m doing with a bow because the damn thing fell apart when I tried to pick it up to carry down to the boat this morning (“I;m so excited to be able to drive my truck in a couple days”-Scott). After shooting and fishing, Scott gave me some chucks of venison and I put them through the dang meat grinder for 2 hours to make hamburg (RI friends- venison meatballs yeah baby). We had more salmon burgers- I know I have a very horrible obsession- for dinner and drank more homemade beer and bang Alaska trip is over folks. How depressing. Tomorrow we fly out at 10AM and then can adventure in the town of Kodiak for the afternoon (which I’m actually very excited about!) and then the flying marathon continues.

Absolutely beautiful red male sockeye.

Hey pretty birdy

Carl-"Molly, you can't pretend to be a gangster with those damn blue earmuffs on" umm, I see more serious issues here with me "trying to be gangster" than the earmuffs. Maybe the squat? Or dumb face?

Blowing the smoke from the pistol- loved shooting that baby

Trying to be gangster round 2- aka, looking like I'm about to fall/ looking like I have a mental illness

I know I don't look like Zelda the warrior princess, but I definitely felt like her.

This eagle was just bouncing on a log. So awesome.

True bliss. I love the outdoors, I love fishing, I love Alaska. Perfect picture to tie together my whole trip.

Packing fish takes FOREVER

Cleaning fish fillets. See the devil light? My eyes are dead.

Today was a pretty slow day. So I was having sleeping issues here since 1) I need sound to sleep and there are no fans, crickets, or anything of the sort except fighting bears- that will give you nightmares and 2) the pillow I've been using is about as comfortable as a sack of rocks. Anyways, yesterday I whined enough so Scott gave me a fluffy (for Alaska, definitely not Holiday Inn status or anything) pillow and I bought "Crickets" on ITunes aka the sound of crickets chirping in the rain. Put that puppy on last night around 1AM  and slept until 10. Then I started folding some laundry around 11 in my room and was starting to doze off I was like umm whats going on, oh yeah playlist "Crickets" is still on repeat. So today I did Zumba with some of the ladies here it was a blast- got the Latin vibes flowing again (and keeps the teaching fresh). So for the whole hellish afternoon, we cut the fish fillets into pieces and vacuum sealed them. Sounds simple right? Well, if you know anything about bottom fish you probably know why it took so long to go through 80 POUNDS of fillets with the spotlight.

1/2 halibut. Holy fillets. And yes, my eyeballs are a wreck from the light.

All I have to say is, I may have freaked out once or twice, and no worries everyone should still keep eating fish I'm not trying to spook anyone. After that we ate some delicious fish for dinner, I made more salmonberry shortbread cookies (um, porky pig here needs to start running the moment I get off that plane Tuesday) and we watched Boondock Saints- I don't care who you are you have to love that movie. Also, I think that halibut kiss (okay so I motioned like I was going to kiss the halibut for a picture yesterday and a wave hit and it actually happened) gave me a sore throat or something because my throat feels like hell. I better not be getting a headcold before 24 hours of flying on Monday-Tuesday. That.would suckkkk!!!!

EPIC Day

Today was the best of the best. Things I wanted to accomplish when I woke up this morning: see some sea lions and puffins, and go for a walk on the beach. Scott: "As the rain cleared, we actually got to enjoy a nice day" (had to add in commentary from my housemate) ANYWAYS instead of accomplishing just that, we ALSO (well, as in we I mean either me or Scott) found some deer antlers (caugh me)- this is how  it went down- we pull up on the beach and I say "let's have a competition on who can find deer antlers first" Scott is getting the boat together so ya know it doesn't get beached and we don't get stranded and my candyass runs onto the beach (literally runs) and finds 2 antlers right away- "HAHA I FOUND TWO!!"- the only two. Oops. So Scott also caught 2 whales today aka a 68 pound halibut and a 50 pound lingcod- okay not quite whales (he really has caught whales before, more Scott commentary)- btw my computer smells like its gunna catch on fire. Anyways, we saw black rockfish feeding on the surface and I caught a bunch and a quillback thingy BUT I got to play pinyata (how do you spell that?) with a black rockfish and dang that was such a swell time that I videotaped it- okay if you give them head trauma at least they don't suffocate to death, right? It's good times. So we see bunches of puffins and sea lions and whales (which one had smokers lung because it was puffing out BLACK smoke- woah there humpback, chill out on the cigs) and the best was a porpoise with a BABY! Right near the boat. What's more cute than a baby porpoise (except fuzzy wuzzy bear cub- gotta nab him from his mom in 2 days she won't be happy). Oh I dropped Scott's lens cap to his camera under a dock, then was too scared to get it because there were bears everywhere (Scott says we saw fireworks too... totally ahead of what I'm writing, but it happened nonetheless) so I told him I'd pay him $10 to go get it but he's not afraid of bears so he did it anyways. So we got back from fishing and I took pictures with the fish and we filleted them and I did a GREAT job skinning massive halibut fillets and lingcod and then we went to the bunkhouse and had a great dinner and played beer pong (I have no attention span for pool Scott says. True statement). Then we saw fireworks! It was an epic day. Enjoy the pictures! 2 more days oh my can I have another week pleaseeeeeeeeee!?

Fuzzy wuzzy! I'm going to miss you baby :(

Hey, howzit goin?

Cool kelp greenling fish from the deep!

What up quillback?

Fly away puffys! So cute.

Found these on the beach. Showin off my antlers near puffin rock

Hey babe, how you doin?

Gahhh I'm COVERED in fish guts!!!

50 pound lingcod and 68 pound halibut. Boom.

Arnold face. Scotts 2 pigs and my little seabass!

Wooh trying to hoist this beast up.. need a good squat.

Holding the lingcod- thing comes back to life!!! Ok, I was shocked.

Alaskan King Crab- yumma, it's the bestest

3 pounds of king crab... oh my.

Crab leg, halibut scampi, homemade beer, yoga pants. Living the dream.

Guys, that is the MEAT from 1/3 of a leg!!!!

Yes, I'm quoting the "blueberries blueberries" youtube video in my title if you caught that. Pretty slow day today for Alaska, which is fine everyone needs to rest! The air was frigid and it was pouring rain and well I didn't really feel like doing anything outdoors, can you blame me? Did a lot of reading, getting my videos together of all the cool stuff I've done, there are some pretty funny ones. Um, guys, why don't you tell me I'm such a sass. Example: "Scott, you know why you don't catch fish ever? Because you videotape the whole time", next example: "Stop videotaping me- I don't like being videotaped I always look bad (caugh sound like my mom caugh)" The ones I took while whale watching were pretty funny too, I let out this wicked awkward noise when I saw one in the camera I sounded like a combination of a dying rabbit and a chickadee. Attractive, I know. So anyways, we ate Alaskan King Crab for dinner- oh my god the stuff is so damn delicious I could eat it all day everyday. I made halibut scampi to go with it and we got some homemade beer from a guy here and just chilled out and watched movies. Tomorrow we are going to see the sea lions, hiking and trying to find some elk racks (um, if I find one, I'm going to tie it to my head and walk around the woods with it on. You think I'm kidding, noooope) and then try to catch me my stupid halibut, or something at least! Hopefully the weather stays kind of nice tomorrow, it's supposed to rain in the afternoon. If it's as cold as today was, I'll be wearing 4 layers. Long johns in August? Boy oh boy, okay summer you can grace me with your presence any time now.

Hello Dolly, Goodbye Sockeye

"Woah I've got a big one! Oh, just a tree" (yeah, that one)

So I give up on the whole red sockeye idea (maybe)- Scott and I head over to Little Kitoi Bay and bang there they are. So we bring this gnarly HUGE snagging hook (aka treble hook that's about the size of a fist- domination- yes, it's legal and yes, it's cruel, but I want that damn red sockeye). So I get that snagging hook in the water and start ripping it through the schools of fish. I snagged one sockeye, two sockeye, five sockeye. Issue- all were females and not pretty and I was so MAD! And I felt bad. Okay I'm a fish biologist here and I don't mind brutally murdering fish if I'm going to eat them or if they are for science or whatever, but snagging the belly of a ripe female fish and watching her unborn (I know, fish aren't born but whatever) eggs just blasting all over the place as the pressure of the hook ripped her skin open made me feel a little bad. A little. I was still determined to get my big male sockeye (I know, I'm a total bitch). So I get the snagging hook in again and start tearing it even harder. I blasted that thing through the water so hard that it almost flew out and caught me and Scott. So I decided I was getting too angry and gave Scott a try, which he also failed. Meanwhile, during this snagging dilemma there are two bears at the nearby fish ladder SCREAMING at eachother for 45 minutes. No big deal right? Wrong. So this fish ladder is also the pathway that Scott and I have to walk on to get over to the lake where we were going trout fishing.

Hello little pretty Dolly you are so dang adorable

So I've got a bad bad feeling about this because I know how angry people are. When I'm angry, I don't care who is around me or what they are saying or anything, I just need to yell and let it out. Then I'm good. So, in my mind, these angry bears wouldn't care if we yelled at them to go away because they were just angry and didn't care. Guess what? I was right. So I'm like all nervous walking through this area. It's like the "lair of the bear" combined with the forests in Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park. Place is littered in bear poop and smells like straight hell. Worst smelling place ever. So we make it around the fish ladder to the boat, bear free. But, by the time we are at the boat, I'm freaking because I know there are 2 pissed off bears around and I haven't seen them yet, so I don't know where they are. "Scott, can I do anything to help you get that boat in the water?" "Umm nah you're fine", "Well hurry up I'm frickin nervous". Boat gets stuck on its way in the water, and I'm panicking. Finally, after what feels like forever, the boat slides into the water, Scott jumps in, I jump in, I just push us from shore. We are about 7 feet into the water and this bear comes RIPPING around the corner, right where I was standing 10 seconds earlier and just stares at us. I decide to try this yelling at the bears this "HEY BEAR, GET OUTTA HERE" thing just locks eyes with me and stares me down. Shittt. Scott tells it to go away, doesn't listen. Thing walks right to where the boat was and just stands there, staring us both down. Um, yeah, scary scary time. So we make it out of that area and shoot over to where a stream meets the lake. Bang, one after another little Dolly Varden.

Me catching us dinner...again.

I also caught a nice rainbow trout (bringing back the home front!) we ate for dinner- delicious. So aside from the adorable Dolly Varden (which, I was like "aww this is the cutest thing I've ever seen!" when I caught one, then started singing "The Joker"... you're the cutest thing I ever did see, I really love your peaches wanna shake your trees.... hooked a tree right then and there) I caught a rainbow, 2 trees, 8 sticks, a stump, and (get this skill) a rock WITHOUT loosing my spinner. If that isn't amazing, I don't know what is. Oh, and I got trapped in the front of the boat, my boot got stuck in the angle and I fell like 3 times trying to get up and Scott and I were laughing so hard I just stayed there because well duh couldn't get up! So we get back and grumpy pants bear is still there, milling around the fish ladder.

What actually happens when I hold fish...

Scott and I managed to sneak by through the jungle (I was videotaping the whole thing- I sound like a woman about to give birth with the way I was breathing) and get back to the boat safely without any mishaps with the grouch. Thank god he chilled out.

These rocks are everywhere! So cool and beautiful.

We ate rainbow trout and venison and salmon burgers (I am so addicted to the things) for dinner- um how am I going to survive once school starts without all of this delicious fresh food? Good thing I froze a LOT of salmon. Tomorrow we have Alaskan king crab for dinner... hell yes.