Homeschooling in the Garden of Life: Fish Camp 2013

Friday, July 19, 2013

Fish Camp 2013

For two weeks at the beginning of July, my boys (with Joe, Grandpa, Uncle Jeff, and several friends from our church) headed to Alaska for a fishing adventure.

It started with a drive to Seattle and then proceeded with a 40+ hour ferry trip to the bottom islands of Alaska. A short drive, another ferry, and then a several hour drive landed them at 153 Fish Camp -- a Christian camping/outdoor adventure/roughing it with bears and mosquitos/fishing till you drop sort of experience :-)

Now, this was unlike the past two times our boys have headed to 153 Fish Camp. The weather was much more typical Alaska than in year's past. It was wet and cold nearly all day every day.

In addition, because of a previous few week's drought, the fish were not running in the little bay which lies in front of the camp. Although discouraging, our fearless fisherman took to the high seas to catch halibut as well as to find other nooks and crannies where the salmon were plentiful

They went hiking as well as caving more than once. Once I heard of the dangers they faced, I was very glad I did not know of their spelunking adventures until AFTER they got home!

There was sight seeing both before and after their fish camp week. The journey took 3 days to get there (via ferry along the inner Canadian coastline) and 4 days home (down through the beautiful Canadian rockies).

In between fishing and eating, there was drying out to be done, as well as slicing and packing all that fish. Our boys carried the bulk of it home in a freezer which had been loaded in the bed of their truck!

The final unique thing about this particular trip was that friends (several of them!) joined them for the fish camp experience. Young and old shared boats and fished (as well as ate and slept) alongside eachother for 6 full days. It was a lot of fun and a great memory.