Ladies and Gentlemen, I have caught my first salmon in Alaska! Yesterday evening, fishing the Russian River with some guys from work, I landed an ~8 lb red salmon. And tonight, we had some salmon steaks! Now that's fresh fish - 24 hours from swimming to in my belly!

At the end of our fishing adventure, I was moseying over to the fish cleaning table (located in the river so that you can clean your fish and toss the guts amongst the raging rapids), and one of my bros from work said, "Hey Dunn, you might want to come back here for a minute," summoning me from the far bank. Well, what do you know--a LARGE brown bear and her two cubs come right up the river. We stayed safely along the opposite bank. And let me tell you, momma bear owned that river. Everyone moves out of her way. We watched her grab a salmon and retreat into the woods, then moved a half mile upriver to clean my fish.

Anyway, I've loaded up some pictures of the bear in the Russian River Fishing section of the pics page.

I just posted this up to YouTube - taken at the summit of Flat Top Mountain on Saturday, 16 June ...

We're official - we have an address, a phone number, and an internet connection. We'll have to buy a phone before the phone number is useful, though. I wanted to post a couple of photos of the view from our place--it's great to just sit in the living room and stare at the mountains!

Today our stuff from Oklahoma was delivered to us. It all got here in one piece. One of the wardrobe boxes was crushed, but thankfully, the only fallout was some wrinkled clothes.

On Saturday, we, along with about 300 other people from Anchorage, decided to hike Flat Top Mountain. It was an awesome hike. Not everyone gets to the top of the mountain, but somehow, we made it.

Flat Top Mountain is a 3,550' peak in Chugach State Park in Southeast Anchorage. The hike has an elevation gain of about 1300'. The trail is very well maintained, and is moderate difficulty due to a scramble up the mountain near the end of the hike.

It is the most popular hike in Alaska, and it is always crowded on a nice day. But the view is unparalleled. Great views of the Chugach mountains to the east and south, and you can see the entire city of Anchorage to the Northwest. On a clear day, you can even see the Denali range (barely visible when we made the hike).

We took quite a few pictures so that our guests will know whether or not they want to take the hike. It can be done partially as there is a resting area near the bottom of the final summit scramble. You would still get great views as well as a challenging hike without the summit. BUT, there's nothing like making it to the top!

We closed today on the new house - record time! We made the offer last Friday and closed today (one week from offer to close - a record for our realtor).

I'll post some more pictures of the place once we move in (Sunday evening and Monday). We'll be glad to move out of the hotel and into a real home!

Work is going well. I'm going to be a scheduler for the weapons flight, so that should be a good time.

More Alaska adventures soon!

Sundays are meant for relaxation. I mean, that's what God intended. Or maybe he intended Saturday, but regardless, there certainly should be a day for relaxing.

We slept in kind of late after watching the movie Jane Eyre (really good--I wish I had read the book first). So, we decided to go the late service at a church that we happened upon in our house-buying process, Change Point, which has services at 5:30 PM on Saturday as well as 9:30, 11:30, and 1:30 on Sunday. We felt welcome there and connected to God in the worship. (Plus, they have free coffee.)

On the way back to the hotel (which we'll only be in for a couple more weeks), we saw many people flying kites. BIG kites. It was cool! Anchorage maintains TONS of public parks, which is really fantastic. But they can only use them 5 months out of the year, you say?!? Not so! In the winter, they groom many of them as cross-country skiing trails.

We went for a short hike after dinner, departing at the Smoke Jumper trailhead in Anchorage. We had a great time except for the fact that we were almost carried off by mosquitoes. These things were ruthless! And, if you can believe it, they attacked me more than Char. I guess I'm sweeter than her.

We think that this is the only state in the union to have a sign like the one pictured below on a hiking trail. Not that we're bragging.

For those of you following along -- WE'VE FOUND A HOUSE!

It's a great place in South Anchorage - we're really excited about our new place! The deal was made today, and we'll close toward the end of the month. We've already had the home inspection, and nothing at all was found to be any problem.

It's a two-story house, two-car garage. It has three bedrooms, two full baths, and a huge laundry room. On the 1st floor, there is the laundry room, some closets, one large bedroom, and the family room. There is a deck off of the back. On the second floor is the living room, kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, and a small bedroom/office. There is a full bathroom on each floor.

Anyway, we really love it--it has an amazing view and room for all of our company!

If you're a Florida sportsman, wait until you see this! Salmon fishing in Anchorage--downtown. Seriously, this creek flows right through downtown and I could pick up a rock from where I was and through it and hit a 5-star hotel. And a 4-star hotel. (Not in the same throw.)

So, these guys elbow their way into the creek to catch a salmon. I struck up a conversation with one of the locals about the sport. He gave me everything I need to know to try it myself. I can't wait!

In Ship Creek (the one here), the guys are fishing for King Salmon. You can only catch one per day, and you have to have a special stamp on your license.

I hear the game wardens are crazy here, so make sure you know all of the rules before you start combat fishing! I know I'm studying.

Char and I took a wild adventure to a town about 30 miles south of Anchorage on Sunday. It is the home of a big ski resort, and has lots of trails in the summer time for hiking.

The mountains were still snow-capped. Beautiful country out here! On the way out, we stopped at Beluga Point to look for whales. We didn't see any, but we were able to see some Dall Sheep with the binoculars. They climbed on the mountains on the opposite side of Turnagain Arm (the inlet that Anchorage sits on--supposedly named when Captain Cook was looking for the Northwest passage, couldn't find it, and had to "turn again").

So, I've posted some pictures for you to enjoy! (This one is Char doing the badger dance ...)